Shore Excursion best price guarantee

[HeyNowMama1315]

Happy weekend!

 

Have any of you successfully had Carnival refund the 110% of the difference between their offered shore excursion and another privately booked one? 

 

I submitted a claim last night. For 4 of us the difference is around $60. I was just curious how often they actually approve the claims. A Carnival employee told me we had to book their excursion first to then submit the claim. It all seemed a bit sketchy but I’m hopeful they stick to the guarantee. 

[joepeka]

They will stick to the guarantee if the excursion details match exactly and is not with the same provider that Carnival uses for the excursion. "Exactly" means just that - I've read accounts on this forum of claims being rejected due to simple things like length of excursion and other minor differences.

ETA: just a disclaimer since I didn't answer your question. We've never tried to do this but I base my answer on many, many posts here over the years.

Edited April 13, 2019 by joepeka

[jbethel11]

15 minutes ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

Happy weekend!

 

Have any of you successfully had Carnival refund the 110% of the difference between their offered shore excursion and another privately booked one? 

 

I submitted a claim last night. For 4 of us the difference is around $60. I was just curious how often they actually approve the claims. A Carnival employee told me we had to book their excursion first to then submit the claim. It all seemed a bit sketchy but I’m hopeful they stick to the guarantee. 

Also, I believe you are allowed to cancel the excursion and get your money back if it doesn't work. Do not quote me on that, as I am not 100% sure!

[joepeka]

6 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

Also, I believe you are allowed to cancel the excursion and get your money back if it doesn't work. Do not quote me on that, as I am not 100% sure!

That is true if you cancel for any reason, as long as it's no later than the day prior to departure.

[HeyNowMama1315]

Thanks for your response Joepeka. In my case the excursion is with the same company that carnival uses. But the company itself charges $20 less per child and $10 less per adult. It just seems absurd to me. I’m not too hopeful on getting this to be approved at this point but we shall see. 

[joepeka]

4 minutes ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

Thanks for your response Joepeka. In my case the excursion is with the same company that carnival uses. But the company itself charges $20 less per child and $10 less per adult. It just seems absurd to me. I’m not too hopeful on getting this to be approved at this point but we shall see. 

Well, good luck.  I hope you get it approved though, as you mention, it's probably not likely. 

 

As an aside, my personal experience is that tour providers that have contracts with Carnival will not accept reservations from Carnival passengers. Maybe the one you're working with has a different agreement with Carnival or isn't playing by their rules.

Edited April 13, 2019 by joepeka

[ontheweb]

37 minutes ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

Happy weekend!

 

Have any of you successfully had Carnival refund the 110% of the difference between their offered shore excursion and another privately booked one? 

 

I submitted a claim last night. For 4 of us the difference is around $60. I was just curious how often they actually approve the claims. A Carnival employee told me we had to book their excursion first to then submit the claim. It all seemed a bit sketchy but I’m hopeful they stick to the guarantee. 

I used it successfully a few summers ago for the Harrison Caves in Barbados. The private tour said it would pick you up at your hotel. I e-mailed them asking if they would pick you up at your cruise ship, and they e-mailed back "Yes". I included that when I applied. It was approved very quickly.

[purplephenom]

I’ve used it successfully multiple times. In my experience if you find the same operator it is usually approved. Also, once, I pointed out how the independent excursion was better, and that was approved too

[HeyNowMama1315]

Great! Thank y’all for your responses! Maybe there is hope after all 🙂 I will report back if/when i hear anything back. 

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I used it successfully a few summers ago for the Harrison Caves in Barbados. The private tour said it would pick you up at your hotel. I e-mailed them asking if they would pick you up at your cruise ship, and they e-mailed back "Yes". I included that when I applied. It was approved very quickly.

Let me add to my post that when I asked my TA about this program, he was almost positive that I would not get the request approved. But, as I previously wrote, it was almost immediately approved. And when the program first came out on the various Carnival lines, a large majority of those who posted to the threads asking about it were sure they would always find loopholes so they could disapprove. But as time has passed, more and more posters have in response to this type of thread posted with their positive experiences.

[HeyNowMama1315]

Update:

 

success!

 

(I also canceled and rebooked to get the tax sale 10%)

 

 

[coevan]

On 4/13/2019 at 5:20 PM, joepeka said:

That is true if you cancel for any reason, as long as it's no later than the day prior to departure.

 

 

Same with most private tours. The only problem  with the price guarantee is then you have to go on Carnival's excursion. Private excursions are more intimate as in less people. Example, private Scuba Dive $110 with 5 guests, Carnival 30 people for $160, this was in Grand Turk

[Mm13]

I would be interested to see if they don’t subtract the amount you got from the 10% off. 

 

Anytime there has been a promo code sale they have taken my discounted rate into account when providing the on board credit. 

[Purvis1231]

I have done the price match successfully several times and once it was unsuccessful. You do have to buy the Carnival excursion first, and submit a claim. If the issue you an on board credit. (that will not be shown in the cruise manager.) The time it was not approved we cancelled the Carnival excursion and received a full refund. 

[jbethel11]

26 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

Same with most private tours. The only problem  with the price guarantee is then you have to go on Carnival's excursion. Private excursions are more intimate as in less people. Example, private Scuba Dive $110 with 5 guests, Carnival 30 people for $160, this was in Grand Turk

But there is a guarantee that you will make sure you will get back to the ship on time. 

[purplephenom]

37 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

But there is a guarantee that you will make sure you will get back to the ship on time. 

