Required payment in advance for excursions

[leck57]

15 hours ago, kruisey said:

Well tonight Princess tours deleted my booked tours because I did not pay in advance.I will not be booking any even when on board.A very nice Customer relations person phoned me today and said the reason was to let the agency know the amount of folks wanting to tour.I replied you knew that before because we always booked on line.No explanation given after that.She said they would  cancel my bookings by 6 PM this evening if I did not pay which they did.I told them you always trusted us before and I would go to pursers deck on first day and pay .Mentioned it is a question of trust especially those of us that have traveled with them many times.

 

Frankly I don't have a problem with the pay in advance policy especially with the option to cancel 2 days prior. The amount of people that must have booked excursions in the past and then cancelled must have been an admin nightmare.

[bemis12]

2 minutes ago, leck57 said:

 

Frankly I don't have a problem with the pay in advance policy especially with the option to cancel 2 days prior. The amount of people that must have booked excursions in the past and then cancelled must have been an admin nightmare.

 

No doubt.  When you see the number of people that wait around for refundable deposits so they can book a lot of stuff.......

Edited January 8, 2019 by bemis12

[LeeW]

While we don't like to pay in advance, we do so and don't use our OBC for prepaid excursions. 

 

Would much rather pay in advance than have multiple excursions cancelled when we get to the ship because not enough people have signed up.  Still happens, but not as often as in past when people could book many excursions and decide which to take after they sailed.

[kruisey]

So folks don't like but they do.Majority wins.So I slink away to my corner.

I wonder what the next change will be?

[diane.in.ny]

On 1/5/2019 at 3:46 PM, compozer said:

I agree.  I hate paying ahead for any excursion.    I usually have a lot of OBC's and many times don't spend it all.   I want to use the OBC for the few excursions I book with the ship.   

 

 

If you have OBC at the time you make your excursion reservation,  the cost is automatically taken out of your OBC. I know some people get OBC from their booking agency which doesn't show up until they board, so for them, this won't work. But we have OBC from a Princess promo and i just booked an excursion paid for by OBC.

[compozer]

8 hours ago, diane.in.ny said:

 

 

If you have OBC at the time you make your excursion reservation,  the cost is automatically taken out of your OBC. I know some people get OBC from their booking agency which doesn't show up until they board, so for them, this won't work. But we have OBC from a Princess promo and i just booked an excursion paid for by OBC.

Interesting.   Most of our OBC credit comes after final payment - AMEX and stock so that doesn't always help.  I did book one two years ago but don't remember if I had any OBC.   Will have to check that out. 

[diane.in.ny]

17 minutes ago, compozer said:

Interesting.   Most of our OBC credit comes after final payment - AMEX and stock so that doesn't always help.  I did book one two years ago but don't remember if I had any OBC.   Will have to check that out. 

 

Sounds to me like you can book your excursions after final payment. And I have a question about your AMEX OBC. do you use an agency which gives AMEX promos or just use your AMEX card to pay and that gets the OBC 

[compozer]

Diane,       We book suites so we get $300 OBC for each leg of a b2b or b2b2b.     My ta is a AMEX ta - or what ever it is called.  Not sure if all ta's will get the credit for you or not.   I liked a ta I used for a scuba diving trip but she was not connected with AMEX and could not get the deal so I won't be using her for a cruise.   No AMEX proms other than their cruise perks.   Just paying with the AMEX gets it.  We have the platium card - I think it has to be that card.   I don't think I have ever seen it on my Delta AMEX.

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, compozer said:

Diane,       We book suites so we get $300 OBC for each leg of a b2b or b2b2b.     My ta is a AMEX ta - or what ever it is called.  Not sure if all ta's will get the credit for you or not.   I liked a ta I used for a scuba diving trip but she was not connected with AMEX and could not get the deal so I won't be using her for a cruise.   No AMEX proms other than their cruise perks.   Just paying with the AMEX gets it.  We have the platium card - I think it has to be that card.   I don't think I have ever seen it on my Delta AMEX.

 

 

 

It does not have to be the platinum card. We have the everyday blue card, and it always shows up. It is probably found less often on the branded cards like Delta.

[diane.in.ny]

That explains it. I have the Delta AMEX card.

[oskidunker]

I could not just sit on the ship and not go on excursions. Some private operators only require a small deposit in advance. Go on your roll call and perhaps you can join tours other people have booked 

 

change is hard but Princess is not going to go back to the old ways. Everything changes, sometimes not for the better. 

