Advanced booking for shore excursion

[LJanet]

Our Alaska cruise is July 2025.  Do we need to book shore excursion now in fear of selling out. I know there will be Black Friday sale of some sort.  

[Cruise Suzy]

I have never seen a sale on Shore Excursions - and several do sell out for Alaskan cruises.

[pmjnh]

Black Friday sales do not include shore excursions.Best to pre-book if there is an excursion you want. July 25 is pretty far off, so keep an eye out for newly added excursions as time goes by. Excursions are easily cancelled if you see something else being offered later.

[erdufylla]

Book now if there are ones you definitely want to do, especially if you have excursion credits from a HIA package. It’s super frustrating waiting and then finding your promotional credits are going to go unused because everything’s already filled up. 

[POA1]

I know there is a promo code box on the shore excursions check out, but I have only seen it used once. That was for Half Moon Cay only - and it was probably 10 years ago.

 

If you want something, book early.

[REOVA]

1 hour ago, LJanet said:

Our Alaska cruise is July 2025.  Do we need to book shore excursion now in fear of selling out. I know there will be Black Friday sale of some sort.  

No sales on excursions except pre booking may be cheaper on some excursions. If you find an excursion, book it. If you find a better one you can try switching later but HIA excursion credits are use it or lose it for excursions only, any unused credits don't transfer to other credits. 

[Khlela]

Better to book early. My personal experience for excursions for my 2024 Alaska cruise was the prices increasing over time. The zipline increased almost $50 per person after just a month listed.

 

so definitely buy what you want right away. They can sell out pretty quick too depending on the excursions. No Black Friday sale on these.

[SeaMatesNYC]

Another thing to remember is that in these few ports, it is often easy to garner extra onboard credit by using the “best price guarantee.”  A simple Google search for shore excursions in Alaska will give you tour operators, some of which are the same ones that HAL uses, down to simply copying the tour description into the HAL system.

 

If you take the time to do a little sleuthing and fill out the form, you can get 110% of the price difference (for 2025 season, you may have to wait to get the next year pricing, but if it’s lower this year will likely be similar next).

On an upcoming voyage, we are netting about $140 in OBC from excursions in 2 ports (taking the HAL offer but using best price guarantee versus a major shorex operation).  Good luck to you!  

 

Oh and I agree, if you like it, book it right away, especially if it is via your HIA credit. Even if it’s credit card charge, you are likely to experience fast credits in cancels. We have gotten them same day onto our cards on recent cancellations when we swapped “placeholder” tours for clearing-waitlist, preferred tours. 

[TV Dad]

Book NOW! If prices go lower, HAL usually honors the lower price. Afterall you can always cancel and rebook tours. I do it all the time.

[LJanet]

Has anyone done Tracy Arm inlet excursion?  I’ve read many were disappointed due to limited seating.  We are traveling with elderly parents in their 80s and I don’t think standing out in the rain or not is feasible.  

[oaktreerb]

6 minutes ago, LJanet said:

Has anyone done Tracy Arm inlet excursion?  I’ve read many were disappointed due to limited seating.  We are traveling with elderly parents in their 80s and I don’t think standing out in the rain or not is feasible.  

If you do this excursion from the ship you will transfer to a smaller vessel (catamaran) and there will be enough indoor window seating for everyone.  You may get wet transferring to the smaller vessel if it is raining and the transfer does require sure footing.  The crew will guide people from the ship to the boat.  (similar to a tendering process)

 

We really enjoyed the close up views of the ice that breaks off from the glacier, and the close up views of the shore and the wildlife.  We were able to see a couple of bears on the shore.  I can’t imagine anybody being disappointed.  People can go outside to take pictures or just hang out.  Take a bag or something to leave at your seat if you move round the boat.

[wdw1972]

9 hours ago, LJanet said:

Our Alaska cruise is July 2025.  Do we need to book shore excursion now in fear of selling out. I know there will be Black Friday sale of some sort.  

The Alaska excursion I wanted for May 2025 was already sold out when I tried to book a month or more ago. Why on earth would anyone wait to book? Prices are not going to drop, and I've seen them increase on past cruises. People who booked early were locked in that lower price. As they say "you snooze, you lose".

