When are all excursions released?

[grouchomarx]

I have a Christmas cruise booked (Bliss) and noticed lots of excursion options except not one for the Costa Maya port.  I never booked this far out before so I don’t know how it works.

[BirdTravels]

Excursions are posted when the cruise line completes negotiating with local tour providers. Seems like there should already be tours posted for Christmas. 

[DorothyB]

And some of us . . . The Oct 27, 2024 sailing (in 138 days!) has ZERO excursions available!!  I think when they changed the itinerary to start sailing from New Orleans earlier in the season, they forgot to negotiate or put up excursions . . . 

[roddy good boy]

They have excursions listed for all but one of our ports, for Greece/Turkey cruise this Fall. We are now 81 days out.

[grouchomarx]

Hmm interesting thanks for your replies.  I was thinking to do Maya Chan for Costa Maya anyway but such mixed reviews.  I’ll keep my eye out!

[PelicanBill]

10 hours ago, DorothyB said:

And some of us . . . The Oct 27, 2024 sailing (in 138 days!) has ZERO excursions available!!  I think when they changed the itinerary to start sailing from New Orleans earlier in the season, they forgot to negotiate or put up excursions . . . 

Yet the November 17 sailing of the same itinerary has over 100 excursions posted. Yours is clearly an issue and not normal.

 

I normally see NCL post excursions gradually, starting any number of months ahead, like 8-12 months, and being fully posted by about final payment time.

[9tee2Sea]

13 hours ago, grouchomarx said:

I have a Christmas cruise booked (Bliss) and noticed lots of excursion options except not one for the Costa Maya port.  I never booked this far out before so I don’t know how it works.

It could be that, since many Latin American countries enjoy Christmas with family, there may be very limited shore excursions available.  I always make sure to have a sea day on Christmas Day ( if traveling that time).  I would expect nothing to be open on Dec 25th, except for a few vendors around the port area.

[cruiseny4life]

Similar boat, we are in. Our February cruise has no shore excursions listed for Costa Maya or Cozumel. There are plenty for Harvest Caye and Roatan. I'm thinking NCL is keeping it open to adjust the itinerary at day 118 before cruise. 

[grouchomarx]

1 hour ago, 9tee2Sea said:

It could be that, since many Latin American countries enjoy Christmas with family, there may be very limited shore excursions available.  I always make sure to have a sea day on Christmas Day ( if traveling that time).  I would expect nothing to be open on Dec 25th, except for a few vendors around the port area.

We've done cruise excursions on Christmas day before.  We snorkeled in Belize on Christmas day several years ago.  I think this has to do with NCL rather than the port. 

[sheila77]

I called NCL yesterday to inquire why only excursions for Cozumel were posted for my Thanksgiving cruise (165 days). They stated contract negotiations were the reason that no excursions were posted for Costa Maya, Roatan and Harvest Caye.

 

Apparently contracts should be finalized in the next couple of weeks.... We will see.

[DrUrsula]

15 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

They have excursions listed for all but one of our ports, for Greece/Turkey cruise this Fall. We are now 81 days out.

Santorini? 
We are right after you and Santorini has not had any showing.  

[roddy good boy]

2 minutes ago, DrUrsula said:

Santorini? 
We are right after you and Santorini has not had any showing.  

No. For us it’s Kusadasi! We have a several listed for Santorini. I booked one that takes you to Oia and is only 3 1/2 hours long. Actually, I’m considering whether to cancel and just stay on the ship. While the tour bypasses the cable car congestion on the front end, you have to take it back down to the port and then take the tender back to the ship, at the tour’s completion. That or walk down that treacherous, nasty donkey trail! Reports say the line for the cable car can be several hours. Although I’d love to experience Santorini, it’s our last cruise day and I don’t want to end things on an exhausting, frustrating note. Or, listen to my husband complain for hours on end.😬😆 There will be 4 other large cruise ships in port that day.

 

 We arrive a few days earlier in Kusadasi at 1:00 pm. I guess they are finding it difficult booking tour operators to do excursions that would go into the late afternoon. Not sure.

[DrUrsula]

2 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

No. For us it’s Kusadasi! We have a several listed for Santorini. I booked one that takes you to Oia and is only 3 1/2 hours long. Actually, I’m considering whether to cancel and just stay on the ship. While the tour bypasses the cable car congestion on the front end, you have to take it back down to the port and then take the tender back to the ship, at the tour’s completion. That or walk down that treacherous, nasty donkey trail! Reports say the line for the cable car can be several hours. Although I’d love to experience Santorini, it’s our last cruise day and I don’t want to end things on an exhausting, frustrating note. Or, listen to my husband complain for hours on end.😬😆 There will be 4 other large cruise ships in port that day.

 

 We arrive a few days earlier in Kusadasi at 1:00 pm. I guess they are finding it difficult booking tour operators to do excursions that would go into the late afternoon. Not sure.

We have nada for Santorini. When I went directly to the website for both the port of Santorini and the port of Heraklion; they show us arriving on different days than NCL.

i even had my little Greek mother read it in Greek and neither port has us arriving the day NCL does.

 

For our 10 night cruise there are only 28 excursions. We have an overnight in Istanbul.

 

We may just stay in the ship for Santorini.  We have been there a bunch of times and can't imagine it with a bunch of ships.

