Pre-pay excursions?

[JoRoy218]

Maybe I dreamed this, but I am almost sure I saw info fairly recently that Princess was dropping their policy to pre-pay ship excursions. We have a trip to Alaska coming up and I just checked the Excursion Reservation section and saw that the pre-pay still exists. Hmmm. Anyone?

Edited January 2, 2017 by JoRoy218

[ggprincess2004]

There is an option to pre-pay excursions that has been in place for a while, but it exists as an option. So my question in return is: Does the shore excursion reservation for your upcoming cruise require prepayment for any booked excursions, or is it showing as an option?

 

The only information we have had that the shore excursion policy has reverted back to the "old" policy was a post quoting the policy for one cruise in particular. I have not seen any formal fleet-wide announcement from Princess regarding the shore excursion policy at this point. Has anyone else?

[azbirdmom]

They dropped it for ship excursions but the prepay requirement has always been in place for pre or post Alaska cruise land excursions and still is.

[JoRoy218]

I did check several Alaskan excursions and found that there IS the option to pay before sailing. Thanks for the quick feedback.

[JoRoy218]

They dropped it for ship excursions but the prepay requirement has always been in place for pre or post Alaska cruise land excursions and still is.

 

Thank you! That's exactly the information I was looking for. With the Holiday blur (haha) I could not remember the source. I now see there is the OPTION to prepay but no immediate payment upon reserving excursion. Appreciate it!

[skynight]

There is an option to pre-pay excursions that has been in place for a while, but it exists as an option. So my question in return is: Does the shore excursion reservation for your upcoming cruise require prepayment for any booked excursions, or is it showing as an option?

 

The only information we have had that the shore excursion policy has reverted back to the "old" policy was a post quoting the policy for one cruise in particular. I have not seen any formal fleet-wide announcement from Princess regarding the shore excursion policy at this point. Has anyone else?

It is an option, your choice.

[Thrak]

Enjoy your cruise. :)

 

We loved Alaska the two times we cruised there. We're going back this year in mid-June. Taking a land trip (8-10 weeks!) and driving up and back.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Thrak

[encorehere]

Dear All,

 

I am helping a friend reserve shore excursions for her 2018 Jan 09 Southeast Asia cruise, and notice Princess now requires advance payment for shore excursions now. Here is the message when try to confirm the excursion:

 

"Unpaid excursion(s) in your shopping cart will clear within 24 hours. Please move excursion(s) you will not buy today to your wish list."

Attached is the shopping cart screenshot.

Anyone else experience the same for other itineraries? Thank you~

[NavyVeteran]

Dear All,

 

I am helping a friend reserve shore excursions for her 2018 Jan 09 Southeast Asia cruise, and notice Princess now requires advance payment for shore excursions now. Here is the message when try to confirm the excursion:

 

"Unpaid excursion(s) in your shopping cart will clear within 24 hours. Please move excursion(s) you will not buy today to your wish list."

Attached is the shopping cart screenshot.

Anyone else experience the same for other itineraries? Thank you~

 

While I have not seen this yet, I have seen several postings on other threads saying they are now requiring prepayment on some itineraries. You should be able to find the other shore excursion threads.

 

According to the other posts, they now allow you to prepay using OBC and they only charge your credit card if your excursions cost more than your OBC balance. In my opinion, the biggest complaint from frequent Princess cruisers about the prepayment requirement was the inability to use OBC. If you book a promotion with AIBP and/or prepaid gratuities, then there isn't much else to use your OBC for if you can't use it for shore excursions. The cancellation of the prepayment policy may have just been temporary to give them time to implement the use of OBC for prepayment.

 

I haven't seen any official statement from Princess on the new policy. All I know is what I have seen posted from people on cruises now requiring prepayment.

[Mud_Shark]

Same for us for Mexican Riviera cruise in November.

 

This is very disappointing to us as our primary use for OBC is ship excursions, and I am not thrilled with fighting long lines onboard to make last minute reservations and fight for the leftovers that are not full.

 

We will go on our November cruise, but if the shore excursion onboard reservations turns out to be burdensome, I think we will look in other directions for our future vacation plans.

 

Don

[NavyVeteran]

Same for us for Mexican Riviera cruise in November.

 

This is very disappointing to us as our primary use for OBC is ship excursions, and I am not thrilled with fighting long lines onboard to make last minute reservations and fight for the leftovers that are not full.

 

We will go on our November cruise, but if the shore excursion onboard reservations turns out to be burdensome, I think we will look in other directions for our future vacation plans.

 

Don

 

Please note that people who have posted that prepayment is required on their cruises also posted that OBC can be used for the prepayment. Princess seems to think that we will be willing to live with prepayment as long as we can still use our OBC.

[Mud_Shark]

Okay,

 

Gained a little clarity from the post which says you can prepay with OBC.

