Booking excursions

[CarolandNate]

Just went onto our log in on Princess for our trip eastbound through the Panama Canal in December, 2019.  While I had read that excursions would not be available for booking until 120 before and had heard that perhaps one could book by 180 days before, there are links that are available NOW, ten months in advance.  Having never booked through the cruise line, I am not sure what booking now actually means.  I have questions that perhaps more experienced travelers could answer.

 

1) If I book now will my card be charged now  or will my space just be held?

 

2) There is the option to use on board credit.  Other than not having to deal with a large folio at the end, is there any advantage to putting as much on the OBC as one can.  That would mean buying more OBC in advance.  I assume if one cancelled the entire trip before the final payment, any purchase of additional OBC would be refundable.  In the end it means pay now or pay later, I think.

 

[NavyVeteran]

If you book now, your credit card will be charged now.

 

However, the excursions are fully refundable until the cancellation deadline, and you will receive a refund if you cancel them. If you cancel them early enough before the cruise, the refund will go on your credit card. If you cancel a few days before the cruise or onboard, it will go on your folio as refundable onboard credit. Note that it will go on the folio of the person booked - not the person who paid by credit card if it was someone else. After the cruise, any unused refundable OBC will be sent to you by check.

 

Do not purchase onboard credit (OBC) to use for pre-booking excursions. Purchased OBC is not available pre-cruise and cannot be used until you are onboard.

 

If you have military veteran OBC, Carnival Corporation shareholder OBC, future cruise deposit OBC, or several other kinds of OBC that are listed on your Cruise Personalizer pre-cruise, then you can use them instead of paying by credit card in advance. If you do not have OBC from any of these sources, then I don't know of any reason to purchase OBC in advance. (Note: I see that you are from MA in the United States; sometimes there is a reason for people using different currencies but that would not apply to you.)

 

There are two main reasons to book now instead of waiting until you are onboard. Some excursions sell out in advance and are not available onboard. Also many excursions have price increases. If you have already booked, then your price does not change. In the rare cases where they have a price decrease (or a 10% off sell on shore excursions which they sometimes have), the price decrease is not automatically applied. However, you can cancel and rebook at the new price if the excursion is still available.

[CATGUY7]

We have a cruise booked in February 2020.  Excursions became available Thursday, I believe.  I booked one, and any on board credit that I had available through the initial booking was used toward the excursion.   The remainder was billed to our credit card.  

[OCruisers]

Same as CATGUY7 ... That's the way we've found it be.  

[Thrak]

As for booking in advance: My wife wanted to do an excursion on the land portion of our upcoming cruise tour. When I went to book it the excursion had sold out waaaaaaaaaaaay in advance. It had limited availability and the early bird got the worm.

[Grburkart]

For whatever reason, I was able to book a year in advance. At first I thought it was a computer glitch but the reservations stuck and I’m all booked. I was able to secure all my desired excursions and beat the price increase. 

I’m okay with the upfront payment thing. It’s one obstacle that’s out of the way. 

I’ll be sailing the med in October. 

 

Glenn

 

 

 

 

[halfapair]

I have a question about reserving a cabana at Grand Turks & Caicos. My husband I are traveling together, and the Princess site seems to indicate that only one person needs to book the Shore Excursion for the cabana (GDT950A). Is it correct that only one person needs to "buy" that shore excursion, then up to 4 people can use the cabana?

 

"This rental is sold by the cabana. Please book per cabana. A cabana can accommodate up to four guests. One ticket is valid for up to four people. There is a nominal charge for the massages, snorkeling. FlowRider® and all water sports."

[suekel]

I'm doing this cruise Jan 2020 and was so excited to see the excursions.  We had $560 in OBC and spent $549 booking excursions on the canal and in Limon.  I was concerned that the small boat thru the locks to the Pacific would sell out quickly, so I jumped on it.  

 

You have the option of using OBC or not but if you put it on your CC, it will be charged now.  Either way is still cancelable (is that a word?)

