Alaskan Land Tour and OBC

[beachseeker]

Have cruised many times but taking our first land and cruise combined in August on the Coral. Can we use OBC to pay for excursions that are not included on the land portion?

[Pia1913]

Have cruised many times but taking our first land and cruise combined in August on the Coral. Can we use OBC to pay for excursions that are not included on the land portion?

 

The OBC you get on the cruise cannot be used for land tours. Sorry.

[beachseeker]

The OBC you get on the cruise cannot be used for land tours. Sorry.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Is that just true for excursions on land tours or all shore excursions? Haven't cruised Princess in a while. Last time on Princess you could pre book shore excursions and pay at the end of the cruise, using OBC that you had.

[Pia1913]

Thanks for the quick reply. Is that just true for excursions on land tours or all shore excursions? Haven't cruised Princess in a while. Last time on Princess you could pre book shore excursions and pay at the end of the cruise, using OBC that you had.

 

You can still prebook and cancel on board if you want. Your OBC can be used for anything; on board. Just not for tours associated with the land portion of your trip.

[Luv Cruising Land or Sea]

You can still prebook and cancel on board if you want. Your OBC can be used for anything; on board. Just not for tours associated with the land portion of your trip.

 

Hi Pia

 

met you on the coral in May/panama. We are looking at booking Alaska next and they have a promo going giving you $$ towards excursions so wondering if that was the reason for the question. Looking at the Golden in Sept next year but not seeing great reviews on her,...can you comment? Just doing a 7 day cruise only. Thanks for any suggestions

[caribill]

And if for your land tour you book excursions in advance, your credit card will be charged for the excursions several days before the start of the land tour.

 

By the way, your land tour days do not count towards the number of days you have sailed with Princess, only days on the cruise portion of your trip count.

[beachseeker]

Under our cruise personalizer when we choose an excursion whether it is for the land tour or cruise, it asks for our credit card and says credit card will be charged prior to first excursion. We have a nice amount of OBC and hoped we could use it to pay for excursions. It has been awhile since cruising Princess, but not having to prepay shore excursions was a positive in our opinion. Trying to decide if that is no longer the case. Sounds like it is for the land part of the trip but what about the cruising part? We are planners so prefer to plan excursions long before cruise date and usually book private. But with this generous OBC and the $100 shore excursion promotion, we want to use some ship excursions. Unfortunately, the ones we are most likely to book with Princess are on the land portion.

[skynight]

Have cruised many times but taking our first land and cruise combined in August on the Coral. Can we use OBC to pay for excursions that are not included on the land portion?

 

I believe that you need to contact Princess about this. I think that is the only way to try to get an accurate answer. Be persistent, you may have to ask to be connected to the Princess land tour office in Seattle. The normal customer service people in Santa Clarita may not know the answers. When I look at the cruisetours on their website I do see excursions listed for the land portion of the tour. If your land tour folio is transferred to your ship's folio, then maybe yes. However, if your land tour excursions are charged directly to your credit card then probably no. Any tour you book on the cruise personalizer for the ship's port of calls, as an example The Skagway City Tour and Show @ $49pp, will deduct from your OBC's. Some of these tours are hundreds of dollars so you can use the credits up very quickly.

[katisdale]

I have done cruise tours in both Alaska and Europe. We have had OBC on all of our cruises. The OBC could only be used for tours on the cruise portion of the tours. However, even if it stated as being for an excursion in actually it was used as a one-for-one basis, in other words if a daily hotel charge hit the sign and sail card before the excursion cost was posted then the daily charge was deducted from the OBC first. I hope this helps and that I explained it clearly. At 11.50 to 12.00 per person per day for the "tip" the credit can be used up quickly.

[Pam in CA]

The OBC you get on the cruise cannot be used for land tours. Sorry.

OBC = onboard credit

 

Pretty clear.

