shore excursions - how to set up before a Princess cruise?

"Bill" wrote in message ...

On 1/7/2011 5:51 PM, LVTravel wrote:

Yes many of the excursions sell out or are already sold out. You can be
put on a waiting list at the excursion desk for a sold out one.

Don't most cruise lines hold some excursion spots for people who don't
have Internet access (or don't realize that they can book them online
before they leave)?

I find it amusing that he wasted so much time worrying about tips and
dollar coins and what to do with his extra time before he wanted to get
on the ship that he didn't bother thinking about excursions and figuring
out how to book them on the Princess site.

Bill

Normally yes but I have found that some sell out online and an immediate
trip to the excursion desk finds that they are also sold out if you don't
get on the ship as early as possible. In this ship's situation the boarding
time is advertised as 2 PM but we were in our cabin the day we embarked at
11:45 AM.

On 1/7/2011 10:18 AM, Ohioguy wrote:
My wife and I have 1 full day before we leave for our week long
Caribbean Princess cruise. At first I thought we probably shouldn't do
any shore excursions, because with the airfare, fuel surcharge, and auto
tips, I figured we had pretty much used up our savings for this trip.
However, I went over things again, and realize we could spend another
$350 or so without any trouble.

I've heard that if you want to take a shore excursion, you should book
it from home before the cruise. I got on the Princess website he

http://www.princess.com/learn/shorex/shorexdisplay.jsp

And started looking at the various shore excursions by island. We will
be stopping at St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, St. Lucia, & Barbados. We
will also be spending a day after the cruise in San Juan, where we will
wander about on our own.

When I'm looking at the various shore excursions, they have lots of
details, but I don't see any prices. I also don't see any way to sign up
for them. I tried signing in with my info and booking number, but it
comes up and says something about it being less than 5 days before the
cruise, and having to print things out and bring them in order to make
sure the crew gets the information. I don't see any place to print out
shore excursion requests.

So I'm a bit confused about how we are supposed to sign up for shore
excursions without knowing the cost up front, and I'd appreciate some
suggestions from anyone who has gone on a Princess shore excursion at
any of these islands previously. Thanks!

I have to be honest: you left it too late. Had you gone to the site
five or more days before sailing date (the earlier the better), unless
Princess has changed the way they're doing things, you would have been
presented with excursion choices that included prices.

You now have no choice but to pick up the information sheets on the
excursions as soon as you get on the ship. They'll be at the shore
excursions desk, as will information about which excursions are sold out
and which ones aren't.

And I would strongly encourage you to take one of the Princess
excursions. If their return to the ship is delayed, the ship will wait
for you. It won't if you take an excursion isn't Princess-organized.

I find it amusing that he wasted so much time worrying about tips and
dollar coins and what to do with his extra time before he wanted to get
on the ship that he didn't bother thinking about excursions and figuring
out how to book them on the Princess site.

Evidently you missed the part where I explained that I originally
wasn't planning on taking any excursions. I've never been on a cruise
before, and I figured that between writing a couple of articles and all
the things to do onboard, I would have enough to keep me busy without
going off the ship. A few days ago I realized we actually had about
$350 to spare, so I started considering shore excursions.


I would be very surprised if the Princess site would not have allowed
you to book the excursions once you logged into their site with your
booking info (after all, they want to make it easy for people to book
these as early as possible). At that point it would have shown you the
prices.

Well, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Here's what I'm doing:

go to princess.com
log in with email and password
go to "my princess"
(I can now see the details of our cruise)
click "cruise personalizer"

I get the message

"As your ship is scheduled to leave port within 5 days, the Cruise
Personalizer is not available."

On Sat, 08 Jan 2011 07:10:18 -0500, Ohioguy wrote:

I would be very surprised if the Princess site would not have allowed
you to book the excursions once you logged into their site with your
booking info (after all, they want to make it easy for people to book
these as early as possible). At that point it would have shown you the
prices.

Well, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Here's what I'm doing:

go to princess.com
log in with email and password
go to "my princess"
(I can now see the details of our cruise)
click "cruise personalizer"

I get the message

"As your ship is scheduled to leave port within 5 days, the Cruise
Personalizer is not available."

What you did wrong was wait until 5 days before the cruise to do the
booking of the excursions.

In article , AGW
wrote:

And I would strongly encourage you to take one of the Princess
excursions. If their return to the ship is delayed, the ship will wait
for you. It won't if you take an excursion isn't Princess-organized.

The cruise lines would like you to believe that. The cruise line will
know if you are delayed on one of their excursions and they might wait.
But they might not. There are many reasons they might have to leave
anyway. What they will do is get you to the next port if they can't
wait.

The cruise line excursions are usually overpriced and offer less than
taking independent excursions. I sometimes take cruise line excursions
but in general I avoid them like a plague. If you do your research you
can do much better and for less. And you won't even come close to
missing the ship.

--
Charles

In article ,
wrote:

What you did wrong was wait until 5 days before the cruise to do the
booking of the excursions.

That of course was wrong but everything else about him was wrong too.

--
Charles

In article , Ohioguy
wrote:

Evidently you missed the part where I explained that I originally
wasn't planning on taking any excursions. I've never been on a cruise
before, and I figured that between writing a couple of articles and all
the things to do onboard, I would have enough to keep me busy without
going off the ship. A few days ago I realized we actually had about
$350 to spare, so I started considering shore excursions.

LOL.

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article ,
wrote:

What you did wrong was wait until 5 days before the cruise to do the
booking of the excursions.

That of course was wrong but everything else about him was wrong too.

--
Charles

What I find amusing is that he asks for advice, ignores it and puts up an
argument defending what he intended to do in the first place. He does not
even appreciate anyone's help...I am not going to waste my time answering
his questions...let him go on this cruise with "Newbie" printed on his
forehead for everyone to see!

--Jean

What you did wrong was wait until 5 days before the cruise to do the
booking of the excursions.

The statements on their website are misleading:

"Pre-reserve your shore excursions and spa treatments within 120 days of
your departure date."

That implies that you can do it anytime before your cruise, starting
120 days prior. It doesn't mention a cutoff date of 5 days before the
cruise anywhere.

So you go from thinking you can do it the last week, to suddenly
finding the new statement that it is too late to do so. That isn't very
user friendly.

In article , Jean O'Boyle
wrote:

hat I find amusing is that he asks for advice, ignores it and puts up an
argument defending what he intended to do in the first place. He does not
even appreciate anyone's help...I am not going to waste my time answering
his questions...let him go on this cruise with "Newbie" printed on his
forehead for everyone to see!

If he had asked for advice on the ports he would have got some good
ideas on what to do at the ports and that would have saved him money.
He says he was not going to do anything at the ports. The cruise he is
doing is port intensive. I wonder how doing nothing will go over with
his wife.

--
Charles