Norway Cruise Non-Ship Excursion Cancellation Policies

[mapgirl34]

For those who have cruised Norway or those planning Norway, I can't get over the cancellation policies for private on-shore tours.  I've read a few reports of folks who didn't get their money back for a pre-booked tour because the ship changed course and they didn't go to the port as expected.  I understand that I can't change the policy of Norway.  I'm just a bit befuddled by it.  Example below is what I'm seeing just about everywhere in Norway.  And yet, I went to Honduras in April and booked a tour that only required cash on arrival.  What is everyone else doing to avoid these cancellation fees?  I have notes on what I want to do in each location and I'm just hoping that I can walk up to a tourist center and book same day.  I've also checked and most of our port days, our ship is in the only one in port.  So if we can't book on arrival, we'll walk around the respective towns instead.  It's either risk losing the entire payment for tours or paying double the price for much more crowded and shorter tours through the ship.

 

• Cancellation more than 7 days before: 100 percent refund
• Cancellation less than 7 days before: 50 percent refund
• Cancellation 19 hours before, or less: No refund

 

Interested to hear what others are doing or have done.
For reference, we are on MSC Preziosa in August.
In Molde, I'd like to rent a car. In Honningsvag, I'd like to do the bird safari tour. In Stavanger, I'm interested in the Lysefijord cruise.
Thanks for reading.

 

[CruiserBruce]

"walking up to a tourist center and book same day" doesn't happen in Europe. Europe has strict guide and tour driver regulations, so it would be very rare to just find an available, licensed vendor(s) at the dock. Plus many Norwegian ports are small towns, without a lot of surplus tourist resources.

 

Have you checked what others are doing on your cruise Roll Call, located here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/746-msc-preziosa-roll-calls/

 

Comparing Honduras and Norway is comparing apples and automobiles. 

[kitkat343]

I purchase third party travel insurance because I'm traveling with kids, and need insurance for medical evacuation in case someone gets sick.  My travel insurance covers the costs of a shore excursion if the boat doesn't dock.

 

We travelled to Norway in late May in the shoulder season and we were able to book the Lysefijord cruise the day of (our important tours that we really cared about in other ports were prebooked).  The Lysefijord cruise is a nice boat ride, but not earth shattering, so if you miss it you'll be fine.  The risk you are taking is that it might not be possible to book that day of in August.  Of course, if the weather is terrible I'm not sure how enjoyable that cruise would be anyway so that's something else to consider.  We prebooked the tram in Bergen, and the weather was so bad you couldn't see anything but we had small kids with us and accurately guessed we'd take the tram irregardless, but that would have been frustrating if we didn't have kids who needed the tram ride.

[CCJack]

I like the idea of having 3rd party travel insurance to cover this problem.   Just make sure you price the trip insurance to include any non refundable excursions.    The premium may not be much more (if at all) since sometimes the premium only goes up at certain price points (ie, $5900 coverage is the same premium  as $5200 coverage - premium goes up a $6k - just as an example.)

 

I have filed a couple of travel insurance claims and both went rather smoothly and I was paid what I claimed, but there is some paperwork involved and you have to prove that these costs were not refunded to you.   These T&C on the excursion websites may come in handy in this case.

 

For a trip to Norway I would have everything pre booked.   I would book the excursions you want no matter the refund policy, and then count on the insurance if you need it. 

 

Also, I have found that ship's excursions are still more $ than independent but not as much difference as they used to be - the costs are getting closer from my viewpoint.   I used to be 100% independent but lately have been booking more ship's excursions especially if involves long distance from the ship.

 

I loved the Lysefijord day cruise.  It rained for us but it was still enjoyable, would have been that much better if sunny !

 

Have fun....

 

 

[kaisatsu]

Despite the amount of cruise traffic in the summer (significantly more this year since the cruiselines all assumed St.Petersburg would still be a no-go), Norway does not operate like a typical cruise destination. The season is very short, and labor costs are extremely high. This makes it very hard to operate independent tours in a profitable way. So low availability, high costs, and a lot of overhead.

 

On the flipside, most popular cruise ports are easy to visit and book activities on your own without needing an organized tour. The problem is that with the increase in traffic, a lot of ships are having to visit less-frequented alternative ports.

 

Practically-speaking, I would DIY in the larger ports and go ahead and pre-book and pre-pay for things I really wanted to do in the smaller ports a few months in advance. If you're visiting this summer, the schedules are pretty well set, and unless there is something like a strike, it's unlikely that the itineraries will change at this point. The ports that have agreed to take ships will stand by those agreements, and any legislative changes wouldn't go into affect until later. Weather is rarely a contributing factor, since the ports are geographically sheltered.

