Excursions already booked?
 

Hi, We just booked an Alaska Landtour/cruise and we reserved some excursions because it looked like they were filling up fast. Then when I went back to change a few things it is looking like everything is all booked up already? I can't believe in January for an August trip that everything would already be booked! Is that true? This is our first cruise so we haven't done this before, I wish I would have known that because I would have booked things farther in advance. I guess I am glad we booked the things that we did since I will be stuck with whatever trips we have already booked. Anyone else have this happen to them? Any ideas why some of the excursions say not available and then others just say sold out? Thanks for any information.

Is it safe to assume you are booking with the cruise lines? If so, there are other options. Join cruisecritic, and join the roll call for your ship and cruise. You can join up with the other travelers on your cruise and make your own excursion groups. Probably others have already started putting groups together and you could join them. I have not been to Alaska, but this has been done on other cruises we've taken. It worked out great, often cheaper, and more variety of excursions. Hope it works for you for this cruise. Good luck.

On most cruises you can't book excursions until after final payment which is generally 3 months before the cruise. Since you are booked on a Landtour/Cruise it may work differently than the standard cruise. Call the cruise line or your travel agent and confirm the status of the excursions. I find it hard to believe that excursions are sold out 7 months before the cruise, seems like a lot of lost revenue for the cruise line. In most cases they just pull out another bus to accommodate the additional people.

I am sure that all is not lost. Several years ago we changed a tour 15 minutes before it left. Also you can schedule usually on the ship. I'm sure that there are plenty of places left as they are constantly hawking tours on the cruise. Also you can arrange your own tours. Look on the web for private tours at the ports you visit. There is also a lot of info on this page and cruise critic. This helps you to find reliable operators. Many tours, esp. from the cruise line include "shopping Opportunities" This usually means a significant portion of your tour at a store or stores of the trip operators choosing. We have had very interesting visits cut short to get to the shopping.

From my experience, you can also just walk out on the dock and there will be excursion booths nearby set up where you can just pick and chose whatever interests you. Finally, it will be much less expensive. Let's not forget, The cruise lines are doing this to make money so they add their "profit cost" to the excursion tour prices. You will be taking the same tours as the ones that reserved theirs through the cruiseline.

I don't know how other cruise lines work but on Holland America if you book their excursions they guarantee to either wait for your tour or make arrangements to get you to the next port if there is any kind of delay in getting back to the ship before it departs. If you book tours that are not theirs and you have say a breakdown and don't make it to the ship on time....you have to make it to the next port on your own on your dime. Just something to consider.

I do know that popular tours book early, but I find it hard to believe that they would fill up this early. I've heard that if the tour is really popular they will add more buses, boats, etc if possible. I would call the cruise line and see.

Utahtea