Advance Payment--Shore Excursions

[caribill]

 

Our first Princess cruise will be on Ruby...looks like we can book the excursions ahead, but payment is deferred til we get our onboard bill....so it looks like we'll have to set aside more for the onboard acct payment post cruise.

 

 

 

If you wish, Princess offers the option of pre-paying for your shore excursions. There is a link to do this on the main page of the cruise personalizer for your cruise.

 

It is an option, so you can wait to have it put on your onboard account if you wish.

[Jetswdo]

I usually cruise on Princess and occasionally Celebrity. On Celebrity, for us, I don't see the point of OBC, as we pre reserve restaurants and rarely use their shore excursions. As we book aqua class on Celebrity, you have to pay the gratuities up front. So we lose 5% of OBC and cash this out at the casino.

On Princess, we usually end up with a few hundred dollars OBC- which works out fine as the gratuities get deducted from that and then the occasional shore excursion---

So OBC ends up not being a good deal if what you are planning to do requires pre payment anyway.

 

I hope Princess will not require prepayment of excursions for that reason.

 

Now specialty restaurants are a different story. I like the idea of that being pre reserved and paid for as Celebrity does.

[Kinkacruiser]

While I understand the pushback, I was wondering what is the rationale for doing this? It can't be "other kids are doing it!" Do you think they had too many people reserving and then cancelling at the last moment? Do they need a firmer ... more reliable count of those going on each excursion? Or is it they just want our money up front?

 

I suspect this is could be the case. I know I'm guilty of cancelling shore excursion on board....particularly if the shipboard account is growing.

[dickinson]

I usually cruise on Princess and occasionally Celebrity. On Celebrity, for us, I don't see the point of OBC, as we pre reserve restaurants and rarely use their shore excursions. As we book aqua class on Celebrity, you have to pay the gratuities up front. So we lose 5% of OBC and cash this out at the casino.

On Princess, we usually end up with a few hundred dollars OBC- which works out fine as the gratuities get deducted from that and then the occasional shore excursion---

So OBC ends up not being a good deal if what you are planning to do requires pre payment anyway.

 

I hope Princess will not require prepayment of excursions for that reason.

 

Now specialty restaurants are a different story. I like the idea of that being pre reserved and paid for as Celebrity does.

 

I don't like anything to be prepaid other than the cruise itself. I have used OBC for the specialty restaurant and gratuities and excursions. I would hate to have to decide long before my cruise IF I want to eat at a specialty restaurant. If it is booked in advance then slots will be filled long before getting on the cruise.

 

I get OBC for being a shareholder, from TA, and sometimes it is a promotion from Princess to book. I would be wasting a lot of it if gratuities and excursions were prepaid. I would probably sell my stock too.

[denatravels]

I'm also on a Princess Land cruise, those excursions seem to require prepayment. Although even though just released yesterday, several are showing as sold out. Hope thats just a glitch.

 

 

 

I called. I was SO upset about the Kenai river cruise, since booking independently requires a car. There are no land tours that are currently sold out-- apparently things are not yet finalized. They didn't know why it's showing "sold out", but according to the rep in the shore excursions department, it's not.

[NavyVeteran]

If Princess requires prepayment for shore excursions, they will need to figure out some way still to allow OBC to be used for them.

 

I booked a 17-night trans-Atlantic on the Caribbean Princess for September 2016 under the Sip & Sail promotion, so I won't have a liquor bill onboard. We will have two complimentary speciality restaurant meals for two, and we probably won't eat in them more than that. We won't use more than our Platinum internet, and we won't be paying for laundry. DW has shopped so often at the onboard stores that she seldom finds anything else there anymore.

 

We have a total of $800 OBC - $250 for military, $250 for stockholder, and $150 each for FCD. We will have gratuities of $13.95 per person per day, or a total of $474.30 for the two of us. That leaves us $325.70 after paying gratuities - which would be used primarily for shore excursions. If we can't use it for shore excursions, what is it for?

[sunsetbeachgal]

I also do not care for this pilot program and hope it does not continue to the rest of the fleet and itineraries. In addition to Princess, We sometimes sail on HAL and Royal Caribbean, both of which require payment of excursions when the reservation is made. We usually wait and book onboard, heading right over to the excursion desk after we board.

