Can't Use OBC to Pre-book Excursions

[Firstin87]

Hi,

 

I didn't see this topic, so someone please redirect me if this is a repeat.

 

We've got two cruises coming up on NCL and when I called Shore Excursions to pre-book our excursions, I was told that we cannot use our OBC to pay for them at pre-booking.  Used to do that on our previous cruses, but apparently that changed in Feb. 2020.  In order to use OBC to pay for excursions, you have to book the excursion once onboard – obviously risky as the one(s) you want may be full.  I booked the excursions and paid with my credit card (which is not charged until we go).

 

My plan is to go to the Shore Excursion Desk once we board and cancel, then rebook the excursion so it can be paid for with OBC.  Has anyone done this and how did it go?

 

I don’t see any benefit for NCL to change this policy.  They give passengers OBC to use to encourage them to book their excursions through the cruise line, then don’t allow them to use it conveniently.  That doesn’t make passengers happy.  NCL does not get any benefit from my paying for the excursions in advance as they don’t get the money until the activity is completed.  The Shore Excursion team that passengers speak to on the phone must get an earful from upset passengers over this new policy, even though they are not the ones who enacted the change.  Giving passengers the only option of rebooking once onboard just makes more work for the staff at the Shore Excursions Desk and, again, unhappy passengers.  For the headaches given to so many by this new policy, I’m curious what the benefits of it are to NCL.  What am I missing?

 

Thanks,

 Firstin87

[victory2020]

I'm hoping to re book a couple of expensive ones to use up OBC

[julig22]

Yes, it has been discussed many times, mostly back when first implemented. Haven't seen anyone with knowledge on why, other than possibly getting people to spend obc on other things.

[MeHeartCruising]

1.  I disagree with your assessment that "NCL does not get any benefit from my paying for the excursion in advance as they don't get the money until the activity is completed".  They get the money as soon as you pay for it with your credit card.  If not, where do you think the money sits until the activity is complete?  Early access to your money lets them put it in their bank and earn money on it.

 

2.  Asking people to pre-pay for their excursions allows NCL to know that the passenger truly has some skin in the game on actually taking that excursion.  NCL can then make plans with the excursions companies they work with to pre-reserve an appropriate number of busses, guides, etc.  I'm sure that when you could book them in advance without paying, that many people would book excursions just in case they might want to use it.  NCL was on the hook to pre-plan for numbers that may never show up.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by MeHeartCruising

[julig22]

30 minutes ago, Firstin87 said:

I booked the excursions and paid with my credit card (which is not charged until we go).

Where do you get the idea that your card isn't charged?  Mine most certainly is. If you book onboard, they might wait but they have always charged upfront, unless you had the promo.

[ggTexasGal]

12 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

I'm hoping to re book a couple of expensive ones to use up OBC

Same here!!!

[Firstin87]

13 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Where do you get the idea that your card isn't charged?  Mine most certainly is. If you book onboard, they might wait but they have always charged upfront, unless you had the promo.

And... there it is on my credit card statement.  They must be happy I booked so far in advance.

 

I still like the old policy better when you could book early and charge it to your shipboard account.  I don't like the idea of starting my vacation standing in line at the Shore Excursion Desk to rebook.  With the Free at Sea drinks, specialty dining, and wifi benefits, excursions are all we can spend the large amount of OBC we have for this particular cruise on.

[Firstin87]

31 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

Same here!!!

I'm hoping it is easy to do.

[Katnisslove]

Yeah, surprise to us to (and i'm on here often when we have a cruise booked but last one was late 2019)!!!  We didn't realize it had changed until I called, got through all my shore excursions, picked times and then she goes "and what card would you like to pay with"...... ummmmmmmm.... definitely not happy about the change either but will know going forward.  Usually I prepay gratuities and my other half gets the onboard account (shore exursions, pic, etc).  14 night cruise the shore excursions add up fast!! Lol. He paid for most of the shore excursions and we held off on booking Grand Cayman (probably not a port that is happening in Nov), and the excursion from the ship to the airport.  Those won't be a problem booking once onboard.

