Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Booking shore excursions is now so confusing

larryandregina

By larryandregina,
in Princess Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

larryandregina

larryandregina

Posted
Posted

When did we have to start pre-paying for shore excursions? Starting with the November Panama Canal cruise we have booked, shore excursions need to be paid for in advance. We don't even have all our OBC showing yet (Shareholder, for instance) so they want me to put it on a credit card or PayPal.

 

What is the benefit to this policy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pablo222

pablo222

Posted
Posted
This changed recently and no one seems to know why. The possible reason is to stop people reserving and then cancelling at the last minute when it is too late to fill the tours.

 

It changed to pre-pay.

 

There was lots of complaining here.

 

It changed back.

 

There was lots of gloating here about how effective the complaining was.

 

Now, back to pre-pay, negating the above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ssbeagle

ssbeagle

Posted
Posted

Many times we have save money booking private tours but there are times when we want to book a Princess tour. But I don't want to pay in advance and I am certainly upset when I do have a tour booked with Princess and they cancel it at the last minute because they don't have enough people to go. One tour they cancelled was in Lima (a culinary tour) and they had 18 people instead of the 24 they wanted. So 18 of us were out of tour. Was not happy with them at all. But I refuse to pay for tours in advance. I know if you don't make a port Princess will refund the money but I still don't like laying out that kind of money before all credits are applied and I don't want to tie up that money 6 months or more in advance. Make it another perk, Princcess that we don't have to pay in advance at certain loyalty levels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TravelingEA

TravelingEA

Posted
Posted

We normally have $600-800 in on board credits and we do not drink much. The way we burn the money is to schedule excursions through princess (even though higher priced) I guess will will have to do the slot machine game to get use of our on board credits in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
satxdiver

satxdiver

Posted
Posted

I do not like the current pre-pay policy and is making me look harder at private tours or to take my chances and book once on board. In the past we have returned very few pre-booked ship excursions. It will be interesting to see how well this new policy is working. It may drive pax to use more private tours which would be less profit for Princess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
satxdiver

satxdiver

Posted
Posted
We normally have $600-800 in on board credits and we do not drink much. The way we burn the money is to schedule excursions through princess (even though higher priced) I guess will will have to do the slot machine game to get use of our on board credits in the future.

 

I believe it has been mentioned before that OBC cannot be used in the casino.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mountaindog

mountaindog

Posted
Posted

I m looking for information for my next trip and found this CC changes as a mess! I can´t find anything is like they promo by adds and don´t let me chat with fellow passengers where the reviews where totally genunine. I m so annoyed. Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mountaindog

mountaindog

Posted
Posted

i found all those CC changes very bad and confussing. I lost the genuine chats with my fellow passengers. Seems to be all addvertisements and paid.

Also I did bookings with viator appart from cruise lines but the guides told me that viator retain like 25% so if you book outside all those platforms you can get a better price and the guide happier and more enthusiastic.

You can check, if you still find them, the original reviews at TripAdvisor below the market place.

i travelled since I retired (2004) and all this internet changed completely. At the beguining it was so simple , no money in the middle, just you and the guide at port. Now all the companies joined and monopolize the business and we pay. So I feel lost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cherylandtk

cherylandtk

Posted
Posted
We normally have $600-800 in on board credits and we do not drink much. The way we burn the money is to schedule excursions through princess (even though higher priced) I guess will will have to do the slot machine game to get use of our on board credits in the future.
If some of your credit is issued upon booking (TA, FCD, Princess promotion, military) then you can use that credit to 'pay' for your excursion upfront. That's the new wrinkle in this recent change. If your credit comes later, as with Stock, then you have to wait until that credit hits your account before using it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Working 2 Cruise

Working 2 Cruise

Posted
Posted
I m looking for information for my next trip and found this CC changes as a mess! I can´t find anything is like they promo by adds and don´t let me chat with fellow passengers where the reviews where totally genunine. I m so annoyed. Tim

A

???? Sorry, could you explain? I didn't understand one thing you've said. This site never was using messenger or anything like it. Was that one of your complaints?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted
This changed recently and no one seems to know why. The possible reason is to stop people reserving and then cancelling at the last minute when it is too late to fill the tours.

 

You can still cancel (same time limitations as before). Before the cruise, get a refund to your credit card. (Not sure what happens if you used OBC pre-cruise to book an excursion.) During the cruise, as refundable OBC on the ship.

 

I think Princess does this to be like other cruise lines that make you pay when you book the excursion. To me, that takes away an incentive to book Princess instead of another cruise line. The more Princess looks like their competitors, the more the reason to look more closely at the competitors.

 

By the way, some of the other cruise lines that make you pay when you book an excursion in advance will charge you 15%-25% of the cost if you cancel on board. So far Princess has not taken that path, but if they want to be more like their competition........

 

Personally I object to having to pay for shore excursions before final payment is due for a cruise, but to get on the more popular excursions you must book them before final payment date.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Owlhelm

Owlhelm

Posted
Posted (edited)

Is this different on cruises in Europe? We're off to Norway on the Crown in a few weeks :D, and the Planned Excursions part of my Cruise Personalizer says

 

"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."

 

 

 

Martin

Edited by Owlhelm
Preview misleading
Link to comment
Share on other sites
floridalover5623

floridalover5623

Posted
Posted
I believe it has been mentioned before that OBC cannot be used in the casino.

 

Since when?

 

We have in the past. Put some money (from OBC) on the card and cashed it out at the money cage.

 

As late as Feb for me.

After all we do like the slots. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...