Shipboard credits and excursions

[bearybubba]

Hello, everyone!

My hubby and I are going on our first ever cruise to Alaska this August for our 25th wedding anniversary. We have shipboard credits that we are getting that we want to use to book some excursions. Do we have to wait until we are on the ship to do this?

Thank you for all of your help!

Beth

[Host Kat]

1 hour ago, bearybubba said:

Hello, everyone!

My hubby and I are going on our first ever cruise to Alaska this August for our 25th wedding anniversary. We have shipboard credits that we are getting that we want to use to book some excursions. Do we have to wait until we are on the ship to do this?

Thank you for all of your help!

Beth

 

Howdy @bearybubba

 

Beth, it may depend on your cruise line & their policies. Which cruise line?

 

Looking forward to your reply,

 

Host Kat

[bearybubba]

56 minutes ago, Host Kat said:

 

Howdy @bearybubba

 

Beth, it may depend on your cruise line & their policies. Which cruise line?

 

Looking forward to your reply,

 

Host Kat

Princess. Thank you!

[Host Kat]

32 minutes ago, bearybubba said:

Princess. Thank you!

 

You are most welcome!

 

Since your topic may be cruise line specific, your new thread has been moved to the Princess Cruises forum where it will be on topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed Princess frequent this forum and provide feedback here. Browse through the thread titles on this forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

Hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat 

[riffatsea]

Hi

If you go on line and can already see the credits listed on your account then you can use then for the excursions 

If not you'll have to wait until you are on board

[chubbypiggy]

1 hour ago, riffatsea said:

Hi

If you go on line and can already see the credits listed on your account then you can use then for the excursions 

If not you'll have to wait until you are on board

Last week I used my OBC to pay for excursions for my upcoming April cruise on Majestic Princess, no problem at all.  I used my OBC for pre-cruise purchase of excursions many times in the past with no problem.

 

Today, I want to book excursions for my Sept. 2023 cruise on the Diamond Princess.  I have more than enough OBC and can see the OBC in my account for that cruise.  When I clicked "pay now", instead of asking me if I want to pay with my OBC, it only gave me the choice to pay with "credit card" or "Pay-pal".  It no longer gives the option to pay with OBC.  I wonder if this is another new change of Princess?   

[coo359a2]

58 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

Last week I used my OBC to pay for excursions for my upcoming April cruise on Majestic Princess, no problem at all.  I used my OBC for pre-cruise purchase of excursions many times in the past with no problem.

 

Today, I want to book excursions for my Sept. 2023 cruise on the Diamond Princess.  I have more than enough OBC and can see the OBC in my account for that cruise.  When I clicked "pay now", instead of asking me if I want to pay with my OBC, it only gave me the choice to pay with "credit card" or "Pay-pal".  It no longer gives the option to pay with OBC.  I wonder if this is another new change of Princess?   

Just went to our 28 Oct 2023 Grand Princess cruise and booked an excursion.  Cost automatically went against our OBC and it was a $0.00 balance due. Booked several excursions some time ago for our June/July cruises on the Sky and all were automatically paid by our OBC.  

[Anastas617]

I also booked three excursions (well, 2 plus a clam shell on Princess Cay) a couple days ago and charged them to my OBC for my Caribbean Princess cruise in April.

[bearybubba]

Would it be because we haven’t paid our cruise in full yet?

[coo359a2]

8 hours ago, bearybubba said:

Would it be because we haven’t paid our cruise in full yet?

Don’t think so. We have 7 cruises remaining through 2023 that aren’t paid in full and have used OBC to pay for 1 or 2 excursions  in each one. 

[latebloomer56]

How did you folks do the excursions with OBC prior to cruise? I didn't want to pay on CC last Oct. because we had so much OBC, but only choice was CC? Didn't book on the site and went without as everything was sold out. They said they weren't up to pre covid with their vendors due to availability so sold out fast. Didn't take that chance for August cruise and paid on CC have 700.00 OBC. Would it be because it is from my Visa and doesn't show on our booking yet?

Thanks as always folks if you know how we can use OBC.

[coo359a2]

36 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

How did you folks do the excursions with OBC prior to cruise? I didn't want to pay on CC last Oct. because we had so much OBC, but only choice was CC? Didn't book on the site and went without as everything was sold out. They said they weren't up to pre covid with their vendors due to availability so sold out fast. Didn't take that chance for August cruise and paid on CC have 700.00 OBC. Would it be because it is from my Visa and doesn't show on our booking yet?

Thanks as always folks if you know how we can use OBC.

If you go to your booking "My Personalizer" and click on the Payments button, then scroll to the bottom you will see a list of all your OBC that could be used to purchase excursions.  The different types of OBC that you might see are Military OBC, Promotion OBC, Future Cruise Deposit OBC, Stock OBC and Travel Agent OBC.  Whatever the amount of the OBC listed will be what  can  be used when you book excursions.  If you have enough OBC to cover the cost, you will have a $0.00 amount due. If you don't have enough OBC to cover the full cost of the excursion, your OBC will be used first and then you will have a balance due which you charge to your credit care.  

