Booking On-Line Shore Excursions

[roohound]

They are offering two tubing excursions on our cruise..one cave tubing and a river tubing one....so as far as I know if you go through the ship you can get the tour......you just may not do it with an outside vendor (and much cheaper outside vendor might I add)

[pyro]

Roohound: how did you find out about the tubing excursions on your Princess cruise? There are no excursions listed on the website at all for Belize.

[PINEY10]

They are listed under the cruise personalizer. We did the cave tubing last year and enjoyed it a lot. Did not do Princess then and we had a bit more time. We did XTreme--which unlike many of the reviews we found not so great or organized. The transport we took to the area required a new battery which literally was taken out of another car so it was not "new." Perhaps it was Belize style but we had to have the trip shortened because of the hour delay with the van transport and we crossed our fingers on the way back to town since even with the "new" battery, the car was having trouble getting started. I would highly recommend contacting Reggie and seeing what he can do. If the time is too tight, you probably should try through shore excursions on the ship--which we try not to do--but where the times are so tight it may be the better bet.

 

We will be doing the snorkeling and I have contacted various companies who have stated they will work with us on the timing since many of the pre-arranged tours with outside vendors would either be too long or too close in time to make the tender.

[roohound]

what PINEY10 said LOL

 

What's slightly frustrating is they list the tours and you can book them..but they have no descriptions of the actual tours...eek! I really like to know what I'm getting into before I book it, but right now we don't have that luxury ;)

[pyro]

So the only place it's listed is the Cruise Personalizer? My shore excursions are not yet available for our Nov. 20th sailing, so I guess I'm S.O.L. until they become available, and even then I don't get any descriptions? What a bum rap!!!

[PINEY10]

You can try pre-reserving and it does give you the option of cancelling--probably up to the time when you can no longer pre-reserve. Don't know what to tell you.

 

I did find that when I dealt directly with the tour operators (Coral Breeze, for example), they were willing to work around our schedule and I just hope it works, but in all likelihood will. There are other Coral passengers on the shore excursion. It also means business. Bad reviews (e.g., not make the last tender, etc.) means bad business and the bottom line to these operators is money.

 

Good luck.

[PINEY10]

Pyro, keep checking daily on the Princess website, but ours did not come available until Monday and that is for the Nov. 10 sailing. Still, there is no description of the excursions even though they can be pre-reserved. I am assuming something is up with Princess trying to schedule these, and it may be that this is the first time the Coral is going to Belize. I am a tad surprised this was not arranged/negotiated earlier since this has been planned by Princess for a long time. It should work out in the long run, but trying to plan in advance--which is what I try to do--makes it more difficult.

[pyro]

I will check daily, and thanks for your help. I would normally do an excursion on my own, but with the time constraints, we'd better stick to the ship's excursion. I don't usually like to pay extra just for peace of mind, but in this case it would be worth it! Have a great trip! Hopefully you can post a review before we set sail, so we'll know know what to expect!

[KAJOKG]

yes I am :) And it can get here none too soon!

Me too. I had bad fall on Sun and fractured my shoulder. doctor said I should be okay. Hope so! Booked this cruise a while ago, so I have a lot of anticipation time behind me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[roohound]

ow ow ow....hope it heals up nicely...I suspect a cruise will be just what the doctor orders ;)

 

We had it booked for late Sept/early Oct last year but cancelled and did a southern Carib on the Volendam...then we decided to give it a go this year. We were on the Coral this May in Alaska and I knew this was the perfect ship for this cruise...I really love her

[KAJOKG]

ow ow ow....hope it heals up nicely...I suspect a cruise will be just what the doctor orders ;)

 

We had it booked for late Sept/early Oct last year but cancelled and did a southern Carib on the Volendam...then we decided to give it a go this year. We were on the Coral this May in Alaska and I knew this was the perfect ship for this cruise...I really love her

We did the Volandam in jan --- is it possible you were onthat same cruise?

We did the canal cruise on the island and loved it -- that's why we are repeating on the coral. typing hunt and peck with one hand! where there's a way, etc--right? using that philosophy towards the cruise!

[roohound]

Alas, no, we were on the Volendam in Nov 2003. Had to go to Bonaire to see the Donkey Sanctuary LOL And the other ports were fantastic as well...just a great cruise all around.

 

Really looking forward to this cruise....fun ports and we've only been to two before so that's a plus as well.

 

I was almost tempted to contact Princess and ask them when we'd have descriptions, but I thought that might be overly Type A so I've not made the call......can't promise I won't tho ;)

[KAJOKG]

Really looking forward to this cruise....fun ports and we've only been to two before so that's a plus as well.

 

I was almost tempted to contact Princess and ask them when we'd have descriptions, but I thought that might be overly Type A so I've not made the call......can't promise I won't tho ;)

i love panama...lots to see there---also like costa rica. this will be our first time to belize. i did find ports of call info, and i think it was on the princess web site. also, check your brochure...it gives capsule descriptions.

[roohound]

Which brochure are you referring to?

 

We were in Belize last January...absolutely adored it...the water is beautiful, the people were very nice. The two guides we had were some of the best we've ever had. It's a poor country (tho not as bad as Guatemala in my mind) but the people were very proud, very kind, very genuine folks...we loved every minute of it!

 

Never been to Costa Rica, Panama, or Grand Cayman....we were supposed to go to GC in Spet 2002 on the Grand, but weather kept us from tendering in :( Just gave me another reason to book a cruise LOL

[KAJOKG]

Which brochure are you referring to

 

Never been to Costa Rica, Panama, or Grand Cayman....we were supposed to go to GC in Spet 2002 on the Grand, but weather kept us from tendering in :( Just gave me another reason to book a cruise LOL

the princess panama canal brochure. but if you go to princess home page and click on destinations, you will find links to their ports of call, we really enjoyed the Ocean to Ocean excursion in panama. grand cayman has great water type excursions. we don't do that anymore, so there is not much for us there. we took the submarine ride and felt it was way, way more expensive than it was worth. we're staying on board while there. not a hardship, for sure. excuse the typing -- my fractured shoulder is a hindrance to say the least.

[Solo Cruiser]

Seems to me there was a place that would let you know what time the excursion began and returned to the ship. Is that on the Cruise Personalizer?

 

I can't access that yet as I don't have my booking # but I'm checking out shore excursions and wondering how many I can pack into every day :) .

 

For fairly full decriptions of the excursions (not the times tho) check out the itinerary of your cruise, click the shore excursion button and then click on more information for the fullest explanation.

[PINEY10]

The cruise personalizer does note the times for the excursions. As an update on Belize--still no details on particular excursions yet even on the cruise personalizer--we just booked with Coral Breeze. I was concerned as a result of some mixed reviews recently but the person in charge, Paul, has been so responsive. I checked with other outfits too. We are concerned about the short time frame we will be there. Paul was able to work out the timing with us--moving up the departure time ahead. He was so responsive to any of my concerns--my hope is we will make it back. But for those of you adventurous sort willing to take a little risk--I find that by contacting these operators some of them will work with you. They want the business and good references is what puts food on their table. Good luck.