Can you cancel an excursion w/out penalty?

[Milldew]

Can you cancel pre-booked excursions with out a penalty? What is the latest timeframe in which you can cancel?

The reason I ask is that I was thinking that if my family got to much sun in St. Thomas/St. John that we might not be up for going on our St. Maarten beach excursion (save our beach time for Castaway Cay). That would mean cancelling the day before or day of the excursion.

Please advise...we leave tommorow!!!

Dede

 

[Michelle]

No, unfortunately not, if you have pre-booked an excursion you must cancel at least SEVEN DAYS prior to your cruise date. After that point no changes or cancellations can be made.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Gaylord_Focker]

I have a question for you Michelle. I booked some excursions for the Western cruise in July - online reservations. I have my confirmaiton email from DCL which states:

"PLEASE READ THESE IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. New Reservations/Changes/Cancellation of shore excursions are allowed until 2 days prior to your sail date. Within 2 days, all reservations are final and the tickets are non-refundable. Any issues within 2 days prior to your sail date will need to be addressed at the Shore Excursion Desk onboard the ship."

However, when I received my fax copy of the excursion list (I requested a fax copy with DCL letterhead) - it shows:

"Changes or cancellations of Shore Excursion reservations are allowed until 7 days prior to your embarkation date. Within 7 days of your embark date, Shore Excursion reservations are final, and tickets are non-refundable."

It didn't matter to us since we are certain we want to do the excursions we have lined up, but it may make a big difference to someone like Milldew for last minute changes. Is there a connection you have with DCL to find out why there is a conflicting policy? If not, I'll try to track down an official word on this policy. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Michelle]

Hi Gaylord! That's interesting that your e-mail said something different from the fax copy! All the information I have ever seen from DCL uses the 7 days prior date as the cut-off for refunds or changes to pre-booked shore excursions. I would have to advise anyone wanting to make changes under that time frame to call DCL and find out for sure about the current policy.

 

[abitjaded]

I had called the DCL shore excursion number, and was referred to a specialist, due to questions about wheelchair accessability of the shore excursions. While they could not give me much info on the accessability issue, the agent did tell me you could cancel "two full BUSINESS" days in advance of the cruise start, not the seven quoted in all the literature and the web site. 'Course this does not help me, I asked if we ended up booking something that would not then take a wheelchair could we cancel, answer "No." Yeeeech.

Carla

 

[CarolAnnC]

A couple of years ago, my mother was being seated on her airline flight when she was pulled off the plane for a medical emergency. My uncle was dying in the hospital in Boston and she barely made it there to say goodbye.

Her trip cancellation insurance covered the plane flight and the cruise itself, but all the excursions she had paid for were NOT reimbursed. This was with Princess Cruise Line, but I would be aware that sometimes the fine print can be exclusionary.

She did rebook for a year later and enjoyed the trip, but she never pre-booked the excursions again!

 

[nemblanch]

FYI

According to the excursion representative I spoke to by phone about 3 weeks ago, the policy has been changed to 2 days
prior to sailing as opposed to 7, in regards to cancelation.

 

[ganurse]

i cancelled several times and made changes the week before we left on APril 20...we were going to to the 5 star st johns beach and then decided to do the champagne catamaran.. i was maki g reservations for my husband and I...when we got on the boat..our tickets were there...my husband got the catamaran but they didnt change mine!!!!! I was fortunate there were seats left and we fixed mine 2 days before..it was great

 

[Karel]

The way I'm reading this post is :

***if we get too much sun in St. Thomas, we won't want to go on an excursion in St. Maarten. *** The stop in St. Maarten comes before the stop in St. Thomas. So you need to worry about too much sun in St. Maarten, because you would not have been to St. Thomas yet to get too much sun....

Unless I'm looking at something the wrong way! Or something has changed since Nov.

 

[pallamb]

Do the people still get charged for excursions they could not go to because of bad weather conditions? What if the ship wasn't able to dock at the destination of your excursion? This was the only thing that worried me about prebooking excusions since we'll be going at the end of October which is still hurricane season. Patty

 

[Gaylord_Focker]

Sorry it took so long - I sent an email to DCL and they got back regarding your question. I asked if there was a charge even if the excursion is cancelled as noted in their contract: "All excursions are subject to availability and or cancellation based on weather, itinerary changes or attendance. Shore Excursion pricing is subject to change without notice."

Their reply is as follows:

"Thanks for writing with your question. You will not be charged for an excursion if it is cancelled in advance for the reasons noted. The particular note you refer to is just for informational purposes, so that you are aware that we may cancel a particular excursion for those reasons.

Have a great day,
Henry, Special Services
Disney Cruise Line"

Hope this puts your mind at ease.

 

[Doctor P]

I had wondered about this issue. Glad to get so many informed replies. Thanks , cruise vets!

 

[pallamb]

Gaylord_Focker : Thank you for checking that out for me. I'm sure this put others at ease too! Patty