 

Sue/WDW1972

[SeaMatesNYC]

32 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

If you do this excursion from the ship you will transfer to a smaller vessel (catamaran) and there will be enough indoor window seating for everyone.  You may get wet transferring to the smaller vessel if it is raining and the transfer does require sure footing.  The crew will guide people from the ship to the boat.  (similar to a tendering process)

This sounds like the Hubbard glacier catamaran (when the cruise ship discharges the tour participants onto the catamaran as a tender type operation).

We have done the Tracy Arm (on a Southbound from Juneau) and you get off the ship at the dock (or tender to the dock as the case may be) and walk a short ways to get on the excursion boat from a nearby dock. This is not akin to tendering. This happens on and off shore side docks. Perhaps northbound does it different?

 

On Tracy Arm tour, there was ample inside seating for all. But being outside was the true pleasure. It was the best tour for us of the cruise portion of our cruise tour. Worth.Every.Penny. 

Edited May 8 by SeaMatesNYC
Clarification

[RuthC]

48 minutes ago, LJanet said:

Has anyone done Tracy Arm inlet excursion?  I’ve read many were disappointed due to limited seating.  We are traveling with elderly parents in their 80s and I don’t think standing out in the rain or not is feasible.  

When I took this tour there was plenty of seating available. Many passengers moved around, from indoors to outdoors, one side to the other, so seats were always opening up. 

We transferred from the ship to the catamaran via a secure ramp at the entrance to Tracy Arm, then transferred back to the ship when the catamaran got to Juneau to join up. 

The day was cloudy, but the perspective of the glacier was so very different than from the deck of the ship (I had been up Tracy Arm on the ship several times in the past) that I was glad I had taken the tour. As a matter of fact, taking this tour was the sole reason I booked this cruise! 

There is plenty of room in the warm, inside cabin of the catamaran for your elderly parents to be comfortable. 

[oaktreerb]

1 hour ago, SeaMatesNYC said:

This sounds like the Hubbard glacier catamaran (when the cruise ship discharges the tour participants onto the catamaran as a tender type operation).

We have done the Tracy Arm (on a Southbound from Juneau) and you get off the ship at the dock (or tender to the dock as the case may be) and walk a short ways to get on the excursion boat from a nearby dock. This is not akin to tendering. This happens on and off shore side docks. Perhaps northbound does it different?

 

On Tracy Arm tour, there was ample inside seating for all. But being outside was the true pleasure. It was the best tour for us of the cruise portion of our cruise tour. Worth.Every.Penny. 

Our experience at Tracy arm was like @RuthC.  This year we plan to take the Hubbard Glacier excursion direct from the ship.

[RuthC]

9 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

This year we plan to take the Hubbard Glacier excursion direct from the ship.

I've done that one, and this year I plan to do it again! It was that good the first time. Sunny day, got much closer to Hubbard than the ship did. Lots of calving, and you felt the movement of the sea in the much smaller catamaran. 

Loved it. 

[Mary229]

Read the cancellation details carefully, buy immediately. Cancel if you change your mind 

[Ileneilene123]

I didn’t realize that HAL excursion prices for a particular sailing can potentially increase or decrease. Good to know that HAL will generally honor the lower price if there is a change. We signed up pretty late for our Alaska cruise this July and just signed up for our excursions. How do I find out what the original excursions prices were? I’d love to know whether HAL increased prices. Thx. 

[Mary229]

7 minutes ago, Ileneilene123 said:

I didn’t realize that HAL excursion prices for a particular sailing can potentially increase or decrease. Good to know that HAL will generally honor the lower price if there is a change. We signed up pretty late for our Alaska cruise this July and just signed up for our excursions. How do I find out what the original excursions prices were? I’d love to know whether HAL increased prices. Thx. 

Many excursions have increased as operators have to contend with higher fuel and insurance costs.  The only way to find out is to ask other pax once on the excursion I guess.

[Cruise Suzy]

12 minutes ago, Ileneilene123 said:

Good to know that HAL will generally honor the lower price if there is a change. We signed up pretty late for our Alaska cruise this July and just signed up for our excursions. How do I find out what the original excursions prices were? I’d love to know whether HAL increased prices.

 

The references to HAL honoring the lower price were when someone books the HAL excursion, and it later increases in price. It does not mean that you will get the lower price if you book after a price increase.

[Ileneilene123]

4 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

 

The references to HAL honoring the lower price were when someone books the HAL excursion, and it later increases in price. It does not mean that you will get the lower price if you book after a price increase.

Got it. I misunderstood.  Thx.