excursion payments

[minnesotasisu]

I don't recall how excursions are typically paid. We have some onboard credits applied to our upcoming cruises and it appears that when I add an excursion to the cart the payment is shown as "0" because they appear to be using our OBC for payment. However, I do recall that on previous cruises the excursions would show up on our daily journey account and were paid for at the time the excursion was done. Is that correct? If we have sufficient OBC in our account on the day of the excursion the payment for the excursion is taken from that OBC, and if there is not, it is charged to our credit card on file?

 

Or are the excursions paid for at the time of booking them using OBC (if we have enough) or charged to our credit card on file?

 

We anticipate having over $1000 of excursions charges for one of our upcoming cruises but will have $510 in OBC. I could add additional OBC using gift cards to pay for these excursions.

 

Another question: I have a certain amount of OBC in my name and my wife has a smaller amount of OBC in her name due to the stockholder OBC being put under my name. When we book excursions using OBC are the accounts combined or is her payments for excursions take from her OBC and my payments taken from my OBC?

 

Please sort this out for me! TIA

Edited November 18, 2023 by minnesotasisu

[karatemom2]

Princess now charges upfront for prebooked excursions so if you have OBC already posted to your account they can be charged against your credits. Anything over your credits will be charged to your credit card that you provide at time of purchase. In my recent experience with our OBC related to our stock credit which shows up under my husband’s name it applied to both of us when I used it to pay for an excursion. We were logged in under his Captain Circles number when I did the booking online. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by karatemom2

[Rick&Jeannie]

When you book an excursion pre-cruise and by some chance want to "save" your OBC for something else go slow at the actual "payment" screen. There is a pre-ticked checkbox that says something like "use your OBC". Just uncheck that and then you will need to provide your credit card info.

[minnesotasisu]

15 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

When you book an excursion pre-cruise and by some chance want to "save" your OBC for something else go slow at the actual "payment" screen. There is a pre-ticked checkbox that says something like "use your OBC". Just uncheck that and then you will need to provide your credit card info.

We want to use our OBC and in fact may purchase additional gift cards to put in our OBC account to help pay for them. However, yesterday when I tried to book an excursion it did not recognize that I had $250 of OBC from being a stockholder and wanted my credit card info to help pay for the additional charges that were not covered by OBC. I guess I am going to have to call Princess directly and book my excursions to make sure it is done how I want.

[richart]

21 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

When you book an excursion pre-cruise and by some chance want to "save" your OBC for something else go slow at the actual "payment" screen. There is a pre-ticked checkbox that says something like "use your OBC". Just uncheck that and then you will need to provide your credit card info.

Rick&Jeannie, thanks for the tip on the pre-ticked checkbox. I had only $150 of on board credit and it got  used towards an excursion that I booked pre cruise. Now the excursion has been cancelled and they  refunded the amount of the excursion less the OBC. So far the OBC has not shown back up. My first cruise dealing with Princess and so far the experience has been less than desired...and the cruise is still months away.

[polmcs]

6 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

We want to use our OBC and in fact may purchase additional gift cards to put in our OBC account to help pay for them. However, yesterday when I tried to book an excursion it did not recognize that I had $250 of OBC from being a stockholder and wanted my credit card info to help pay for the additional charges that were not covered by OBC. I guess I am going to have to call Princess directly and book my excursions to make sure it is done how I want.

I’ve found that when booking excursions in advance of a cruise, the SHOBC can only be applied to the passenger who has the credit against their name. If I have say $100 SHOBC and I book a $50 excursion for both passengers in the reservation, it will take $50 of my OBC and apply it to my reservation and then ask me to pay the $50 for the other passenger, even though technically, I still have the other $50 of OBC in my account. 
 

No such issues if I wait until I board to use the OBC for both passengers assuming both onboard folios are paid by the same credit card.

[IndyKid]

When I booked our excursions for our upcoming trip it automatically applied our OBC and then I paid the balance on my CC, which is what I wanted anyway. 

[minnesotasisu]

this has proved to be very frustrating!!!