[deweytrader]

Whoops i meant FCC.

Edited September 20, 2021 by deweytrader
misspell

[julig22]

1 minute ago, deweytrader said:

I just booked a shore excursion last week over the phone and used OBC to pay, in fact the phone rep even suggested it.  I would try again.

OBC or fcc?  I used FCC to pay for mine, with my shore excursion and latitudes discounts.  But never heard of obc being used in advance, unless it was possibly purchased obc.

[Firstin87]

2 hours ago, Katnisslove said:

Yeah, surprise to us to (and i'm on here often when we have a cruise booked but last one was late 2019)!!!  We didn't realize it had changed until I called, got through all my shore excursions, picked times and then she goes "and what card would you like to pay with"...... ummmmmmmm.... definitely not happy about the change either but will know going forward.  Usually I prepay gratuities and my other half gets the onboard account (shore exursions, pic, etc).  14 night cruise the shore excursions add up fast!! Lol. He paid for most of the shore excursions and we held off on booking Grand Cayman (probably not a port that is happening in Nov), and the excursion from the ship to the airport.  Those won't be a problem booking once onboard.

I'm the same way - I'm on CC more often when we've got cruises booked and our last one was also in late 2019.  Unfortunately, NCL made this change in Feb. 2020, just before all the COVID chaos, so a lot of us are discovering this now that we're getting back to cruising.  We've got six excursions booked and they can be completely covered by our OBC. 

[SpainAlien]

Watch out for the cancellation policy for shore excursions, I think you can cancel them onboard only if you do so 48 hours or more before the excursion takes place and I believe it is then converted into obc not refunded to your card

 

What is the cancellation process once I’m on board?

Shore Excursions: Guests that cancel on board more than 48 hours prior to the tour will receive a refund for their purchase in the form of an onboard credit. Tours cancelled by guests less than 48 hours prior to arrival in the port where the tour is scheduled are non-refundable. Please note that certain tours, such as overland tours, customised tours and tours with theatre performances or special events may be subject to different cancellation fees. To make a cancellation on board or for additional details, please visit the Shore Excursion Desk.

 

And:

 

http://ncl-drupal6.ncl.com:9050/cruise-faq/what-if-i-miss-cancellation-deadline-and-do-not-want-my-tour

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by SpainAlien
Add NCL quote and link

[julig22]

18 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Watch out for the cancellation policy for shore excursions, I think you can cancel them onboard only if you do so 48 hours or more before the excursion takes place and I believe it is then converted into obc not refunded to your card

 

What is the cancellation process once I’m on board?

Shore Excursions: Guests that cancel on board more than 48 hours prior to the tour will receive a refund for their purchase in the form of an onboard credit. Tours cancelled by guests less than 48 hours prior to arrival in the port where the tour is scheduled are non-refundable. Please note that certain tours, such as overland tours, customised tours and tours with theatre performances or special events may be subject to different cancellation fees. To make a cancellation on board or for additional details, please visit the Shore Excursion Desk.

 

And:

 

http://ncl-drupal6.ncl.com:9050/cruise-faq/what-if-i-miss-cancellation-deadline-and-do-not-want-my-tour

 

 

Don't know where you got your info (link doesn't work for me).  However, per the NCL faq: "Once onboard, any refunds will be made to the onboard folio account of the Shore Excursion order contact person, not the original credit card used to secure the online order. This applies even in the event that shore excursions were purchased as a gift by someone who is not sailing. In the instance that at the end of the sailing, any onboard credit remains unused at the end of your sailing, such credit shall be refunded via check in the name of the Shore Excursion order contact person. Payment of the refund check will be mailed following sailing to the individual listed as the Shore Excursion order contact person.   https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/shorex-terms-conditions

[CroozFanatic]

Money grab. They prey on your fear that the excursion will be sold out.

