Excursion refund

[MudderBear]

OK, I'll try to write this cohesively.  

 

Going on Princess Sun soon.  I paid for three excursions starting last July with the last one being paid in February.  I used a combination of one credit card and onboard credit.  I had $200 from a promotion when I booked, and $100 OBC from my carnival stock.

 

About a month or so I booked my fourth and final excursion...and paid all of it with my credit card.  One month prior to the cruise, I called and cancelled this fourth excursion (I decided I didn't want to do it) and then jumped onto a waitlist for one I really want to do.

 

I kept checking my credit card for refund and it never came through.  I called a couple of times and they said, oh...it takes time, etc.  Yesterday, and again today I called and they said that the money won't be refunded to my credit card and that I still owed them money from the first three excursions.  How can that be?  Everything has been paid in full whether it was my credit card or OBC

 

They are now holding my money hostage and said it is now listed as OBC. It's roughly about $160 ($79 for me $79 for husband).  I don't want any OBC because I have Plus, I paid with my credit card for one speciality dinner.  I don't anticipate buying anything more on the ship.

 

Someone said "check your personalizer"....but when I go into it, it says I have a $0 balance for excursions.  It also said that I have $200 OBC for me, and $100 OBC for husband....but please remember that that $300 total was depleted a few months back to put towards the first one or two excursions.

 

What do I do?  Also, how come I can't see how much money I have in my OBC (aside from the original $300 that I just referred to).  Why don't I see $79 for me and $79 for husband?

 

I am so confused.  What do I do now?  

 

As I mentioned I am on a waitlist for that fourth excursion, and I guess if that opens then my OBC will go towards that, but what if it doesn't?  Why can't they just refund my credit card?

 

 

[Coral]

I have had this happen also. It is frustrating. It will be given as OBC on the ship.

 

I have called and they say "don't you want OBC, everyone wants OBC" and I am like "I used my credit card - I want a credit". Sometimes I have gotten it, other times I go to the casino and take the money out that way.

 

Their accounting system needs help.

[leck57]

Princess recently cancelled an excursion that I had booked (they didn't advise me but that's another story) and the money was refunded back to my card in about 5 business days.

 

If it was refunded as OBC I don't think you'll see that on your folio until you are on board. That happened to me a few years ago. A recent cruise I was on also had a cancelled excursion (again not advised but for another day) which I found out about when I boarded and it was refunded as OBC. On the positive side that OBC is refundable so you'll get it back if you don't use it.

 

When you board I would go to the Excursion Desk and confirm the excursion you don't want to do shows your cancellation and confirm the refund has been made. That's what I did with my recent cancellation. It is much better to sort this out with a face to face as they can see the looks of impatience etc come across your face. As many have said, phone calls are not worth the paper they are written on. 

[Outerdog]

I hate that this is the best answer but it is: sort it out on the ship.

 

Princess on board has been super great dealing with excursion changes, cancellations and such. One time we were late arriving to the excursion meet up point and missed the excursion. I was tipsy and missed the time change. So they hustled us onto another cheaper excursion (super fun). They automagically credited the difference even though it was totally our fault and we didn't ask for any credit at all.

 

Princess shoreside, on the other hand, sucks. They can't find their ass with both hands and I never call them for anything unless absolutely necessary.

 

Just handle it on the ship.

[NavyVeteran]

On the ship, you will not see a refund for the cancelled excursion - you just won't see any charge for it at all. You will see charges for all your excursions and refundable OBC for the payments you made. You don't need to go to Guest Services to check - just look at your folio on your app or print out a copy at the machine next to Guest Services.

Princess does not actually charge for the excursions until you are onboard. If you cancel an excursion, they don't normally refund to credit card if you still have an excursion balance - even if that balance is covered by OBC.

To see your balance pre-cruise, log into the cruise on the Cruise Personalizer. Proceed as if you are buying a new excursion (don't worry, you won't actually purchase anything). Select any excursion that doesn't conflict with the time of one you already have, select all passengers in the cabin, and click on ADD TO CART. Click on PAY NOW. Click on PAY NOW on the new screen. Look at the EXCURSION RESERVATIONS SUMMARY. It will show Previously Made Reservations, Previous Payments Received (credit card), Onboard credits applied (including OBC applied to this new excursion), and Subtotal (amount owed) for each passenger. Subtract off the Reservations in Cart, and it will show your current balance. After reviewing, select Remove next to each of the excursions - you haven't paid for anything.

 

[MudderBear]

Wow, thanks for that.  I will try that method later.

[sandancer]

14 hours ago, Coral said:

I have had this happen also. It is frustrating. It will be given as OBC on the ship.

 

I have called and they say "don't you want OBC, everyone wants OBC" and I am like "I used my credit card - I want a credit". Sometimes I have gotten it, other times I go to the casino and take the money out that way.

 

Their accounting system needs help.

I understand that they have stopped allowing you take out the obc in the casino. I have no idea how they would police that but I’m sure I’ve seen another post about this subject. 

