OBC on Explora?

[MarEll1]

Hello all! We have on hold a February booking from Bridgetown to Miami. Our TA is giving us some OBC. I’m confused about how we can use it. It looks to me if we book shore excursions ahead of time we can’t use OBC? Is that true? And if so, what can we use it for? I’m not a spa person and we have no interest in the expensive Anthology dinner. Thanks you in advance for your thoughts!

[PaulMCO]

37 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

Hello all! We have on hold a February booking from Bridgetown to Miami. Our TA is giving us some OBC. I’m confused about how we can use it. It looks to me if we book shore excursions ahead of time we can’t use OBC? Is that true? And if so, what can we use it for? I’m not a spa person and we have no interest in the expensive Anthology dinner. Thanks you in advance for your thoughts!

You can book shore excursions when you are on board and use this OBC. 

 

Ask your TA if it is refundable OBC.  If so and you do not use it, you can get cash at the end of the cruise.

[MarEll1]

14 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

You can book shore excursions when you are on board and use this OBC. 

 

Ask your TA if it is refundable OBC.  If so and you do not use it, you can get cash at the end of the cruise.

None of the OBC she has given us before had been refundable, but I will check.

Do shore excursions usually sell out? Any risk to waiting to book onboard? Also, I’ve seen a number of posts about excursions being cancelled last minute. Wondering if we’re better off doing something independently. 

[PaulMCO]

6 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

None of the OBC she has given us before had been refundable, but I will check.

Do shore excursions usually sell out? Any risk to waiting to book onboard? Also, I’ve seen a number of posts about excursions being cancelled last minute. Wondering if we’re better off doing something independently. 

That is the risk -- they have been cancelled because of not enough passengers.  We have close to 2K OBC much of it promotional that we have to use.    Excursions are $$ on Explora so should not be an issue (but we accept the risk),

[MarEll1]

3 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

That is the risk -- they have been cancelled because of not enough passengers.  We have close to 2K OBC much of it promotional that we have to use.    Excursions are $$ on Explora so should not be an issue (but we accept the risk),

Thanks for your input. That is a lot of OBC! 
I did notice excursions are pretty pricy. We have to make final payment Monday. I have some misgiving given some of the posts I read, but I’m thinking we will give Explora a try. 7 days in the Caribbean can’t be too bad!

[uktog]

45 minutes ago, MarEll1 said:

Thanks for your input. That is a lot of OBC! 
I did notice excursions are pretty pricy. We have to make final payment Monday. I have some misgiving given some of the posts I read, but I’m thinking we will give Explora a try. 7 days in the Caribbean can’t be too bad!

Although the excursions looked expensive, we found they included a bit more than your average excursion.  Our Death in Paradise tour in Guadeloupe included extensive snacks and lovely surroundings and in Bonaire we had a very good guide and experience (with both snacks and lunch).  None of our tours had more than 10 people on them.

[MarEll1]

51 minutes ago, uktog said:

Although the excursions looked expensive, we found they included a bit more than your average excursion.  Our Death in Paradise tour in Guadeloupe included extensive snacks and lovely surroundings and in Bonaire we had a very good guide and experience (with both snacks and lunch).  None of our tours had more than 10 people on them.

Thanks for that info. We were very disappointed with our Regent excursions in Alaska this summer - 4 of them 5 hours or so with no snacks or lunch provided or even available to purchase.