Excursions - do you have to prepay?

[familycruzer]

I have $500 in OBC to spend and was looking at excursions but they wanted payment. Do I need to wait until I am on board to book then since I want to use OBC?

[MCAT48]

Yes if you want to use obc

[garycarla]

Yes, you have to be ONBOARD to use your ONBOARD credit.

 

Side note - for some reason this is getting asked a lot lately. hmmmm

[familycruzer]

Well other lines allow you to just reserve a spot. Pay once you board. Thought I was missing something on the NCL website.

[psbtrvlr]

Well other lines allow you to just reserve a spot. Pay once you board. Thought I was missing something on the NCL website.

 

Most other lines require you to pay when you book. Princess doesn't, but Carnival, HAL, Celebrity, etc do.

[vacation luvver]

Yes, you have to be ONBOARD to use your ONBOARD credit.

 

Side note - for some reason this is getting asked a lot lately. hmmmm

Maybe this question is being asked a lot lately because when I last sailed with NCL in 2010, I booked my shore excursions ahead of time but did not have to pay for them on the spot. The costs showed up on my cruise statement, and if I had had OBC, it would have been applied against the costs of my shore excursions.

 

But now we have to pay in advance if we want to book shore excursions in advance. I don't know when NCL decided to do things this way, but it was after the summer of 2010. I don't blame people for wondering about this if the last time they booked shore excursions with NCL, they didn't have to pay for them on the spot but were billed in their cruise statement.

[VideoTech]

Maybe this question is being asked a lot lately because when I last sailed with NCL in 2010, I booked my shore excursions ahead of time but did not have to pay for them on the spot. The costs showed up on my cruise statement, and if I had had OBC, it would have been applied against the costs of my shore excursions.

 

But now we have to pay in advance if we want to book shore excursions in advance. I don't know when NCL decided to do things this way, but it was after the summer of 2010. I don't blame people for wondering about this if the last time they booked shore excursions with NCL, they didn't have to pay for them on the spot but were billed in their cruise statement.

 

NCL changes their booking system - I think about two years ago. It used to be that you booked your excursions in advance to reserve your place, and then at the end of the cruise you'd see the billing for the excursions on your account, less any OBC applied. Now you pay up front unless you wait to book on board.

 

I suspect that we're probably just making a nice, interest free loan to NCL when we book excursions under the new system...I doubt the excursion operators get paid up front!

[Da-Painter]

So, if you wait to book excursions until you board the ship, do it immediately once you get on the ship.

Last time, we waited til the 2nd day, and the excursions we wanted were full. So we ended up with the less popular excursions. :o