OBC for excursions

[mel8kri]

I have OBC but my wife doesn’t. If I use my charge card for her share of excursions can I get credit and use OBC once on board.

[57eric]

Maybe I'm not understanding your question, but you don't have to be on board to use OBC for Princess excursions. 

[mel8kri]

I can use my OBC to pay for my excursion but since my wife has no OBC I need to charge the cost. I know once on board I can combine the accounts. I am worried the excursion will fill up.

[Pushka]

OBC isn't available for use on Princess Diamond in Japan. 

[mel8kri]

Nothing to do with my question.

[skynight]

In the past you would have to call Princess. They were able to use your OBC to pay for both excursions. Now, with the poor customer service and the poor app I don't know how far you would get, but it's probably worth a try. 

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

In the past you would have to call Princess. They were able to use your OBC to pay for both excursions. Now, with the poor customer service and the poor app I don't know how far you would get, but it's probably worth a try. 

 

This is how I see things these days as well. When I use OBC they use up the credit for one and, if the other doesn't have enough credit, they charge it to my credit card. Stupid but that's the way it is.

 

As for being able to make a change once on the ship to use OBC and get a refund to your credit card... Maybe but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[satxdiver]

When booking excursions the charge for each individual is charged against that person's OBC or must be paid for by a credit card.  Once onboard it cannot be changed.  So one should wait until onboard to use an OBC for both.  

[NavyVeteran]

I've always been able to charge DW's excursions to my OBC pre-cruise. It can't be done online, but a Princess telephone rep can do it.

When I've charged excursions to my credit card after running out of OBC pre-cruise, they didn't actually charge the excursions to my credit card. The excursions were charged on my onboard folio, and the credit card payments were listed as refundable OBC on my onboard folio. Therefore the excursions would be charged first to nonrefundable OBC if any and the credit card payments would be refundable OBC that I would get back if not spent.

[Mud_Shark]

If you have a PVP, they can do this for you pre-cruise.  Specifically ask for "2 tickets for excursion XYZ to be charged to the OBC in your account".  This has worked for me numerous times, however, when I said "Can I order a ticket for me and my wife using my OBC?"  The response was "No."  But when you say -"charge 2 tickets to my account", they do it.  

 

If you don't have a PVP, when you call Princess, there is a phone option to press a certain number for shore excursions.  Often you get someone from North America answer when you press that number and they can help you.  The off-shore call center is pointless and you will just get aggravated having them try to help you, so just hang up if you get them.

[BarbaraEH]

I have an OBC question related to shore excursions...I booked two shore excursions back in January part of which was covered by OBCs so I got only a single charge on my credit card which included a partial charge for the one excursion and the full charge for the other. Now I don't recall which shore excursion was booked using the credits. I've cancelled one of those shore excursions but can't seem to find my revised OBC balance on the Princess website. Of course, the credit has not yet been posted to my credit card and may take a couple of weeks apparently. Does anyone have any idea where I can find my available OBC balance on the website? I've received no confirmation email from Princess regarding the cancellation...or don't they send a confirmation? Thanks!

[dreaminofcruisin]

15 minutes ago, BarbaraEH said:

I have an OBC question related to shore excursions...I booked two shore excursions back in January part of which was covered by OBCs so I got only a single charge on my credit card which included a partial charge for the one excursion and the full charge for the other. Now I don't recall which shore excursion was booked using the credits. I've cancelled one of those shore excursions but can't seem to find my revised OBC balance on the Princess website. Of course, the credit has not yet been posted to my credit card and may take a couple of weeks apparently. Does anyone have any idea where I can find my available OBC balance on the website? I've received no confirmation email from Princess regarding the cancellation...or don't they send a confirmation? Thanks!

 

This is one of the most annoying things about Princess website. It always only shows the full amount of OBC for a cruise....so it ends up being up to you to keep track. However, I 'think' if you try and do a mock booking of an excursion--like you were booking it, but don't finish it, it will show you the available OBC to use for the excursion.

