prepaid gratuities and excursions

[chet the jet]

We will be going to Tahiti on the Tahitian Princess in Novermber. I have book on line the excursions and I know that they will be billed to my credit card at the end of the cruise. Has anyone prepaid to princess the amont that would be charge (in our case about $3,500.00 for 5 of us). I plan to pay cash for this on board as my credit card will not hold all of this but would not like to take that much with me in travlers checks. Has anyone done this and if they did were they happy with it. Thanks:confused:

[chrysalis]

easy to do and lots of people do it.....just take TC's and when on board just go to the Purser's Desk (registration desk) and put that money towards your on board account.

[Toto2Kansas]

If I understand your question correctly, you would like to pay for what you estimate your shipboard account will be BEFORE you go (such as tips and shore excursions)? correct?

 

Yes, you can call Princess and add as much to your shipboard account before you leave as you wish. Or, contact your TA if you don't want to charge it to a credit card and you can pay by cash or check. Just make sure to give the check time to clear so the TA can authorize this and have the shipboard account credited with the amount you wish to pre-pay.

[chet the jet]

If I understand your question correctly, you would like to pay for what you estimate your shipboard account will be BEFORE you go (such as tips and shore excursions)? correct?

 

Yes, you can call Princess and add as much to your shipboard account before you leave as you wish. Or, contact your TA if you don't want to charge it to a credit card and you can pay by cash or check. Just make sure to give the check time to clear so the TA can authorize this and have the shipboard account credited with the amount you wish to pre-pay.

 

This is what I would like to do. Will call my TA in the morring. Thanks for the information. Can not beleave that I am spending $31,000 for two weeks of fun for my family (air fare, OTW room 3 days and 10 days on ship. May never get to do this again.:(

[Toto2Kansas]

This is what I would like to do. Will call my TA in the morring. Thanks for the information. Can not beleave that I am spending $31,000 for two weeks of fun for my family (air fare, OTW room 3 days and 10 days on ship. May never get to do this again.:(

 

Trust me, we have done it several times, and it will leave you with memories for a lifetime. It will all be worth it once you step onboard that ship in Tahiti. Have a FANTASTIC vacation! :)

[fundayz]

We did this for our Alaska cruise, because we knew that we didn't want to have to have a large bill at the end. We too wanted to make sure it was all paid in full in 'cash'. We don't like to carry a cc balance.

 

I called Princess and got a very good rep. She suggested that I purchase on board credit that way I could use the money towards anything on my cruise. The type that I purchased had to be purchased in increments of $500. I was assured that if I didn't use it that it would be refunded by Princess either at the end of the cruise or after we returned home.

 

Funny thing was I purchased them in my husband's name and booked all the excursions in my name. We got a letter the last day that said my husband had a refund due to him and that he should report before 11pm to have it refunded. We went down and transferred the few thousand to my account.

 

All in all we only had a balance of under $200 when we were done. It made the end of the cruise as nice as the beginning. We now don't have to see that huge balance next month and feel guilty. It is all paid for and all we have to look forward to is putting together our photos.

 

Have a happy trip!

[chet the jet]

We did this for our Alaska cruise, because we knew that we didn't want to have to have a large bill at the end. We too wanted to make sure it was all paid in full in 'cash'. We don't like to carry a cc balance.

 

I called Princess and got a very good rep. She suggested that I purchase on board credit that way I could use the money towards anything on my cruise. The type that I purchased had to be purchased in increments of $500. I was assured that if I didn't use it that it would be refunded by Princess either at the end of the cruise or after we returned home.

 

Funny thing was I purchased them in my husband's name and booked all the excursions in my name. We got a letter the last day that said my husband had a refund due to him and that he should report before 11pm to have it refunded. We went down and transferred the few thousand to my account.

 

All in all we only had a balance of under $200 when we were done. It made the end of the cruise as nice as the beginning. We now don't have to see that huge balance next month and feel guilty. It is all paid for and all we have to look forward to is putting together our photos.

 

Have a happy trip!

We have 2 rooms but 4 of us are on my credit card. I did not put my daughers boyfreind of 18 years on mine. I said that I would pay for his gruitalites and shore excursions but nothing eles. So it would work for me to pay for his when I get on board and get the on board credits for us though Princess

[caribill]

easy to do and lots of people do it.....just take TC's.

 

 

Is that still possible? Many places that used to sell TCs now just put the money on a prepaid credit card.

[Nana G]

We do this all the time and love it. prepaid excursions and tips then only had alchohol and a few incidentals. Funny though that when we arrived on board in our stateroom, we had 10 gift cards stating $100 per card as a gift from me to my husband!!!!! Lucky him...

[cindep]

Just so you know, you can book as many tickets as you need on shore excursions all on one account and that is the way they will be charged. They never match the name of the tickets to your cruise card when you take the tours, so if you are paying for his, there's no need to charge them to his room account and then pay for them separately.

[twotogo]

We will be going to Tahiti on the Tahitian Princess in Novermber. I have book on line the excursions and I know that they will be billed to my credit card at the end of the cruise. Has anyone prepaid to princess the amont that would be charge (in our case about $3,500.00 for 5 of us). I plan to pay cash for this on board as my credit card will not hold all of this but would not like to take that much with me in travlers checks. Has anyone done this and if they did were they happy with it. Thanks:confused:

 

 

Pre paying sounded like a good idea, so I called Princess. The first person said that any money deposited and not used will not be refunded. Remembering what I read here, I called again. The second person thought a refund would happen but wanted to make sure. She came back and said the policy on refunds had been changed and no refund would be issued.

 

So a caution to anyone thinking of pre paying, maybe make sure about the rules on refunds.

 

Susan

[TimInOhio]

Pre paying sounded like a good idea, so I called Princess. The first person said that any money deposited and not used will not be refunded. Remembering what I read here, I called again. The second person thought a refund would happen but wanted to make sure. She came back and said the policy on refunds had been changed and no refund would be issued.

 

So a caution to anyone thinking of pre paying, maybe make sure about the rules on refunds.

 

Susan

Since we all have read that if you call Princess six times and ask the same question, you'll get six different answers (!), has anyone had any recent onboard experience with this issue? Not that I doubt what Susan is saying, but it sounds odd to me that Princess would not refund any balance at the end of the cruise. But I wouldn't put it past Princess - I'm sure some bean counter somewhere figured out that X% of passengers would buy themselves OBC (or have it bought for them), and that Y% of those would leave a balance at the end of the cruise that Princess gets to put in their pocket! That's not personally what I would do if it were my cruiseline, but I guess if that's the way it is, at least we know about it.

 

Tim