Trouble booking excursions online NEWBIE!!

[fatcat04]

Hi... first post.. first cruise too :)

 

We are heading out on the Costa Mediterranea for Key West, Grand Cayman, Roatan, and Cozumel on March 18th. Booked a "suite" deal on a panoramic suite for me, hubbie and kidlet (5 yo boy) a few days ago. Really looking forwards to it.

 

I have been trying to book excursions online on the Costa website but I keep getting an error message when I punch in my booking #. This what it says

 

"We are appending your record and you be able to resume pre-booking your shore excursions, special services within 48 hours."

 

Problem is I have been getting this message for 72 hours :p

 

I have found, with a 5 year old, your options for shore excursion can be a bit limited. In fact in Roatan, there are axactly 4 out of 16 we can go on so due to age restrictions. I am worried we will miss out if I don't get these booked.

 

Do you think it might just be a computer glich or is this just the nomal procedure??

 

Oh and we booked the X1 drink deal too thanks to the suggestion of folks here on the boards... what a bargin!!! Thanks guys!!!

 

I have more questions but will post another thread for them.

[cruisernh]

Thier site isn't very good. I have been getting the 48 hr message for a week . But we don't leave til April so am not that worried. I would call them if you are that worried. But, unless it is a real popular excursion they will still take your money on the ship!

[odaisydukeo]

Hi, had the same problem. Costa needs to input your birthdates in order to access the website. Call and tell them this, it works within 25 minutes! I emailed them, and it took 2 weeks to fix it, but called and it was fixed in 25 min.

[fatcat04]

Hi, had the same problem. Costa needs to input your birthdates in order to access the website. Call and tell them this, it works within 25 minutes! I emailed them, and it took 2 weeks to fix it, but called and it was fixed in 25 min.

 

Alrighty... I just called them and had them input our birthdates and we will see if this fixes the problem. I thought it might be some little something like that.

 

Thanks for the info!! Keeping fingers crossed :)

[laurenk]

What is the x1 drink?

Thanks!

[Morgsmom]

I had to call Costa and got the run-around to get to "web services" where we went through the birth date thing (which makes no sense to me)... then we could get through to look at excursions.

 

For Roatan, it is a short port of call so I would book through Costa -- pack bug spray.

 

On the X1 drink package; there are other threads on this...

[Geoshar]

Welcome aboard fatcat04!:D

We will be sailing with you.

 

There is a roll call for this cruise here

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=451096

 

The x1 drink package has to be booked ahead, I think two weeks..and a great deal!

We had a problem initially with shore excursion bookings, and after we called Costa, it was resolved.It took 24 hours for the changes we requested to come into effect.

[fatcat04]

Welcome aboard fatcat04!:D

We will be sailing with you.

 

There is a roll call for this cruise here

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=451096

 

The x1 drink package has to be booked ahead, I think two weeks..and a great deal!

We had a problem initially with shore excursion bookings, and after we called Costa, it was resolved.It took 24 hours for the changes we requested to come into effect.

 

Cool... I will pop over there and look around.;)

 

I checked again tonight to see if I could book our excursions and nope. It still says it is "appending" our record.. whatever the piddly poo that means.

 

I certainly hope this gets resolved soon. I am one of those folks that likes to get everything planned NOW so that I can sit back and relax knowing we are prepared. Not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda gal and with a wee one, extra planning always makes everything easier.

 

It has been quite an education booking this cruise and trying to figure out all the stuff I need to know. Food and excursions and cabins and islands.

 

Imagine... just one week ago when I heard the word "tender", the only thing that came to mind was a good steak. :D

[joetrizeo]

Took 3 emails and 7 days until our reservation took to our user names... no worries.

 

standard operating procedure unfortunetly...

 

check out the 'details about x1' thread for more x1 info.

[cruisernh]

Just like everyone else i had to call costa. I had sailed with them before so was reluctant to think it was a birth date issue but the systems aren't all amtching up with each other. I was on hold for 10 minutes listened to lots of italian music dreamtof my cruise. The person on the line was English speaking and very friendly. Hopefully I can go on tommorow.

[fatcat04]

Okay, called Costa this morning. Abt a 5 minute wait. Not bad. Very helpful person on the other line that had perfect English. He checked on my account.

 

Turns out that any time adjustments are made to your booking, which apparently happens quite a bit in the week following your booking, they have to download the info changed to their homebase computer in Genoa and the passenger can't access their account until everything is done. The downloading is a 1 business day (you are out of luck on weekends) deal because they do it over night when their help desk is down. And apparently they just today have finished all our adjustment (or so the extremely helpful help desk person told me).

 

He said that by mid day tommorrow I should be able to order excursions, flowers, spa packages, etc. He also said that if for any reason it didn't work to call back immediately.

 

You can't book excursions any other way than online unless you wait and do it on the ship. Funny thing is I have been doing so much research, I may not need to book any excursions through the cruise line. But I still would like to be able to just in case my plans fall through here in the next week. Apparnetly you can book flowers, spa packages, bon voyage gifts, etc through a special phone number just not excursions.

 

Keeping fingers and toes crossed this will work :)

[fatcat04]

Testing my counter... see if this works.:p

[fatcat04]

Got into my "personalize your cruise" section on the Costa website this morning without a hitch!! Mr Helper Man at Costa was right on the $$ with his advice!! :D

 

Now gotta get me a spa package booked!! ;)

[cruisernh]

me too got on no problem. Thinking about the wine package yum

[fatcat04]

I know.. hubbie was drooling over the wine. :p

 

We checked out Costa Med's wine list on another site and the "by the glass" offerings look promising. Good since we already purchased the "X1" unlimited wine by the glass deal but the "by the bottle" cost is very reasonable too.

 

Can't wait!!!!!!!!! :D