Alaska excursions

[lbfluffy]

I just got an email that our Alaskan excursions opened up for our June cruise. It says if I prepay I get a 5 percent discount. How long do they offer that discount? I have no clue what to book. We've only done the same itinerary 9 years ago, Juneau Skagway Ketchikan and Victoria. I think we did all outside agencies. I'm not sure if we should book through them or do some research. What do you all think?

[ar1950]

Personally I would do a little research. There are a lot of choices and sometimes the savings by doing privately far outweighs any 5% savings you might get from prepaying the Princess excursion. :cool:

[Arizona-Cruising]

We also received e-mail surprised me it was so early. If there is something you may think you want to do, they may book out and not be available. We have done both, you can research the local companies and compare. This summer we have done the cruise you are going on and some of the excursions were priced similiar both land and ship.

 

Juneau all whale excursions tend to sell out, plus outside sources tend to collect your fees ahead of time.

[lbfluffy]

We also received e-mail surprised me it was so early. If there is something you may think you want to do, they may book out and not be available. We have done both, you can research the local companies and compare. This summer we have done the cruise you are going on and some of the excursions were priced similiar both land and ship.

 

Juneau all whale excursions tend to sell out, plus outside sources tend to collect your fees ahead of time.

 

Thank you. We aren't sure what we want to do yet. One port we rented a car up to Emerald lake, it was amazing because we found an Eagle sanctuary and got to hold Eagles.

[denatravels]

That's interesting-- I received an email, but no discount to prepay. It does say "prepay now available" but no mention of a discount.

[san diego sue]

Got the email yesterday for our Alaska August cruise. Thought it odd to have them released so early. However, only available if you want to prepay . A small discount was shown. I felt it was much higher than what we paid this past July. This is strange. Normally when released you reserve and don't have to pay till you are on board(through shipboard account) and you are given option to prepay. This was just pay now. Wonder if Princess is trying to do what other cruise lines do, pay in advance for tours. HAL does that.

With OBC to use, I never want to prepay.If this is the new thing, what do we use all our OBC .

[never2late]

I was wondering the same thing. Our Alaska cruise is not until June. In the past, I could not cancel the flight excursion after 30 day prior to our cruise last time, but I did not have to pay until onboard. Is this a new policy? What do I do with onboard credit?

[Suzanne123]

Our cruise is in May on the Crown. I didn't get an e-mail, but I was able to book excursions with no mention of pre-payment.

[Pushka]

I didnt prepay and have reserved all our Alaska excursions for June 2016. They show as confirmed. I can pay in advance or onboard as per below:

 

There was no discount offered.

The excursion I wanted to do independently (Gastineau photography tour in Juneau) could only be booked through the cruiseline according to Gastineau website.

[donswife]

If you are planning to go on a flight or helicopter excursion that lands somewhere, ie a glacier, it is worth booking through the cruise line. Last year some passengers were stranded several places due to weather and missed their ship. The cruise lines covered expenses only for those on official ship tours.