This info says I can't use my OBC to book excursions. Can someone confirm?

[Duck Duck Cruise]

We are taking the Crown on April 22, 2017 and I am reserving excursions on line. I have always pre-booked on-line and then used my OBC as payment once we are on board.

 

The FAQ states "Booking Shore Excursions

Get the most out of your experience at port by booking a shore excursion. Princess® offers a variety of excursions perfect for families, sightseeing, adventure, and exploring wildlife and nature. You can book your shore excursion with Cruise Personalizer® from approximately 180 days before travel, and up to 5 days before you depart. Learn more about our ports and 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."

[CruiserBruce]

Commonly discussed here. As it says, OBC can't be used for prebooking, only onboard purchases. Prebooking would seem to imply pre-paid.

[goofy559]

We are taking the Crown on April 22, 2017 and I am reserving excursions on line. I have always pre-booked on-line and then used my OBC as payment once we are on board.

 

The FAQ states "Booking Shore Excursions

Get the most out of your experience at port by booking a shore excursion. Princess® offers a variety of excursions perfect for families, sightseeing, adventure, and exploring wildlife and nature. You can book your shore excursion with Cruise Personalizer® from approximately 180 days before travel, and up to 5 days before you depart. Learn more about our ports and 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."

 

What that means is that you cannot use your OBC to PAY in advance for the excursion. As Princess does not require prepayment, you may go ahead an reserve your excursions now. Once onboard, the excursions will go onto your onboard account and can be taken care of with OBC.

[thinfool]

What that means is that you cannot use your OBC to PAY in advance for the excursion. As Princess does not require prepayment, you may go ahead an reserve your excursions now. Once onboard, the excursions will go onto your onboard account and can be taken care of with OBC.

 

Actually Princess now will charge your credit card at the time you make the reservation. At least for excursions in Alaska, maybe others, too.

 

They trying to sell the policy that "everyone else does it" to all of their loyal, repeat customers who really liked the original policy.

 

Frankly I would like to book and pay for an excursion before sailing and then, on board, cancel and immediately rebook with my onboard account that has an OBC available. Just to make more work for Princess.

Edited January 30, 2017 by thinfool

[vmom]

Just got back from a cruise in January. I prebooked two excursions. I didn't prepay them. I then waited until I got onboard and the cost was taken out of my OBC account.

 

So , yes you can can OBC to pay for excursions, but don't prepay them before getting on the ship.

 

I'm not sure if there are exceptions to some of the excursions in Alaska.

[goofy559]

This is incorrect. They have cancelled the requirement to prepay for Alaska excursions.

[vmom]

Actually Princess now will charge your credit card at the time you make the reservation. At least for excursions in Alaska, maybe others, too.

 

They trying to sell the policy that "everyone else does it" to all of their loyal, repeat customers who really liked the original policy.

 

Frankly I would like to book and pay for an excursion before sailing and then, on board, cancel and immediately rebook with my onboard account that has an OBC available. Just to make more work for Princess.

 

This may be true from some excursions in Alaska, but I did not have to prepay for my excursions that I pre-booked/reserved from my January cruise.

[JF - retired RRT]

Frankly I would like to book and pay for an excursion before sailing and then, on board, cancel and immediately rebook with my onboard account that has an OBC available. Just to make more work for Princess.

 

Good idea. :D But it might put you at the back of the line, if there's a wait list.

 

Also, I thought they reversed that stupid prepay policy. :confused:

[Thrak]

Good idea. :D But it might put you at the back of the line, if there's a wait list.

 

Also, I thought they reversed that stupid prepay policy. :confused:

 

Yes, as stated above by goofy559 Princess decided that policy wasn't going to work. Most likely the intense blow back from people who were extremely peeved to have booked under promotions offering large amounts of OBC who were subsequently told they would have to spend that OBC on drinks or on overprice items in the onboard shops. When Princess discovered that people were planning to take independent excursions and use the casino to cash out the OBC they had been tricked into thinking was valuable to them the policy was hastily reversed.

[jagsfan]

You can pre-book or pre-reserve shore excursions on any Princess itinerary, but you can't pre-pay using Onboard Credit because Onboard means onboard. If you do not ore-pay, your Shore Ex will be charged to your cabin using your OBC.

Couldn't be easier.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Astro Flyer]

Yes, as stated above by goofy559 Princess decided that policy wasn't going to work. Most likely the intense blow back from people who were extremely peeved to have booked under promotions offering large amounts of OBC who were subsequently told they would have to spend that OBC on drinks or on overprice items in the onboard shops. When Princess discovered that people were planning to take independent excursions and use the casino to cash out the OBC they had been tricked into thinking was valuable to them the policy was hastily reversed.

 

You can pre-book or pre-reserve shore excursions on any Princess itinerary, but you can't pre-pay using Onboard Credit because Onboard means onboard. If you do not ore-pay, your Shore Ex will be charged to your cabin using your OBC.

Couldn't be easier.

This explains the situation & for my future cruise I can pre-book tours with the option to pay in advance using my chargecard or to use OBC in my shipboard folio.

 

Princess can be slow when making written changes however in reality the experiment requiring pre-payment to book tours before sailing failed & it's back to the original procedure. Kudos to Princess for listening to their passengers & keeping one of the reasons that Princess is overall the best choice for many of us. :)

[easyboy]

It is the same as how you have always pre-booked on-line, and then used your OBC as payment once you are on board.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

Thanks everyone,

 

We have cruised 10 times and never had a problem and our excursions last April were added to our account. We are just going to do what we always have and pre-book and wait to have it put on our folio on the ship. In our Personalizer in the Excursion area at the bottom it shows total cost for my husband and I and says that you can pre-pay or just pay on board at the end of the cruise as it will be placed on your account.

[Astro Flyer]

Thanks everyone,

 

We have cruised 10 times and never had a problem and our excursions last April were added to our account. We are just going to do what we always have and pre-book and wait to have it put on our folio on the ship. In our Personalizer in the Excursion area at the bottom it shows total cost for my husband and I and says that you can pre-pay or just pay on board at the end of the cruise as it will be placed on your account.

That's the same statement in our CP for booking tours.

 

They appear to be keeping the tours being available up to 180 days before sailing which was part of the failed pre-payment requirement change.

 

Previously the general timeframe was 90-120 days however my October 2017 cruise had tours available to pre-reserve over 10 months in advance. Hopefully earlier availability will become the norm so we can book our tours earlier. :)

Edited January 30, 2017 by Astro Flyer