Shore excursion pricing question

[dbali]

I know that the pricing is all over the place depending on what you do but what do you think is the average price per port for two people.  We are looking at an extended cruise (maybe a world cruise) and are trying to get an idea.  I know we can book a private tour cheaper and AZ gives a generous obc to the cruisers.  Any ideas?

[jegoodman]

All I can talk about is the cruise I'm taking on 9/27.  

 

It seems like orientation short port tours range from about $39 to $109  .... Half day excursions range from $69 to $129...... Some full day excursions are up to $299.    

 

Examples:  All day Capri   $239  (no meal)    5 hour Herculaneum $169  

 

I don't think you can put an average price on an excursion through Azamara.  Each port is different and some have less expensive tours... but of course, because they are through the cruise company they are definitely more than you can book on your own.

 

I have a lot of OBC, too.... so I'm intending to use mostly Azamara shore excursions.  I'm not a drinker so I don't need to upgrade the alcohol package.  

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[dbali]

Thanks Jegoodman.  I was thinking about $150pp per port.  That may be about right. 

[harrodsfan]

Viator is a wonderful website with potential excursions all over the world. It will give you an idea of what’s available in each city you visit. Many can be shore excursions. Reliable company! 

[dbali]

Thanks, Harrodsfan.  I will look into them.

 

[Mackdogmolly]

7 hours ago, dbali said:

Thanks, Harrodsfan.  I will look into them.

 

Just be careful. We once docked an hour late at a port and our Viator excursion was long gone. 

[DrivesLikeMario]

54 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Just be careful. We once docked an hour late at a port and our Viator excursion was long gone. 

Agree.  We've had some great Viator tours but have had 2 of them cancelled just hours before we were to meet for them.  One was a chocolate walking tour in Zurich which we were really looking forward to.  We received a notice just a couple hours before we were due to meet with a notice that their guide was pregnant and couldn't lead the tour.   ???!!!   Another one in Mykonos was a golf cart tour.  Again, we were really looking forward to it but got the dreaded email from Viator about 10 hrs. before saying it was a "no go".  The best ones we've done were in Rome.  Their Skip-the-Line tours are great.

[DrivesLikeMario]

I have a question though since it's been a few years since we've done an Azamara cruise:

 

- Can we book shore excursions with Azamara OBC ahead of time on the website?

[jegoodman]

11 minutes ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

I have a question though since it's been a few years since we've done an Azamara cruise:

 

- Can we book shore excursions with Azamara OBC ahead of time on the website?

You could before the website upgrade.  Not sure when this will be enabled again.  Right now my OBC doesn't show up on the new website and some of the excursions I already booked are priced incorrectly and descriptions are gone.  Presumably, this will be fixed in the future.

[DrivesLikeMario]

10 minutes ago, jegoodman said:

You could before the website upgrade.  Not sure when this will be enabled again.  Right now my OBC doesn't show up on the new website and some of the excursions I already booked are priced incorrectly and descriptions are gone.  Presumably, this will be fixed in the future.

Okay, great.  That's good to know.  Just spent 2 hrs. on hold and no answer so appreciate the information.  Hoping they get all this IT mess cleared up soon.

[Sallyandtex]

Has anyone successfully paid their shore trip with OBC?

 

If not, and I pay with CC , an I able to cancel shore tours online and get refunded.?

 

We have only a small OBC, but want to put this to part of a  shore trip as we don't see any need for the credit otherwise. 

Also, are the shore trips in USD? All our payments are shown in AUD, but no symbol/letters after the shore trip cost advertised. 

Interestingly, our full payment for the cruise comes up substantially less than what we paid.....maybe not factoring in the TA commission ((more than 20% seems a lot)

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, Sallyandtex said:

Has anyone successfully paid their shore trip with OBC?

 

If not, and I pay with CC , an I able to cancel shore tours online and get refunded.?

 

We have only a small OBC, but want to put this to part of a  shore trip as we don't see any need for the credit otherwise. 

Also, are the shore trips in USD? All our payments are shown in AUD, but no symbol/letters after the shore trip cost advertised. 

Interestingly, our full payment for the cruise comes up substantially less than what we paid.....maybe not factoring in the TA commission ((more than 20% seems a lot)

I’m not even trying at the moment, but my cruise is over 6 months away.

[Leo_On_Geo]

8 hours ago, Sallyandtex said:

Has anyone successfully paid their shore trip with OBC?

 

If not, and I pay with CC , an I able to cancel shore tours online and get refunded.?

 

We have only a small OBC, but want to put this to part of a  shore trip as we don't see any need for the credit otherwise. 

Also, are the shore trips in USD? All our payments are shown in AUD, but no symbol/letters after the shore trip cost advertised. 

