Are Silver members getting the excursions they want when it opens?

[RysMomma]

Our 90 days opens at midnight on May 15th so I'm just curious if people are getting the excursions that they want at that point? Thanks everyone!

 

[ND Irishfan]

Our 90 day window opened last week for our July cruise and virtually all excursions were sold out. In addition almost all tastings were also sold out. Some excursions have opened up but not many. We have had to book excursions directly with the operators on the islands. Feel
sorry for the first timers when their booking window opens in a couple weeks.

 

[Geomom]

Depends on the cruise. Our 6/18 Western Fantasy had plenty available at 90 days... except Grand Cayman which only listed 13 excursions (1/2 sold out already), but I didn't like any of them anyways. I was able to get 3 drink tastings. While some were sold out on 1 of the days, they were available other days, so I got what I wanted. Brunches looked sold out, but dinners were available, but we didn't want any anyways.

Anyways...if it's a more unique itinerary, you'll have a harder time finding availability for anything...if it's a usual itinerary, should still be stuff left...but the number of excursions offered is less than you can see on the public side of the website--so have maybe 3 choices in mind/port.

 

[MichelleCanada]

Our 90 day window opened last week for our July cruise and virtually all excursions were sold out. In addition almost all tastings were also sold out. Some excursions have opened up but not many. We have had to book excursions directly with the operators on the islands. Feel
sorry for the first timers when their booking window opens in a couple weeks.

We had the same thing occur for our July sailing. I am hoping we will still get some things booked when we get onboard and maybe the week before if people cancel things.

 

[RysMomma]

This board is so helpful. Thanks everyone!

Depends on the cruise. Our 6/18 Western Fantasy had plenty available at 90 days... except Grand Cayman which only listed 13 excursions (1/2 sold out already), but I didn't like any of them anyways. I was able to get 3 drink tastings. While some were sold out on 1 of the days, they were available other days, so I got what I wanted. Brunches looked sold out, but dinners were available, but we didn't want any anyways.

Anyways...if it's a more unique itinerary, you'll have a harder time finding availability for anything...if it's a usual itinerary, should still be stuff left...but the number of excursions offered is less than you can see on the public side of the website--so have maybe 3 choices in mind/port.

Geomom, we're on an 8/13 Western Caribbean Fantasy sailing so this is helpful! Thanks!

 

[lklgoodman]

This board is so helpful. Thanks everyone!



Geomom, we're on an 8/13 Western Caribbean Fantasy sailing so this is helpful! Thanks!

Schools in our area will be back in session by then, not sure about other parts of the country. May not be as many families cruising, so you may have better luck at getting everything than those cruising in June and July. When we were silver, we often cruised the second or third week of Jan right after Christmas break. Never had a problem getting what we wanted for our family of 3.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Our 90 days opens at midnight on May 15th so I'm just curious if people are getting the excursions that they want at that point? Thanks everyone!

I would keep checking back every few days. I’m gold and some excursions were sold out at midnight. Especially check back at PIF day for your cruise. Canceled reservations are at a high for the past year. Also join the social media groups and watch for “sorry we had to cancel” posts.

 

[Buzzster]

Silver here for our Greek Isles tour this summer. All tastings were gone…we did get most excursions we wanted though.

 

[Rob1872]

Last Silver cruise for us. For our Eastern Caribbean at the end of the month, I logged on at midnight and had mixed success. A few of the excursions were booked (we couldn't do the Baths with lunch but could do the shorter Baths which was fine with us), half of the tastings were gone, and the sports simulators were full for all 3 sea days. But Palo brunch was still available and there was availability for a couple's massage. And my son gets the sports simulator for an hour before we do our USVI excursion. Previous cruises I never had a problem getting anything I wanted. A lot of it is just if you are on a popular cruise or not. A generic Western Caribbean during the school year you will be fine. A Panama Canal transit will take all of the activities during Platinum booking window.

 

[Kwami]

Last Silver cruise for us. For our Eastern Caribbean at the end of the month, I logged on at midnight and had mixed success. A few of the excursions were booked (we couldn't do the Baths with lunch but could do the shorter Baths which was fine with us), half of the tastings were gone, and the sports simulators were full for all 3 sea days. But Palo brunch was still available and there was availability for a couple's massage. And my son gets the sports simulator for an hour before we do our USVI excursion. Previous cruises I never had a problem getting anything I wanted. A lot of it is just if you are on a popular cruise or not. A generic Western Caribbean during the school year you will be fine. A Panama Canal transit will take all of the activities during Platinum booking window.

I had an Eastern Caribbean cruise planned for the first week or February and just about everything was full when my silver window opened. We couldn't get Palo brunch and nearly all of the excursions on the islands were full. We were just hoping that some slots opened once we boarded and we were all planning to get onto the WiFi network as soon as we got near the terminal to see what we could do.

We missed that cruise because of weather and instead took a 4-night Bahamas and a 3-night Bahamas on the Dream. Everything was available on those cruises, even though we booked them only three days before sailing. We had no trouble at all getting Palo brunch and almost nothing was full in Nassau or at Castaway Cay.

