When Can You Book Excursions?

[MCPayne]

Anyone know how early you can book excursions? I'm I think by RCI's countdown 73 days away from embarkation, and the only port they have excursions for so far is Cozumel. All the other ports say something like "We are currently gathering information on excursions for this port. Please check back closer to your sail date." The ports I'm visiting are Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

[Dave]

All you can do is keep checking. Oftentimes things might not be available this close to the cruise because they are negotiating new contracts with the tour vendors.

[penny3333]

Normally it's 3 months out, but you're closer than that. Like Dave said, they must be negotiating new contracts. Labadee is like a private island port, so you could sign up for the zip line, but it's usually a good beach day. Ocho Rios, Dunns River Falls is the main attraction. We did a snorkel there and it was just ok, the catamaran ride was nice, though. Dunns River is a blast. Grand Cayman, you can easily do on your own. We've done quite a few great snorkels there. You might want to check with ABanks and see if they still will let you snorkel from their dock. You can also grab a cab and go to 7 mile beach. I wasn't impressed with the tour of Hell and the turtle farm, it was ok, but I wouldn't do it again. Stingray City is the big attraction there. Of course, Cozumel can easily be done on your own. You can grab a cab to Chankanaab Park or Paradise Beach or the other side of the island or downtown or just hang around the port area and shop till you drop

[MCPayne]

Thanks Dave and Penny.

I was planning on doing the zipline at Labadee, but as I said, they don't have it listed yet. I also plan on doing Dunns River Falls in Jamaica, and maybe Paradise Beach in Cozumel.

Not sure what I'll do in Grand Cayman. I did a Stingray City excursion last time, which was great.

I'd like to do parasailing and maybe snorkeling, but once they get the excursions squared away I'll see what happens.

[Dave]

Actually I am surprised about the Labadee zip line not being open for bookings, since that is operated by RCI and there should be no issues with local contractors.

[MCPayne]

Yeah, I was puzzled by the Labadee excursions not being available as well. As of today, they have Cozumel (about 60 excursions), and some Grand Cayman (13 excursions).

[MCPayne]

Well excursions are slowly becoming available through RCI. Now they're up to 39 excursions for Grand Cayman, and 69 for Cozumel. They have yet to post the excursions for Ocho Rios and Labadee.

Also, I was thinking about booking through Shoretrips for an excursion for Jamaica, but I'm not sure about that, since I've heard most people say spend more money and go with a ship excursion. I don't want to say specifically what excursion through Shoretrips, as I'm not sure if that's considered advertising, which violates the forum rules.

[Dave]

You can mention excursions. It's advertising/soliciting if you are in a position to gain something by posting about it.

In fact we like Shoretrips.com here. If I weren't doing a ship's tour in Jamaica, then I'd feel okay with one through shoretrips.

[MCPayne]

Just as an update, RCI is FINALLY getting the Labadee excursions squared away. Only a handful so far are offered. They still don't have the zipline or the roller coaster listed, but hopefully next week they'll get that sorted out.

Also, if you booked a cruise, RCI now has a different layout on their website when you click on the link to book shore and land excursions once you log in and click on your reservation number. It is now a calendar view with an itinerary, and you have to roll over a plus sign for the day you want to add excursions. This brings up a dropdown menu, and you can add either excursions, restaurant reservations, beverage packages, etc. Before you could just look by ports of call, excursion types, etc, which personally I liked better.

I did book 1 excursion in Grand Cayman for the horseback ride they (RCI) offers, and another in Jamaica through Shoretrips for horseback riding and Dunn's River Falls. I'll probably go on my own in Cozumel to Paradise Beach.