Prepaid Excursions Back (No Reserve Now, Pay Onboard)

[sassyredhat]

Under this new system it uses OBC if you have them in order to confirm the excursion booking.

If you have sufficient available OBC the prepaid system automatically uses those.

No credit card required in that case.

 

Am I understanding this correctly??

 

Back when----you had to prepay excursions, we prepaid $850 worth of excursions.

Then they reversed it and you didn't have to prepay.

 

We have over $700 of OBC. Will they use that and reimburse us because of the reversal of requirement ?

 

Patti

[Tranquility Base]

Sassyredhat,

Sorry I don't know; that's above my pay grade.

 

All I know is that we have our next cruise (booked a long time ago) on which excursions have been open quite a while and we can book as per the old system. No prepay required.

 

We also have a cruise late this year (only recently booked ) where excursions have recently opened up.

We had to use this new prepay system for that one, ie: prepay, but any available OBC is used first before a credit card would be needed.

[cherylandtk]

Not all OBC is available at that time or qualifies. :(

Keith, do you know which does or doesn't?

[NavyVeteran]

Keith, do you know which does or doesn't?

 

Princess wants proof of stock ownership dated within 90 days of sailing for the stockholder OBC. If you are booking excursions before you send in the proof of stock ownership, then you can't use the stockholder OBC yet.

[GranJean]

Just reserved some excursions for our Panama Canal cruise in October and paid for them from our OBC. Easy peasy.

OBC is $300 each when we booked, 250 veterans for Grant. Plus prepaid gratuities.

[Colo Cruiser]

Keith, do you know which does or doesn't?

 

 

Qualifies was not a correct term. I meant available. :o

Loyalty and some TA credit which does not show until onboard.

[azbirdmom]

I checked my May cruise and I can still reserve excursions without prepaying. Excursions just opened up for our October cruise but they require prepayment of credit card or OBC. Wonder why there wasn't any notification from Princess about this change in procedure? Maybe they just suspended the prepayment requirement for a couple of months until they figured out the mechanics of allowing one to pay with OBC?

[RJAM3]

Just checed June to Alaska and it says pay now or pay later on board

[Papa Yoda]

Am I understanding this correctly??

 

Back when----you had to prepay excursions, we prepaid $850 worth of excursions.

Then they reversed it and you didn't have to prepay.

 

We have over $700 of OBC. Will they use that and reimburse us because of the reversal of requirement ?

 

Patti

 

If I recall correctly, when they reversed the Prepay-only requirement (last November ??) , the "notice" said to Cancel and re-book your excursions if you wanted to pay via your on board folio (and use OBC).

 

If your cruise is within 5 days of sailing, your cancelation will result in OBC not a refund to your credit card.

[RDC1]

Am I understanding this correctly??

 

Back when----you had to prepay excursions, we prepaid $850 worth of excursions.

Then they reversed it and you didn't have to prepay.

 

We have over $700 of OBC. Will they use that and reimburse us because of the reversal of requirement ?

 

Patti

 

Probably not. But you if you have time before the cruise you could cancel, get the prepayment refunded to your card and rebook the excursions under the current terms. Call and talk to customer service.

[NavyVeteran]

It does look as if Princess paid attention to our complaints. The major complaint about their prepay policy was the use of OBC, and they responded to that complaint before re-implementing the policy. As long as they allow OBC and the prepaid excursions are fully refundable (to your credit card if cancelled in advance or to refundable OBC if you cancel before the deadline onboard, I will be willing to live with prepayment. I prefer the old policy, but I am willing to accept the new one.

 

I'm not sure that Princess will benefit very much however, since I may reserve fewer Princess shore excursions. With no prepayment, it's so easy to reserve that I sometimes did so without doing a lot of research on alternatives.

[RDC1]

I checked my May cruise and I can still reserve excursions without prepaying. Excursions just opened up for our October cruise but they require prepayment of credit card or OBC. Wonder why there wasn't any notification from Princess about this change in procedure? Maybe they just suspended the prepayment requirement for a couple of months until they figured out the mechanics of allowing one to pay with OBC?

 

I suspect that when they made the announcement that it would go into effect fleet wide in 2017 (after the test in Alaska) they got sufficient backlash that they dropped that approach, but not the end goal. They left the language in place and now seem to be taking the approach of a gradual, quiet implementation. They never publicly rescinded the plan, only told individuals that they were going back to allowing pre-reservations without payment. So now we have pre-payment required but allowing OBC to be used (without a consistent start date for the requirement). Only wondering when they go to full implementation of the language Caribill quoted earlier. I believe that the language defines what their true goal is. They are gradually raising the temperature on the lobster since they found throwing it into already boiling water did not work.

