Explora excursions...

[chill6x6]

Hi! Again!

 

So....I can assume Explora has excursions at each port of call?  I'm a little less than nine months out and no excursions showing up on Explora website for my cruise. Are excursions eventually available to book on their site? Anyone actually BOOKING excursions thru Explora?

 

My cruise features Key West, Cayman Brac, Cozumel, and Belize City. I'm not interested in Key West or Cozumel....I'll take care of those. Cayman Brac...never been. Would like to see what Explora has.  Belize City is the main concern. Want to go Lamanai Ruins...again. So many pieces to that excursion I really don't want to go the independent route....tender...bus/van...boat...boat...bus/van....tender.

 

What timeframe do excursion typically start showing up for booking?....assuming they will.

 

When....these new to me cruise lines are wearing me out! 🤪 

[KJB416]

My Cruise is this October and I started seeing excursions about a month ago. You have to click on more details or whatever takes you to another site (their old interface I guess) and click on edit under shore excursions. I’ve seen new ports added recently, but only 4 ports out of the 6 are listed with any excursions. 
 

You can also call or email EJ guest services and request a pdf version of the excursions and they will send them to you if they’re available, but I’d say you’re too far out for them to have anything posted yet. Prepare to pay double or even triple compared to doing it on your own, but in some ports it’s safer/smarter to pay the cruises increased costs to not have to worry about anything. I did this in Iceland just because there were not a lot of other options available, but the prices are ridiculous. 

[chill6x6]

2 hours ago, KJB416 said:

My Cruise is this October and I started seeing excursions about a month ago. You have to click on more details or whatever takes you to another site (their old interface I guess) and click on edit under shore excursions. I’ve seen new ports added recently, but only 4 ports out of the 6 are listed with any excursions. 
 

You can also call or email EJ guest services and request a pdf version of the excursions and they will send them to you if they’re available, but I’d say you’re too far out for them to have anything posted yet. Prepare to pay double or even triple compared to doing it on your own, but in some ports it’s safer/smarter to pay the cruises increased costs to not have to worry about anything. I did this in Iceland just because there were not a lot of other options available, but the prices are ridiculous. 

Thanks for the info!

 

I just checked excursions....none for my ports BUT there are NOW some for the Caribbean itineraries before ours. I guess some will become available eventually....

[mike@sea]

On my past cruise in March, the excursions came out around 6 months prior. I booked some, paid for them, only to be notified closer to the cruise, some had been cancelled. Received money back to credit card and one very late cancellation to onboard account. All orderly. 
I had another one booked, which was later completely altered without being notified, changed in price and content. Not even the excursion staff knew, it had a different content before and was lowered in price. Out of a group of maybe 30, 6-8 of us ( wasn’t really clear how many as one couple claimed yet another missing part which I do not recall in the earlier description ) were completely puzzled, when we ended up at a parking lot after a 5 minute bus ride, where we were told we could now go down to the beach and would be picked up 2,5 hours later…. We were expecting a boat trip, barbecue and beach. 
You can imagine our frustration and the confusion of the excursion staff. They did their best and arranged a private island tour for us, however the day was completely ruined. In all fairness , we received a full refund and bottle of wine.

 

What I am saying is, better wait until a week or two prior the cruise, or consult with the excursion staff, once boarded. That is what I will do for my February cruise. 
 

Besides the mentioned issues, I was mostly very happy with the excursions and will book them with Explora again on my next cruise. Especially in the Caribbean I felt much better off and safer, to have Explora take care of me.

 

just my 2 cents of course.. 

Edited June 16 by mike@sea

[Dr. Cocktail]

10 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

Thanks for the info!

 

I just checked excursions....none for my ports BUT there are NOW some for the Caribbean itineraries before ours. I guess some will become available eventually....

If you call EJ, they will send you a PDF of all of the available excursions. Much easier to browse through.