Before the shutdown, back in the December of 2019, I took a Western Caribbean cruise and had no trouble at all booking everything that I wanted when the silver window opened.

 

[Calantha]

We are silver doing Alaska in June, I got all the excursions we wanted and Palo brunch. But none of the tastings that I wanted were available.

 

[Lizard78]

We are Silver cruising Alaska on the 5/30 sailing. I was able to book Dawes Glacier at midnight when our booking window opened. I had previously booked our other excursions outside Disney, so Dawes Glacier was the only one I wanted.

I would have liked to book Mixology, but the tastings were all booked up. However, I happened to check a few weeks ago and there was ONE opening. I presume someone changed plans and cancelled. I snatched it up.

 

[elittleton]

When ours opened the excursions we wanted at 2 of the stops were sold out. I kept checking until we eventually got the excursion we wanted. I don’t know about the tasting.

 

[Sakura1017]

Our 90 days opens at midnight on May 15th so I'm just curious if people are getting the excursions that they want at that point? Thanks everyone!

It all depends on how popular your cruise is.

 

[soniam]

Our 90 day window opened last week for our July cruise and virtually all excursions were sold out. In addition almost all tastings were also sold out. Some excursions have opened up but not many. We have had to book excursions directly with the operators on the islands. Feel
sorry for the first timers when their booking window opens in a couple weeks.

We had the same thing occur for our July sailing. I am hoping we will still get some things booked when we get onboard and maybe the week before if people cancel things.

Are you guys on the 9 night Southern Caribbean? If so, that's a specialty itinerary that is full of Platinum and Gold members. I am on that cruise. The availability really depends upon how popular the itinerary is with Platinum cruisers. Long cruises and unique itineraries are popular with them. Plus, this cruise will go to Dominica, which is a first for DCL.

 

[MichelleCanada]

Are you guys on the 9 night Southern Caribbean? If so, that's a specialty itinerary that is full of Platinum and Gold members. I am on that cruise. The availability really depends upon how popular the itinerary is with Platinum cruisers. Long cruises and unique itineraries are popular with them. Plus, this cruise will go to Dominica, which is a first for DCL.

We are. And then we are doing a 4-day wish in August. Our activities booking is tomorrow - I think we will find the same thing. But after this summer we will be gold

 

[Jhondy]

We are. And then we are doing a 4-day wish in August. Our activities booking is tomorrow - I think we will find the same thing. But after this summer we will be gold

Can you report how that goes. We have the Wish booked at end of October and I’m only silver but really hoping to book Olaf’s picnic for DD but I feel like I have no chance of booking that or anything else.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

This sounds like WDW with ADR's and getting FP (Genie+). Has it always been like this? Is this the experience on other cruise lines?

 

[Calantha]

This sounds like WDW with ADR's and getting FP (Genie+). Has it always been like this? Is this the experience on other cruise lines?

I don't know anything about WDW (other than what my friends have complained about) or other cruise lines, but I can compare now to 2019 on DCL. I think there is a lot of pent-up demand. I've had 2 cruises rescheduled multiple times in the last 2 years, plus the new one we want to book. So, that's making things more difficult. Also, with the Wish or any unique itinerary, you see a lot more Platinum/Gold bookings.

FWIW, even when things have been 'booked' - DCL seems to make it happen (anecdotally). In 2019, Mixology was booked, but we got on board, and were able to get it for the 3 of us who wanted to go. In January, early dining was booked (we booked the cruise really late), but they easily swapped us when we got on board. I've heard a lot of people on the forums say "Oh, Palo was booked, but we picked it up on board."

I think it you went on a common itinerary things would be generally available.

Also, I don't see the draw in DCL excursions (in some cases, there isn't a choice, like Dawes Glacier or at Icy Strait Point). I'd 100% go on my own if it is an option.

 

[soniam]

This sounds like WDW with ADR's and getting FP (Genie+). Has it always been like this? Is this the experience on other cruise lines?

I think it's been this way for a while on unique itineraries and other cruises that are popular with Platinum members.

I don't know about all cruise lines. We have only done Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and DCL. RCL and Celebrity don't book the way DCL does. You can purchase excursions and dining pretty much as soon as you book the cruise; it's not related to loyalty status. However, unlike DCL, RCL and Celebrity require you to pay for them when you book. Also, Celebrity does not have very many tastings, like maybe just a wine and one other. They aren't very popular. I don't know of RCL does them; they didn't last time we cruised with them. We haven't had issues on our RCL cruises, but those were a while ago and we didn't book specialty dining. We didn't have any issues on Celebrity. However, we were going for more active excursions, ie snorkeling, and they tend toward older guests. I have heard of some issues trying to get Le Petit Chef and possibly some of the other very sought after dining experiences on Celebrity, but not as bad as people are seeing on DCL. I think DCL's current issue is mostly due to covid-related problems, ie supply chain, staffing, covid measures in the countries they are visiting.