Interestingly, our full payment for the cruise comes up substantially less than what we paid.....maybe not factoring in the TA commission ((more than 20% seems a lot)

Yes, you can pay for shore excursions with your credit card, and then change it to use your OBC once on board. Very easily done. Sometimes this is a good strategy, because the price usually goes up closer to the sail date. They will honor the price you paid for, not the current increased price. At least that was my recent experience.  YMMV

Edited April 23, 2023 by Leo_On_Geo

[Grandma Cruising]

32 minutes ago, Leo_On_Geo said:

Yes, you can pay for shore excursions with your credit card, and then change it to use your OBC once on board. Very easily done. Sometimes this is a good strategy, because the price usually goes up closer to the sail date. They will honor the price you paid for, not the current increased price. At least that was my recent experience.  YMMV

Yes, we’ve done that too - BUT one of the FAQ’s on Azamara’s new website now says you can’t do that

 

[Leo_On_Geo]

13 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Yes, we’ve done that too - BUT one of the FAQ’s on Azamara’s new website now says you can’t do that

 

Thanks For the update. It’s a shame in my regard because I had used my OBC for excursions that were later canceled and OBC refunded so left with extra OBC and shore excursions charge to credit card.  
The only place I wanted to use my OBC was on shore excursions.

[Grandma Cruising]

27 minutes ago, Leo_On_Geo said:

Thanks For the update. It’s a shame in my regard because I had used my OBC for excursions that were later canceled and OBC refunded so left with extra OBC and shore excursions charge to credit card.  
The only place I wanted to use my OBC was on shore excursions.

Well, just because the FAQ says so, doesn’t mean that’s what will happen. 
Also maybe, given your circumstances, the ship’s excursion crew might make an exception - I think you have a strong case!

Edited April 23, 2023 by Grandma Cruising

[nonrev1]

Kind of funny since when we were onboard they could not find our OBC for our next cruise this summer. (we were hoping to book our excursions while onboard and get the lower rate and the 10% off promo for booking 3 while onboard)  They told us we could book our excursions with our credit card and when we board the ship this summer, they will cancel it off our credit card and rebook it with our OBC.  ( That is assuming this gets sorted out by then)  After the Shore Excursion issues we had earlier this month,  I am not willing to do that.  

[Leo_On_Geo]

37 minutes ago, nonrev1 said:

Kind of funny since when we were onboard they could not find our OBC for our next cruise this summer. (we were hoping to book our excursions while onboard and get the lower rate and the 10% off promo for booking 3 while onboard)  They told us we could book our excursions with our credit card and when we board the ship this summer, they will cancel it off our credit card and rebook it with our OBC.  ( That is assuming this gets sorted out by then)  After the Shore Excursion issues we had earlier this month,  I am not willing to do that.  

That is exactly what I was told last month on the journey. It was during the changeover.  they couldn’t book the shore excursions at the reduced rate, so they gave us a letter that we could use once we boarded in November to get the cost of the excursions reduced to the pre-booked special prices we’ll see.  Not dealing with this until at least July, hope things resolved soon

[Grandma Cruising]

Sounds as if they will allow you to cancel excursions paid for by credit card and rebook with OBC once aboard, so long as there’s a good reason to do so, so it sounds as if you should be OK Leo_on_Geo.

[holidaysaregood]

We recently booked 3 onboard.   It shows on our cruise account.  Have the letter for 10% duscount to apply.  But at the moment have not been able to pay on the website.  

[Sallyandtex]

29 minutes ago, holidaysaregood said:

We recently booked 3 onboard.   It shows on our cruise account.  Have the letter for 10% duscount to apply.  But at the moment have not been able to pay on the website.  

Thanks. Hope they get it sorted so we can use OBC at booking stage online. 

[ghstudio]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:22 PM, Grandma Cruising said:

Sounds as if they will allow you to cancel excursions paid for by credit card and rebook with OBC once aboard, so long as there’s a good reason to do so, so it sounds as if you should be OK Leo_on_Geo.

the problem with this is that often the price prior to the cruise is lower than the same excursion on-board.  Be careful with this approach.

[nonrev1]

Yes, I agree that you have to be careful with the pricing. But, the problem we had on our last trip was I had put Tours on our credit card and outright canceled them because I also had other tours booked. When they canceled them on board even though they were paid on my credit card they gave it to me as a nonrefundable Onboard credit.  The tour manager said, don’t worry you can always spend that money when you’re on the ship. That was not an acceptable answer. It took a while, but it finally did get resolved.  It was frustrating because that’s not the way I wanted to spend my vacation. For this next cruise I don’t want to pay $1500 on my credit card and then on the ship use my OBC but not credit my card back again.

[Whitby100]

My upcoming cruise has just shown up when I log in, including my OBC. My question further to this topic relates to currency.  My understanding is the OBC is in US dollars, but the price for excursions online is being quoted in Canadian (which makes sense since I am Canadian and it was booked using a Canadian TA).  Any one know if there will be a currency conversion?  This is a huge difference for us Canadians. 

[Baynanno1]

IF you are able to book Shore Excursions online using OBC, the currency conversion from US to Canadian dollars in place on the day will apply and you will pay in Canadian dollars.

 

That rate will remain the same for any more excursions you book before embarkation.

 

Once on board, the remaining balance of your OBC will appear as $US.