prepay shore excursions

[mrsihopes]

We are going to Alaska the end of this month and just went in to book some shore excursions before hand. Have been on quite a few cruises and this is the first time I have seen this. When did they start having you prepay for the shore excursions. In the past it has always been put onto our on board account. Just wondering when all of this started.

[JF - retired RRT]

We are going to Alaska the end of this month and just went in to book some shore excursions before hand. Have been on quite a few cruises and this is the first time I have seen this. When did they start having you prepay for the shore excursions. In the past it has always been put onto our on board account. Just wondering when all of this started.

 

It's a "trial" on some of the ships in Alaska this season. Hopefully, it will go away.

[nanabananna]

We are going to Alaska the end of this month and just went in to book some shore excursions before hand. Have been on quite a few cruises and this is the first time I have seen this. When did they start having you prepay for the shore excursions. In the past it has always been put onto our on board account. Just wondering when all of this started.

 

 

What Ship are you sailing? I hope Pre-Pay will not last, too. :eek:

[Spideysmum]

I hope Pre-Pay will not last, too. :eek:

 

 

Why? Newbie cruiser here - but I've booked and prepaid mine. Just curious.

 

 

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[san diego sue]

We usually use our On Board Credits to help pay for the tours. So don't want to pay in advance. Reserving on line and being charged on the ship works better for us.

The only ship this summer that Princess asks to prepay for tours is the 10 day Grand Princess out of San Francisco.We are on the ship in August. Usually we reserve in advance. this time have nothing booked because I don't want to pay now .

[mrsihopes]

We are on the Grand out of SF. In the past we have always booked excursions online and we were not charged until we were onboard, so that we could use our on board credits to pay for the excursions. Will wait till we board to book them now.

[myfuzzy]

I am on the Caribbean Princess in November, it gives me the option of pre paying or tells me that it would be put on my onboard account

[Spideysmum]

Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

 

 

 

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[Kamloops50]

You can book online and not pay for them. They will charge you for them when you board (1st night) . Tickets will be in your cabin when you board paid in advance or not.

[mrsihopes]

You can book online and not pay for them. They will charge you for them when you board (1st night) . Tickets will be in your cabin when you board paid in advance or not.

 

That is the way it used to be is not giving me that option wants me to prepay. Used to be that way but not on this cruise....

[mrsihopes]

Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

 

 

 

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Yes would make no difference to you if you do not have onboard credit. Prepay is fine. Have a great cruise....

[Kamloops50]

That is the way it used to be is not giving me that option wants me to prepay. Used to be that way but not on this cruise....

 

We where on the Coral Princess in April . I booked some excursions and didn't prepay . The tickets where in our cabin and charged to the on-board account.

[OCruisers]

It's a "trial" on some of the ships in Alaska this season. Hopefully, it will go away.

 

All of us hope it will go away!

We have shore excursions booked for Caribbean cruises in 2017 and NO prepay was required. :)

 

[Asa Hartz]

Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

 

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If you pay in advance with a Princess Visa rewards card, you'll get double points that can be redeemed for OBC on your cruise. Just a thought.

[caribill]

You can book online and not pay for them. They will charge you for them when you board (1st night) . Tickets will be in your cabin when you board paid in advance or not.

 

As posted above, Princess forces payment when you pre-reserve for this one itinerary.

 

Only way to avoid pre-payment is to wait until you get on the ship and hope what you want is not fully booked.

[caribill]

We are going to Alaska the end of this month and just went in to book some shore excursions before hand. Have been on quite a few cruises and this is the first time I have seen this. When did they start having you prepay for the shore excursions. In the past it has always been put onto our on board account. Just wondering when all of this started.

 

Be sure to mention in the post-cruise survey what you think of this new policy.

[karatemom2]

We are on the Grand in a couple of weeks and found the same thing when we went to book excursions. Not pleased at all with this new policy and very much resent being the test guinea pigs on our Alaska cruise! :mad:

[caber]

I don`t like this idea. They have it on P&O. We have several tours reserved for our next cruise. Since booking there has been a 10% reduction in the cost of the tours. I had to cancel and rebook. It would make it more difficult if you had paid.

[skynight]

Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

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To pre-pay or not to pre-pay is a personal budget issue. We always seem to have lots of OBC, and it has always been more economic for us not to pre-pay.

 

Being a new Princess customer has really very little to do with having on board credits. OBC's can be received from T.A.'s, as part of a Princess promo, from ownership of Carnival Corp. stock, from being active or discharged military, from gifting yourself OBC. There are also promos that include free grats. This is not really OBC, but frees up any OBC you have from these daily charges. All OBC on Princess is stackable.

 

Once on board the first time another source is to purchase a fully refundable Future Cruise Deposit on board. When you use the FCD to book another cruise you receive some OBC depending on the length of the cruise and the cabin cat..

 

Long time 'status' cruisers, over 20 cruises, receive a modest loyalty OBC from $25/cabin to $100/cabin for over 51 cruises. This is the only OBC related to status.

[Shaze]

We where on the Coral Princess in April . I booked some excursions and didn't prepay . The tickets where in our cabin and charged to the on-board account.

 

Were your excursions for the week you were on the ship? If so, then yes, you can pay later with your on-board account. However, you must pay up front for excursions for the land portion if doing a cruistour.

 

We will be sailing next month and although the port excursions taken during the week at sea could be charged to our on-board account, the land portion does not even give an option to do that. I tried to reserve an excursion during the land portion and it took me directly to the payment screen and absolutely would not reserve or book without immediate payment.

 

Perhaps it is because this is our first cruise and we do not have on-board credit, but I think it's that way for everyone.

[cuplOfun]

That is the way it was/is for us too

 

 

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[santopdown]

We were on the Grand for the SFO-AK-SFO from May 31 to June 10 and had to prepay for the excursions we booked before the cruise. I really hope this experiment fails. All of the people in our group (8) noted our dislike for this practice in the post-cruise survey.

[RDC1]

Ok but the excursions are refundable up to 72 hours in advance, so as a newbie nonstatus passenger who obviously would have no OBC ...there doesn't seem much incentive for me not to prepay. Right?

 

 

 

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The incentive is to have the experiment fail so that the ability to make excursion reservation without prepayment remains.

 

If you are a military veteran you would qualify for OBC or if you own CCL stock (100) shares you would qualify. Most of the OBC does not come from cruising history status.

[RDC1]

We were on the Grand for the SFO-AK-SFO from May 31 to June 10 and had to prepay for the excursions we booked before the cruise. I really hope this experiment fails. All of the people in our group (8) noted our dislike for this practice in the post-cruise survey.

 

We always use ship excursion and have a good percentage of the cost paid by OBC (makes them cost effective with independent ones). If they make this a general change then no reason for us to take ship excursions. Would remove one of Princess's primary competitive advantages to us.

[RDC1]

You can book online and not pay for them. They will charge you for them when you board (1st night) . Tickets will be in your cabin when you board paid in advance or not.

 

Not on the Grand to Alaska this year. They are testing a new approach where prebooked excursions, must be prepaid.

Edited July 8, 2016 by RDC1