 

I hope this isn't sign of things to come!

[cruisequeen4ever]

Does anyone know if Princess is planning on making the shore excursions refundable or non-refundable? That can make a big difference, too.

[denatravels]

Does anyone know if Princess is planning on making the shore excursions refundable or non-refundable? That can make a big difference, too.

 

 

Based on my needing to pay for land tours when reserved, I suspect refundable, since those are refundable.

I think they're trying to match the industry standard here-- which is refundable pretty close to sailing. I doubt excursions booked 8 months in advance wouldn't be refundable-- don't THINK any other line does that.

[Coral]

Based on my needing to pay for land tours when reserved, I suspect refundable, since those are refundable.

I think they're trying to match the industry standard here-- which is refundable pretty close to sailing. I doubt excursions booked 8 months in advance wouldn't be refundable-- don't THINK any other line does that.

 

Some charge a fee if you cancel..... :(

[denatravels]

Some charge a fee if you cancel..... :(

 

 

8 months out? Which line does that?

Edited October 25, 2015 by denatravels

[Pushka]

Celebrity refunds excursions - within 3 days so very quick.

[likeadisguise]

Apparently Princess is now requiring prepayment for all Alaska land excursions (taken during the land portion of a cruise tour, not the shore excursions during the cruise part).

[Pushka]

Apparently Princess is now requiring prepayment for all Alaska land excursions (taken during the land portion of a cruise tour, not the shore excursions during the cruise part).

 

 

Yes - my shore excursions aren't pre charged but my land tour excursions are pending on my credit card. They can be cancelled for no charge up to three days prior to departure.

 

Many of these were booked out, according to website, within 12 hours of being bookable, 7 months out.

[caribill]

Apparently Princess is now requiring prepayment for all Alaska land excursions (taken during the land portion of a cruise tour).

 

They have been doing this for a while.

 

However, the charge is not made until a couple of days before the land tour starts no matter how long before the tour you made the reservations.

 

In the trial of charging in advance for shore excursions during certain Alaska voyages next year, if you do not pay at the time you reserve them, then they are not reserved.

 

That is a big difference.

[Pushka]

They have been doing this for a while.

 

However, the charge is not made until a couple of days before the land tour starts no matter how long before the tour you made the reservations.

 

In the trial of charging in advance for shore excursions during certain Alaska voyages next year, if you do not pay at the time you reserve them, then they are not reserved.

 

That is a big difference.

 

 

No. That has changed. I can see the total price of two landtour excursions as pending charges in my credit card and my tour starts May 26. By this time next week they will have been charged.

 

There are no charges against the cruise excursions and I am confirmed on 4 excursions. I made those reservations about 2 weeks before the landtour ones.

 

I have not been charged for this cruise excursion and this shows in my booking:

Edited October 25, 2015 by Pushka

[Corfe Mixture]

We have a total of $800 OBC - $250 for military, $250 for stockholder, and $150 each for FCD. We will have gratuities of $13.95 per person per day, or a total of $474.30 for the two of us. That leaves us $325.70 after paying gratuities - which would be used primarily for shore excursions. If we can't use it for shore excursions, what is it for?

 

 

 

Yup totally agree. On our next cruise we have $1200 of non-refundable OBC $375 each Sales Promotion, $100 each FCD related, and $250 shareholder.

 

Because I could buy it at an exchange rate of $1.67 (current rate is $1.54), I have pre-paid my $180 each gratuities and purchased an additional $400 of OBC which is refundable if not used.

 

So in total I have $1960 of OBC (of which only $760 is refundable)

 

A rough estimate of my committed expenditure, including wine package, select dining, bar, beauty salon etc., shows we have around $300 of notionally unassigned OBC. This figure, however, is struck after we have charged pre-booked, but not pre-paid, ships tours to the value of $559.60 to my onboard account.

 

This figure of $300 is fine as if we do not spend it, it is refundable, though I suspect that we will find some way of getting the balance to zero!!

 

HOWEVER

 

If I had to prepay for my ships tours in advance and could not use OBC for these tours, on the basis of our present plans we would have $860 of notionally uncommitted OBC which is way too much.

