Payment for Shore Excursions

[leaveitallbehind]

Thats what Royal Caribbean told me. No mention of anything different about once your on the cruise.

 

From experience the method I described regarding cancellations within three days of departure and up to 24 hours prior to the excursion are credited as an OBC. Any unused portion of that OBC will be credited to your credit card at the end of the cruise.

 

As Bob indicated, you probably received misinformation from the RCI rep.

[Flamencacha]

If you book now through RCI and the port is missed you will get refunded the amount you paid. Also, I believe (unless things have changed since we last cruised) that RCI reserves a certain % of excursions for booking on board. You can go to the Excursions desk when you embark and book then and it will be charged to your on board account.

 

 

 

Not sure what your complaint is though-if you book your own excursions with independent vendors they are going to want payment now as well so…...

 

 

 

No not necessarily, many prefer to be paid in cash. They may ask for a small deposit, but that is nothing like paying for 4 people months in advance.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BillOh]

Not sure what your complaint is though-if you book your own excursions with independent vendors they are going to want payment now as well so…...

 

Not all, some require partial downpayment, others none.

[BillOh]

 

I don't want to pay for it today - I want to pay for it when I am on board - as pay for it - with my OBC I have.

 

 

Nobody is forcing you to pay in advance, you can pay with OBC when you on board, but it might be full up. Unless your expecting to have OBC left over, this really is a minor issue.

 

I do find it hard to believe I am defending the Royal Excursions, but paying in advance, as you do most things in life isn't one of their big problems.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I can verify that if the excursion in question is on Day 2, they *will* waive the 24-hour thing as long as it is done when boarding - or up to around second seating on embarkation day as they realize that with the computer system not allowing you to make any changes within 3 days you cannot do 24 hours notice! I cancelled a Day 2 excursion on embarkation day and it was no problem having the amount refunded as a refundable OBC.

 

One thing I learned is that they do keep a waitlist on board and when possible - for example an excursion on a bus with a company that has access to multiple busses - they add on another "tour" to that excursion. They have to have a certain number of people on the list to do it, but in some cases it is possible. (I was cancelling a different excursion and the couple next to me was checking on their waitlist - the shore excursions rep said that while they were not in yet, the waitlist number was very close to them being able to add another group.) This is not a guarantee that they can do this with everything - example, the floatplane excursions in Alaska...those companies have a finite number of planes and pilots, so the odds of them being able to add another group there is slim to none.

Edited July 26, 2016 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[tmann4]

Pay with your RCCL CC and get the 3% bonus rebate to be used toward OBC. I believe it is 3%. Just do it early enough so you get the credit so you can apply it to your cruise. Glass half full.

[Clarea]

Pay with your RCCL CC and get the 3% bonus rebate to be used toward OBC. I believe it is 3%. Just do it early enough so you get the credit so you can apply it to your cruise. Glass half full.

Only 2% back on RC purchases.

[Desert Cruizers]

I pre booked an excursion for our upcoming cruise and have since canceled it because we made plans to take a tour with our Roll Call, I received credit on the credit card within 7 business days. I never worry about booking a cruise tour. I would rather pay it now then it is done. I have booked excursions on our own and they all ask for payment.

[knittinggirl]

So far, Holland America, Celebrity and Disney all insist on prepaying shore excursions. I think Disney has a "Can't Cancel onboard" policy (unless you get a note from medical), so for us, we use Disney mainly for the ship experience.

 

We even had to eat the cost of one of the private tours we booked through roll call, because they had a no refunds policy. But they were up front about it.

 

We book almost all ship tours. And we've been known to cancel more than we like. If they have a waiting list, they've even been known to refund after the 24 hour deadline. But we don't count on it. Once we got a refund after the normal hours for shore ex office because we visited the concierge lounge and asked our concierge host to fix it for us. Still w/in the 24 hour period. Concierge is open to suite guests. And some high level C&A loyalty passengers.

 

On a recent cruise on Rotterdam, we had three visits to medical, but we had a pretty low onboard bill because our cancelled prepaid excursions offset the medical bills.

 

For those with Mobility Issues, I'd suggest booking the shore excursion, then visit w/ shore ex office on day one to see if it's too hard.

 

Princess.com is also a great place to research because each shore ex description comes w/ an outline that includes bus time, walking distance, number of steps, etc.

 

Read the description carefully. We learned not too long ago, that if you have a tour with several stops, and passengers are slow returning the bus on one stop, they may cut the next stop short. And it may be the stop that led to the decision for buying the tour. So, these days we count the stops.

Edited January 21, 2017 by knittinggirl

[cruiselvr04]

If you have a lot of OBC then wait till you're on board to book. Very few excursions are totally sold out prior but know it can happen.

 

we never have enough OBC make it worth it to wait.