 

I purchased two $500 AARP gift cards for Princess Cruises and applied them to my account in the hopes of using them for excursions, crew incentives, Wi-Fi, etc. BUT now I find that I can't use any of this $1000 to pay for my wife's excursions, crew incentives, Wi-Fi, etc because the gift cards were put on MY account name and not hers!!! I thought about buying her some OBC with my OBC either, that can only be purchased using a credit card. In addition, the $250 for stockholder OBC was only put on my account, not hers, even though it is a joint account. So now I have all this OBC that I might not be able to use and she has very little. I was on the chat line for over an hour trying to get this straight and that is what they told me. I am VERY frustrated by this whole ordeal.

[minnesotasisu]

On 11/18/2023 at 11:19 AM, karatemom2 said:

Princess now charges upfront for prebooked excursions so if you have OBC already posted to your account they can be charged against your credits. Anything over your credits will be charged to your credit card that you provide at time of purchase. In my recent experience with our OBC related to our stock credit which shows up under my husband’s name it applied to both of us when I used it to pay for an excursion. We were logged in under his Captain Circles number when I did the booking online. 

They did not allow our $250 stockholder OBC to be used to help pay for my wife's excursion payment. I had a LONG chat online and since the OBC is under my name it is only applied to my charges. What a crock.

[karatemom2]

5 minutes ago, minnesotasisu said:

They did not allow our $250 stockholder OBC to be used to help pay for my wife's excursion payment. I had a LONG chat online and since the OBC is under my name it is only applied to my charges. What a crock.

 

That is a real bummer! Sorry about that. Thinking back to my experience, I realize that the tour we were booking was our Rome excursion which was very expensive - over $250, so we applied our credits but had to pay a balance as well, so I guess I was just thinking that it was all being applied to both of us, but in reality it probably just paid for his. We owed the balance that wasn't covered by OBC credits which likely was my half.

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, minnesotasisu said:

this has proved to be very frustrating!!!

 

I purchased two $500 AARP gift cards for Princess Cruises and applied them to my account in the hopes of using them for excursions, crew incentives, Wi-Fi, etc. BUT now I find that I can't use any of this $1000 to pay for my wife's excursions, crew incentives, Wi-Fi, etc because the gift cards were put on MY account name and not hers!!! I thought about buying her some OBC with my OBC either, that can only be purchased using a credit card. In addition, the $250 for stockholder OBC was only put on my account, not hers, even though it is a joint account. So now I have all this OBC that I might not be able to use and she has very little. I was on the chat line for over an hour trying to get this straight and that is what they told me. I am VERY frustrated by this whole ordeal.

Not that this will make you feel any better, but you wouldn't be able to use it for Wifi, crew appreciation, etc. anyways. You can only use gift cards for shore excursions. Once boarded you can use it for anything purchased onboard, including those other things. But yes, when I had OBC it only took it to pay for my excursions and I had to still pay out of pocket for DH. Sorry this has happened.

[minnesotasisu]

1 hour ago, no1racefan1 said:

Not that this will make you feel any better, but you wouldn't be able to use it for Wifi, crew appreciation, etc. anyways. You can only use gift cards for shore excursions. Once boarded you can use it for anything purchased onboard, including those other things. But yes, when I had OBC it only took it to pay for my excursions and I had to still pay out of pocket for DH. Sorry this has happened.

Yes, now they tell me I can't use the gift cards for wifi or crew appreciation, etc. I have to use it for onboard services! there is NO way I am going to spend $1000 on onboard services on a cruise. My only resort to perhaps get my money back is to cancel the cruise which the way I am fuming right now feels about the right thing to do.

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, minnesotasisu said:

Yes, now they tell me I can't use the gift cards for wifi or crew appreciation, etc. I have to use it for onboard services! there is NO way I am going to spend $1000 on onboard services on a cruise. My only resort to perhaps get my money back is to cancel the cruise which the way I am fuming right now feels about the right thing to do.

You should be able to use it to cover wifi and crew appreciation once onboard.