Shore Excursions

[9tee2Sea]

I have a deposit on a cruise for March 2025, NCL Pearl, Eastern Caribbean.  I was exploring the offered shore excursions.  Is it possible to add the excursion(s) into my cart now, but not pay for them until final payment is due (Nov)?  What happens to the monies paid for the excursions ( provided I have to pre-pay them) and then I decide not to go on the cruise before final payment?  Is it refunded back to form of payment, or a cruise credit is issued?  Usually when I put  deposit on a cruise, I know that I will be going, but this time, too many unknowns for work where might not be able to make it.

[nordicacres]

I was told by an NCL rep that excursion payment was due at time of booking. They would not bill to my account so that it could be paid off in a lump sum at final payment.

[TrumpyNor]

Shore excursions has to be paid at the time of booking. If you at a later time decides to cancel it, the money paid will be returned to form of original payment if cancelled before the cruise starts. If cancelled after the cruise have started, then the money paid will be reimbursed as refundable OBC (on board credit).

 

[julig22]

You can put excursions in your cart before final payment. However, that does not reserve them, they can sell out and you might not be able to book the ones you want.

[schmoopie17]

3 hours ago, TrumpyNor said:

If cancelled after the cruise have started, then the money paid will be reimbursed as refundable OBC (on board credit).

 

A few days after boarding, we canceled two excursions that we had paid for before the cruise. We got refunded to our ship account. But note that they had a stipulation that any cancellation had to be made more than 48 hours prior to the excursion. However, I don't know how strictly they adhere to this rule, since we canceled one two days before and one was one day before.

 

It should be noted that nobody was manning (womaning?) the Excursions Desk when we went to cancel. They had a drop box on the counter for cancel notices to be put in. So it's possible they didn't know the timing of the cancellations.

[BirdTravels]

55 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

It should be noted that nobody was manning (womaning?) the Excursions Desk when we went to cancel.

 

"staffing"

[jrt.mom]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

"staffing"

Thank you, Mr Thesaurus.  😁

[helo driver]

NCL Shore excursion question: Are more excursions added as the cruise gets closer?

 

We are booked on the NCL Sky from Taipei to Singapore (12 days and 10 ports)  in January of 2025 and there are only 11 total shore excursions offered on their web site right now.  Anyone have any idea if and when more will be added? Very little info on some of these ports which would make it hard to "do on our own".

 

Thanks!

[DorothyB]

I'm sailing on the Getaway at the end of October this year (so less than 145 days away) and so far there are ZERO excursions available!!

[JustAllie]

1 hour ago, helo driver said:

NCL Shore excursion question: Are more excursions added as the cruise gets closer?

 

We are booked on the NCL Sky from Taipei to Singapore (12 days and 10 ports)  in January of 2025 and there are only 11 total shore excursions offered on their web site right now.  Anyone have any idea if and when more will be added? Very little info on some of these ports which would make it hard to "do on our own".

 

Thanks!

For our upcoming cruise to Canada/Greenland/Iceland, the shore excursions were added sporadically. I assume this was happening as they nailed down the final itinerary and negotiated with the local tour operators. The excursions for Greenland and the smaller ports in Iceland showed up later than the tours for larger, more frequently visited ports like Halifax. 

 

Do keep an eye on the NCL web page if you want an NCL excursion, because some of them sell out quickly after they are added. You can also scope out some options for third-party excursions at websites like Viator, or just search the name of your port and "cruise excrusion" or similar keywords to see what pops up. For third-party excursions, YMMV of course, so do your research!