Onboard credit now available for shore excursions?

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Sorry if I missed something, if I should know this.   I had thought that you couldn't use OBC for shore excursions.  But, looking at a cruise, it shows you can select to use OBC when making payment.   

[vjmatty]

Yes, but unfortunately unlike any other cruiseline, you can only use it for excursions and nothing else in the cruise planner 😞

 

[suekel]

If it's OBC that you receive before boarding (using a FCC, shareholder credit) you can use it to pay before the cruise.  If it's OBC that you receive once you board (TA gift, casino, etc) you can't use it until you board the ship. 

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Okay...  Thanks!

(it is non-refundable onboard credit from Princess)

[JimmyVWine]

Non-refundable onboard credit has always been available for use for excursions as long as you book and pay on board.  Nothing has changed in that regard.  But if you want to lock in an excursion before sailing, you have to pre-pay and cannot use that type of OBC to do so.  

[skynight]

. 

2 hours ago, PRINCESS Sweet Pea said:

Okay...  Thanks!

(it is non-refundable onboard credit from Princess)

If it shows on your Princess documents/files you can use it to pre-book excursions

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Non-refundable onboard credit has always been available for use for excursions as long as you book and pay on board.  Nothing has changed in that regard.  But if you want to lock in an excursion before sailing, you have to pre-pay and cannot use that type of OBC to do so.  

I'm a bit confused from what you wrote. We usually have a considerable amount of OBC prior to boarding, from being retired military (refundable), shareholder benefits (nonrefundable) and FCDs (nonrefundable). We always use it first to pre-book Princess excursions well in advance of boarding the ship. Only when it has been depleted, do we use a CC to prepay for excursions.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Yes, it is confusing!  I thought I had heard that you can't book and pre-pay before the cruise.

I thought that some people had kind of complained about that?  Like the one poster said 'as long as you book and pay onboard'.   What I am seeing is when you look at the shore excursion and hit book now, it then shows your available OBC and you can click to use it to book that excursion.

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

I am definitely talking about pre-booking bofore the cruise.

 

[latebloomer56]

1 hour ago, PRINCESS Sweet Pea said:

Yes, it is confusing!  I thought I had heard that you can't book and pre-pay before the cruise.

I thought that some people had kind of complained about that?  Like the one poster said 'as long as you book and pay onboard'.   What I am seeing is when you look at the shore excursion and hit book now, it then shows your available OBC and you can click to use it to book that excursion.

I want an exclusion for our upcoming cruise. Needed to give credit card to book? I called TA and she was told OBC could be used but only on board? I'm so confused. We have the package so not much to spend for on board so wanted to use this for excursions and special dining, something else I couldn't book.

[beg3yrs]

6 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Non-refundable onboard credit has always been available for use for excursions as long as you book and pay on board.  Nothing has changed in that regard.  But if you want to lock in an excursion before sailing, you have to pre-pay and cannot use that type of OBC to do so.  

That's not right. Non-refundable OBC can definitely be used to book excursions online before you board.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

That's not right. Non-refundable OBC can definitely be used to book excursions online before you board.

That has not been my experience. Maybe there are different types of non-refundable OBC. But when I have tried to apply my OBC, I have been denied. 

[disneyochem]

Yesterday I was able to use my shareholder’s OBC, FCD and the promotional Shore Excursion OBC to prebook excursions on upcoming cruises.  The amount was shown deducted after I hit the Pay now button.  Used all of our available OBC and then about $25 to complete the transactions.

 

edit:  I did this online.

Edited September 16, 2022 by disneyochem

[Cruise Raider]

You can definitely pre-book shore excursions using OBC online.  I’ve done this since the restart back in July 2021… well over a year ago.