 

I have read that you can have OBC that isn't listed on your booking but will show up on your account once you board the ship.  Since all the OBC I mentioned above has always been listed in "My Personalizer", I am not sure what OBC is out there that doesn't show up in your account until you are on board the ship. It is possible that since your OBC comes from you VISA, this is one type of OBC not listed until you board..  

We usually book excursions as soon as we can as the more popular ones fill up fast.  Also, in the past excursions booked a few weeks out or once on board have been about $20 or so more.

[latebloomer56]

41 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

If you go to your booking "My Personalizer" and click on the Payments button, then scroll to the bottom you will see a list of all your OBC that could be used to purchase excursions.  The different types of OBC that you might see are Military OBC, Promotion OBC, Future Cruise Deposit OBC, Stock OBC and Travel Agent OBC.  Whatever the amount of the OBC listed will be what  can  be used when you book excursions.  If you have enough OBC to cover the cost, you will have a $0.00 amount due. If you don't have enough OBC to cover the full cost of the excursion, your OBC will be used first and then you will have a balance due which you charge to your credit care.  

 

I have read that you can have OBC that isn't listed on your booking but will show up on your account once you board the ship.  Since all the OBC I mentioned above has always been listed in "My Personalizer", I am not sure what OBC is out there that doesn't show up in your account until you are on board the ship. It is possible that since your OBC comes from you VISA, this is one type of OBC not listed until you board..  

We usually book excursions as soon as we can as the more popular ones fill up fast.  Also, in the past excursions booked a few weeks out or once on board have been about $20 or so more.

Thank you very much, greatly appreciated.

[chubbypiggy]

15 hours ago, coo359a2 said:

Just went to our 28 Oct 2023 Grand Princess cruise and booked an excursion.  Cost automatically went against our OBC and it was a $0.00 balance due. Booked several excursions some time ago for our June/July cruises on the Sky and all were automatically paid by our OBC.  

Just went to my booking and tried to book excursions for my Sept cruise on Diamond.  After my booking showed up, went to top of screen and chose "excursions", then the screen turned totally dark.  Tried it on Chrome and Edge.

 

[coo359a2]

4 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

Just went to my booking and tried to book excursions for my Sept cruise on Diamond.  After my booking showed up, went to top of screen and chose "excursions", then the screen turned totally dark.  Tried it on Chrome and Edge.

 

Mine too just now - so think it is probably a computer glitch.  Could see excursions earlier today for my bookings.

[chubbypiggy]

34 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

Mine too just now - so think it is probably a computer glitch.  Could see excursions earlier today for my bookings.

Just tried, now I can get to the excursions.  Same thing as yesterday, when I chose "Pay Now", it came back with options "Credit card" or "Pay pal", and not deducting it from available OBC (like the way it used to be in the past when I booked excursions for my other cruises).

[Ken the cruiser]

Here's a suggestion to see if you have any OBC on your booked cruise. Pull your booking up in the Princess Personalizer. See where it says Payments on the right hand side? Click on it and go down to the Credits section. If you have any posted by Princess, they will show up there.

 

 

[chubbypiggy]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Here's a suggestion to see if you have any OBC on your booked cruise. Pull your booking up in the Princess Personalizer. See where it says Payments on the right hand side? Click on it and go down to the Credits section. If you have any posted by Princess, they will show up there.

 

 

It does show I have OBC, just not allowing me to use it when I clicked "Pay Now" for my excursions.

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

It does show I have OBC, just not allowing me to use it when I clicked "Pay Now" for my excursions.

We had that issue on our upcoming July 2023 Japan cruise on the Diamond. Not sure why as we didn't have any issues using it to book excursions on our other 4 upcoming Princess cruises. My suggestion is for you to contact the folks you booked the cruise with, either Princess or your TA, to see how you can go about using your OBC to help pay for your excursions.

[coo359a2]

3 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

It does show I have OBC, just not allowing me to use it when I clicked "Pay Now" for my excursions.

There is an option to talk with the Excursion Dept when you call the Princess 800 number.  Haven't tried it lately but they have helped move some of DH's OBC to my name so the OBC paid in full both both of us.

[bearybubba]

Thank you, everyone, for your help. Still trying to work it out but you all gave wonderful advice. Thank you again!

 

[chubbypiggy]

21 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We had that issue on our upcoming July 2023 Japan cruise on the Diamond. Not sure why as we didn't have any issues using it to book excursions on our other 4 upcoming Princess cruises. My suggestion is for you to contact the folks you booked the cruise with, either Princess or your TA, to see how you can go about using your OBC to help pay for your excursions.

I also only had the problem with my Diamond cruise (Sept 2023 Japan cruise).  I wonder if the problem is only with the Diamond excursions?  Did you contact your TA and have your problem solved?

 

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

I also only had the problem with my Diamond cruise (Sept 2023 Japan cruise).  I wonder if the problem is only with the Diamond excursions?  Did you contact your TA and have your problem solved?

 

No, we just decided to spend the extra OBC on the ship. If nothing else, I’m sure the specialty dining restaurants and the casino will be happy to take it. 😂