[Colo Cruiser]

On 2/23/2019 at 12:24 PM, CATGUY7 said:

We have a cruise booked in February 2020.  Excursions became available Thursday, I believe.  I booked one, and any on board credit that I had available through the initial booking was used toward the excursion.   The remainder was billed to our credit card.  

Same for us.

[CATGUY7]

4 hours ago, halfapair said:

I have a question about reserving a cabana at Grand Turks & Caicos. My husband I are traveling together, and the Princess site seems to indicate that only one person needs to book the Shore Excursion for the cabana (GDT950A). Is it correct that only one person needs to "buy" that shore excursion, then up to 4 people can use the cabana?

 

"This rental is sold by the cabana. Please book per cabana. A cabana can accommodate up to four guests. One ticket is valid for up to four people. There is a nominal charge for the massages, snorkeling. FlowRider® and all water sports."

That is correct.   You need only purchase one for up to four people.  

[riffatsea]

Just a word about OBC. We don't "purchase it". We get it from many different sources:

from a promotion when we book the cruise on the Princess site

from a travel agent

from owning 100 shares of Carnival Corporation stock

from DH having previously served in the USA navy when he was very young

When we did the Panama Canal cruise last December we had free grats from Princess

and a total of $800 OBC . You BET we booked excursions before the cruise since they let us use the OBC to pay for them!

Edited February 25, 2019 by riffatsea

[tempus137]

On 2/23/2019 at 2:24 PM, CATGUY7 said:

We have a cruise booked in February 2020.  Excursions became available Thursday, I believe.  I booked one, and any on board credit that I had available through the initial booking was used toward the excursion.   The remainder was billed to our credit card.  

 Just did this for our Dec 2019 cruise.

[suekel]

I just went in and looked and there are a few excursions listed for my cruise in November 2020.  Wow.  On a ship that isn't built yet!

[deliver42]

When I have OBC, I book as soon as available.

[riffatsea]

I agree that 3 for Free is a better deal than Sip n Sail !!

We pay for drinks as we go along and never reach the number necessary to make a drink pkg worthwhile.

IF you don't own any stock or never plan to go on another Carnival Corporation cruise(Princess, Holland America, Carnival and others) then the Carnival stock is not worthwhile buying BUT if you DO plan other cruises then it is a good investment.

It is a good investment for its own sake and for the OBC you get on every cruise.

For the Panama Canal you would add $250 OBC. We have owned it now for several years and have gotten  our money back from the purchase.

[MaineCruiser243]

17 hours ago, halfapair said:

I have a question about reserving a cabana at Grand Turks & Caicos. My husband I are traveling together, and the Princess site seems to indicate that only one person needs to book the Shore Excursion for the cabana (GDT950A). Is it correct that only one person needs to "buy" that shore excursion, then up to 4 people can use the cabana?

 

"This rental is sold by the cabana. Please book per cabana. A cabana can accommodate up to four guests. One ticket is valid for up to four people. There is a nominal charge for the massages, snorkeling. FlowRider® and all water sports."

 

Also true for renting a beach clamshell such as at Roatan or Princess cays. Only one person needs to buy it but it is good for 2.

[halfapair]

Catguy7 & MaineCruiser243 - Thank you for the great info regarding the cabana.

I reserved one.

 

 

[CarolandNate]

42 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

I agree that 3 for Free is a better deal than Sip n Sail !!

We pay for drinks as we go along and never reach the number necessary to make a drink pkg worthwhile.

IF you don't own any stock or never plan to go on another Carnival Corporation cruise(Princess, Holland America, Carnival and others) then the Carnival stock is not worthwhile buying BUT if you DO plan other cruises then it is a good investment.

It is a good investment for its own sake and for the OBC you get on every cruise.

For the Panama Canal you would add $250 OBC. We have owned it now for several years and have gotten  our money back from the purchase.

Something to think about going forward.  probably too late to purchase Carnival Stock now and get any benefit for this go a round.  Is there a minimum of stock that has to be purchased to be eligible?  Getting your money back from the purchase might have been more likely a year or so ago.  Not so sure now.