As far as a confirmation on the cancellation...I don't know the answer. However, you will see the excursions online that you have booked, so I guess if it doesn't show up as a booked one, it has been cancelled. 🤷‍♀️

[BarbaraEH]

55 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

This is one of the most annoying things about Princess website. It always only shows the full amount of OBC for a cruise....so it ends up being up to you to keep track. However, I 'think' if you try and do a mock booking of an excursion--like you were booking it, but don't finish it, it will show you the available OBC to use for the excursion.

As far as a confirmation on the cancellation...I don't know the answer. However, you will see the excursions online that you have booked, so I guess if it doesn't show up as a booked one, it has been cancelled. 🤷‍♀️

I did try doing a mock booking but it doesn't show anything about the OBCs before having to click on pay/submit so I wasn't inclined to do that!! And when I was booking those excursions a few weeks ago, it didn't give me an option of whether or not to use the OBCs, it just included them. I may have to call Princess or wait until we're onboard to find out.

[NavyVeteran]

1 hour ago, BarbaraEH said:

Does anyone have any idea where I can find my available OBC balance on the website?

 

56 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

This is one of the most annoying things about Princess website. It always only shows the full amount of OBC for a cruise....so it ends up being up to you to keep track. However, I 'think' if you try and do a mock booking of an excursion--like you were booking it, but don't finish it, it will show you the available OBC to use for the excursion.

This answer should work. Details follow:

Log in to your cruise on Cruise Personalizer. Select "Excursions". Pick any port and any excursion that doesn't conflict with one you already have booked. Select an excursion time and select all guests in your cabin. Select "ADD TO CART". Select "PAY NOW". You will see a list of the new excursion with one entry for each passenger. Select "PAY NOW".

You will now see an "EXCURSIONS RESERVATIONS SUMMARY". It will show for each passenger "Previously Made Reservations", "Previous Payments Received", and "Onboard credits applied", which is the information you are looking for.

When you are finished reviewing the information, do not select "Credit Card" or "PayPal" under "Make a Payment". Instead, select "Remove" under each of the excursions listed. Note that you have not actually booked anything and you haven't charged anything when you do this.

[NavyVeteran]

5 minutes ago, BarbaraEH said:

I did try doing a mock booking but it doesn't show anything about the OBCs before having to click on pay/submit so I wasn't inclined to do that!! And when I was booking those excursions a few weeks ago, it didn't give me an option of whether or not to use the OBCs, it just included them. I may have to call Princess or wait until we're onboard to find out.

Follow the process I gave above. As long as you don't select "Credit Card" or PayPal" on the last step and then give them the credit card or PayPal information, you will not be charged - even though you have selected "PAY NOW" twice.

Note that the "EXCURSION RESERVATIONS SUMMARY" also has an option to select "Show Credits" for each passenger. This option will list the total OBC available to compare to the "Onboard credits applied".

[BarbaraEH]

On 2/22/2024 at 12:59 PM, NavyVeteran said:

 

This answer should work. Details follow:

Log in to your cruise on Cruise Personalizer. Select "Excursions". Pick any port and any excursion that doesn't conflict with one you already have booked. Select an excursion time and select all guests in your cabin. Select "ADD TO CART". Select "PAY NOW". You will see a list of the new excursion with one entry for each passenger. Select "PAY NOW".

You will now see an "EXCURSIONS RESERVATIONS SUMMARY". It will show for each passenger "Previously Made Reservations", "Previous Payments Received", and "Onboard credits applied", which is the information you are looking for.

When you are finished reviewing the information, do not select "Credit Card" or "PayPal" under "Make a Payment". Instead, select "Remove" under each of the excursions listed. Note that you have not actually booked anything and you haven't charged anything when you do this.

Worked like a charm! I now see that the credits have been refunded to our accounts. Thanks!