 

If you have OBC, it's for anything charged to your onboard account. Anything charged while off the ship (on the land portion) is charged directly to your credit card. You can call Princess as many times as you want but why bother because there's only one answer. Your onboard account is completely separate from any other spending or purchases. FYI, if you purchase an FCC while onboard, that's considered a booking charge, not an onboard expense so it'll be charged to your credit card directly. That's how separate the accounting systems are.

[beachseeker]

I guess I am not being clear enough. I understand now that any excursion during the land portion will be charged to our credit card. My confusion: are shore excursions for the cruise that are prebooked charged to our credit card now or will they be charged to our ship board card once onboard? The reason for my confusion is that when reserving an excursion for the land tour or shore excursion for the cruise both ask for our credit card and say the credit card will be charged prior to our first excursion. We have $950 OBC so gratuities will not eat it up nor will our bar bill but a couple of shore excursions in Alaska will for sure! If prebooked shore excursions don't go on our on ship account then I will go with all private excursions. Thus the reason for my questions. I have always had better luck getting accurate info on CC than calling the cruise line. Hope my question is clear now.

[Coral]

I guess I am not being clear enough. I understand now that any excursion during the land portion will be charged to our credit card. My confusion: are shore excursions for the cruise that are prebooked charged to our credit card now or will they be charged to our ship board card once onboard? The reason for my confusion is that when reserving an excursion for the land tour or shore excursion for the cruise both ask for our credit card and say the credit card will be charged prior to our first excursion. We have $950 OBC so gratuities will not eat it up nor will our bar bill but a couple of shore excursions in Alaska will for sure! If prebooked shore excursions don't go on our on ship account then I will go with all private excursions. Thus the reason for my questions. I have always had better luck getting accurate info on CC than calling the cruise line. Hope my question is clear now.

 

Shore excursions for the cruise portion will go on your ship account. If you reserve them now, they will show up on your ship account when you get on the ship. You have usually 36 hours before the excursion to cancel (look at schedule when on the ship for exact timing).

 

Short story - you do not have to pay in advance for excursions for the cruise portion. You will pay for them on the ship or use your ship's OBC.

[Pia1913]

I guess I am not being clear enough. I understand now that any excursion during the land portion will be charged to our credit card. My confusion: are shore excursions for the cruise that are prebooked charged to our credit card now or will they be charged to our ship board card once onboard? The reason for my confusion is that when reserving an excursion for the land tour or shore excursion for the cruise both ask for our credit card and say the credit card will be charged prior to our first excursion. We have $950 OBC so gratuities will not eat it up nor will our bar bill but a couple of shore excursions in Alaska will for sure! If prebooked shore excursions don't go on our on ship account then I will go with all private excursions. Thus the reason for my questions. I have always had better luck getting accurate info on CC than calling the cruise line. Hope my question is clear now.

 

Now you confused me. When you book a cruise for a shore excursion they never ask for a credit card. You need a credit card on your account in order to print boarding passes and luggage tags, but your credit card is never charged for shorex prior to you boarding the ship. Land tours and shorex from on board tours are two separate entities.

[caribill]

If your land tour folio is transferred to your ship's folio, then maybe yes. However, if your land tour excursions are charged directly to your credit card then probably no.

 

No part of your land tour charges are transferred to the onboard account (and vice versa).

[phabric]

We are doing this cruisetour August 18 after reading Caribill's review.

 

For the land excursions, you have to register a credit card that will be good for the whole cruise and it will be charged 48 hours before the land portions starts.

 

For the cruise excursions, you reserve your excursions and pay for them onboard the ship. You will receive the excursion tickets in your cabin. You will have 24 or 48 hours (?) before the excursion to cancel before being charged.

[Pia1913]

We are doing this cruisetour August 18 after reading Caribill's review.

 

For the land excursions, you have to register a credit card that will be good for the whole cruise and it will be charged 48 hours before the land portions starts.

 

For the cruise excursions, you reserve your excursions and pay for them onboard the ship. You will receive the excursion tickets in your cabin. You will have 24 or 48 hours (?) before the excursion to cancel before being charged.

 

You do not need to use the same credit card for both portions. It's your choice if you want to change one when you get aboard ship.