 

They much prefer you pre-pay for anything and everything. The statistical analysis shows that folks that pre-pay wind up spending more overall vs. the old system where you couldn't start paying for anything until you got on the ship.

[Firstin87]

9 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

Watch out for the cancellation policy for shore excursions, I think you can cancel them onboard only if you do so 48 hours or more before the excursion takes place and I believe it is then converted into obc not refunded to your card

 

What is the cancellation process once I’m on board?

Shore Excursions: Guests that cancel on board more than 48 hours prior to the tour will receive a refund for their purchase in the form of an onboard credit. Tours cancelled by guests less than 48 hours prior to arrival in the port where the tour is scheduled are non-refundable. Please note that certain tours, such as overland tours, customised tours and tours with theatre performances or special events may be subject to different cancellation fees. To make a cancellation on board or for additional details, please visit the Shore Excursion Desk.

 

And:

 

http://ncl-drupal6.ncl.com:9050/cruise-faq/what-if-i-miss-cancellation-deadline-and-do-not-want-my-tour

 

 

Thank you for that.  I knew about the 48 hours in advance, but not the OBC refund.

[ggTexasGal]

1 hour ago, Firstin87 said:

Thank you for that.  I knew about the 48 hours in advance, but not the OBC refund.

We haven't sailed since January 2020.

However, at that time ,quite a few of our pre-purchased excursions were cancelled due to wind perils.  Our excursion OBC was in our account as "Refundable OBC."   We ended-up requesting a cash refund on the evening of 2nd-to-ast-day of the cruise.

*** I cannot say for certain that they are still doing it that way!***

[julig22]

7 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

We haven't sailed since January 2020.

However, at that time ,quite a few of our pre-purchased excursions were cancelled due to wind perils.  Our excursion OBC was in our account as "Refundable OBC."   We ended-up requesting a cash refund on the evening of 2nd-to-ast-day of the cruise.

*** I cannot say for certain that they are still doing it that way!***

You get a refund.

[classy_cruiser]

Here’s a tip. If you are going to cancel your cruise past final payment, call a day or two before and cancel the excursions only. These will get refunded to your card. Less that goes into an FCC when you do cancel the cruise. 

[Firstin87]

43 minutes ago, classy_cruiser said:

Here’s a tip. If you are going to cancel your cruise past final payment, call a day or two before and cancel the excursions only. These will get refunded to your card. Less that goes into an FCC when you do cancel the cruise. 

Clever!  

[MoCruiseFan]

On 9/20/2021 at 4:00 PM, Firstin87 said:

Hi,

 

I didn't see this topic, so someone please redirect me if this is a repeat.

 

We've got two cruises coming up on NCL and when I called Shore Excursions to pre-book our excursions, I was told that we cannot use our OBC to pay for them at pre-booking.  Used to do that on our previous cruses, but apparently that changed in Feb. 2020.  In order to use OBC to pay for excursions, you have to book the excursion once onboard – obviously risky as the one(s) you want may be full.  I booked the excursions and paid with my credit card (which is not charged until we go).

 

My plan is to go to the Shore Excursion Desk once we board and cancel, then rebook the excursion so it can be paid for with OBC.  Has anyone done this and how did it go?

 

I don’t see any benefit for NCL to change this policy.  They give passengers OBC to use to encourage them to book their excursions through the cruise line, then don’t allow them to use it conveniently.  That doesn’t make passengers happy.  NCL does not get any benefit from my paying for the excursions in advance as they don’t get the money until the activity is completed.  The Shore Excursion team that passengers speak to on the phone must get an earful from upset passengers over this new policy, even though they are not the ones who enacted the change.  Giving passengers the only option of rebooking once onboard just makes more work for the staff at the Shore Excursions Desk and, again, unhappy passengers.  For the headaches given to so many by this new policy, I’m curious what the benefits of it are to NCL.  What am I missing?

 

Thanks,

 Firstin87

It is called ON BOARD credit for a reason. 🙂