Advance booking for shore excursions

[Ibis]

As we normally don’t take many HAL shore excursions, we’re not very savvy about this. So it would be greatly appreciated if anyone could tell us if there are disadvantages to reserving tours on line now before boarding. For example what happens in the case HAL cancels a port or specific tour and we have already paid? Or we want to cancel or change a shore excursion? Obviously, the advantage is knowing you have reserved before a tour might sell out and not have space available. Thanks for any suggestions or information.

[Mary229]

First let me say there are a handful of excursions that have cancellation fees, read the details.  Most do not if done at least a full 48 hours in advance.  
 

Prior to the pandemic I didn’t see a reason to book early but now excursions sell out often and with inflation I have seen the prices go up.  If you cancel the excursion or the cruise you will receive your money except as noted above 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Mary229

[El Orans]

HAL will refund you if they cancel. No problem.

[crystalspin]

A ShoreX we prepaid was cancelled (enough people had not signed up!) and the Service desk simply applied the funds to our replacement tour. I don't remember if the amt was more or less, but it was easy. This was on board the cruise in progress.

 

As far as before sailing: I booked a tour for our upcoming Sea of Cortez cruise and almost immediately decided I wanted a different one for the same port. The "Cancel this excursion" is a button to push -- on your Itinerary screen.  

Edited August 18, 2022 by crystalspin

[Ibis]

Would a refund for a shore excursion bought before boarding be made to your credit card or on board account if it is canceled after you have boarded? Also what about prebooking dining reservations? Thanks again.

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Ibis said:

Would a refund for a shore excursion bought before boarding be made to your credit card or on board account if it is canceled after you have boarded? Also what about prebooking dining reservations? Thanks again.

Once onboard it is credited to your stateroom account.  Any money in that stateroom account remaining will be credited to the card on file for the cruise.  This is for any credit once onboard.   

[Ibis]

And what about the case where we book an excursion before boarding, and before boarding decide we don’t want an excursion for that port at all?  Does pushing the Cancel this Excursion button also cancel the charges that I would assume would have already been charged to the credit card? Thank you again to all of you who have responded.

[crystalspin]

6 minutes ago, Ibis said:

And what about the case where we book an excursion before boarding, and before boarding decide we don’t want an excursion for that port at all?  Does pushing the Cancel this Excursion button also cancel the charges that I would assume would have already been charged to the credit card? Thank you again to all of you who have responded.

Yes.

[Ibis]

Thanks so much!

[REOVA]

Pre cruise, I did mostly private tours. Post COVID, we booked all excursions online prior to boarding just in case Ports didn't allow getting off unless excursion booked. (not likely now with cases down). So we knew we had a tour once we got on the ship that wasn't sold out. Once on the ship we noticed the prices they were charging on some tours increased so we got the lower price booking prior. There really are 2 accounts in your statement 1 - onboard credits 2 - credit card.   If you do not use your onboard credits, you lose them. Pre-booked tours are not deducted from onboard credit so once on board, we checked with excursion desk to see which tours had no price increases and were not waitlisted. We cancelled those tours (credited back to credit card) and rebooked them (deducted from onboard credit) since we had to use our onboard credit. We also had cancelled (pre booked) tours on board due to quarantine that went back to credit card.