 

If their goal is to allow OBC to be used then they should update the language to say that any OBC that exists at the time of the booking can be used.

[Cruzee2]

I checked my May cruise and I can still reserve excursions without prepaying. Excursions just opened up for our October cruise but they require prepayment of credit card or OBC. Wonder why there wasn't any notification from Princess about this change in procedure? Maybe they just suspended the prepayment requirement for a couple of months until they figured out the mechanics of allowing one to pay with OBC?

 

My wife and I checked our May UK Cruise and it says the same (Pay now or Pay onboard later), but our November Mexico cruise is asking for Prepayment or move to wishlist. We've been cruising for years on Princess and never had to prepay excursions. It was always great to be able to hold our excursions and then pay onboard. Also one of the things we enjoyed about Princess Cruises (compared to the other lines).

 

What a disappointment!!! :(

[RDC1]

My wife and I checked our May UK Cruise and it says the same (Pay now or Pay onboard later), but our November Mexico cruise is asking for Prepayment or move to wishlist. We've been cruising for years on Princess and never had to prepay excursions. It was always great to be able to hold our excursions and then pay onboard. Also one of the things we enjoyed about Princess Cruises (compared to the other lines).

 

What a disappointment!!! :(

 

When they first announced this change last year I called and canceled 4 cruises that I had booked. I have booked two since they reversed the policy decision. If either shows prepayment required I will probably cancel them.

[NavyVeteran]

When they first announced this change last year I called and canceled 4 cruises that I had booked. I have booked two since they reversed the policy decision. If either shows prepayment required I will probably cancel them.

 

I don't like the new policy either, but I don't know where you will find a cruise line with a better policy. You can use OBC and the payment is fully refundable even if you don't cancel until you are onboard (as long as you cancel prior to the deadline for that port). On the last three non-Princess cruises I have taken, I had to prepay for excursions; and on one of them, I couldn't cancel prepaid excursions past the cruise final payment date.

[RDC1]

I don't like the new policy either, but I don't know where you will find a cruise line with a better policy. You can use OBC and the payment is fully refundable even if you don't cancel until you are onboard (as long as you cancel prior to the deadline for that port). On the last three non-Princess cruises I have taken, I had to prepay for excursions; and on one of them, I couldn't cancel prepaid excursions past the cruise final payment date.

 

 

Currently they are allowing OBC. Written statement still says that OBC cannot be used. Will be interesting to see if they change the language to match, or if at some point they switch the procedure to match the language and stop accepting OBC. If they stop accepting OBC then Princess loses one of their main competitive advantage and at that point other lines become more cost effective options.

[jnc411]

Just booked excursions yesterday for Sept 2017 cruise, wording on personalizer was this excursion is not reserved until payment made, so I called Princess asked questions, told me I could use OBC already listed on my account, but it has not showed up as paid on reservation yet, so called again and was told that it takes some time to show up, will see what it shows today. Not a fan of this new system, we have always booked and paid once on board with OBC, then any excess on our on board account. Was looking at couple more excursions but now am rethinking that.

Cori

[ILShipmates]

Am I understanding this correctly??

 

Back when----you had to prepay excursions, we prepaid $850 worth of excursions.

Then they reversed it and you didn't have to prepay.

 

We have over $700 of OBC. Will they use that and reimburse us because of the reversal of requirement ?

 

Patti

Whether they will do that automatically or not I don't know. However, you have the option of canceling pre-paid excursions without penalty up till 5 days before sailing. You would then be able to rebook on line and use OBC to pay for them. I booked an excursion for our October cruise last night and it required a payment to hold the reservation. After selecting the "pay" option it then gave me the option to "pay" or use obc, and even told me how much OBC I had to use.

[cherylandtk]

Just booked excursions yesterday for Sept 2017 cruise, wording on personalizer was this excursion is not reserved until payment made, so I called Princess asked questions, told me I could use OBC already listed on my account, but it has not showed up as paid on reservation yet, so called again and was told that it takes some time to show up, will see what it shows today. Not a fan of this new system, we have always booked and paid once on board with OBC, then any excess on our on board account. Was looking at couple more excursions but now am rethinking that.

Cori

Their system is not quite seamless in this yet. From your Booking Summary page, if you click on the Excursion Reservations tab and then scroll to the bottom, click on the Confirmed Reservations & Payment History arrow. You will see all of your reservations marked Paid.

