Excursion waitlist

[roupa]

Planning excursions for September cruise…

Anyone have experience/thoughts on what might my chances be of getting on a shore excursion that I am waitlisted for?

I went ahead and booked my husband, and put myself on the waitlist, figuring his booking can be cancelled if I don’t succeed getting booked.

 🤞 

[RuthC]

The higher you are on the waitlist, the better your chances. 
My guess is that if you booked your husband, then put yourself on the waitlist at the same time, then you might be high on the waitlist. But that is just a guess. 
You could call and see where you are on the list, which is what I would do. 

I have cleared a waitlist a few times over the years, so it does happen. If your cruise isn't until September, there's a decent chance that someone booked on the shore excursion will cancel their cruise, and you will get their spot.

Good luck. 

[Toad]

I waitlisted for a July cruise and heard we cleared within a day or two.

[CruiserBruce]

Depends what sort of excursion. Some, like helicopter rides in Alaska,  have low and limited capacity. Others, like general intro tour excursions,  can add a bus pretty easily,  if there is adequate demand.

[The4OfUs]

We had two waitlisted for our Alaska cruise last year - one was a 15 person bike pub crawl type thing in Sitka and the other was for the Mendenhall Glacier tour, which we figured was a long shot. We found out the day before we got on board that we got the bike tour (which was a BLAST, riding around Sitka after the guys finished their once in a lifetime round of golf in Alaska 😂) - and we had already arranged for a private tour for the glacier, which was so nice - a van for the 6 of us, way less $, fantastic personal tour guide.

 

I'm curious - 

10 hours ago, RuthC said:

The higher you are on the waitlist, the better your chances. 

 

Where can you see how high you are on the wait list? Asking for our January cruise as there's a few new ports for us on that one!  😄 

[pschweig]

I have been on a waitlist for a mid-July cruise since last Nov. I never realized how quickly popular shore excursions sold out. The one I wanted, sold out in Sep, shortly after it was posted. 

[ChinaShrek]

7 minutes ago, pschweig said:

I have been on a waitlist for a mid-July cruise since last Nov. I never realized how quickly popular shore excursions sold out. The one I wanted, sold out in Sep, shortly after it was posted. 

This is because people are booking the HIA package which has a shore excursion credit for each person.

[chisoxfan]

We cancelled an Arctic Circle cruise (June 24)  in part because the HAL excursions were sold out. Usually we would look to Viator or local excursions but these are few and far between in Norway.

Certainly not the only reason we cancelled but was surprised that HAL did not have better availability.

I understand that there are limited providers in these ports but really don't want to commit to a cruise where excursions are so sparse. It's not like HAL is giving these away. JMHO

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 minutes ago, chisoxfan said:

We cancelled an Arctic Circle cruise (June 24)  in part because the HAL excursions were sold out. Usually we would look to Viator or local excursions but these are few and far between in Norway.

Certainly not the only reason we cancelled but was surprised that HAL did not have better availability.

I understand that there are limited providers in these ports but really don't want to commit to a cruise where excursions are so sparse. It's not like HAL is giving these away. JMHO

 

Yes, a problem in small ports is the limited providers. But also the fact that the cruise lines book all of them to sell their tours to passengers, leaving nothing for independent travelers. And once the cruise line has "cornered the market," they can charge a lot more. I'm probably going to cancel a cruise this summer because of the many small ports with few options for tours through HAL and none independently, AND the high prices. Where I was able to see prices for tours on other days, I could see that HAL is marking many of them up around 30-40%

[oaktreerb]

If you were able to book him and put yourself on the waitlist for the same excursion you are probably high on the list.  Watch your e-mail and your junk mail.  Be sure to confirm the booking as soon as you receive the notice that it is available.  

[chisoxfan]

3 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Yes, a problem in small ports is the limited providers. But also the fact that the cruise lines book all of them to sell their tours to passengers, leaving nothing for independent travelers. And once the cruise line has "cornered the market," they can charge a lot more. I'm probably going to cancel a cruise this summer because of the many small ports with few options for tours through HAL and none independently, AND the high prices. Where I was able to see prices for tours on other days, I could see that HAL is marking many of them up around 30-40%

Agree. I have been 'shocked' to see some walking tours (not just from HAL) in towns for 80-140 pp.

We are probably 'backwards' in our booking process especially with generally full ships in the marketplace. We find and book a cruise of interest (fortunately CCL lines don't charge cancellation fees) and then research airfare, excursions, transfers ie. travel logistics. On several recently, when we 'figure things out' , we determine it just 'isn't worth it'. That is,  the cruise is attractive but not when considering air options, pre and post hotels, and excursions. Maybe that is the next 'package' frontier. We used to wait in anticipation for the last night 'bar bill' which was eliminated with drink packages. Perhaps on itinerary 'based' cruises there will be more 'packages' to include tours. JMHO

[3rdGenCunarder]

17 minutes ago, chisoxfan said:

Agree. I have been 'shocked' to see some walking tours (not just from HAL) in towns for 80-140 pp.

We are probably 'backwards' in our booking process especially with generally full ships in the marketplace. We find and book a cruise of interest (fortunately CCL lines don't charge cancellation fees) and then research airfare, excursions, transfers ie. travel logistics. On several recently, when we 'figure things out' , we determine it just 'isn't worth it'. That is,  the cruise is attractive but not when considering air options, pre and post hotels, and excursions. Maybe that is the next 'package' frontier. We used to wait in anticipation for the last night 'bar bill' which was eliminated with drink packages. Perhaps on itinerary 'based' cruises there will be more 'packages' to include tours. JMHO

 

I remember listening for the rustle of papers slid under the door and trying to guess from the sound how many pages there were!

 

My problem with packages that include tours is that I don't always want to do what the ship offers. On my recent Caribbean cruise, I had 9 ports. I did three independent tours, four ship tours and in two ports I walked around on my own. Two of the ship tours I did only because I had HIA credit and a lot of nonrefundable OBC. Neither was spectacular. 

[mkl55]

I recently called to find out where I was on a wait list.  Unlike my previous experiences, that information was unavailable per the rep(s) I spoke with.  Once aboard, I had a notice in my cabin citing "good news..you have been ticketed for your waitlisted shore excursion"  The onboard shore excursion folks were most helpful in letting me know about our positions on other wait listed excursions and we were actually given better information and made different selections for some ports based on the info provided onboard re: size of the tours and probability for adding additional buses based on demand, etc.  I would hop on waitlists and pursue private tours with generous cancellation policies and see how it pans out for your must dos.  I think HAL is using online demand and adding tours very carefully.  But, they are adding tours!

[RuthC]

7 hours ago, The4OfUs said:

Where can you see how high you are on the wait list?

As noted in my original post, call and ask. 
As another posted, too, if your husband was booked, you are likely to be high on the list. 

[sciencewonk]

I have never cleared the waitlist on an excursion.

[cavecreekguy]

I added myself to a waitlisted excursion a few days after final payment on my upcoming May 5 Baltic cruise. I received an email about 3 days later telling me I cleared the waitlist.

[Shmoo here]

22 hours ago, Toad said:

I waitlisted for a July cruise and heard we cleared within a day or two.

We waitlisted for 2 different excursions on our July cruise, although we also went ahead and booked an excursion in both those ports.  One of them came through within 2 days.  Still waiting for the other one.