Must Pre-Pay for Shore Excursions (Back on)

There was a thread about this a few weeks back, but it was confusing to me and ultimately unclear. Now that excursions for our November Mexican Riviera cruise have opened up, it is completely clear that All Excursion Reservations made prior to boarding must be pre-paid.

6 months ago Princess tried to initiate this policy fleet wide and then rescinded it, but now it is back. I tried to make reservations for our desired excursions and it clearly says that any reservations not paid for within 24 hours will be cleared out. It also says as you are trying to book a reservation that all reservations must be pre-paid.

There are a number of cutbacks that might irritate us as cruisers, and we are not as heavily invested in cruising as some are, but I think this could be a potential show stopper for us. We use our OBC primarily for shore excursions and want to have reservations in hand rather than having to scramble for leftovers when we get onboard. (I am a detailed planner). We will go on this coming cruise (which will be our 5th - We only get 3 weeks vacation per year so only really cruise once per year) because we have already bought our airfare, but this might be it for us. I don't know for certain that we are done, but this is a disappointing change in policy. Princess, if you read this board, the excursion reservation system you had previously was one of the top reasons we chose you as a brand to cruise with. We won't jump to a different cruise line, probably will just choose different vacation modes to explore.

Don

We almost never take Princess excursions, so are not really affected by this. Have you considered the private tours that people set up here on Cruise Critic? There are also often guide/drivers at the end of the pier.

On another thread about prepayment of shore excursions, people posted that OBC was now available to use for prepayment and they only charged your credit card for the excess over your OBC.

Mud_Shark: Do you have OBC shown on your Cruise Personalizer? Is it available for prepayment of your shore excursions?

I understand that if you have OBC, you can opt to "pay" using OBC. A friend pre-booked excursions last night for an upcoming cruise and used her OBC.

Yes Pam, I am learning that OBC can be used, but it will not be equalized.

I did not try to prepay as I thought that meant paying with money, like everything else you prepay for. So I now I have done so and seen how it works.

It does allocate your OBC first, but if one spouse has more OBC than the other (Military, shareholder, good will etc), it does not transfer over. And it will not recognize Travel Agent OBC as that does not show in advance on our cruise personalizer and only shows up when you get onboard.

So, although our excursion reservation total is well under the total amount of OBC we have, they still want us to submit partial payment by money (credit card) for my wife because her name has less OBC listed under it than my name does. Not sure what to do about this, but it is definitely better than I first thought.

Don

I wonder what the cancellation policy will be & if canceled how refund will be handled.

I guess time will tell-disappointing change[emoji853]

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I wonder what the cancellation policy will be & if canceled how refund will be handled.

 

I guess time will tell-disappointing change[emoji853]

 

 

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The cancellation policy for shore excursions has not changed. If you cancel before the time listed onboard, you will get a refund. If you cancel far enough in advance, the refund will go to your credit card for any amount paid by credit card and back to OBC for any amount paid by OBC. If you cancel onboard, the refund will go on your onboard account - and any amount paid by credit card will be refundable OBC to be refunded after the cruise if you don't use it all.

At least, Princess understands and is responding to the complaints about being unable to use OBC for excursions if prepayment is required. It will take them some time to get the bugs out of their software implementing this new system.

Mud Shark...sorry to read about this change which hasn't affected my fall cruise on the Royal. My shore excursions booking information still has this statement which was accurate for my tour bookings.

NEWNEW

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

I've recently read other posts about having your experience which is in between their original policy & the rescinded prepayment only option. Like you most of our OBC is in my name although since our CCL shares are in both of our names we'll apply for the OBC in my wife's name to balance it with my military OBC.

My guess is the rescinded cash prepayment only policy had adversely affected tour bookings & thus it was eliminated and replaced with what you experienced.

Only time will tell if your experience is Princess testing a new system where OBC is used to prebook tours or if that will become their fleetwide policy. Having different policies on different ships isn't good for passenger's satisfaction. It's been posted that sometimes the only consistent Princess policy is that it's inconsistent...and this is the latest example of it.

I doubt very much if Princess will make any announcement about this, they tend to make announcements about things folks like, not so much things that are controversial. So far, prepay requirements (but including use of OBC) have turned up on a Sept. 2017 Mexican Riviera cruise, but that is the earliest I have seen posted. Several November 2017 cruises have reported it, and I've seen it myself on the Coral in Jan. 2018. Still waiting for excursions to be posted on my other two cruises (Oct. 2017 and Jan. 2018) There was another 2018 reported, but I forget which ship. As with most changes Princess does, it seems this one will rollout over the fleet towards the end of this year into 2018, possibly at season changes and repositioning.

