Booking shore excursions
 

My family members who have never cruised are asking me how far in advamce of our upcoming cruise they should book shore excursions .

I usually do so 2 months prior .Is that the norm ?

LF,
YEs, that sounds about right, they usually open up the pre-booking online about 2 months out, after final payment is made. You can, in the meantime look through all them and try to figure out what to do in each port... What islands are you going to be visiting?

Islands
 

Bahamas and a private island

Which itininerary are you doing? Which Ports of call?

We used Shore Excursioneer for our excursions in Roatan and Cozumel and it worked out very well. Their service was second to none, all emails were replied quickly and personally and they also answered many questions over the phone. The tours were great and we will use them again. You only need to pay a deposit and the balance is then due when you arrive to port.

Booking that early, means you only want to book excursions with the ship, which many seasoned Caribbean cruisers pass on.

These ports of call are just too easy to book off the ship, unless it's something so popular, you just don't want to take the chance to lose.

One good example is what the ships charge for the Atlantis excursion in Nassau. With a large family for example, booking the Comfort suites next door to Atlantis,and getting priviledges, is more affordable.

Doing morning excursions off the ship, usually asuages "the ship will leave without me factor."