Excursions Held Until Payment?

[NewSalty]

So, I know it's early yet, but I was wondering if anybody has had any experience with excursions booked under the new system.

 

Specifically, I'm wondering if they hold an excursion booking even if it hasn't been paid for yet.  I remember reading something somewhere about an "auto-cancel" routine for unpaid reservations - but it wasn't very specific, and I don't remember the source (and thus, the source's reliability).  I watched for, but didn't see, any language to this effect as I booked 2 excursions yesterday - I doubt that Azamara has "official" language out yet.  (Bigger fish to fry...)  In any case, the 2 excursions are still there today, so if there is an "auto-cancel" routine out there, it doesn't run every day.

 

I think that I will pay for the 2 I have booked (really don't want to lose them!), and then book another excursion I don't care so much about - and wait and see what happens to it...

[Rus Tee]

We’ve had an excursion booked (and not paid for) saved on the booking portal for two weeks which is still there. We intend to pay for excursion and other packages once we’ve paid the final valence in a couple of months

[NewSalty]

So you're half-way through the experiment... 

 

With the huge mess that the new website has proven to be, I have my concerns that when you (or I) go to pay later, the excursion will show up as full.  I will proceed with shifting that possibility to a lesser excursion, and keep whatever happens posted here!

[NewSalty]

OK, so my experiment is set up now as well.  1 excursion booked today, and not paid for...

 

BTW, I found the source of my "auto-cancel" quote - when you go to pay for any excursions in your shopping cart, the pop-up payment screen has a line "Unpaid items will be auto canceled".  We'll see!

[Grandma Cruising]

I have a number of excursions booked on 2 cruises. The ones I did on the website for the November 23 cruise were paid for out of OBC. I followed the instructions on the website, opened the Pay Now page then clicked cancel.

The ones for the other cruise in February 24 were made over the phone and I was told that it was too early for my OBC to be applied, but that there would be no problems in the meantime. The excursions stayed on my account with the full amount showing as owing for a few weeks, then last week the amount was considerably less. I have two sets of OBC - one was the $600 promotion from the booking and the other was $700 from the indulgence package I purchased. It looks as if the $600 has been applied to my excursions. I will wait to see when the $700 is applied.

[Host Jazzbeau]

46 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I have two sets of OBC - one was the $600 promotion from the booking and the other was $700 from the indulgence package I purchased. It looks as if the $600 has been applied to my excursions. I will wait to see when the $700 is applied.

Haven't they said in the past that you can't use Indulgence OBC before boarding?  [Meaning, that is baked into the rules of the Indulgence package, not a glitch in the software.]

[combine]

Yes, on our July cruise I had pre booked an excursion with our obc, booking as advised  in the email, (book it, press cancel etc etc.)

When we boarded there was a letter in our cabin asking me to visit shore  excursion  desk as payment had not been taken . Turns out our obc had not been assigned to the cabin. Sorted that out at guest relations , all of about 5 minutes. 

Then the on board price was debited which was now $10 per person more than I had reserved it at. The next day  we were credited with the difference of $10 pp. It all came right and they honoured the price  I had previously reserved.

Bit of a convoluted way of doing it all, but I think if my obc had been correctly processed it would have been straightforward and taken from the obc as they had indicated in previous emails.

[Grandma Cruising]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Haven't they said in the past that you can't use Indulgence OBC before boarding?  [Meaning, that is baked into the rules of the Indulgence package, not a glitch in the software.]

I think I saw that too, but if it is in the rules for the Indulgence package it must have changed as we’ve had it before & used the OBC to buy excursions beforehand. If that is now the case it sounds as if I’ll just have to sort it out once aboard.

[uktog]

9 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Haven't they said in the past that you can't use Indulgence OBC before boarding?  [Meaning, that is baked into the rules of the Indulgence package, not a glitch in the software.]

That was my experience. I just hold back the tours not likely to sell out when I have the package and sort them onboard. Works no problem 

[terry&mike]

12 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Haven't they said in the past that you can't use Indulgence OBC before boarding?  [Meaning, that is baked into the rules of the Indulgence package, not a glitch in the software.]

I have a South America cruise booked for November 2023. Before the IT migration, I purchased the Indulgence Package for that sailing, and then was able to book our Shore Excursions online using the $700 Shore Excursion OBC from that package. I already had $300 in OBC from a booking promo, and used that as well, plus $3.00 extra I paid on a credit card. I purchased a total of $1003.00 in excursions for the two of us.

 

During the IT mess, the Indulgence package fell off the reservation and the reservation showed I owed money for the excursions. This was eventually straightened out, and the booking is correct now. 

 

Hopefully, you will be able to use the Shore Excursion OBC from the packages in advance of the sailings again once things are running smoothly, but maybe that is a permanent change to have you wait until onboard. 

 

I think the Shore Excursion OBC data is in a flux right now. I have a client who last week purchased 2 shore excursions for a sailing in 2 weeks. He has the OBC to cover it. Azamara then called me to collect payment via credit card from him for those, and I explained he wanted to use his OBC to cover them. They said he would need to use his cc now to pay for the excursions, and then once onboard he could use his OBC for them and get a credit back to his card. I replied that he did not want to do that, nor did I want him to do that given the issues that I have encountered lately. They said they would check and call me back. They have not called me back, and the excursions are still on his booking, as is his OBC.  

[PirateWife]

I booked some excursions for an upcoming cruise when I was on my last cruise. They were added to my booking confirmation. They cost more than the OBC I had available but I did not pay anything at that time. I have since then booked one more excursion and that cost was added to my final payment. This has been since May and all of the booked excursions still show on my account. I make the final payment for the upcoming cruise and excursions next week.

[malcliz]

I phoned up to book our excursions with our OBC. This is for our cruise next month. The excursions are now showing but it’s asking for a credit card and it says for non payment they will be auto cancelled. I don’t want this to happen so I have emailed support and was told they would action payment from our OBC but this hasn’t happened yet.  We have 12 OBC ‘coupons’ for various strange amounts. Has anyone else got weird amounts for their OBC such as 85p bar credit and £21.13 spa credit?

[NewSalty]

Luckily (well not really all that lucky), we don't have any OBC to confuse the situation as to whether things will actually auto-cancel... I've already paid for my "must-have" excursions, and will continue to wait to pay on the others to see what happens.