Edited January 11, 2019 by oskidunker

[compozer]

8 hours ago, ontheweb said:

It does not have to be the platinum card. We have the everyday blue card, and it always shows up. It is probably found less often on the branded cards like Delta.

Wow.  Good to know.    I need to check that out.  I figured I could handle the $550 year fee for the Platium card because I get more than that back from OBC's

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, compozer said:

Wow.  Good to know.    I need to check that out.  I figured I could handle the $550 year fee for the Platium card because I get more than that back from OBC's

Another hint---if you do not see it listed, check categories and then travel. One time when I did not see it in the long list, I did this, and it was there.

[compozer]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Another hint---if you do not see it listed, check categories and then travel. One time when I did not see it in the long list, I did this, and it was there.

Confused.   Are you talking about ? 

 

 

Cruises Privileges Program

                       or

Amex Offers

 

from your comment of checking categories and the travel, that sounds like the Offers where they come and go.  Spend $500 get $100 OBC. 

 

The cruise program is always there which includes many cruise lines not just Princess   and you are given the OBC amount depending on cabin category.

[adgtravel]

We have a Princess Alaska cruisetour booked for June 2019, and I wanted to reserve

a few tours on land portion early (a few months ago). We have OBC, but I had to give credit card info and pay immediately.  I’m not happy about the change either!!

[voljeep]

How about a 25% NON-refundable for ANY reason deposit for the excursions ??? would that make you happy?

[adgtravel]

My son was on an NCL cruise November 2018, he booked all their tours 

ahead of cruise with 800#, was not charged for any tours until on ship!

 

[Ombud]

Adgtravel, it sounds like you're comparing apples to oranges. You had to pay for a  cruise tour (land based) excursion and your son did not have to pay for a ship based excursion. Am I understanding correctly? Both fully refundable back to the card charged on if cancelled prior to a specific period 

[LeeW]

2 hours ago, adgtravel said:

We have a Princess Alaska cruisetour booked for June 2019, and I wanted to reserve

a few tours on land portion early (a few months ago). We have OBC, but I had to give credit card info and pay immediately.  I’m not happy about the change either!!

 

OBC is only ONBOARD.  Unfortunately can't be used for land part of cruise-tour.  

[pompeii]

On 1/10/2019 at 8:39 AM, compozer said:

Interesting.   Most of our OBC credit comes after final payment - AMEX and stock so that doesn't always help.  I did book one two years ago but don't remember if I had any OBC.   Will have to check that out. 

You can get your stockholders way in advance of final payment.  Used to be within 3 months of sailing, but now they will award it much earlier so that you can apply it to excursions.

[RDC1]

On 1/5/2019 at 1:28 PM, fishywood said:

 

Be careful with such a general statement. Because if you wait to cancel until the onboard deadline the refund is issued in the form of OBC to the person named on the ticket, regardless of how and by who it was paid for in the cruise personalizer. If you pay by credit card (as it appears the OP would have to) you must cancel in the personalizer 4 or 5 days before sailing at the latest for your refund to be in the same form as payment. 

refunded as OBC, but it is refundable OBC.

[brody013]

We are US citizens who are booked on a Diamond Princess cruise this March.  After making  shore excursion reservations, the bottom of the "Excursion Reservations" section of our "Cruise Personalizer" states the following as "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."

  Upon clicking on the "Pay Now" tab,  the payment options are credit card or pay pal.  Since our OBCs exceed the cost of the shore excursions and anticipated onboard charges, we will not make an advance shore excursions payment.

 

Anyone else with the same notice in their Cruise Personalizer account?

 

 

[Ombud]

No ... here's my screen shots. So you can see it defaults to OBC unless I elect to not book until onboard

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2019 by Ombud

[RDC1]

44 minutes ago, brody013 said:

We are US citizens who are booked on a Diamond Princess cruise this March.  After making  shore excursion reservations, the bottom of the "Excursion Reservations" section of our "Cruise Personalizer" states the following as "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."

  Upon clicking on the "Pay Now" tab,  the payment options are credit card or pay pal.  Since our OBCs exceed the cost of the shore excursions and anticipated onboard charges, we will not make an advance shore excursions payment.

 

Anyone else with the same notice in their Cruise Personalizer account?

 

 

Might be something unique to the Diamond.  On my reservations on Grand, Sapphire, and Emerald prepayment was required at time of reservation

[compozer]

9 hours ago, pompeii said:

You can get your stockholders way in advance of final payment.  Used to be within 3 months of sailing, but now they will award it much earlier so that you can apply it to excursions.

Good to know.   Will turn it in earlier next time