 

I had not tried to click the "Submit payment" button as I assumed it would require a cash payment, but it does in fact deduct the cost of the excursion from your OBC. The problem is, it will not "transfer OBC" between the couple. If you have military, Goodwill, or shareholder OBC, That is listed under one traveller's name, not divided evenly among the couple. When we made our reservations, the total was under $400, and our OBC is over that amount, but the majority is in my name. So it tells me I am reserved under existing OBC, but my wife has an outstanding cash balance to submit because she does not have sufficient OBC, even though I have extra on my side.

 

So this is not as bad an issue as I had presumed, but still an irritant. Also, if you have OBC from a Travel Agent, that will not show and cannot be used to prepay an excursion either. So you can reserve some excursions, but if you have an imbalanced amount of OBC between the couple, you cannot distribute it as you would hope.

 

Don

[NavyVeteran]

Okay,

 

Gained a little clarity from the post which says you can prepay with OBC.

 

I had not tried to click the "Submit payment" button as I assumed it would require a cash payment, but it does in fact deduct the cost of the excursion from your OBC. The problem is, it will not "transfer OBC" between the couple. If you have military, Goodwill, or shareholder OBC, That is listed under one traveller's name, not divided evenly among the couple. When we made our reservations, the total was under $400, and our OBC is over that amount, but the majority is in my name. So it tells me I am reserved under existing OBC, but my wife has an outstanding cash balance to submit because she does not have sufficient OBC, even though I have extra on my side.

 

So this is not as bad an issue as I had presumed, but still an irritant. Also, if you have OBC from a Travel Agent, that will not show and cannot be used to prepay an excursion either. So you can reserve some excursions, but if you have an imbalanced amount of OBC between the couple, you cannot distribute it as you would hope.

 

Don

 

In the past when I have prebooked excursions and paid onboard, Princess has charged all of the excursions to the person who made the reservations (not split them between the two people). Has this changed?

 

If you can't submit payment online using OBC, you may want to try calling Princess. They may be able to charge the excursion to the other account. Adding the ability to prepay with OBC is new, and I'm sure they're still getting the bugs out.

[sassyredhat]

I'm still confused, but I won't cancel my ship excursions because these usually sell out.

 

When I booked them, I was NOT given the pre-pay or use OBC option, so I pre-paid. I just looked, and we still have $365 OBC, and our $738 of shore excursions shows paid.

 

It is what it is, so I will leave it, but I wish PCL would make up their minds. For what it's worth, I don't like pre-paying either. :confused:

 

Patti

[JoRoy218]

It seems that when one makes reservations for a land-tour related excursion, they want you to put in a credit card number before you can reserve. However, excursions during a cruise enables you to reserve without prepayment.

(e.g. on our Alaska land tour, we have a couple of excursions planned which require prepayment; and the tours during the cruise are confirmed without prepayment.) I just don't know!

[cruisingthomas]

On my last cruise all called to prepay my excursions (instead of using the the website option). The agent suggest buying onboard credits, as it's more flexible,as your excursion credits get charged to your onboard account anyway.

 

 

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[cherylandtk]

Okay,

 

Gained a little clarity from the post which says you can prepay with OBC.

 

I had not tried to click the "Submit payment" button as I assumed it would require a cash payment, but it does in fact deduct the cost of the excursion from your OBC. The problem is, it will not "transfer OBC" between the couple. If you have military, Goodwill, or shareholder OBC, That is listed under one traveller's name, not divided evenly among the couple. When we made our reservations, the total was under $400, and our OBC is over that amount, but the majority is in my name. So it tells me I am reserved under existing OBC, but my wife has an outstanding cash balance to submit because she does not have sufficient OBC, even though I have extra on my side.

 

So this is not as bad an issue as I had presumed, but still an irritant. Also, if you have OBC from a Travel Agent, that will not show and cannot be used to prepay an excursion either. So you can reserve some excursions, but if you have an imbalanced amount of OBC between the couple, you cannot distribute it as you would hope.

 

Don

Don, we have seen the same thing you experienced. Don't know if this will help with the imbalance issue, but are you logging in from the ID that has more OBC? I figure you probably are, but just wanted to see if that makes a difference.

 

I suppose in the future we will leave the military applied as before to my husband and I will submit the shareholder under my name to balance things out.

[hpeabody]

I have yet to see any pre-payment option or requirement when I look into excursions on my upcoming June 2017 Norway cruise. It is acting as it always does, it just confirms I am booked. I see nothing about payment by credit card or OBC. If .... I look into my personalizer in payments & credits under excursions they are listed there with the following wordage,

 

NEW

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

 

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

 

It appears Princess is playing games with us and is being quietly selective about this issue. Perhaps their Alaska test run was not enough of a trial for them and they are still trying to find a way to force pre-payment. They should just get a policy (favorable for us, of course) and stick to it consistently. Enough of the games, Princess. :D

[ILShipmates]

Okay,

 

Gained a little clarity from the post which says you can prepay with OBC.

 

I had not tried to click the "Submit payment" button as I assumed it would require a cash payment, but it does in fact deduct the cost of the excursion from your OBC. The problem is, it will not "transfer OBC" between the couple. If you have military, Goodwill, or shareholder OBC, That is listed under one traveller's name, not divided evenly among the couple. When we made our reservations, the total was under $400, and our OBC is over that amount, but the majority is in my name. So it tells me I am reserved under existing OBC, but my wife has an outstanding cash balance to submit because she does not have sufficient OBC, even though I have extra on my side.

