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If I book shore excursions now, will I???


Nashna
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We are booked on the March 19th Cuba & Grand Cayman voyage. If I book our shore excursions now, will I be able to change the payment from my credit card to OBC prior to the sailing or when we are onboard? I would like to book the excursions in the next few weeks as I'm a bit concerned that the shore excursions for Cuba are rather limited. Is it possible that Azamara will be adding excursions? It appears from Bonnie's posts on CC, that we should be able to change our FOP to our OBC. Is this correct? I'm sorry if this subject has been addressed in the past. However, I could not find an answer to the question for March 2018 cruises.

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As far as I understand it, you cannot pre-book an excursion then get a refund and rebook using OBC once onboard beyond cruises starting in December 2017. This is a ‘work round’ offered by Azamara for cruises up to the end of 2017, pending the implementation of a new system on the website allowing you to use OBC to pre-book excursions. This new system was due to start sometime in Autumn 2017, but has not yet been put in place and no-one seems to know when it will start.

So at the moment you can’t do this for a March 2018 Cruise.

 

 

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Thank you for the reply. I want to be sure we get the shore excursions we want and to have them covered by the OBC. It looks like we just have to wait.

 

 

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Yesterday I tried booking a few shorex for our April 2018 crossing on the Quest, but the only option online was to charge to my credit card. Nothing about using OBC. So I called Azamara. The rep told me they wouldn't have the option to use OBC credit until about December or so. However, she said if i booked now with my credit card, that once on board, I could request my OBC be used to pay for them and a credit back to my credit card would be generated. We'll see how it goes!

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Is there any way of knowing how much OBC is on your account for a cruise?

 

I booked one out a couple of years and Azamara offered a $1,100 OBC special and the TA put on an additional $600/

 

TA told me that $400 goes on at time of booking. $400 goes on a month later and $900 goes on right before the cruise. Is any of that refundable? I'd love to use $999 ASAP for experience more package. I suppose I could pay in $199 myself and then still have $900 OBC left from original and another $500 from experience more (which I could use for excursions).

 

I am VERY confused.

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Perhaps the TA doesn't pay for the OBC until the last possible moment because they don't want to commit their funds until they absolutely need to.

 

 

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The TA's money is $600. AZ is $1,100. I just want to see a statement showing how much is in my account to use. I'd also like to know what is refundable and what must be spent or lost. Everything is just a guess now.

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On October 7th, Bonnie posted on this thread that there would be some news or an update on this subject within a week of her posting. There has been numerous posts on this subject. There is no official Azamara workaround to use OBC for ship excursions for anyone cruising after 12/31/2017. There have been promises made! There are no results! Why can't the current workaround be extended for 2018 cruises until the capability to use OBC before a cruise to book excursions is put into place?

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On October 7th, Bonnie posted on this thread that there would be some news or an update on this subject within a week of her posting. There has been numerous posts on this subject. There is no official Azamara workaround to use OBC for ship excursions for anyone cruising after 12/31/2017. There have been promises made! There are no results! Why can't the current workaround be extended for 2018 cruises until the capability to use OBC before a cruise to book excursions is put into place?

 

I know you've heard this before from me but I really am expecting to hear any day now.

Btw, welcome johnnyd! I don't remember seeing your name before, and I'm happy to hear from you.

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Bonnie, Thanks for the welcome. My wife and I have been on many cruises (>30, mostly on Celebrity). This will be our second Azamara cruise. We are on the Quest sailing on January 25th; our first one was also on the Quest on a transatlantic to Rio from Malaga, Spain.

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Yesterday I tried booking a few shorex for our April 2018 crossing on the Quest, but the only option online was to charge to my credit card. Nothing about using OBC. So I called Azamara. The rep told me they wouldn't have the option to use OBC credit until about December or so. However, she said if i booked now with my credit card, that once on board, I could request my OBC be used to pay for them and a credit back to my credit card would be generated. We'll see how it goes!