[CruiseCrew123]

You can download the pdf from their website . It shows the trios true sky to a certain itinerary 

[chill6x6]

8 hours ago, mike@sea said:

On my past cruise in March, the excursions came out around 6 months prior. I booked some, paid for them, only to be notified closer to the cruise, some had been cancelled. Received money back to credit card and one very late cancellation to onboard account. All orderly. 
I had another one booked, which was later completely altered without being notified, changed in price and content. Not even the excursion staff knew, it had a different content before and was lowered in price. Out of a group of maybe 30, 6-8 of us ( wasn’t really clear how many as one couple claimed yet another missing part which I do not recall in the earlier description ) were completely puzzled, when we ended up at a parking lot after a 5 minute bus ride, where we were told we could now go down to the beach and would be picked up 2,5 hours later…. We were expecting a boat trip, barbecue and beach. 
You can imagine our frustration and the confusion of the excursion staff. They did their best and arranged a private island tour for us, however the day was completely ruined. In all fairness , we received a full refund and bottle of wine.

 

What I am saying is, better wait until a week or two prior the cruise, or consult with the excursion staff, once boarded. That is what I will do for my February cruise. 
 

Besides the mentioned issues, I was mostly very happy with the excursions and will book them with Explora again on my next cruise. Especially in the Caribbean I felt much better off and safer, to have Explora take care of me.

 

just my 2 cents of course.. 

Thanks for the info!

 

I have waited until closer to sailing day before and have had the excursion I really wanted to do  completely sell out. So...I'm probably going to book what I want ASAP and let the chips fall where they may.  

7 hours ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

If you call EJ, they will send you a PDF of all of the available excursions. Much easier to browse through.

Ok thanks!

4 hours ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

You can download the pdf from their website . It shows the trios true sky to a certain itinerary 

I don't see how to do that. I can see plenty of mostly Mediterranean and Western Europe excursion that are available along 25 excursions that are a mix of Columbia and eastern Caribbean.

[Dr. Cocktail]

22 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

Want to go Lamanai Ruins...again. So many pieces to that excursion I really don't want to go the independent route....tender...bus/van...boat...boat...bus/van....tender.

 

 

Without insulting you, have you checked on TripAdvisor  (Cruise Critic's parent!) for the Lamanai Ruins under tours?  Viator is also a TripAdvisor company.

 

There may be some available that are already "prepackaged" as such.

[chill6x6]

55 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

Without insulting you, have you checked on TripAdvisor  (Cruise Critic's parent!) for the Lamanai Ruins under tours?  Viator is also a TripAdvisor company.

 

There may be some available that are already "prepackaged" as such.

No problem! I appreciate the comments! 

 

Really, I usually figure out and plan our excursions. I'm a research-aholic.  But excursions that have so many pieces to the excursion such as the Lamanai ruins excursion gives me a little pause.  I'm not really sure about the tender time from Explora I to Belize City either.  BTW...the last time we did this excursion the engine quit on our boat and they had to get another to come get us(cruise line excursion).  It's about a 7-8 hour excursion problem or no.

 

I've got a couple of excursion providers that seem to have a good reputation picked out if all else fails.

[CJANDH]

On 6/16/2024 at 7:29 AM, mike@sea said:

Out of a group of maybe 30, 6-8 of us ( wasn’t really clear how many as one couple claimed yet another missing part which I do not recall in the earlier description ) were completely puzzled, when we ended up at a parking lot after a 5 minute bus ride, where we were told we could now go down to the beach and would be picked up 2,5 hours later…. We were expecting a boat trip, barbecue and beach. 

We were on that same bus as you. Most of us had booked a beach break and got what we booked. I am guessing that you guys were given tickets for the wrong bus. 

[mike@sea]

Nope. That wasn’t the reason. As I tried to explain, the excursion was completely altered in content and price. They were not able to find out when and how that happened and why the excursion team was not informed. I had a screenshot from the description in the EX App, which clearly also showed the content the 6 or 8 of us were expecting. So I had proof. The excursion we were expecting simply was not happening. Nothing to do with being on the wrong bus.