When to actually start booking excursions?

[yardbird]

We booked a Canada-New England cruise for September (8th to 15th). 

Normally we book a couple of select excursions but not in every port. We get off the ship and wander around and shop or find museums, historical places, etc.

 

How far out should we be booking excursions? 

 

Thanks

[ggTexasGal]

5 minutes ago, yardbird said:

We booked a Canada-New England cruise for September (8th to 15th). 

Normally we book a couple of select excursions but not in every port. We get off the ship and wander around and shop or find museums, historical places, etc.

 

How far out should we be booking excursions? 

 

Thanks

If you have not logged into your account and searched those that are available, I suggest that you may want to do that.  It's difficult to predict if excursions will sell-out quickly, or not.  So, if you see something that fits your needs/pricing, you may as well go ahead and book.

[GeezerCouple]

3 minutes ago, yardbird said:

We booked a Canada-New England cruise for September (8th to 15th). 

Normally we book a couple of select excursions but not in every port. We get off the ship and wander around and shop or find museums, historical places, etc.

 

How far out should we be booking excursions? 

 

Thanks

 

We usually book private tours, but either way, once we know we are taking a trip (cruise or otherwise), we start looking at excursions, and book as soon as we find something that appeals to us.  We do *not* want to risk looking later and finding out a particularly interesting outing is sold out.  Whether they hold spots for "on board" or whether there might be some cancellations doesn't matter... if we are someplace that we can't easily "do it another time", we grab it.

I'm not aware of any of these that are booked far in advance can't be cancelled, or at least up to a certain point.

 

Why would you wait to sign up if you see something of interest?

 

Also, note that the cruise-line offered excursions *might* change.  They might add more choices, so I'd keep looking unless the excursion(s) you booked are "exactly what you wanted", in case there's something else of interest.

 

Now, I admit that I very much enjoy planning trips.  We joke how there are actually 3 trips every time: planning, the trip itself, and then the memories! 😀

 

GC

[Turtles06]

If you are interested in something, book it The price may go up in the future.  If you later change your mind, you can cancel. 

[bonvoyagie]

We found that going on the internet and getting tourism information sent to us gave us a good indication of what there is to do and see in the various towns. Sometimes the information covered just one town, sometimes the whole state/province. We found that private taxi services provide excellent service at a flat rate per carload. We also found  a couple of spots that were of particular interest to us. We also did a couple of ship based tours these can be cancelled and refunded if you do it 48hrs in advance.

Edited February 10, 2023 by bonvoyagie

[3dogmom]

My Canada/NE cruise is this October and I have a lot of the ports booked, but I only book private tours.  The good tour companies will book up, so if you find something, book it!

[yardbird]

Thanks all. We booked a couple tonight. 

 

[J0Y0US]

With all US/CA ports I wouldn't even bother booking through the ship likely and would simply do research and if I found something I really liked would book it.

[mertziek]

We mix it up with NCL and private tours but when we see something we like, we book it right away.  NCL tours do fill up and no, they usually do not hold spaces to book once onboard the ship so we book early but know we can always cancel if we change our minds or find something better.  The problem with NCL is once you book a tour for your port, the other tours offered no longer show up on your Plan and Explore so it’s tougher to find other tours offered unless you do a general excursion search for port excursions.

[SeekingKillerWhales!]

We are sailing in August and booked excursions in January. All three of us are in our own rooms, so every excursion was $50 off. We figured some of the cheaper (and our free one!) would probably sell out, so we took the plunge. With the $50 for the first person in each room I think more excursions will sell out. Better safe than sorry, and you can cancel before boarding the ship or 48 hours before the excursion onboard. 

[yardbird]

On 2/11/2023 at 9:24 AM, mertziek said:

We mix it up with NCL and private tours but when we see something we like, we book it right away.  NCL tours do fill up and no, they usually do not hold spaces to book once onboard the ship so we book early but know we can always cancel if we change our minds or find something better.  The problem with NCL is once you book a tour for your port, the other tours offered no longer show up on your Plan and Explore so it’s tougher to find other tours offered unless you do a general excursion search for port excursions.

This is kind of how we did Alaska. Interesting stuff, we booked ahead (although not THIS far ahead) and for many of the stops, we just kinda winged it. At one stop we just got on a bus to Talkeetna ($10 each round trip). It's the town that was an inspiration for the TV program Northern Exposure. The mayor was a cat named Mr Stubbs (now passed, sadly). We visited local artists, went to Nagley's General Store and all around had an amazing day... for $10 each... round trip. So we're leaving lots of ports "open".  But there were a few excursions we liked so we booked them 😄

[bedfordmom]

If I have any hint that a port will be cancelled (like the Dominican Republic) I will book with NCL as its easier to get a refund.  I have only been booking refundable private excursions (or no deposit) as Norwegian has been so erradic on the Getaway ports.   On my last royal caribean cruise  their prices are actually 10% cheaper if you book prior (also none of the nonsence of the inflated shorex prices to account for the $50 shore credit