Have you gotten the Shore Excursions you wanted, even if lower status with DCL?

[anniepoppins]

Hi cruisers! I just wanted to check out there and see how many have been able to secure the excursion of your choice on a cruise? We have two other couples joining us on the Fantasy this November, and we plan take two excursions together. We are Platinum, one cabin is Silver and one cabin are newbies, this is their first ever cruise. If you are not Platinum, have you had any problem getting the excursions you wanted? We are trying for St. John Snorkeling at Trunk Bay (which I know is a popular one) and Snorkeling at Norman Island in Tortola (which is the only snorkel excursion Disney offers in Tortola). It would be awful if our new friends, that we encouraged to come cruise with us, could not get on the excursion. I've attached my first ever Poll to this thread to see what the response is. Any comments would be helpful!

We have booked the St. John Trunk Bay excursion 3 times in the past, once as Silver and twice as Gold with no issues, but that was mostly on the smaller ships. Unfortunately, two times out of three it was cancelled to due to high winds, so hoping the 3rd time is the charm for our friends to finally be able to do this excursion! Looking forward to the poll results.

 

[AquaDame]

I've never had issues getting what we wanted, even when we were newbies. The only ones I've seen go super fast are the cabanas on Castaway, the sled dog excursion for Alaska and some of the private vehicle options. There were a few times where something was not available at the time I wanted, but I kept checking and was able to snag it later. Palo was rougher for me than excursions.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Snorkeling at Norman Island in Tortola

On Tortola, I highly recommend booking outside Disney. For similar pricing, a company like Aristocat, you get better snorkeling in a smaller group for similar pricing.

 

[cvjw]

I guess it depends on how many platinum and gold castaway members are on your cruise. We are about to take cruise number 4. Cruises 1-3, we had no issues getting what we wanted.

Cruise number 4 is full of platinum and gold cruisers. Some of the excursions are already full, as well as palo brunch, and most of the tastings. We are still silver, so we will have to hope for the best and try to book things when we board the ship.

*** we have a Facebook group for the sailing, so everything that is already full is being reported there.

 

[BarlowFamily]

Are your reservations linked at all? I successfully booked excursions for my family and my parents (different stateroom) because our reservations are linked I can book excursions for them as well as myself. We are all silver though, so I'm not sure if being linked would work if we were different levels.

I booked Disney excursions at two of our ports. One port I got my first choice. The other my first choice was sold out and I had to go with my backup. We don't cruise until September. I check back once a week or so in hopes that someone changes their plans.

I hope you get all you want!

 

[kiford]

I've also found that, when I wasn't able to get what I wanted when I first booked, I was usually able to find it later. Either people cancelled, there were additional groups, new excursions were added or adult-only versions were added to existing ones. Most of the time, the only ones I wasn't able to end up getting were not offered on our particular cruise and I'd only actually seen them in the general listing prior to being able to book.

We are all silver though, so I'm not sure if being linked would work if we were different levels.

Yes, it's different if you're different levels. On one cruise our friends were Platinum and we were Gold and we could not book the same excursion at the same time. Once our window opened, we were able to get the same tour but they were able to book first and could not book on our behalf.

 

[tlprice]

There's only been one excursion I couldn't get and that was on my Med. cruise. Most excursions we book on our own, but any DCL ones I have wanted, I haven't had an issue except that one. I did have one that I booked (in Jamaica) that was canceled because not enough people booked it and I had to choose something else.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

just wanted to check out there and see how many have been able to secure the excursion of your choice on a cruise?

We've always gotten the excursions we wanted. Now, we've never attempted to do the more popular ones. Only time we had an issue was one excursion was cancelled due to lack of reservations (proves we don't do the popular ones).

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

Just booked excursions for 10/19 Eastern Caribbean Cruise that includes a stop in San Juan. The excursion we wanted for that stop kept returning the comment " Sorry there are no available times for this selection." However, it was not shown as "sold out". I decided to see if scheduling just one of us at a time might work, and it did - well sort of! I was only able to book one of us - must have been the last slot. So now one of us is booked for the excursion, and the other is not. I will keep checking periodically in the event someone cancels, but I will probably just have to cancel at our 3 day window. Bummer - it is the one thing we wanted to do on this cruise, and apparently, so did everyone else. BTW, we are silver status and did this exactly at midnight. This will be our 5th cruise, so maybe gold status will help on our next trip.
We were also unable to get a Palo brunch again. We have never been able to book one, and we have been on every ship. We received the same message as the excursion, and when I asked Disney, I was told it is because we are a party of 2, and the remaining reservations are for parties of 6, so it is not "sold out". It just isn't available to us. That was news to me, so I just thought I would share. Had I known what the message meant and that it was not just another Disney computer glitch, I would have stopped trying to book brunch much sooner for one of our 3 sea days. Live and Learn!!

 

[Rob1872]

Never have failed to get anything that we wanted to reserve. (We don't want cabanas, and we don't do tastings.)

 

[mjbradeis]

Palo brunch is more of an issue with us then excursions with others traveling with varying CC levels

 

[cvjw]

Also on the 10/19 sailing on the fantasy. We are also silver and booked last night. Got the excursions we wanted, and got palo dinner for the very end of the cruise - all of the palo reservations for other nights were already booked.

All palo brunch reservations were gone, as were all of the beverage tastings.

Some cruises have more gold and platinum members who can book things first. We will try for things once we get on the ship, but yes, things can be all booked up before silver members and first time cruisers get to book.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Also on the 10/19 sailing on the fantasy. We are also silver and booked last night. Got the excursions we wanted, and got palo dinner for the very end of the cruise - all of the palo reservations for other nights were already booked.

All palo brunch reservations were gone, as were all of the beverage tastings.

Some cruises have more gold and platinum members who can book things first. We will try for things once we get on the ship, but yes, things can be all booked up before silver members and first time cruisers get to book.

Be sure to check once onboard for any Palo reservations. They do hold some back to be booked onboard. Same thing for the tastings, check when you get onboard. Often they add some more.

 

[Lisa F]

On Tortola, I highly recommend booking outside Disney. For similar pricing, a company like Aristocat, you get better snorkeling in a smaller group for similar pricing.

do you know of any half day private excursions? The 7 hour long excursions are too much for us, I'd rather do a morning thing then back to relax especially with port days back to back.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

do you know of any half day private excursions? The 7 hour long excursions are too much for us, I'd rather do a morning thing then back to relax especially with port days back to back.

I know there are some. Couple other providers do half day snorkels.