Should we wait to sign up for shore excursions?

[Tooth Fairy]

Will we be left out if I wait until we board to sign up for butterfly farm and Trunk Bay? Dec. 14th 7 day Eastern

 

[TootyJane]

Probably not but if either of these are excursions you feel you really want to do then by all means book them now. HTH

 

[albiats]

If you book an excursion before you cruise, you reserve it for yourself. You also prevent DCL from selling it to anyone else. That means that all sales are final unless there are extraordianary circumstances liek they don't dock there.

On a previous cruise, my DW wasn't feeling well when we had a shore excursion so we had to skip it. We have two lovely souvenirs of unused shore escursion tickets now.

On another cruise, the Castaway Cay day was a little drizzly and chilly for most of the day. It wasn't bad enough for DCL to cancel the day and many people were able to enjoy it, but we didn't even get into the water. We went ashore twice and each time it started to sprinkle so we turned back.

On the last cruise, we waited until we were on Castaway Cay and we were able to get snorkle equipment on a walkup basis without any problems so we didn't risk anything this time.

There are pluses and minuses to each method.

hope that helps

 

[imgoingtodisney]

booked excursions can be cancelled up to 2 days before departure date - i reserved coral world in case dh doesnt cruise with us - but if he does im cancelling and we will do it on our own

does castaway cay always have enough snorkel equipment? are there any advantages to reserving the snorkel equip and floats early? should i cancel these in case we dont make it there?

 

[albiats]

Originally posted by imgoingtodisney

does castaway cay always have enough snorkel equipment? are there any advantages to reserving the snorkel equip and floats early? should i cancel these in case we dont make it there?

If the ship can't dock at Castaway Cay, they don't charge you for the excursions. If the ship docks and the weather is Ok and for some reason, you don't want to use it, you're still charged.

They have a lot of snorkle equipment and floats and tube rentals available and I don't believe you would have a problem with a walkup rental. You still use your KTTW card so you don't need to bring cash or a credit card to the Island. We were able to get 6 walkup rentals at 11am and they still had a lot available. Even with more than 2700 guests onboard the Wonder on the Oct 17th cruise they still had equipment available, and I think that has to be classified as a full cruise.

hth

 

[Wishing on a star]

On booking excursions... Some almost always book up really fast, while some others don't. Some may have limited availability, making them harder to get. Does anyone here know how popular these two usually are?

You may want to try phoning DCL and see if you will get lucky and speak to someone who would indicate how booked up the excursions you are considering happen to be? Do not know if you have tried this or not, but wanted to make the suggestion!

In my case, the excursions that I am interested in are heavily dependant on things like, the weather, all of us feeling great that day, etc... So, I am holding off, planning to go on-our-own, so that we are not losing a lot of money if everything doesn't work out.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by imgoingtodisney

i reserved coral world in case dh doesnt cruise with us - but if he does im cancelling and we will do it on our own

Do it on your own anyway. It's really easy to do, you'll save money, you'll come and go on your own schedule, and you'll avoid the cattle-herding that comes with an excursion.

 

[Michelle]

The butterfly farm is not one of the most popular excursions and that would not be a problem to wait. Some of the Trunk Bay excursions DO sell out so I would book that one in advance if you are sure you want to do it.