[baggal]

We were scheduled to sail on a cruise to Norway and Iceland in July 2020.  While researching private excursions companies in Iceland I came across a company that said only they could make a determination whether to issue a refund in case the ship didn't make the port.  They went on to say that in their experience cruise ship captains were overly cautious and sometimes didn't make the port even though they could have.  Really?  This was the first time I ever encountered this situation.  I was going to book the excursion with the cruise line but then COVID happened and the cruise was canceled. 

[jlgreuel]

On 5/20/2023 at 6:56 AM, mapgirl34 said:

For those who have cruised Norway or those planning Norway, I can't get over the cancellation policies for private on-shore tours.  I've read a few reports of folks who didn't get their money back for a pre-booked tour because the ship changed course and they didn't go to the port as expected.  I understand that I can't change the policy of Norway.  I'm just a bit befuddled by it.  Example below is what I'm seeing just about everywhere in Norway.  And yet, I went to Honduras in April and booked a tour that only required cash on arrival.  What is everyone else doing to avoid these cancellation fees?  I have notes on what I want to do in each location and I'm just hoping that I can walk up to a tourist center and book same day.  I've also checked and most of our port days, our ship is in the only one in port.  So if we can't book on arrival, we'll walk around the respective towns instead.  It's either risk losing the entire payment for tours or paying double the price for much more crowded and shorter tours through the ship.

 

• Cancellation more than 7 days before: 100 percent refund
• Cancellation less than 7 days before: 50 percent refund
• Cancellation 19 hours before, or less: No refund

 

Interested to hear what others are doing or have done.
For reference, we are on MSC Preziosa in August.
In Molde, I'd like to rent a car. In Honningsvag, I'd like to do the bird safari tour. In Stavanger, I'm interested in the Lysefijord cruise.
Thanks for reading.

 

I am shocked that I booked an e-bike and hike for Alesund Norway (for our family of four - so not an insignificant booking) - in July and feel like I was hoodwinked.  The cancellation policy said I could cancel 24 hours in advance.  As soon as I hit submit - the cancellation policy switched to "No Cancellations".  I immediately spent hours on the phone and email - trying to resolve through PayPal, Bank, and Viator to cancel the booking (started that process within 1 hour of booking) and nobody so far has resolved.  In a few hours I can 'escalate' my complaint with PayPal.  But I am really disappointed with how this has panned out.  I am experienced at cruising and booking independently from the ship and haven't had this occur.  Note to others - Viator is owned by Tripadvisor.  So while I appreciate the advice of others on Tripsadvisor, I am extremely wary of touching a link connected to a booking through them.  Next time, I will be sure to open a new browser and book directly with provider.

[kitkat343]

7 hours ago, jlgreuel said:

I am shocked that I booked an e-bike and hike for Alesund Norway (for our family of four - so not an insignificant booking) - in July and feel like I was hoodwinked.  The cancellation policy said I could cancel 24 hours in advance.  As soon as I hit submit - the cancellation policy switched to "No Cancellations".  I immediately spent hours on the phone and email - trying to resolve through PayPal, Bank, and Viator to cancel the booking (started that process within 1 hour of booking) and nobody so far has resolved.  In a few hours I can 'escalate' my complaint with PayPal.  But I am really disappointed with how this has panned out.  I am experienced at cruising and booking independently from the ship and haven't had this occur.  Note to others - Viator is owned by Tripadvisor.  So while I appreciate the advice of others on Tripsadvisor, I am extremely wary of touching a link connected to a booking through them.  Next time, I will be sure to open a new browser and book directly with provider.

Actually, you should always book directly with the providers. When you look on tripadvisor, sometimes the only bad reviews of a company are from people who booked through viator or another third party vendor.  Sometimes bookings get lost, or specific requests for changes to the tour gets lost.  So I would really recommend booking directly to cut down on problems in the future.  If you do a dummy booking on viator, will it show the cancellation policy?  You should be able to show that to your credit card company to demonstrate bad faith.  so sorry this happened to you.

Edited May 25, 2023 by kitkat343

[Sallyandtex]

I have a few tours booked that only require 24hrs notice of cancellation,  direct with company. 

I figure we would know a few days prior if we won't be docking, however,  I always have insurance coverage for any unforeseen events.