Excursions have to be paid immediately?

[mpk]

Planning a couple of sailings.  When reserving NCL excursions, I was surprised to see that I had 15 minutes to fully pay for them.

 

I've been away for a few years, trying other lines.  But I don't remember NCL wanting immediate payment.  I recall the excursion costs just being added to the total bill, and I pay off the balance on the same final payment date as the cruise itself.  Am I remembering wrong?

[Oldgoat61]

Your memory is still good.  I found out about this change in Sept..  It is sad,  you no longer have the ability to change your mind.  To me, this is as bad as the change for the final payment date. 

[complawyer]

while i dont have a definitive answer for you, i can tell you that on all my previous ncl cruises (18) since 2010, i have never pre-booked a shore excursion, and in all hat time, there were only about 2 that were sold out. i never book an excusion until (1) im on board (2) usually one or two nights before . they just go on my bill on the cruise.

[casofilia]

@mpk

 

The change occurred about 4-6 months ago.   

 

When you pay they quote the price that has any Shore Excursion $50 credit (perk) and any Latitude Rewards discount applied.

 

One reason for doing it was that their systems weren't able to accurately remove the benefits and many many people took up lots of Shorex Desk and/or Guest Services time.

 

You can, of course, still wait to book on board and pay either in cash at the end or put it on your Credit Card,

[Trimone]

At the moment excursions are very overpriced, the reason you can’t leave the ship without having a NCL guided tour, now imagine in six months time everyone is vaccinated and can leave the ships at will, and purchase local tours for 50% less, it’s all about the Cash££££

[rachiem]

In the UK we've always had to pay for them immediately? I'm still waiting for a refund for an excursion from a cancelled Mch cruise (where they had incorrectly converted it to FCC) 

Edited November 19, 2020 by rachiem

[Trimone]

6 minutes ago, rachiem said:

In the UK we've always had to pay for them immediately? I'm still waiting for a refund for an excursion from a cancelled Mch cruise (where they had incorrectly converted it to FCC) 

Credit card ? I did as soon the refund wasn’t immediate.

[alysonofagun]

1 hour ago, Trimone said:

Credit card ? I did as soon the refund wasn’t immediate.

 

I did this with a pre-paid internet package.

 

Gave them 5 months to sort the refund out (it was less than £100 so I was fine to wait for it), after lots of "sorry for the delay, we have processed the request" etc. phone calls, the final straw came when I got told "I don't think you ever paid us for it in the first place". Me: umm, I definitely did, but ok. 

 

Got straight on the phone to my credit card company to raise a dispute, had the money back in about 10 days. 

[PelicanBill]

Keep every confirmation of purchase and reservation you make!  They go in a "travel" folder in my email. 

[rachiem]

4 hours ago, alysonofagun said:

 

I did this with a pre-paid internet package.

 

Gave them 5 months to sort the refund out (it was less than £100 so I was fine to wait for it), after lots of "sorry for the delay, we have processed the request" etc. phone calls, the final straw came when I got told "I don't think you ever paid us for it in the first place". Me: umm, I definitely did, but ok. 

 

Got straight on the phone to my credit card company to raise a dispute, had the money back in about 10 days. 

Have sent them a final email giving them 5 working days to confirm that they are refunding. This was paid nearly 2 years ago on my credit card and have just found the corresponding entry.

[BirdTravels]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:50 AM, mpk said:

Planning a couple of sailings.  When reserving NCL excursions, I was surprised to see that I had 15 minutes to fully pay for them. I've been away for a few years, trying other lines.  But I don't remember NCL wanting immediate payment.  I recall the excursion costs just being added to the total bill, and I pay off the balance on the same final payment date as the cruise itself.  Am I remembering wrong?

They made this change several years ago (not months ago). The change has nothing to do with COVID. 

[casofilia]

@BirdTravels

 

They made this change several years ago (not months ago). 

 

We were on the ill-fated cruise from Dubai to Cape Town in March 2020 and certainly didn't have to pay "up front" for shore excursions we booked beforehand.

 

I have an NCL Shorex Confirmation email dated 23rd Feb 2020 that finishes with:-

"All shore excursions will be charged to your onboard account at the current rate of exchange."

 

I would agree that NCL followed Princess in doing this but it was a lot later; Princess did it 3 or 4 years ago,

[drvmywifecrzy]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

They made this change several years ago (not months ago). The change has nothing to do with COVID. 

