Shore Excursion Pre-pay

I've only been on a Seabourn TA with few ports, so I was surprised when I learned that my upcoming port-intensive itinerary required me to pre-pay for shore excursions. I am used to other luxury cruise lines charging it to your onboard account, thereby allowing you to use any SBC to pay for them. Has this been their policy forever?

Yes, but you can cancel them on board for a full refund and immediately re-book them to use your SBC. However, there is no need to pre-book excursions unless you really want to get a spot on a very small group, limited availability excursion, or to get a specific time on a multi-time excursion. Otherwise you can wait until you are on board to book.

Yes, but you can cancel them on board for a full refund and immediately re-book them to use your SBC. However, there is no need to pre-book excursions unless you really want to get a spot on a very small group, limited availability excursion, or to get a specific time on a multi-time excursion. Otherwise you can wait until you are on board to book.

There are two problems here:

1. If it is a choice excursion ( there are often several, as SB likes to avoid redudancy and risk of loss,

) unless you pre-purchase, it may be sold out by the time you get on board and try and pull this trick, especially after standing in line at SB Square with the boarding booking rush crowd, or if people just heard a talk about an excursion they like, and

2. If you book in advance and cancel on board without rebooking, it will not necessarily be credited to your credit card, but will go to OBC, so if the excursion is late in the cruise and you already have a lot of OBC to use up, you will then have even more to use up, which could be a problem for some.

It is a fine balance, booking in advance the coveted excursions to assure a spot, and not being stuck with OBC you do not want.

Often many weeks ahead of time you do not know what weather will be, but once on board weather forecasts are closer and more reliable so cancellation, e.g., of a helo ride in a few days when you know it will likely be cloudy, is easier if you are not then stuck with a giant OBC .

I prefer the system SS and HL have, reserve ahead of time, then pay after having done the excursion ( or if you cancel too late once on board)

Or, just book privately, but then you risk the cruise line cancelling a port due to weather or politics, and you are out the money for the private guide.

If you book in advance and cancel on board without rebooking, it will not necessarily be credited to your credit card, but will go to OBC, so if the excursion is late in the cruise and you already have a lot of OBC to use up, you will then have even more to use up, which could be a problem for some.

There are two types of OBC - refundable and non-refundable. Shore excursions are the first type. That means that while you will get the refund as OBC, if you don't use it then it will end up refunded to your credit card at the end of the cruise.

It's always worth checking to see which credits are refundable because often credits that are given by travel agents, etc are also refundable. I always ask onboard if I have a lot and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to spend it all.

Just to clarify with the cancelled excursions becoming OBC. It becomes refundable OBC so if it is not used on the cruise it will be refunded back to your credit card. This has happened to us a couple of times, usually due to the ship needing to cancel an excursion due to weather. We have found it comes back fairly quickly, within a week or two, to our account.

It used to not require pre-payment but this changed a few years ago.

Julie

Snap jenidallas, it seems we were writing at the same time. :D

We are sailing on the Odyssey Caribbean cruise departing Miami on December 5th.

In the last week or two all the shore excursions on line have been discounted by 10% or so (with the new price in red). Is this normal? Is it likely to continue once we board or do we have to book now to get the saving?

It is because you have ticked 10 pc discount in your preferences.

All refunds are credited at the end of the cruise. That makes sense and simplifies accounting for borh SB and cruiser.

It is because you have ticked 10 pc discount in your preferences.

That makes sense! Thanks!

Thanks for the heads-up, but the Terms and Conditions say cancellations made more than 3 days prior to embarkation may be subject to a cancellation fee. Is the important word "may"? Most of the replies don't mention being penalized for a customer cancellation. I can understand there being no fee for a ship's cancelling, but it sounds as though I will be charged for a cancellation made after boarding.

Thanks for the heads-up, but the Terms and Conditions say cancellations made more than 3 days prior to embarkation may be subject to a cancellation fee. Is the important word "may"? Most of the replies don't mention being penalized for a customer cancellation. I can understand there being no fee for a ship's cancelling, but it sounds as though I will be charged for a cancellation made after boarding.

I don’t read it quite that way. Here’s what it says in part: Cancellations of shore excursions, spa services or gift orders made more than three days prior to embarkation will be fully refunded.

Anyhow, the only time I have suffered a cancellation fee was when I canceled on the day of the tour.

Thanks for the heads-up, but the Terms and Conditions say cancellations made more than 3 days prior to embarkation may be subject to a cancellation fee. Is the important word "may"? Most of the replies don't mention being penalized for a customer cancellation. I can understand there being no fee for a ship's cancelling, but it sounds as though I will be charged for a cancellation made after boarding.

Hi Mahogany,

Your right the important word is "may". I know for some tours may be an overnight stay somewhere i.e. South Africa game reserves or at a high end restaurant these are more likely to have an issue. But I think that is reasonable if Seabourn is likely to have a fee charged to them for no shows.

From my experience as long as we cancelled before 24 hours we got a refund. We would usually cancel well before then to allow others who might be waitlisted to take our place. We rarely cancel, usually to swap out to a more active excursion. I think the key is to do it early. The day of or even late the evening before, unless you have become ill, is when you are at risk of penalty.

Julie

I prepaid a few excursions on our last cruise and asked to have them converted to payment through our OBC with a refund issued to our credit card when I got on board. Instead, all our OBC was made refundable and at the end of the cruise, I was given a CASH refund. So, I got 3x the Ultimate Rewards’ points for a travel-related expense through my CSR credit card and a lot of cash in my pocket. Win/Win for sure. I’m planning to prepay our shorex for May’s cruise and hope the same thing happens. Albania here I come. Linda