Princess Shore Excursions

Its been almost two years since I last cruised with Princess. Today I went to book my shore excursions for an upcoming cruise, and found they now require payment upfront! When did that happen? I've always liked the fact that I wasn't charged with the excursions until the end of the cruise.:')

That is very strange - I have a cruise leaving in 7 weeks and when I look at my excursion reservations it shows me the option of Paying now or having them put on my onboard account

If you have on-board credit applied to your cruise account, you can use it to pay for these but I think this policy changed earlier this year as this was not in place when we took our late January Caribbean cruise this year. If you book enough excursions that any OBC you have applied is used up, then you will have to pay via credit card for the balance not covered. I had to do this for an excursion coming up on our January 2018 Hawaii cruise as I had booked another ship excursion that ate up most of my OBC. I was required to pay the balance after the OBC was used up to reserve an excursion.

That is very strange - I have a cruise leaving in 7 weeks and when I look at my excursion reservations it shows me the option of Paying now or having them put on my onboard account

My travel agent just responded to say that this policy is effective with 2018 sailings forward. You still have the option of using OBC when you make the purchase if its OBC that is in your account.

If you have on-board credit applied to your cruise account, you can use it to pay for these but I think this policy changed earlier this year as this was not in place when we took our late January Caribbean cruise this year. If you book enough excursions that any OBC you have applied is used up, then you will have to pay via credit card for the balance not covered. I had to do this for an excursion coming up on our January 2018 Hawaii cruise as I had booked another ship excursion that ate up most of my OBC. I was required to pay the balance after the OBC was used up to reserve an excursion.

Once again I have now OBC and am being given the choice of paying now or paying later - my cruise is in 7 weeks and I reserved the excursion 3 weeks ago. Maybe I am just special

My travel agent just responded to say that this policy is effective with 2018 sailings forward. You still have the option of using OBC when you make the purchase if its OBC that is in your account.

Princess began phasing in requiring pre-payment of excursions on one ship in Alaska in Summer 2016. The rule has since slowly made its way around the fleet and to other destinations. Your agent is a little behind, or just telling you what they think you want to hear.

Once again I have now OBC and am being given the choice of paying now or paying later - my cruise is in 7 weeks and I reserved the excursion 3 weeks ago. Maybe I am just special

How long ago did you book your cruise? Likely it was just before your ship and/or destination fell under mandatory pre-payment so you ended up "grandfathered in". There has also been a couple reports of the personalizer "waffling" on the rule for some future cruises (one day requiring pre-payment, next day making reservation without)

It could be because I booked this as a sip and sail promo in the summer of 2016 - I have another booked this last summer for 2018 will have to wait and see on that one

Its been almost two years since I last cruised with Princess. Today I went to book my shore excursions for an upcoming cruise, and found they now require payment upfront! When did that happen? I've always liked the fact that I wasn't charged with the excursions until the end of the cruise.:')

We reserved and did not prepay for our recent Sept 2017 shore excursion. But we are now required to prepay for our Jan 2018 excursion. Policy may have changed.