When to book?

[woodmill100]

Having spent months researching cruiselines etc, we finally booked our roundtrip from Vancouver for next May. I'd really like some time off from researching but I don't want to miss out on tours! Do the tours book quickly or do I have a couple of months rest!!

[krish2]

Sounds like you're on the same schedule that I had for our June 2007 trip. I reserved our independent excursions in Feb for June and had no problems getting reservations. Happy planning!

[somuchtodo]

We booked ours before we left simply for ease. There are still plently of spots open to book once you get on board but you have to go either to one of the excursion seminars or the excursion desk to book and there can be long lines. If you know what you want to do, I would go ahead and book before your cruise leaves and when you get on the ship, the excursion "tickets" are in your room with dates,times, meeting areas, ect... and all you have to do is show up with your ticket when it is time to go. I also recommend using the cruise line to book through and the reason is: you may save $25.00 to $50.00 on your excursion by booking on your own, but if you book through the cruiseline, the guides come to the ship with buses, pick you up and take you and bring you back and if for some reason you are late getting back, the ship will wait on you. If you book on your own and it is late getting back, the ship will leave without you and you will have to find a way to get to the next port on your own (which would cost alot more than that $25.00-$50.00 you saved). One of our excursions was a little late getting back and it was so nice not to have to be worried about that. Have a great time!

[GORDONCHICK]

It depends on the particular excursions you are interested in, and if they are through the cruise line or not. If you want to go with harv & Marv's, I would book asap. They only have two boats, each holds six passengers. They can only do so many tours a day (probably 2 per boat). And I'd rather be on a small boat for something like whale watching than on that holds 100-150 people. More personalized service. If you have your heart set on a particular one, book that one first.