 

I book thru carnival a lot, for a couple different reasons, so don’t take what I’m going to say as bashing Carnival or anything like that. The guarantee is nice to have when you are doing tours that are far away from the port- say some things in Belize or on the mainland in Cozumel. But other than that, private operators are going to do everything in their power to get you back- one review online saying someone missed the ship could sink their business. 

 

Also, if you book a private tour that ends at 1 or 2, and your ship doesn’t sail til 5, something would have to go very very wrong for you to not make it back on time. 

 

And finally, Carnival will wait...to a point. If you’re in the hospital or going to be delayed til the next day, they’re not waiting. Yes, these are extreme examples. 

 

You may want to evaluate each port individually and decide if you want to venture out on your own or with Carnival. I choose Carnival a lot, but I pretty much always look into several private tour operators as well. And if I book Carnival, I start looking for price matches. 

[HeyNowMama1315]

1 hour ago, purplephenom said:

 

I book thru carnival a lot, for a couple different reasons, so don’t take what I’m going to say as bashing Carnival or anything like that. The guarantee is nice to have when you are doing tours that are far away from the port- say some things in Belize or on the mainland in Cozumel. But other than that, private operators are going to do everything in their power to get you back- one review online saying someone missed the ship could sink their business. 

 

Also, if you book a private tour that ends at 1 or 2, and your ship doesn’t sail til 5, something would have to go very very wrong for you to not make it back on time. 

 

And finally, Carnival will wait...to a point. If you’re in the hospital or going to be delayed til the next day, they’re not waiting. Yes, these are extreme examples. 

 

You may want to evaluate each port individually and decide if you want to venture out on your own or with Carnival. I choose Carnival a lot, but I pretty much always look into several private tour operators as well. And if I book Carnival, I start looking for price matches. 

I’m the original poster here. In our case this was an excursion an hour from the port. The company I was using to price match, was the exact same company that carnival uses. There was just such a disparity in prices that I thought it was worth making a claim. And it turns out it was a good choice. 

 

I understand your point here. But in this case specifically there is only one company who does this tour. You can’t even book through them privately. You have to book through carnival. They just had prices listed on their site while i was researching the excursion so it surprised me when I saw the difference. 

[purplephenom]

2 minutes ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

I’m the original poster here. In our case this was an excursion an hour from the port. The company I was using to price match, was the exact same company that carnival uses. There was just such a disparity in prices that I thought it was worth making a claim. And it turns out it was a good choice. 

 

I understand your point here. But in this case specifically there is only one company who does this tour. You can’t even book through them privately. You have to book through carnival. They just had prices listed on their site while i was researching the excursion so it surprised me when I saw the difference. 

 

 

I do the same thing- book thru Carnival and try to find the provider to match to

[felidaet]

How do you find out the name of the excursion company that Carnival is using?  I just booked two excursions last night.  But I am pretty certain that it did not mention the name of the excursion companies.  I would like to do a cost comparison of the costs if buying it direct.  

 

Thanks.

 

[Mm13]

23 hours ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

Update:

 

success!

 

(I also canceled and rebooked to get the tax sale 10%) 

 

 

 

When you canceled and rebooked did you get the full price you originally paid back? When I look at my cruise manager for any of the excursions that I had Carnival price match, it now indicates the price match cost and no longer shows my original fee.

 

Just wondering if you got the full purchase price back before you rebooked using the promo code.

[brookeq]

I got a price match for our Belize ruins trip two weeks ago. I was surprised.  It wasn’t an exact match time wise but i submitted it anyways and got approved very quickly.  

[coevan]

On 4/15/2019 at 5:30 PM, jbethel11 said:

But there is a guarantee that you will make sure you will get back to the ship on time. 

 

 

most reputable companies make the same guarantee, not really an issue.

[13cheermom]

On 4/13/2019 at 6:56 PM, HeyNowMama1315 said:

Happy weekend!

 

Have any of you successfully had Carnival refund the 110% of the difference between their offered shore excursion and another privately booked one? 

 

I submitted a claim last night. For 4 of us the difference is around $60. I was just curious how often they actually approve the claims. A Carnival employee told me we had to book their excursion first to then submit the claim. It all seemed a bit sketchy but I’m hopeful they stick to the guarantee. 

 

Thanks so much for this info!  I actually submitted and got approved $19/pp for 2 adults for an excursion just booked. In our case it also was the exact same tour company on trip advisor. $72 vs $55/ pp. and we also had another 10% credit for using our Carnival MC. 😁.  Jw if something happens and tour would get cancelled, would they also remove OBC from the account while on ship?

[jbethel11]

7 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

 

Thanks so much for this info!  I actually submitted and got approved $19/pp for 2 adults for an excursion just booked. In our case it also was the exact same tour company on trip advisor. $72 vs $55/ pp. and we also had another 10% credit for using our Carnival MC. 😁.  Jw if something happens and tour would get cancelled, would they also remove OBC from the account while on ship?

I guess spend it before they could? I don't know?

[Schoifmom]

11 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

I guess spend it before they could? I don't know?

 

12 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

 

Thanks so much for this info!  I actually submitted and got approved $19/pp for 2 adults for an excursion just booked. In our case it also was the exact same tour company on trip advisor. $72 vs $55/ pp. and we also had another 10% credit for using our Carnival MC. 😁.  Jw if something happens and tour would get cancelled, would they also remove OBC from the account while on ship?

 

I actually had this happen (we missed the port).  If you look in your cruise manager, the discounted price will be reflected for your excursion.  The OBC is yours and they will not take that back due to a cancellation; however, the amount you are refunded is only the discounted amount.  So, you do get back all you paid.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Schoifmom