If I Book A Princess Excursion...how late can I cancel?

[ManhattanCruiser]

As many times as I've cruised with Princess... I have NEVER booked an excursion with them. Yet it looks (at least from my research) as though the "Ziplining" tours (in Juneau Alaska) are about the same price as if you did it directly with the Ziplining place...and obviously there are advantages to Princess as well (ship won't leave without you...transportation there and back, etc.)

 

But here's my question... If I book online... will I be charged immediately, or am I just making a "reservation"? Also, is there a cut-off for when I can cancel? If I were to meet someone onboard who said "that excursion is awful"... could I cancel on day prior, two days prior?

 

Thanks.

[Charliesmom]

I don't know if this is still true or not, but at least as of last February, when we went through the Panama Canal, if you booked online, you were not charged for the excursion at that time. The price would be added to your shipboard account. You could cancel a couple of days ahead if you changed your mind.

 

Roberta

[CruiseKing]

The best way of knowing the cut off date for canceling is to check the shore excursion section of the patter everyday. It will tell you when you need to cancel by as well as when bookings close for each port. I believe you need to cancel about 48 hours in advance. You can either go to the shore excursion desk or if you have your tickets simply write cancel on them and drop them in the box at the shore excursion desk.

[paul929207]

When you pre-book an excursion on the Princess website, the cost is charged to you onboard account. You pay when you settle up at the end of the cruise.

 

You can cancel a shore excursion (pre-booked or booked onboard) until the closing time for the tour. This is published in the Princess Patter. It is usually, 7pm two evenings before you arrive in the port. That is if you are arriving on Wednesday, you must cancel by 7pm on Monday. There are exceptions for the more expensive excursions that involve flights and/or hotels. These are noted in the description of the tour.

[cruisinlawn]

agree as noted above regarding cancellation, that's the way it was when we were on Star 6/1. We did the zip in Juneau. It was great. Kinda pricey at $160pp but we wanted to do it so we did.

 

I'd say pre-book, you can always cancel. From what I recall, they offered 3 or4 different times. When we boarded they were all sold out. We had pre-booked online. BTW, you can also cancel online prior to sailing as long as it is done prior to Princess closing out your access, which I think is one week prior to sail. Enjoy.

[skf]

They allow you to cancel up to the cutoff time for purchases for each tour, I expect they'd want the tickets back.

Steve

[cruzholic]

As has been said already,anything done online is only a reservation...not a charge. It is added to the rest of your reservation and the tickets should be on your bed in your cabin when you arrive. You should check with the shore excursion desk, but in the past all held reservations had to be cancelled by 24 hours before the excursion so that someone else on a wait list can be contacted to use the space. The charge is not applied until the date of the reservation. On past cruises my DH had to cancel his plans the evening before the excursion, but because the excursion desk was closed at that time we had to wait until the day of the excursion to actually notifify them he was not going. I checked with the excursion desk about an hour before the trip and found out they had not been able to fill our vacancy so I expected to see the charge. But, a few days later when I requested a copy of our account to date, there was no charge for his excursion only mine. From that, I realized someone had been found and used his ticket and it just had not been posted to the account until after I checked. We both were very pleased with the effeciency of Princess and NCL.

[Pam in CA]

When you pre-book an excursion on the Princess website, the cost is charged to you onboard account. You pay when you settle up at the end of the cruise.

 

You can cancel a shore excursion (pre-booked or booked onboard) until the closing time for the tour. This is published in the Princess Patter. It is usually, 7pm two evenings before you arrive in the port. That is if you are arriving on Wednesday, you must cancel by 7pm on Monday. There are exceptions for the more expensive excursions that involve flights and/or hotels. These are noted in the description of the tour.

For the most part, this is correct. When you book an excursion, you are reserving it and when you check in for the cruise, the amount is charged to your onboard account. When you get to your cabin, your excursion tickets will be there or delivered shortly afterward. Then, you have between 24 - 48 hours before the excursion to cancel; don't depend on it being 7PM two nights before as the days and times can vary. The day and time that cancellations for a port are closed is printed in the Patter so check there nightly.

 

Princess makes it easy for you to cancel an excursion. All you have to do is to drop the tickets into the drop box near or in front of the Shore Excursion Desk and the charge will be credited to your onboard account. You don't have to wait for the Shore Desk to open. It's a good idea to check a day or so later to make sure the refund has been made. You can also book an excursion at any time. The forms are at the Shore Desk; just fill it out and drop it in the drop box. There are rarely any lines at the Desk because of the way Princess handles bookings and cancellations of excursions.

[notentirelynormal]

My DS, DIL, niece and nephew and brother have all done it and thought it was great and great exercise too. The one they took in Alaska (not sure if yours is the same) had some climbing up and over and under and and... well way to much exercise for me). But they all went and raved about it later.