[roddy good boy]

2 minutes ago, DrUrsula said:

We have nada for Santorini. When I went directly to the website for both the port of Santorini and the port of Heraklion; they show us arriving on different days than NCL.

i even had my little Greek mother read it in Greek and neither port has us arriving the day NCL does.

 

For our 10 night cruise there are only 28 excursions. We have an overnight in Istanbul.

 

We may just stay in the ship for Santorini.  We have been there a bunch of times and can't imagine it with a bunch of ships.

I hope your Mom is traveling with you! That would be so nice to have a native speaker with you on the trip! 

[DrUrsula]

Just now, roddy good boy said:

I hope your Mom is traveling with you! That would be so nice to have a native speaker with you on the trip! 

She just turned 95 and is staying home. 

i speak a very basic Greek, understand a LOT of Greek - we will be putting it to the test again!!

[roddy good boy]

They have changed our dates and times around once. I’m hoping that the failure to post excursions for Ephesus doesn’t mean that they may cancel the port. When I looked at the port website, the date and time matches that currently listed on NCL’s itinerary.

[roddy good boy]

On 6/12/2024 at 3:18 PM, DrUrsula said:

We have nada for Santorini. When I went directly to the website for both the port of Santorini and the port of Heraklion; they show us arriving on different days than NCL.

i even had my little Greek mother read it in Greek and neither port has us arriving the day NCL does.

 

For our 10 night cruise there are only 28 excursions. We have an overnight in Istanbul.

 

We may just stay in the ship for Santorini.  We have been there a bunch of times and can't imagine it with a bunch of ships.

You know, I’m thinking that they are still working on the itineraries for many of our cruises. That could explain all these discrepancies. It’s frustrating, I know!

 

I just looked at the Kusadasi port schedule and our ship is now the only one listed in port that day. Previously, we were competing with 2-3 other ships. So, I’m wondering whether our time will be adjusted from 1pm - 10pm to an earlier arrival. Perhaps they’re still working out the excursions. 

[Monica887]

On 6/11/2024 at 10:10 PM, grouchomarx said:

Hmm interesting thanks for your replies.  I was thinking to do Maya Chan for Costa Maya anyway but such mixed reviews.  I’ll keep my eye out!

Also consider Hayhu. I was there in August and had zero complaints. There was a lot of seaweed but we weren't swimming anyway. I posted a full review on the Costa Maya group .

[grouchomarx]

11 minutes ago, Monica887 said:

Also consider Hayhu. I was there in August and had zero complaints. There was a lot of seaweed but we weren't swimming anyway. I posted a full review on the Costa Maya group .

Thanks I'll check it out!

[vacation44]

On 6/12/2024 at 11:37 AM, cruiseny4life said:

Similar boat, we are in. Our February cruise has no shore excursions listed for Costa Maya or Cozumel. There are plenty for Harvest Caye and Roatan. I'm thinking NCL is keeping it open to adjust the itinerary at day 118 before cruise. 

Wait...did I miss your new booking!?!?  What ship and when?     

[DorothyB]

On 6/12/2024 at 10:37 AM, cruiseny4life said:

Similar boat, we are in. Our February cruise has no shore excursions listed for Costa Maya or Cozumel. There are plenty for Harvest Caye and Roatan. I'm thinking NCL is keeping it open to adjust the itinerary at day 118 before cruise. 

My October cruise from New Orleans on the Getaway has ZERO excursions.  My February cruise on the Prima has excursions for all ports.  Both itineraries are like yours.

[cruiseny4life]

15 hours ago, DorothyB said:

My October cruise from New Orleans on the Getaway has ZERO excursions.  My February cruise on the Prima has excursions for all ports.  Both itineraries are like yours.

So odd. Especially given you're at the four'ish month mark! Ahh, NCL knows we'll be booking so why hurry up and get them online.

[cruiseny4life]

18 hours ago, vacation44 said:

Wait...did I miss your new booking!?!?  What ship and when?     

We just booked last week! It's a February 2nd cruise out of New Orleans on Getaway to the Western Caribbean. Very much in a "are we really going to do this" mood right now. I am trying to convince my lovely guy to try out MSC where it seems there aren't many (if any) cutbacks. Right now he's totally onboard for the NCL experience. We'll see!

 

But really, if I had to bet on it, I'd be betting on the NCL trip.

Edited June 15 by cruiseny4life

[DorothyB]

4 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

So odd. Especially given you're at the four'ish month mark! Ahh, NCL knows we'll be booking so why hurry up and get them online.

Except that while I booked three excursions (one per port excluding Harvest Caye) for my Feb cruise, I have so far booked two excursions NOT through NCL for my Oct cruise . . . 

[BirdTravels]

On 6/12/2024 at 1:12 PM, sheila77 said:

I called NCL yesterday to inquire why only excursions for Cozumel were posted for my Thanksgiving cruise (165 days). They stated contract negotiations were the reason that no excursions were posted for Costa Maya, Roatan and Harvest Caye.

 

Apparently contracts should be finalized in the next couple of weeks.... We will see.

For a port like Costa Maya where NCL calls multiple times a week, the vendors may be jacking up prices for new dates (versus previously contracted prices). 
 

Or NCL is dumping a tour provider and shopping for new vendors based on poor performance of existing vendor (Too many last minute cancellations due to staffing shortages (no one to drive a bus)). Negative customer reviews. Failure of vendor to provide described services (e.g., “Stop at chocolate factory” that does not occur). 

Edited June 15 by BirdTravels