 

Had pre-paying of tours been a requirement for upcoming cruise, my solution would have been to address this by:

a) not pre-paying our $360 gratuities

and

b) not purchasing an additional $400 of refundable OBC

 

Which given, my pre-booked tours are $200 less than the additional OBC I purchase would reduce my uncommitted OBC from $300 to $100

 

So, Princess, if you read this thread think of it this way.

 

On my upcoming cruise, I booked $559.60, of ship's tours. I have one private tour booked and I will have $300 of uncommitted OBC to spend on things I have not yet thought about.

 

Were the pre-purchase rule to have been applied to this cruise, I would not have pre-booked my tours or purchased the additional OBC and I would only have $100 of uncommitted OBC to spend on things I have not yet thought about.

 

Yes, I would still book some ship's tours but, in all likelihood, probably not as many. Certainly, apart from the combined day tour / airport transfer at the end of the cruise, I would have waited until after I had boarded before I booked any ship's tours. I would have been likely to seek out more private tours.

 

So, you would have lost out both on the level of my onboard expenditure and on the number of ship's tours I book.

 

Pre-paying for tours, may be good for cash flow management, but it may also be a revenue loser. It certainly would have been, probably to the tune of around $400, had it applied to my forthcoming cruise.

 

The bottom line therefore is:

 

BEWARE OF LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Edited October 25, 2015 by Corfe Mixture

[denatravels]

Yes - my shore excursions aren't pre charged but my land tour excursions are pending on my credit card. They can be cancelled for no charge up to three days prior to departure.

 

 

Many of these were booked out, according to website, within 12 hours of being bookable, 7 months out.

 

 

See post #30 about the "sold out" issue. Not so.

 

You may want to read the fine print-- yes, they are "refundable" in theory. But if you have any reserved shore excursions for the cruise, they will be applied to that balance first. If the balance is zero, they will refund to the card.

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/excursions.jsp

Edited October 25, 2015 by denatravels

[Pushka]

See post #30 about the "sold out" issue. Not so.

 

You may want to read the fine print-- yes, they are "refundable" in theory. But if you have any reserved shore excursions for the cruise, they will be applied to that balance first. If the balance is zero, they will refund to the card.

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/excursions.jsp

 

Ok, so post 30 is actually in response to my comment. A glitch.

Ok. I am sure those T&C's have changed since I booked?

Edited October 25, 2015 by Pushka

[denatravels]

I read the fine print and there is no mention of doing that. I'll post a screen shot. And will also check post 30. Ok, so post 30 is actually in response to my comment. A glitch.

 

 

Check the link-- click on "excursion cancellation"

[Pushka]

Check the link-- click on "excursion cancellation"

 

 

Yep - just changed my post. Did this just change? I guess a way round that is to cancel all cruise excursions first, then cancel the land excursion and then rebook the cruise excursion - immediately!

[Pushka]

Yep - just changed my post. Did this just change? I guess a way round that is to cancel all cruise excursions first, then cancel the land excursion and then rebook the cruise excursion - immediately!

 

 

No wait. Talking about 2 different things.

 

I dont have to pre pay my shore excursions.

 

I do have to prepay my land excursions. The latter are fully refundable.

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by Pushka

[Pushka]

These are the T&C for pre paid shore excursions

[ontheweb]

I pre pay my excursions because I like to know I am guaranteed a spot. I use my OBC to pay the cabin gratuities or my bar tab.

 

While it may guarantee a spot, it does not guarantee that there will be an excursion. Twice, on different cruise lines, we have prepaid only to find out the excursion had been cancelled. Once was on the Carnival Freedom in Cayman Islands. That one was cancelled due to they no longer trusted the vendor. The other was on the NCL Epic in Marseilles for Arles. They were a few short of the 25 minimum they required to have the excursion.

[denatravels]

No wait. Talking about 2 different things.

 

I dont have to pre pay my shore excursions.

 

I do have to prepay my land excursions. The latter are fully refundable.

 

 

 

 

These are the T&C for pre paid shore excursions

 

 

Ok-- now I'm really confused. The shore excursions are not prepaid. Land excursions are prepaid. Are you saying that what I posted applies to SHORE excursions, not land excursions? Why would it matter if I didn't prepay? Huh???