Excursions?

[anon1978]

Hi. I am going on my first cruise this Sunday. I have not booked any excursions yet. Did I make a big mistake? Should I call Carnival directly to try to schedule them rather than do it over the Internet which seems a little confusing to me? Also, can I schedule more than one per day if they are short? I am a little confused about all of this stuff and could use some guidance. I am taking the Valor out of Miami to the East Caribbean (Nassau, St. Martin, St. Thomas). Any advise on which excursions to take would also be greatly appreciated. I am not sure that I am brave enough to do the scuba diving type ones because I am not a good swimmer and do not really like going down under the water. Thanks in advance for your help!

[CruiseCentric]

Hi. I am going on my first cruise this Sunday. I have not booked any excursions yet. Did I make a big mistake? Should I call Carnival directly to try to schedule them rather than do it over the Internet which seems a little confusing to me? Also, can I schedule more than one per day if they are short? I am a little confused about all of this stuff and could use some guidance. I am taking the Valor out of Miami to the East Caribbean (Nassau, St. Martin, St. Thomas). Any advise on which excursions to take would also be greatly appreciated. I am not sure that I am brave enough to do the scuba diving type ones because I am not a good swimmer and do not really like going down under the water. Thanks in advance for your help!

I dont think you will be able to book any excursions before boarding the ship, since your cruise date is so close. They have a cutoff point for online and precruise bookings. You can call them to double check. Ok, I just checked to Shore Excursion FAQ

When can I book my shore excursions?

 

Provided you have a valid cruise booking number and have met all deposit requirements for each guest you are booking shore excursions for, you can book shore excursions online beginning 180 days before your sail date. Keep in mind, unless otherwise noted in the shore excursion description, you will have until 5 days prior to sailing to make new shore excursion bookings. If you would like to purchase excursions after the cut-off date, you will need to do so once onboard. Some excursions have a limited capacity so booking early may ensure that the excursions you want are available.

 

So, you might want to call today, if you want to tried to book it before the cruise.

 

Yes, you can schedule more than one excursion per day

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Shore_Excursions_FAQs/shore_ex_faq_TakeMoreThanOne.aspx

 

What types of things do you like? I never book excursions through the ship, but as you can see they have a wide variety of activities, just depends on what you like to do..hike, drive, sightsee, swim, shop or make it a beach day.

[zaandam_2]

you are too late to book excursions online. you can book excursions on the ship, however. some may be sold out and some not. you will find tours being offered by local tour operator at all your ports in the caribbean, and they will be less expensive than the ship's.

 

yes, you can do 2 excursions the same day if the timing is right.

 

for st. marteen, check out www.lordsheffield.com try emailing them to see if you can get on their sailing tour.

[Grits53]

When you book excursions on the ship, the price goes onto your S&S card. So unless you have the S&S backed by a credit card, you will need to bring extra cash to cover the excursions. I don't think they will let you pay for them any way other than on your S&S card.

[bubbles1209]

We rode on the skytram in St.Thomas, if you like beautiful views, do it, I had seen the view from it on this site, and now have pictures in my scrapbook that I once could only see online, and the memories of going. Priceless. We took the Ultimate Island Experience excursion for St. Thomas. We took a scenic ride to Magen's Bay Beach stopping for a photo op on the way, then spent an hour at the beach. Then we were taken to Blackbeard's Castle, where they explained after seeing blackbeard's there was a tour of old homes with free rum punch at the end and you could walk back to town taking the famous 99 steps while touring the homes, or get a shuttle back to town at your expense. We took lots of pics and DD went down some stairs from a home thinking she was leading us out, and she led us to :eek: a dead end!:eek: We had to climb back up all of those steps (uphill) to get to the home and get out of the correct gate. 99 steps became 199 steps. We were so sore then next day or 2. There are people that meet you in the homes and tell you a little history, but for the most part you are on your own, going from room to room. I personally wouldn't do that one again, but we did get to see some beautiful views. Blackbeard's I liked, was interesting reading the different stories about the statues on each one. (Who they were, what made them famous). When we got back into town, we took the skytram on our own. It cost us 18.00 pp to do it (the cruise line offered it for $17pp, however, they wanted $14pp for each child), and the skytram only charges $9per child (6-12). DD was 14 so that didn't much matter. Here's a link to that site in case you are interested. http://www.stthomasskyride.com/rates.html Hope this helps some, and hope you guys have an awesome time!

[tkportersat]

You can go straight to the excursion desk once on board, they should have the excursion listings and you can sign up and drop them in a box. Tickets will be forwarded to your room. Some of them do fill up fast, so if there is something you really want you might want to do it that first day. Off and on each day there are people at the desk that can answer any questions you have.

[JudyKa]

We usually always wait until we get on board to book an excursion. I guess we are the real true procrastinators. However, never really had problems with waiting to pick out our excursions until the actual cruise....they have had places for us always. Of course, one day, we probably won't be so lucky.