Advance Payment--Shore Excursions

[BigTimeCruiser]

A couple days ago, this was posted on the Princess Cruises Facebook page with a response from Princess:

 

"I just had my travel agent,(EDITED to comply with CC guidelies) a major Booker of Princess Cruises check and its true that I cant make excursion reservations for my Alaska Cruise out of San Francisco with out pre-paying for my excursions. Apparently it is a pilot program. We currently have 4 cruises booked through 3-2017. If this pre-pay of excursions requirement is extended to all cruises , we will need to commit hundreds of $$$$ to be able to reserve excursions months ahead of our cruises. This is a terrible idea and may finally push us as platinum cruisers to change and go to a different company that doesn't have a similar policy or to limit our cruising.

Please pass this complaint on to your management. maybe if enough of us loyal passengers complain this pilot program will be cancelled and thrown into the waste basket."

 

This is one of the responses provided by Princess:

 

"Princess Cruises -- Hi Donna, we appreciate your feedback. Other cruise lines require a pre-payment for shore excursions so we are currently trialling the concept for Grand Princess voyages to Alaska, departing from May 11-September 8, 2016 to evaluate guest response.

October 20 at 3:30pm"

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2015 by BigTimeCruiser

[fishywood]

I guess it was inevitable--but "trialing" the program on one ship will be a PR nightmare for Princess. Have to assume TAs will be steering their customers to other ships until the policy is made uniform. Though with Grand the only ship from San Francisco in the Summer some passengers will be trapped.

 

...but what a lame move by the referenced Facebook poster to threaten to take their business elsewhere--and while pointing out they have three future cruises booked, no less. I know of no other mainstream cruise lines that do not require pre-payment of all shore excursions: RCI and X have been for many years, and most other Carnival-corp brands started to do so in early 2013.

[hpeabody]

I really hope that this little experiment FAILS. I am elite, so I have been loyal to Princess for quite some time. I have always appreciated Princess' no pre-pay required policy. They more recently provided an option to pre-pay which is great for those wishing to manage their budgets a certain way. Please Princess DO NOT CHANGE THIS POLICY.

[dickinson]

I vote for no changes. I really like being able to book without paying up front. I am currently booked on a b2b with Carnival and discovered that they required the prepayment. I only booked two excursions with them. I can not see booking a lot of excursions in advance that I have to pay for up front. If I had a lot of cruises booked or long cruises (I actually have an FCC on two long Princess cruises. I hope to take one but not both) it would be too much to pay for the excursions up front.

 

Princess - Please go back to the old policy!!!!

[OCruisers]

Hate that this change will be made. Glad it's not fleet wide yet.

[Bruinboy]

While I understand the pushback, I was wondering what is the rationale for doing this? It can't be "other kids are doing it!" Do you think they had too many people reserving and then cancelling at the last moment? Do they need a firmer ... more reliable count of those going on each excursion? Or is it they just want our money up front?

[Bruin Steve]

I already know the customers' response: NOT HAPPY...

 

Nobody likes paying for stuff in advance when they can pay later...

In fact, I'm always a little puzzled that Princess gave me the option of paying gratuities in advance as well...

 

Why do that? I pay in advance, it goes on my credit card now...I cough up the cash well in advance of the cruise. I pay at the time of the sailing, it goes on my credit card then...and I come up with the cash about a month and a half later. Not that I get that much interest on a few extra dollars, but, better it sit in my account than theirs...And, if, need be, I need to cancel, better to have not paid for stuff then to have pre-paid and now need to get it returned.

 

Of course, OTOH, most cruise lines DO require pre-payment...of both shore excursions and gratuities--if one is in Anytime Dining...

 

For those shorexes, it helps the cruise line to know how many people are actually "committed" rather than just taking up space with an easily cancellable reservation...For some shorexes, space is truly limited...For others, it's a question of how many buses and guides the tour provider needs to plan for.

 

I, generally, tend to take private tours rather than shorexes...and, to be truthful, I feel less concerned about pre-paying a cruise line than pre-paying some local provider who might flake out.

 

BTW, I think it's likely more of a "phase-in" than a "trial"...

[beg3yrs]

IMHO it would make Princess more like many other cruise lines. Less differentiation between brands makes it easier for me to choose another line as Princess now loses an advantage.

 

They are slowly chipping away at reasons to choose Princess.

[skynight]

Bad Idea Princess. Negates benefits of having On Board Credits. Just another example of the nickle & dime concept. All the more business for private tour companies at the ports. Follow the airline's business plan and your ships will be void of passengers.

[cherylandtk]

Ugh. Terrible idea. I agree with others who said it takes away a lot of the good uses of OBC. If this becomes standard on Princess, I won't be pre-booking as many ship excursions.