 

But if you click on the Payments & Credits tab; all the excursions are marked pending, and the balance of your OBC still shows as the original amount.

 

I figure they will leave the payments page that way until you get onboard and the excursion tickets are issued. And you can always print out the excursion page showing the paid and confirmed status to take with you.

[Cruiser411]

Currently they are allowing OBC. Written statement still says that OBC cannot be used. Will be interesting to see if they change the language to match, or if at some point they switch the procedure to match the language and stop accepting OBC. If they stop accepting OBC then Princess loses one of their main competitive advantage and at that point other lines become more cost effective options.

 

Since they just changed their system to allow OBC to be used up-front, I'd say that this option is here to stay. It's probably not available on every ship/itinerary yet so that may be the reason why the language hasn't changed in the statement.

[sassyredhat]

Sassyredhat,

Sorry I don't know; that's above my pay grade.

 

All I know is that we have our next cruise (booked a long time ago) on which excursions have been open quite a while and we can book as per the old system. No prepay required.

 

We also have a cruise late this year (only recently booked ) where excursions have recently opened up.

We had to use this new prepay system for that one, ie: prepay, but any available OBC is used first before a credit card would be needed.

 

Thank you. :)

 

Patti

[Grego]

This is from the Princess website FAQ's:

 

 

Get the most out of your experience at port by booking a shore excursion. Princess® offers a variety of excursions perfect for families, sightseeing, adventure, and exploring wildlife and nature. You can book your shore excursion with Cruise Personalizer® from approximately 180 days before travel, and up to 5 days before you depart. Learn more about our ports and excursions.

Onboard credit will not be accepted for pre-reservations, however, it can be used once onboard to off-set payment for additional excursions purchased onboard.

So, I am interpreting this that in regards to payment for a Princess excursion that before you board and reserve it requires payment.

If you book an excursion once on the ship, then they will use the OBC that you have.

Since my future cruise is in October, I can't test this out on their website.

Its a shame if they are changing the process, however from a business point of view I see why.

DH and I signed up for a tour and thought all was great and was told 2 days beforehand that it was cancelled because not enough signed up for it. :(

 

I have to agree with you and your strategy going forward. We have a lot of OBC lined up in our next voyage and we'll bite the bullet and wait until we are onboard to book the excursion and let the OBC pay for it. If the excursion sells out before we get onboard, that's what it is and we'll find another way to spend the money.

 

We have seen too many folks who can't make a decision, overbook excursions which may lock out others from getting a reservation. Those canceling at the last moment present another business issue. I'm sure all cruise lines figure that some of this will happen and plan for it.

[NavyVeteran]

I have to agree with you and your strategy going forward. We have a lot of OBC lined up in our next voyage and we'll bite the bullet and wait until we are onboard to book the excursion and let the OBC pay for it. If the excursion sells out before we get onboard, that's what it is and we'll find another way to spend the money.

 

We have seen too many folks who can't make a decision, overbook excursions which may lock out others from getting a reservation. Those canceling at the last moment present another business issue. I'm sure all cruise lines figure that some of this will happen and plan for it.

As stated earlier, you can use OBC to pay for shore excursions reserved in advance. When you go to pay, it lets you apply OBC and then you only have to charge the excess to a credit card.

 

The only problem is that they only let you use OBC that is already posted to your account and listed on your Cruise Personalizer. This includes veterans OBC, FCD OBC, and OBC from a Princess sale promotion. It does not include shareholder OBC until you send in your proof of ownership less than 90 days before sailing. It does not include loyalty OBC. It does not include purchased OBC or OBC provided by a travel agent.

 

If you have some OBC available on advance, then you can use it to reserve some of your excursions. I would recommend reserving the ones you really want and/or the ones that look like they may have limited capability.

[wishfulone]

We have two cruises later this year. I reserved excursions for the first one a few months ago and they'll be billed onboard in USD. Excursions for the second cruise have only just been released and are shown as add to cart/pay now. I reserved 2 excursions last night using the Australian Princess website and got such a surprise when my credit card was charged in USD meaning the price is much higher due to the exchange rate and I'll have to pay bank charges for a foreign currency transaction as well. It seems ridiculous when I can prepay the gratuities in AUS and order bottles of water etc all using AUS. Lesson learned that's for sure. Don't prebook excursions. I wonder how the Shore Ex staff on the ships will cope when everyone tries to book on the first day?

[Opua Kiwi]

It seems ridiculous when I can prepay the gratuities in AUS and order bottles of water etc all using AUS.

What AUD exchange rate is being used by Princess on that gratuities cost ?