 

Change was made in Feb 2020 - pre covid lockdown

[Stevio]

In UK when booking shore excursions in the past online you have had to pay in full in advance...

 

You could however call them to pre book and get reward discounts applied by going to ships desk. $50 excursion credit applied to account after each excursion completed.

 

The change that occurred in the last few months is that both shore excursion $50 credits and reward discounts are now when signed in, credited & discounted online and in the app prior to real time payment.. (Yes they increased their prices to cover this).

 

On our last cancelled cruise the shore excursion refunds turned up un-announced on the credit card way before the rest of the cruise refund.

Edited November 20, 2020 by Stevio
Spelling

[janice2348]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

They made this change several years ago (not months ago). The change has nothing to do with COVID. 

Yes, for our last two sailings, 2016 and 2018 we had to pay shore excursions up front in total.  

[casofilia]

@janice2348

 

That would have been because you didn't have any Shorex "perk".   Without the "perk" that was the case but many many people did have the "perk" (it has been so common a "perk" for so long) and so didn't have to pay "up front".

[janice2348]

2 minutes ago, casofilia said:

@janice2348

 

That would have been because you didn't have any Shorex "perk".   Without the "perk" that was the case but many many people did have the "perk" (it has been so common a "perk" for so long) and so didn't have to pay "up front".

We actually did have the perk. We were in a suite for both sailings.  Maybe I’m confused, or my memory is failing me. 😵

[mpk]

Thanks to the community for bringing up the Latitudes discount, I see that I did not receive it.  I'll give them a call.

[kdmbluerzr]

My experience with booking shore excursions has been one can do this a few different ways. On my most recent cruise on the Getaway, January/Feb 2020, if I booked the shore excursion online via MyNCL account I had to put the full amount of my cost on a credit card at that time. Paid up front. If I called the NCL Shore Excursion desk, I could reserve the shore excursion without payment at that time, my onboard ship account was charged for the shore excursion 24 hrs prior to the date of the excursion. I did have the option to cancel or change the reservation if done so 24 hrs prior to that excursion. On completion of the excursion my onboard account would show the $50 credit for the shore excursion perks I had. Regardless of how I booked the excursions the price/cost reflected my Latitudes discount perk.  Don't know if any of this has changed. No one has been able to cruise much since then! My summer Alaska cruise was cancelled and no doubt my Feb Panama Canal cruise will also be cancelled.  UGH!  

[All-ready2cruise]

@kdmbluerzrthis is very accurate, as far as I know, this will be the way it continues to be done.  I had a cruise booked for March 29 this year and had booked a couple of small shorex.  When I saw that I needed to pay the full amount up front, I called the shorex dept. to confirm.  And they said, yes, payment would need to be made if booking online, prior to cruising, however, it would include both the Latitudes 15% discount (for platinum/+) and the $50 FAS discount. 

 

Going forward, will there be changes, who knows?  I wouldn't book any excursions until we have cruises confirmed.  JMO

 

Good luck to all, hope cruises are back soon.

 

Cheers

Edited November 21, 2020 by All-ready2cruise

[julig22]

NCL changed the way to book excursions, early 2020.  I haven't looked to see if they've changed again - not cruising anytime soon because of cancellations.  But yes, I believe you have to pay in advance now.

 

Previously, if you had the excursion perk, you could call and reserve an excursion and it would be charged to your on-board account - so you could use your on-board credits.  If you got a latitudes discount, you had to go to the excursion desk to get it applied. Excursion credits were applied after the excursion.

 

If you reserved your excursions on-line or didn't have the excursion perk, you had to pay at the time.  But I believe your latitudes and/or excursion discounts were applied.

 

So no, nobody is losing their minds, just different experiences and little if any experience with the new policies, since it was shortly after this change that all cruises stopped.

 

As I understand the changes, the $50 excursion credit comes off of the base price of the excursion (used to come off after any latitudes discount), plus you can't use OBC to pay for your excursions unless you wait to book them - although I think I remember reading where someone said you could get an adjustment once onboard.  So much for those of us who use OBC to pay for excursions!

 

[milolii]

Slightly off topic,  but we sailed Princess In 2019 and had to prepay.  Folks on the roll call said it was standard  practice.  We did have a port cancelled and promptly received  a refund.  

[Seany527]

For years I remember paying for my excursions up front. It’s been quite some time that you have been able to reserve online and then pay on board.