 

I'm with you on the drinks.  We did Alaska for seven days.  We bought a bottle of wine in Vancouver and milked it through the trip in our room.  We got wine for use with dinner in the dining room and went through two bottles in a week.  Add in the occasional drinks in a lounge or at one of the game night things and that was it.  Doubt it came to more than $100 total.  We were helped by the fact that in the Alaska cruise we did the Chef's Table one night.  That included champagne for the hors d'oeuvres; wine for appetizers; a white and a red for the main course; a dessert wine for the five different desserts.  Basically, we were lucky we were actually eating while drinking all the wine.  Needless to say, our personal wine limit was covered by 9:00.  Well so was the food.

 

Granted this is two weeks and there will be more time spent on the ship, but I can't imagine we would come remotely close to what a bev package provides.  Might get a second bottle in LA.  Might get one or two more through the ship as "needed".  And because we will have more nights, might get a drink here and there at lounges.  Certainly not going to come close to bev package "value".  What is it worth, something like $800 or so.  I'm good !

[riffatsea]

You just need to buy 100 shares.

It is not too late since I thought you said you are not sailing until December??

You buy the stock and then you fax in a statement from your broker proving you own the stock and they give you the OBC. Of course how you spend your investment money is up to you.

[MaineCruiser243]

Carnival PLC currently trading around $58 a share so $5800 or so is a big chunk of change just to get some OBC. I know you also get whatever dividends and capital gains the stock produces, but still I'm not sure it;s worth it.

[caribill]

12 hours ago, MaineCruiser243 said:

Carnival PLC currently trading around $58 a share so $5800 or so is a big chunk of change just to get some OBC. I know you also get whatever dividends and capital gains the stock produces, but still I'm not sure it;s worth it.

 

If you only will use it one time, it usually is not worth it.

 

However, if you are on a 14 day or longer cruise, the OBC amount is $250 (4.3% of $5800). If you keep the stock for a year, you will also get $200 in dividends for a total of $450 which gives you a total return in the first year of 7.75%. See what a bank might give you for keeping your $5800 for a year.

 

So far I have received over $4000 in OBC from CCL stock ownership.

 

Remember, it is also good for OBC on all Carnival Corp brands such as HAL and Carnival.

[lorri111]

Thanks to all for mentioning early listing of excursions - excursions for our South America/Antarctica cruise in Jan/Feb 2020 are now available for booking - was not expecting them for months. Thankfully we have some OBC to cover some of the expense - don't like paying so far out but don't want to risk sell outs with this type of cruise.

[bbangel74]

Thanks for the heads up! Many excursions available to book already for our sailing which makes it easier to plan and budget.

[CarolandNate]

4 minutes ago, bbangel74 said:

Thanks for the heads up! Many excursions available to book already for our sailing which makes it easier to plan and budget.

I am going on December 3-18 and the Princess website says usually 120 days is when they start actually giving one the chance to book.  That would be August.  Then I read that 180 days is the magic time.  That's June.  Not believing any of that, I periodically checked and then over the weekend, the itinerary had a different link.  This one had our names to check off and details took me to a different screen that said, it is not reserved until you pay for it.  Then it gave an option as to how to pay.  OBC or credit card.  That is different and we are still ten months away. 

 

In our case, we have identified some must sees that have limited options.  That we would be disappointed if we did not get that particular excursion.  Those need to be booked earlier sooner than later.  There were some ports that have many excursions that are sort of the same or where we could do this or do that.  Those can wait until we get on the ship.  Basically it means that there are so many options, one is as good as another or if we got shut out entirely, oh well.  We can just go into town, walk around and not spend too much money on an actual excursion.

 

I'm glad I kept checking.  We lock it in with today's price and we still have the option to cancel without losing anything up to five days before the actual excursion.  Now the work goes into figuring out exactly which one in a particular port.

[CATGUY7]

We have a cruise booked for July 2020.  The excursions are already available for booking - 490 days out.  

 

It is good to be vigilant.  Or obsessive...