 

So this is not as bad an issue as I had presumed, but still an irritant. Also, if you have OBC from a Travel Agent, that will not show and cannot be used to prepay an excursion either. So you can reserve some excursions, but if you have an imbalanced amount of OBC between the couple, you cannot distribute it as you would hope.

 

Don

 

Don, we have seen the same thing you experienced. Don't know if this will help with the imbalance issue, but are you logging in from the ID that has more OBC? I figure you probably are, but just wanted to see if that makes a difference.

 

I suppose in the future we will leave the military applied as before to my husband and I will submit the shareholder under my name to balance things out.

 

This was my problem also... we ran out of OBC for my wife. I was logged into my cruise personalizer and had plenty of OBC but that didn't make a difference. I finally had to call princess and they booked to excursions for me using my OBC. The reservation on personalizer now shows both our names rather than having individual reservation for each of us like the rest of the reservations. The real drawback will be when I run out of OBC even though I will get additional OBC from shareholders.

 

This is so new that the agent I talked to didn't even know about it. It is apparently for cruises after September???

[DrivesLikeMario]

Dear All,

 

I am helping a friend reserve shore excursions for her 2018 Jan 09 Southeast Asia cruise, and notice Princess now requires advance payment for shore excursions now. Here is the message when try to confirm the excursion:

 

"Unpaid excursion(s) in your shopping cart will clear within 24 hours. Please move excursion(s) you will not buy today to your wish list."

 

Attached is the shopping cart screenshot.

Anyone else experience the same for other itineraries? Thank you~

 

Got the same for my Regal sailing but the other way for my Pacific Princess sailing. Go figure! :mad:

[DrivesLikeMario]

This was my problem also... we ran out of OBC for my wife. I was logged into my cruise personalizer and had plenty of OBC but that didn't make a difference. I finally had to call princess and they booked to excursions for me using my OBC. The reservation on personalizer now shows both our names rather than having individual reservation for each of us like the rest of the reservations. The real drawback will be when I run out of OBC even though I will get additional OBC from shareholders.

 

This is so new that the agent I talked to didn't even know about it. It is apparently for cruises after September???

 

That was my problem too. I have more OBC coming to me from Stockholders, Loyalty and another thing, but couldn't use any of that - only the promo and Group OBC - for the tours. Works out okay, I guess. I can use that last-minute OBC for drinks and other things (getting free tips).

[cherylandtk]

The real drawback will be when I run out of OBC even though I will get additional OBC from shareholders. This is true; perhaps save the less popular/nearly unlimited space tours for later bookings (after you submit the stock ownership)? Or once onboard claim the refundable OBC back, having prepaid that amount for excursion by credit card?

This is so new that the agent I talked to didn't even know about it. It is apparently for cruises after September???

I think the majority of the changes are happening this fall, after the seasonal repositioning/itinerary changes. Especially after what Bobbie posted above.

[MandE66]

I tried to book an excursion for our California Coastal cruise next October and was told I had to pay within 24 hours or lose my booking. I went searching the Princess.com web site and found this.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/excursions.jsp

 

- Booking Shore Excursions

 

Onboard credit will not be accepted for pre-reservations, however, it can be used once onboard to off-set payment for additional excursions purchased onboard.

 

 

This is on their generic FAQ and not related to any specific cruise. I know they backed off the policy on this spring's Alaska cruise, but it looks like this is becoming the new policy.

 

Eric

[Pmorton3360]

I booked 2 excursions today for September cruise and both were taken from obc.

 

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[NavyVeteran]

I tried to book an excursion for our California Coastal cruise next October and was told I had to pay within 24 hours or lose my booking. I went searching the Princess.com web site and found this.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/excursions.jsp

 

- Booking Shore Excursions

 

Onboard credit will not be accepted for pre-reservations, however, it can be used once onboard to off-set payment for additional excursions purchased onboard.

 

 

This is on their generic FAQ and not related to any specific cruise. I know they backed off the policy on this spring's Alaska cruise, but it looks like this is becoming the new policy.

 

Eric

 

I just booked two excursions on my January Panama Canal cruise. Princess used my onboard credit and charged my credit card only for the excess amount.

 

This language from the FAQ is old language from their previous policy. It has not been updated to their current policy. Apparently Princess thought that the largest objection to requiring prepayment was the inability to use onboard credit. After they got their software updated to accept onboard credit, they returned to requiring prepayment.

 

Select the option to pay for your booked excursions. If you have any onboard credit already credited, the website will give you the option to use that onboard credit before paying the difference. You can check this out even if you're not ready to pay now to see that if works.

 

I had to pay the excess even though I will have additional onboard credit not yet credited (stockholder and loyalty). I plan to call Princess after my stockholder credit is applied to ask for a refund of the amount I paid, but I won't know how that will work until it happens.