shore excursion question, new to Royal

[DrDoodle]

I'm new to Royal Caribbean. We are looking to book a shore excursion through the website, it appears that we must pay in full up front. What is the cancelation policy? I can't find it on their site at all. This cruise is still very far away, I wouldn't want to lose all that money if we cancel for some reason.

In case it helps. we have 2 upcoming royal cruises, first in february 2016 a southern caribbean out of puerto rico, then a thanksgiving cruise out of miami. We cruised with disney and princess in the past.

 

[bumbershoot]

You'll get it back as long as you cancel the excursion within something like 4 days before the cruise.

Feb isn't all that far away! We have a March cruise (and a December cruise, so that's amusing me) and March seems just a moment away! (perhaps it's b/c final payment is in 12 days?)

 

[Dug720]

You definitely get it back as long as you're within the cancellation policy - I've even heard that on the ship they will refund it with at least 24 hours' notice. (I can't verify that at the moment because their website is "on vacation".)

While it's a change from Disney where you are charged for the excursions once aboard, I actually kind of like it because that means my vacation is paid for up front and I only have to deal with spending money.

 

[keaster]

I agree, it's the first time we've had to pay for excursions up front so it seems strange! Actually it's good for us...we can book them in Canadian funds ahead of time instead of having them charged in US funds if we were to book anything on board the ship.

 

[bumbershoot]

While it's a change from Disney where you are charged for the excursions once aboard, I actually kind of like it because that means my vacation is paid for up front and I only have to deal with spending money.

Yep; both ways are good, IMO. Just good in different ways!

 

[Dug720]

Yep; both ways are good, IMO. Just good in different ways!

Yep! Disney's is definitely good if you have a lot of OBC to use up. You can reserve the excursions you want and not worry that they won't be available when you get on board and still have the OBC used for them.

Royal's way works well for ensuring the trip is paid off ahead of time if you don't have a lot of non-refundable OBC that you need to burn up. I'm sure it depends on the itinerary, but I did see a few people at the shore excursions desk trying to figure out a Plan B or even C, D, or E because the excursions they had planned to book once onboard to use the OBC were filled.

Since the excursions are refundable up to "the deadline advertised on the ship" (I want to say it was 24 hours in advance for most of the Alaska ones I saw), I personally would book any that I KNOW I want to do in advance to ensure that I can do them. If I'm debating between a few, I *might* wait until aboard - possibly just buying my own OCB in the amount of the highest priced excursion so that it's "paid for".