Paying for Excursions?

[pappy1022]

I get to select my Regent port excursions next week. If I choose a small group tour or need to pay for full day tours, how and when do I pay for them? I have shipboard credits. Are those used up first and then your credit card is billed? Is that right away or some time down the road? My TA says that she won’t be adding her agent shipboard credits until later in the cycle.

[cwn]

You pay when you book, you can use any OBC that you have credited to your account.

[Portolan]

And, when you are aboard, your shipboard account will reflect any OBC added after you bought your excursions.  If the OBC are non-refundable (most TA OBC are refundable, but Regent promotions or OBC from on-board bookings are not refundable), they will, in effect, be retroactively applied to excursions your already purchased.  This used to require some extra effort, but is now automatic.  An example my make this clearer:

 

OBC at time excursions are booked = $200

Regent Choice or SG excursions booked = $500, paid for with the $200 OBC and $300 charge to credit card

TA refundable OBC = $400

On-board booking credit (non-refundable) = $200

 

Your shipboard refundable credit will be $600 (the $400 from your TA plus $200 of your previously charged $300 since the $200 on-board booking credit will have been applied, retroactively, to your excursions).  Basically, subtract any non-refundable OBC, no matter whether received before or after you buy the excursions, from the cost of the excursions + any refundable OBC and that amount will either be refunded to your credit card or you can cash it out from reception at any time during the cruise.

[pappy1022]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Let me see if I fully understand with a real life example. Regent is giving us $500 shipboard credit as part of their “deal”. I assume that’s available right from the time of booking and can be used and applied toward excursion selections next week. Our TA is also is providing $500 shipboard credit but that won’t be applied to our account until after we are paid in full. So if next week I book excursions totaling $1,000, $500 (Regents credit) will be applied and $500 will be charged to my credit card. Whenever we receive our OBC from our TA, Regent will automatically apply the TA OBC and the net result is $0 for the excursions. Is this correct logic? One more excursion question. If we decide to cancel a selected excursion that we previously made, do the OBC’s and cash Paid (if any) get refunded to our account? There is a good chance that once we do more research, we may select a private tour or 2 in a couple of ports because the cost can be equal or less than the Regent option because we have 3 couples and when you split the cost amongst us some of the private tours become more attractive. But we aren’t there yet to make that decision, so we want to have the Regent tours booked as an alternative.

[Portolan]

3 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Let me see if I fully understand with a real life example. Regent is giving us $500 shipboard credit as part of their “deal”. I assume that’s available right from the time of booking and can be used and applied toward excursion selections next week. Our TA is also is providing $500 shipboard credit but that won’t be applied to our account until after we are paid in full. So if next week I book excursions totaling $1,000, $500 (Regents credit) will be applied and $500 will be charged to my credit card. Whenever we receive our OBC from our TA, Regent will automatically apply the TA OBC and the net result is $0 for the excursions. Is this correct logic? One more excursion question. If we decide to cancel a selected excursion that we previously made, do the OBC’s and cash Paid (if any) get refunded to our account? There is a good chance that once we do more research, we may select a private tour or 2 in a couple of ports because the cost can be equal or less than the Regent option because we have 3 couples and when you split the cost amongst us some of the private tours become more attractive. But we aren’t there yet to make that decision, so we want to have the Regent tours booked as an alternative.

Regardless of whether or not the TA OBC is refundable (they usually are), if the total of all your OBCs  (regardless of whether they are available before you board) is equal to or less than you pay for your excursions, the new money (when you paid now for the excursions) will be refundable either on-board or to your credit card at the end of you cruise.  If the TA OBC and the total OBCs are less than you paid in advance for your excursions, the amount you pre-pay in excess of the OBC shortfall will likewise be refunded.

 

The question about cancellation is (I hope) most easily explained as you'll get any money refunded where OBCs exceed the cost of the excursions your take.

 

The bottom line is that Regent changed this from the older process where you had to be proactive to get to the same end result where any and all non-refundable OBCs will be spent first regardless of their timing.

[1982CruzStart]

4 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Let me see if I fully understand with a real life example. Regent is giving us $500 shipboard credit as part of their “deal”. I assume that’s available right from the time of booking and can be used and applied toward excursion selections next week

If you look at your cruise in My Account it will show how much OBC is available right now to spend against your excursions. 

[SusieQft]

Nearly a year ago I purchased some extra cost excursions for our 9/21/22 Mariner sailing.  I had some OBC (non-refundable) already on the booking, and it was automatically applied first to the cost of the excursion, and my credit card was charged for the balance.  Later, probably around the time of final payment, I received some additional OBC (also non-refundable).  Without any action on my part (nor from my TA, I am pretty sure), Regent applied the new OBC to my excursions, and refunded the full amount that had been charged to my credit card.  I still have some of the OBC available to use on board, as well.

 

This worked amazingly well, and totally exceeded my expectations. 🙂