[hpeabody]

After coming back and reading some more responses I have a couple more thoughts. Not being able to use OBC gets a BIG THUMBS DOWN from me. If they invoke this fleet wide I will now be incentivized to find my shore excursions elsewhere and not bother with Princess excursions. ( I prefer and do some private tours anyway, but just sayin')

 

The more Princess becomes like all the others is more reason to partake in their offerings and not stay loyal to Princess.

 

This isn't the way to win people over, Princess.

[IECalCruiser]

We only use Princess excursions for trips that would be difficult to do on our own. If we could not use OBC for excursions then we would no longer book Princess tours.

[IECalCruiser]

Hate that this change will be made. Glad it's not fleet wide yet.

It will be fleet wide if there is not enough pushback on the Grand [emoji33]

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

HAL has required prepayment on shore excursions for years - since Princess and HAL are now under the same Management team, this change does not surprise me.

[jwattle]

Well shoot. Add others have stated, that's the best use of OBC, especially if you booked during the sip and sail, so the AIBP is already comped. Hopefully they rethink this idea.

[nasa1974]

I pre pay my excursions because I like to know I am guaranteed a spot. I use my OBC to pay the cabin gratuities or my bar tab.

[IECalCruiser]

I pre pay my excursions because I like to know I am guaranteed a spot. I use my OBC to pay the cabin gratuities or my bar tab.

No need to pre pay excursions to be guaranteed a spot.

[Potstech]

I will just wait until I am a week or two from sailing to book mine or join the group that signs up after boarding. I did not like this concept when I sailed on Carnival and it is one of the reasons we do not use them. If this goes Princess wide it will be a bigger hassle for those involved with booking excursions especially if some are cancelled at a later date for lack of participation.

[caribill]

On Carnival, if you pre-book (and thus prepay) for excursions, any cancellation on board will have a 25% penalty until the day before the excursion when the penalty goes to 100%.

[Coral]

It is one of those "be careful what you wish for". As some were pushing to pay for excursions before you leave and saying this is great as you have a choice. Sounds like Princess took this to the next level and is now requiring it on the one ship.

 

Not impressed.

 

This Princess is not the Princess I fell in love with.

[hcat]

This pre payment procedure works fine for us on Celebrity...charges go to our credit card...easy to book, easy to change or cancel and we can spread out the cost. Lower bill when we actually cruise. We use our OBC for spa, specialty dining etc...

 

Our first Princess cruise will be on Ruby...looks like we can book the excursions ahead, but payment is deferred til we get our onboard bill....so it looks like we'll have to set aside more for the onboard acct payment post cruise.

 

 

Either way...happy to be cruising!

btw....Celebrity is no longer the cruise line we fell in love with!

Edited October 23, 2015 by hcat

[biker1972]

When faced with this prepay requirement on Celebrity, I quickly saw that there was an incentive to find private tours that were generally less expensive and much more enjoyable than the ones offered by the cruise line. Not being able to use the OBC is a big negative. Lining up at the shore excursion desk while once board because I didn't prepay is a big negative. Worrying that my first choice excursion will be filled because I didn't prepay is a negative. Boy am I glad I like research and can find great private tours that generally don't require prepayment. Princess may be giving up one of the things that makes it more attractive than some other lines.

[Coral]

When faced with this prepay requirement on Celebrity, I quickly saw that there was an incentive to find private tours that were generally less expensive and much more enjoyable than the ones offered by the cruise line. Not being able to use the OBC is a big negative. Lining up at the shore excursion desk while once board because I didn't prepay is a big negative. Worrying that my first choice excursion will be filled because I didn't prepay is a negative. Boy am I glad I like research and can find great private tours that generally don't require prepayment. Princess may be giving up one of the things that makes it more attractive than some other lines.

 

You are right.

 

In the past, I have done both Princess and private tours. This may backfire and I am more likely in the future to book privately more often that doesn't require pre-payment.

[Pushka]

I was delighted to find I didn't have to pre pay for Alaska next year, like we have had to do on our Celebrity cruises. And this explains why someone on the Alaska boards is having to pre pay and I dont. I'm also on a Princess Land cruise, those excursions seem to require prepayment. Although even though just released yesterday, several are showing as sold out. Hope thats just a glitch.

 

For Alaska I'm finding that due to Princess excellent AUD to US exchange rate that booking through Princess is actually cheaper than the exact tour booked privately (same vendors). Usually I book independently.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Pushka

[cruisequeen4ever]

Most displeased! I hope the pilot program fails. Princess needs to set itself apart from other cruise lines by maintaining their unique perks, not just changing good things because they can. Thank you, OP, for sharing this info.