 

I was told the very same thing. Hopefully, this is accurate and doable! I shall, however, continue to wait and see if the on-linw OBC booking option becomes available and make the change if and when it does. Our cruise is Feb. 2018.

 

 

Denise

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We are on the Dec 22nd holiday cruise and just booked our shore excursions this week. As per other people's experience, we had to pay with credit card. A quick call to Azamara yielded the same result. When you get on board, you can cancel and rebook the excursions and your credit card will be refunded.

 

You will have to pull forward the costs onto your card, but you can use OBC for shore excursions (kinda).

 

I am happy that Azamara has been very consistent with this advice.

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  • 2 months later...

On the matter of refunds.

 

If you book an excursion as a Brit you buy at GBP and your card is charged instantly.

 

If you, or Amazara, cancel an excursion when you are on board your on board account is refunded in dollars. That cost about ten percent a couple of weeks ago on the Journey.

 

We had two cancellations. One precipitated by Amazara and one we decided to make ourselves.

 

Tony

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On the matter of refunds.

 

If you book an excursion as a Brit you buy at GBP and your card is charged instantly.

 

If you, or Amazara, cancel an excursion when you are on board your on board account is refunded in dollars. That cost about ten percent a couple of weeks ago on the Journey.

 

We had two cancellations. One precipitated by Amazara and one we decided to make ourselves.

 

Tony

 

In November, for our February cruise, I was assured by Steve at the head office in Miami that my booking made in Canadian dollars would be credited back in Canadian dollars once I boarded. Then I could re-book using our OBC and pay the difference in US$.

 

If they do anything different I will be looking for them to make it right.

 

You might consider lodging a case with your credit card company.

 

John

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John,

 

I can't see what it has got to do with my Credit Card company.

 

Anyway I used my normal GBP credit card to pay and a Caxton Currency card to handle the On Board dollar account.

 

With regard to the latter I cannot remove money from it or move currencies around as Amazara have blocked them with their 'Pending' charge for the WiFi I bought. So I'll just have to be patient until it automatically erases itself.

 

The emailed Statement I was due to receive when they took the OB dollars seems to have evaporated in the ether(net). As it happens I got a copy on the boat - so maybe they are saving electricity by not emailing it !

 

All a bit of a mess - but life must go on.

 

Tony

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Last year the TA credit appeared on our shipboard statement a few hours after being on the ship. We booked excursions on the ship in $US and the OB credit was used up first (OB credit is non refundable). What was unused at the end of the cruise was TA credit in $US and was received on my credit card converted to $Cdn about 3 weeks post cruise.

 

 

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On the matter of refunds.

 

If you book an excursion as a Brit you buy at GBP and your card is charged instantly.

 

If you, or Amazara, cancel an excursion when you are on board your on board account is refunded in dollars. That cost about ten percent a couple of weeks ago on the Journey.

 

We had two cancellations. One precipitated by Amazara and one we decided to make ourselves.

 

Tony

 

The other issue - Azamara's conversion rate for land discoveries is 1.2195 as I have discovered if I book anything for my June cruise. A $94 excursion will cost me £77.08. I will ignore the credit card arguments but if a refund of $99 was posted to my card account today when the buy back rate is around 1.36 I would receive £68.11 so this work around solution is very expensive for non US guests.

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Interestingly my travel agent was able to switch me from OBC to getting a rebate check after the cruise. Without being able to use OBC for excursions I would never have used it all so this is a much better option.

 

We are booked on the March 19th Cuba & Grand Cayman voyage. If I book our shore excursions now, will I be able to change the payment from my credit card to OBC prior to the sailing or when we are onboard? I would like to book the excursions in the next few weeks as I'm a bit concerned that the shore excursions for Cuba are rather limited. Is it possible that Azamara will be adding excursions? It appears from Bonnie's posts on CC, that we should be able to change our FOP to our OBC. Is this correct? I'm sorry if this subject has been addressed in the past. However, I could not find an answer to the question for March 2018 cruises.
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