Booking Tours in Advance

[Marmaduke]

Obviously it makes sense to book an excursion well in advance if you really want to take that tour, but I was wondering if there is any difference in price. Is advance booking cheaper than waiting and booking once on board?  If I book in advance and use my OBC can I then cancel once on board (within the cancellation period) and have a full refund if I change my mind?

[wjfan417]

54 minutes ago, Marmaduke said:

Obviously it makes sense to book an excursion well in advance if you really want to take that tour, but I was wondering if there is any difference in price. Is advance booking cheaper than waiting and booking once on board?  If I book in advance and use my OBC can I then cancel once on board (within the cancellation period) and have a full refund if I change my mind?

It’s normally less expensive to book in advance. Prices are usually about $10 higher on board. Most excursions can be cancelled with a full refund 1-3 days prior.

[Travels with Lisa]

We booked excursions for our upcoming cruise and then they went on sale.  It's a crap shoot.

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 minutes ago, Travels with Lisa said:

We booked excursions for our upcoming cruise and then they went on sale.  It's a crap shoot.

You can cancel and rebook in that case.  I did it twice on my last Azamara cruise, and saved quite a bit.

[Rabo]

On a recent Excursions Sale, it was specifically noted that you could not cancel and rebook at the sale price.

[KirkNC]

If you have more then one cruise booked, you can book excursions for your 2nd, 3rd etc while onboard the 1st cruise and get 10% off the excursion price.

[PirateWife]

We always book excursions for our next cruise while onboard. The Shore Excursion's staff have often been on cruises to our next destination and give us valuable information about the excursions--which ones always sell out, which ones never happen, and which ones are better than others, The 10% saving does not apply to excursions booked for the for the second part of a b2b cruise when on the first cruise.

[KirkNC]

2 hours ago, PirateWife said:

We always book excursions for our next cruise while onboard. The Shore Excursion's staff have often been on cruises to our next destination and give us valuable information about the excursions--which ones always sell out, which ones never happen, and which ones are better than others, The 10% saving does not apply to excursions booked for the for the second part of a b2b cruise when on the first cruise.

Correct.

[NewSalty]

It's also good to note that prices for pre-booking excursions sometimes go up before sailing - i.e., it can be advantageous to pre-book early.  I received an Excursion Sale email about a month ago for my October 2024 sailing.  I had booked the excursions I wanted maybe 10 months ago(?).  For each excursion I had that was on sale, the sale price was higher than what I originally paid.  (I didn't check the others...)

[manc]

We booked excursions recently which were then cancelled. We only wanted mild ones and few on offer. Slow to refund to account and rest was obc specifically for excursions.