BEWARE -38 Days before Cruise & Excursion is Booked

[MCazer]

I received my documents via FEDEX today, and emailed disney to book 2 excursions. One for the Dolphin Encounter in Cozumel, and the other for the Scuba tour in Grand Cayman.

They emailed me back to say, that I got the Dolphin one, but the Scuba one is booked. I called the 800 number, and they said the same thing.

SO BE FORWARNED, if you want an excursion, book at the 60 days out. I didn't know this. I assumed that 38 days would be sufficient. Now I have to book a trip with another Dive boat on my own for Grand Cayman. I think this is totally unacceptable. What happens to the poor saps that don't read these boards and come aboard totally unprepared?

 

[Wavegirl]

If you are still interested in diving in Cayman you might check out Abanks Diving Center as they are located right by the cruise terminal at Paradise (a bar & grill). There are some great shore dives right there, loads of fish, Tarpon, beautiful coral and some small caves too. There is a ladder to get in and bouys to mark some great sites. I had my own gear so didn't need to rent, but they carry everything.

 

[MCazer]

I have to admit, I have never thought of doing a beach dive. My experience with beach dives is on Long Island, New York, and I can't say that I cared for them.

Having dived in Grand Cayman on two different cruises, I must say that I love going on a dive boat. I called Red Sail, as they are the company we have used in the past, only to find out that they are Disney Exclusive, so I can't go through them.

I have also called Bob Soto's and looked at Fosters. I have to discuss it with my husband and see what he says about the beach dive. We loved Trinity caves and the Oro Verde, so not sure what to do.

Thanks!

 

[kfahygc]

I must say that I agree with you that if you aren't aware of these boards you will be out of luck. We booked through a travel agent and with air thru Disney. Our cruise is scheduled for 7/28 and we still haven't received our documents yet because they send out the tickets 2 weeks prior to the trip. If I had waited for the docs then we wouldn't have been able to book parasailing and banana boat at Castaway Cay. Thank you board posters for all of the help.

Kathleen

 

[llachance]

I received information about the new procedures as soon as I paid for my trip in full. On day 60 before my cruise I called and got every excursion I wanted. I called today (I leave on July 6th) and made changes to my excursions with no problems. You just have to remember to read all the fine print in the things that you receive.

 

[GoofyDonald]

I agree. If it weren't for these boards I would have been completely out of luck with excursions. Our TA, who has been really great, did not give us any info on booking excursions early. I probably would have thought it was normal to book excursions once we boarded the ship if I didn't have the info found here. I booked exactly 60 days out and thankfully got everything we wanted.

 

[appink]

I have to say these boards are a wealth of information and if it wasn't for them I'm sure I would not be prepared for our cruise.
One good thing is that the day after we paid our cruise off we recevied excursion information in the mail from our TA.

 

[atigeg]

You could also try for the excursion when you get on the ship.

I guessing that DCL only makes available a percentage of the slots for pre sailling bookings, and I've read on other posts that if you have concierge service, they will make ressies for you.

You might still have a chance.

 

[sixcats]

I'm not surprised that you had trouble at 38 days out. I called in the late afternoon 60 days out and the excursion we wanted was sold out already. The concierge was able to book us the next day.

 

[mcnuss]

I have a friend who spends a great deal of time in the Caymans. He highly recommended Red Sail for a dive or snorkel trip. www.redsailcayman.com

One nice thing about them is that they are located at the Hyatt on 7 mile beach so after your trip with them, you can just have lunch and hang out on the Hyatt's beach.

 

[Wavegirl]

hmmm...Red sail is way to big for my liking. They have huge boats and the pack them to the brim. I've seen them out at Stingray City and I think the water level goes up a foot when everyone gets off the boat and into the water I prefer the smaller operators, better tours and you can interact with the rays a lot better if you aren't cramed in with people stirring up the sand.

But thats just my opinion

 

[MCazer]

Just to let everyone know, Red Sail is the exclusive Dive company for Disney in Grand Cayman and you can't book your excursion through them for scuba diving.

I have booked with Don Foster's which is a short walk from the tender, and its less expensive than Disney is charging. If anyone is interested I would go to their website and email them for a quote!

 

[mcnuss]

In my case, I was looking for a snorkel trip on a sailboat or catamaran, perhaps this is why my friend recommended it. From what I've seen, they all look crowded but since I will not go snorkeling, I wanted to be able to hang out on a beautiful cat rather than a dive boat.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by appink
I have to say these boards are a wealth of information and if it wasn't for them I'm sure I would not be prepared for our cruise.
One good thing is that the day after we paid our cruise off we recevied excursion information in the mail from our TA.

I agree about the boards being a wealth of info....I made sure on that 60th day that I called early in the morning for excursion booking so I didn't miss out on anything that we wanted to do!

 

[JillLovesDisney]

Definitely try again once you get on board. I had attempted to book the Castaway Cay fishing excursion for my DH as soon as the forms arrived in the mail. It was booked up.

Once we got on board, my DH went to the excursion desk and was able to book it. Maybe they set aside a certain number of slots for people who book on board?

 

[AnnMorin]

I have to say that I am fairly confident that Disney holds the majority of slots for when people get on board. On our past two cruises we went on very popular excursions and booked both of them on board the day we got on with no problem. As for parasailing at CC, hubby booked that the night before we got to CC with no problem again. Think about it, if they allowed the excursions to be all prebooked before boarding they would probably be hit with a discrimination lawsuit from the people that were unable to access the info to prebook. My guess is that they contact the tour/excursion providers when they book up the prebook slots and let them know they will need additional slots that there is alot of interest in that particular excursion.

 

[AprilN]

This is my first cruise, as well as my first experience with my TA (Costco), so I'm not sure what to expect - but I'm trying my best to be prepared, thanks to the DIS boards!

Anyway, I found the Shore Excursions phone number on the Disney website, and I know I can call 60 days out. Does the shore excursion info sent via mail differ from the descriptions available on the website? The blurbs on the website seem pretty short, but I guess they're descriptive enough. Is there anything else I need to know about reserving excursions? If the website has enough information, then I guess I don't have to worry about when the info arrives via mail - the only tough part will be choosing our excursions! Thanks for your help!

April