[gonecampingfournow]

On 5/2/2024 at 5:19 AM, NavyVeteran said:

On the ship, you will not see a refund for the cancelled excursion - you just won't see any charge for it at all. You will see charges for all your excursions and refundable OBC for the payments you made. You don't need to go to Guest Services to check - just look at your folio on your app or print out a copy at the machine next to Guest Services.

Princess does not actually charge for the excursions until you are onboard. If you cancel an excursion, they don't normally refund to credit card if you still have an excursion balance - even if that balance is covered by OBC.

To see your balance pre-cruise, log into the cruise on the Cruise Personalizer. Proceed as if you are buying a new excursion (don't worry, you won't actually purchase anything). Select any excursion that doesn't conflict with the time of one you already have, select all passengers in the cabin, and click on ADD TO CART. Click on PAY NOW. Click on PAY NOW on the new screen. Look at the EXCURSION RESERVATIONS SUMMARY. It will show Previously Made Reservations, Previous Payments Received (credit card), Onboard credits applied (including OBC applied to this new excursion), and Subtotal (amount owed) for each passenger. Subtract off the Reservations in Cart, and it will show your current balance. After reviewing, select Remove next to each of the excursions - you haven't paid for anything.

 

I will disagree with your statement that they don't charge for excursions until you are onboard. My CC has the charge for the excursions we reserved for June. I cancelled one of them and hopefully will get money back not OBC.

[NavyVeteran]

3 hours ago, gonecampingfournow said:

I will disagree with your statement that they don't charge for excursions until you are onboard. My CC has the charge for the excursions we reserved for June. I cancelled one of them and hopefully will get money back not OBC.

Yes, Princess does charge your credit card if you don't have enough OBC to cover the excursion. However, your onboard folio shows the excursions as charges and the credit card payments as refundable OBC. If you cancel an excursion more than five days pre-cruise, you will receive a credit card refund - if you don't have a remaining balance for other excursions (even if they are covered by OBC).

You will get money back. If it is OBC, it will be refundable OBC which will be refunded after the cruise if you don't spend it onboard. 

[phoebe2m]

Here's my terrible experience. We booked an excursion a year in advance and charged to our credit card. A few months later the port was cancelled so of course the excursion was also cancelled. Email from Princess said refund would be either credit on credit card or OBC. We didn't care either way. We didn't get a credit card refund and when we got on the ship, no OBC. 

 

I went to Excursion Desk with my credit card statements for 7 months showing no credit. The crew member said she would check with the main office and call me. No call. I went back, she said the same thing. Again no call back. Third time I went she told me that they had processed the refund to my credit card for $80. I had paid $120. She had no proof and wouldn't look at my proof. Her manager refused to talk to me. She said that I could have faked the excursions I had printed from their website!

 

After half an hour, she looked at my proof and admitted I hadn't gotten a refund but said to contact my credit card company because they made the mistake. No way can Visa research a credit that never happened. 

 

I wrote about this on my survey after the cruise but still out $120. Not happy. Ruined 3 days of my cruise because I was so upset. 

[leck57]

5 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

Yes, Princess does charge your credit card if you don't have enough OBC to cover the excursion. However, your onboard folio shows the excursions as charges and the credit card payments as refundable OBC. If you cancel an excursion more than five days pre-cruise, you will receive a credit card refund - if you don't have a remaining balance for other excursions (even if they are covered by OBC).

You will get money back. If it is OBC, it will be refundable OBC which will be refunded after the cruise if you don't spend it onboard. 

 

When booking excursions you have the option to use any OBC or pay by card. I never use OBC for excursions pre cruise as I want it for onboard ship activities. If you uncheck the use OBC box then it doesn't get used for the excursion you are booking.

[Jetswdo]

I had a horrible experience with customer service with Princess-- I hope that by the time I am on the cruise I can put it behind me.  I called up just to ask if the representative could change a dining reservation for me.. Rep had a thick accent and very distracting background music. I was barely on the phone for maybe 2 minutes.  After I hung up, ears still ringing from the noise, I decided to call back to see if my dining reservation actually was changed.  This time, I was told that my fully paid for cruise, excursions, etc. had been cancelled.  I became hysterical (I'm 70) and said I never cancelled my cruise, please restore immediately.   5 minutes later, I'm told that everything is ok and had been fixed.  So then I said please check on my excursions.   This time, the rep said, "Oh it looks like your excursions have all be cancelled."  So of course I said please put them back.  So slowly the rep who was obviously annoyed as if I caused the problem, started to re book my excursions.  2 of them couldn't be re booked, as they now showed that they were full.  And of course, I was now charged more money for the excursions than I originally paid as the prices went up.  I calculated with everything Princess did, that I am out around $400.   I managed to book a similar excursion to the one that couldn't be re booked, through viator---  The other one could only be booked through Princess, so I am out of luck.  Never mind that I booked almost a year ago.  I filed a complaint on line.  No response.  So now, I check every few days to see that my cruise is still showing on line and on app which I am having difficulty with.

I will never call customer service again for anything.  I am a former travel agent,  and before covid I found Princess very easy to deal with.