Shorex for a California Coastal on the Grand Princess for October 15th 2017 must be prepaid.

Copy of my post on similar thread.

I have yet to see any pre-payment option or requirement when I look into excursions on my upcoming June 2017 Norway cruise. It is acting as it always does, it just confirms I am booked. I see nothing about payment by credit card or OBC. If .... I look into my personalizer in payments & credits under excursions they are listed there with the following wordage,

NEW

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

It appears Princess is playing games with us and is being quietly selective about this issue. Perhaps their Alaska test run was not enough of a trial for them and they are still trying to find a way to force pre-payment. They should just get a policy (favorable for us, of course) and stick to it consistently. Enough of the games, Princess.

I just booked excursions for my upcoming May 14 Majestic and was not required to prepay

I just booked excursions for July British Isles and was not required to prepay either, and I also got the message that I had the option to prepay or have it added to my onboard account, but it still seems like I have a confirmed reservation. I wouldn't have enough onboard credit available to have paid for this excursion either because it is a pricey one and more than my Princess credit, and my TA OBC doesn't show now. When we did a Mediterranean cruise on Princess three years ago all of our pre-booked excursions had to be paid at the time of booking, so especially with what I have seen here this was a pleasant surprise. I will be keeping an eye on it but so far it looks good.

I will never pre pay for an excursion again. Took 6 months to get a refund from Princess for a cancelled excursion last year. No way no how.

May 6th on the Ruby to Alaska is not requiring pre-payment. I know that for me, having to pre-pay would likely make me wait to book until I was on the ship and take my chances on my first choice being full. They might find that too many people start doing that; or just booking privately.

Yes Pam, I am learning that OBC can be used, but it will not be equalized.

 

I did not try to prepay as I thought that meant paying with money, like everything else you prepay for. So I now I have done so and seen how it works.

 

It does allocate your OBC first, but if one spouse has more OBC than the other (Military, shareholder, good will etc), it does not transfer over. And it will not recognize Travel Agent OBC as that does not show in advance on our cruise personalizer and only shows up when you get onboard.

 

So, although our excursion reservation total is well under the total amount of OBC we have, they still want us to submit partial payment by money (credit card) for my wife because her name has less OBC listed under it than my name does. Not sure what to do about this, but it is definitely better than I first thought.

 

Don

You can not do it on-line, but when I called Princess, they were able to book the excursions using just my OBC. Not sure why they don't make that provision on-line, but then the agent I talked to didn't even know they had made the change to "paying" ahead until I called. We both learned something.

Oct 25th Venice to Venice.. Pacific Princess. Booked excursion that exceed onboard credit. No pre pay required.. Did this a few days ago

Seems like things are a bit unpredictable. We're on a Japan to Alaska cruise next April and we booked five excursions in Japan. We had to pay for them up front in order to be confirmed. Princess used our OBCs first (both my wife's and mine) and then charged the excess cost to our credit card. I'm OK with all this; at least we have our spots confirmed and the price won't go up on us if we wait until near cruise time or until boarding the ship.

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Interesting I just looked at the tours I have booked for my Japan cruise Oct of this year on Princess and all it says at the bottom I can prepay or pay on board

We booked $2164 in shorex on the Pacific for our June/July Norway sailing and didn't have to prepay either which is good because we have a ton of TA obc that is not in our personalizer but will be posted onboard.

On Alaska in June. Just checked excursions and this is what it states when I look at my booking

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

If they do go to requiring prepayment, it will be the end my doing primarily Princess excursions. If it happens, I would only do a Princess excursion if it was something I REALLY wanted to see and was not available through another source.

Over the years I have done at least 200 Princess excursions, and have only ever cancelled one (due to illness on the day of the tour). If part of their reasoning for changing how excursions are paid for is because of people cancelling and them losing revenue, I'm not part of the problem!!

On Alaska in June. Just checked excursions and this is what it states when I look at my booking

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

 

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

That way is so much more convenient for many. Hate hearing that it's changing to Must Pay in Advance. :(

That way is so much more convenient for many. Hate hearing that it's changing to Must Pay in Advance. :(

Just think that when you are onboard the long lines at the shore excursion desk

I am glad that the new policy was not in effect for our June-July Norway sailing because we have $1730 coming from the travel agent that does not show on our Personalizer but will be on our account when we board. Those shorex were expensive, $2100+ and there is no way that I would pre-pay that and then figure out how to spend our OBC from FCC, CCL shareholders, Captain's Circle, and the TA.

So we have changed TAs and now have one that will discount the cruise fare itself and we are using her for our CA Coastal and Alaska cruise in 2018.