Prepay Excursions

What, if any, advantage is there for prepaying for excursions we have reserved?

What, if any, advantage is there for prepaying for excursions we have reserved?

As far as I am concerned there is no advantage.

As long as you can just reserve them thats all you need.

We never pay anything in advance unless we have to. ;)

Only one I can think of is having spare cash now and wanting to avoid sticker shock on your stateroom charge. Or being so used to pre-paying them when you sailed a cruise line that requires it that you prefer to do the same on Princess.

There are no discounts for pre-paying, the price is locked in once you reserve protecting you against any increase.

But getting back to the why-prepay reasons: on our last cruise we had free gratuities, and it was helpful enough not having that charge on our folios that we may just prepay them when booking our next cruise [if not included in that cruises promo]. So worth thinking about.

I prepay as much as I can. Who wants those bills long after you are back from your cruise, I don't

What, if any, advantage is there for prepaying for excursions we have reserved?

Pre pay advantages - budgeting purposes, low credit ceiling on your credit card, can be good those that tend to wind up paying off credit card debt at high interest rates.

Pay on board advantages - For those that have lots of OBC you may have extra to cover excursions charges. No money up front, everything is charged to your on board account, You can reserve without payment and change your mind with no financial impact or transactions.

In both cases you can cancel most excursions up to the cancellation date and time shown on your tour ticket and receive either a credit on your on board account or a refund if already paid.

What, if any, advantage is there for prepaying for excursions we have reserved?

In my experience, there are shorex reserved on board that are priced $10 more than when pre-booked, but not all shorex in same voyage.

In my experience, there are shorex reserved on board that are priced $10 more than when pre-booked, but not all shorex in same voyage.

Yes, I have seen this. But you don not have to pre-pay to lock in the price, just pre-reserve.

Yes, I have seen this. But you don not have to pre-pay to lock in the price, just pre-reserve.

Absolutely! You'll be charged the price listed when you pre-reserved! :)

I prepay as much as I can. Who wants those bills long after you are back from your cruise, I don't

I agree with you!

Spreading out the payment- by prepaying you can reduce the total post-cruise impact of tours, gratuities, and on-board charges all at once! This way, you can walk off the ship just owing your souvenirs and booze. :)

If someone is from a non-US country, there can be a real benefit to pre-paying due to exchange rates.

The negative to pre-paying is that you can't use OBC to pay for the tour. If you have shareholder, military, FCC, TA, etc. OBC, you can board with a substantial amount of OBC as its combinable. Can't use it for tours if you pre-pay.

I prepay as much as I can. Who wants those bills long after you are back from your cruise, I don't

Exactly. If I know it's an expense I'm going to have and I can get that portion of the bill paid and done with, I will always pre-pay. For our upcoming B2B on the Regal in December, we've pre-paid our AIBP and Excursions. We pre-paid the gratuities at booking.

We will use our $850 in OBC for dinners, The Enclave and hopefully the Ultimate Ship Tour. Something we've not yet experienced.

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I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of those people who pre-pay gratuities, drink packages, shore excursions, etc. The more of you who do this, the longer Princess will keep it as an option (instead of prepayment being mandatory, as it is on Celebrity) and therefore the longer I will have a chance to delay payment until I get onboard.

Seriously, I am very happy to have the choice!

I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of those people who pre-pay gratuities, drink packages, shore excursions, etc. The more of you who do this, the longer Princess will keep it as an option (instead of prepayment being mandatory, as it is on Celebrity) and therefore the longer I will have a chance to delay payment until I get onboard.

Be careful what you wish for. Unfortunately the reality is that should the number of passengers who pre-pay for their shore excursions increase to a solid majority the bean counters at Princess will surely decree it unnecessary to have two different payment options (prepay or onboard account) for pre-registered excursions and Princess will then become like all other lines with payment necessary to pre-reserve any optional add-ons.

Hopefully, Princess will continue to allow those of us who wish to pre-book without having to pre-pay.

LuLu

If someone is from a non-US country, there can be a real benefit to pre-paying due to exchange rates.

 

The negative to pre-paying is that you can't use OBC to pay for the tour. If you have shareholder, military, FCC, TA, etc. OBC, you can board with a substantial amount of OBC as its combinable. Can't use it for tours if you pre-pay.

Last cruise we had several missed ports with booked Princess excursions and ended up having to souvenir shop just to use up our OBC. An unusual occurrence but it happens.

Having to pre-pay anything is a negative for us.

I do not see that it ever makes any sense at all to prepay for anything but I realize that some people want to get big expenses over with ASAP. Doesn't hurt me and different strokes for different folks.

DON

Prepaying the gratuities in your home currency has a couple of advantages. When you see your account on board those nightly charges can be very confusing and by prepaying it's just not there to confuse you.

And we always prebook excursions but instead of paying for them in advance we purchase enough OBC to cover the charges.

The biggest advantage with prepaying both gratuities and excursions is that you always know the exchange rate. That's a huge advantage when USD is not your home currency.

As far as I am concerned there is no advantage.

As long as you can just reserve them thats all you need.

We never pay anything in advance unless we have to. ;)

I totally agree.

Tony

Prepaying with Princess Rewards Visa would earn double points which could be converted to OBC. Just a thought.

Yes, I have seen this. But you don not have to pre-pay to lock in the price, just pre-reserve.

Right. Just pre-reserve.

In my experience, there are shorex reserved on board that are priced $10 more than when pre-booked, but not all shorex in same voyage.

On Princess, except for a test they are doing on the Grand in Alaska, you can prebook, lock in the price, without having to prepay.

One major disadvantage of prepaying is not being able to use OBC to pay for the excursions.

Another disadvantage is that if enough people do it, then Princess might follow other cruise lines and remove the option and force prepayment.

As far as the advantage of budgeting, just set the money aside and pay on the ship. Never really an advantage to pay early.

I prepay as much as I can. Who wants those bills long after you are back from your cruise, I don't

Just take the cash you were going to prepay with and pay on the ship.

I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of those people who pre-pay gratuities, drink packages, shore excursions, etc. The more of you who do this, the longer Princess will keep it as an option (instead of prepayment being mandatory, as it is on Celebrity) and therefore the longer I will have a chance to delay payment until I get onboard.

 

Seriously, I am very happy to have the choice!

Probably the opposite. If enough people prepay they will decide that they might as well force it, since it will negatively impact a relatively small number of people. If more people don't prepay then they will have to decide if the negative impact is worth the change. Princess is running a test on the Grand in Alaska forcing prepayment and removing the option. If they consider that test to be a success we will probably see it across the fleet.

Princess is running a test on the Grand in Alaska forcing prepayment and removing the option. If they consider that test to be a success we will probably see it across the fleet.

I am sure the test will be a success.

On Alaska cruises 75% or more of the passengers have never sailed Princess before. As a result, they are either

o past cruisers from other cruise lines which require pre-payment and thus think it is the normal thing to do

or

o first time cruisers that think this is the way it always works and thus think it is the normal thing to do

So if there is a survey, these 75% or more passengers will say it is fine with them.