Surprise - Charges in Advance

[LoneStar72]

I haven't cruised in about 18 months, and our upcoming cruise on Summit to Alaska 6/11 will be our first on Celebrity. So I wonder if the following is unique to Celebrity, or is now the industry norm:

 

We booked our shore excursions in advance online with Celebrity. Our credit card bill came today -- the charges for the shcore excursions (as well as a "sail-away" gift purchesd on-line from Celebrity) are already posted! In the past, and on 3 other cruise lines, the shore excursion charges showed up on our ship's tab, to be paid at the conclusion of the cruise (along with bar tabs, etc.). I understand about the charge for the cruise itself showing up well in advance of the sailing date (and even can rationize the charge for tuxedo rental booked in advance online), but shore excursions??

 

Repeating the question, is it normal (either with Celebrity, or with the industry as a whole nowadays) for the charges for shore excursions booked online in advance to show up *prior* to the rest of the charges for the cruise?

 

John

[kelmac]

Sorry John. All cruise lines are pre-charging when you use online booking. Lauren and I have been on HAL, RCI, Princess and Celebrity in the past 24 months, and all have charged for shore excursions with in days of booking online. Good news, if you cancel, or change one, they will credit the card as well.

All bookings done on board will show up on you stateroom account. Enjoy! Kel

 

link to Skagway weather

[Lois R]

Hi John If you booked the excursions via the internet...then you will be billed in advance.

It won't show up on your "on board" account.

 

Now, hypothetically, when you board the ship and find out for whatever reason, the excursion gets cancelled...the credit WILL go onto the "onboard account".

 

I usually pay for my excursions ahead of time for that specific reason...I don't want it on that Sign and Sail Account

 

Kel..I had an excursion cancelled...they put that credit to my "on board account".

 

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[charlielinda]

Believe it or not I like this system. I pay for it before the cruise and then when I'm on the trip I feel like the excursion "is free". I'm sure you are thinking I'm nuts because my husband thinks so also -- but I call it "Linda Math".

 

Voyager of the Sea -- September 2001; Galaxy -- May 2002; Zuiderdam -- September 2003; Summit -- April 2004; CAN'T WAIT -- SUMMIT OCTOBER 2004

[kelmac]

Lois R,

You are right! I was thinking of changes you make weeks before cruising. Any changes made days before, or while onboard, they will credit your onboard account.

John,

Those online reservations--the tickets will be in your stateroom, or your cabin person will deliver them within 24 hours of boarding. I kind of like this system. Kel

 

link to Skagway weather

[gizmodog]

Since when did Princess start charging ahead of time? We are just off the Coral this past February and we booked our shore excursions on line and were charged on our shipboard account not billed beforehand. Celebrity has always charged ahead of time and actually I like it that way as you can pay for your trip a little bit before you go so the final bill is not so shocking.

[dsawyer]

Princess and NCL do not charge in advance for pre-booking shore excursions. I like it that way. I always change my mind a few times after hearing reviews so I am glad I'm not charged until I actually go on the excursion. Of course, that's just my opinion.

 

The Crown to Bermuda

The Voyager to Canada/Nova Scotia

[mango14217]

So if after you prebook online and get charged are you saying if when you get onboard you decide you don't want to take one or more of the tours they will credit you shipboard account?

 

 

[Randyk47]

Yes. A friend's wife became ill on our last cruise and they had pre-booked a tour. The tour office took the charge off without any questions.

 

Until Galaxy

[JNLROSE]

Yes, it's true! If you book & pay online months or weeks ahead of sailing and for whatever reason cancel on board---the cancellation credit applies to your shipboard account, because if you think about it---Celebrity has already been paid by your CC company so therefore their credit must benefit YOU! Thus--onboard account! Celebrity is ASSUMING you have already paid the cc company!

 

We have done this before and had no problem with the ship account or the CC account! Just keep an Eagle Eye!!!!!!

 

Rosie

E-mail me <a href="mailto:JNLROSE@AOL.COM">here</a href>

 

Look out MERCURY Here we come!!!

 

September 2005--"Millie in the Med"--We're there!

[Boo's Mom]

We booked all of our Alaska excursions on line last summer....and cancelled one or more of them (or they were cancelled by the cruisline)...while we were onboard.

 

Alaska's excursions tend to be very expensive (and there were four of us)...and we had a large amount of credit applied to our shipboard account. Upon inquiring, we were told that we could not get refunded this amount....we had to spend it!

 

Well, several days into the cruise....we had many hundreds of dollars to spend. We creatively got cash at the casino, and the amount was deducted from our shipboard credit.

 

On the last night of the cruise, I was in the gift shop....buying t-shirts, etc... to use up the last of the credit. I visited with the cashier about what I was trying to do...and he laughed and told me that having credit to spend at the end of the cruise is almost unheard of.

 

Anyway, just something to think about.

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[smudge's mom]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Upon inquiring, we were told that we could not get refunded this amount....we had to spend it!

 

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Hopefully, you misunderstood what they said.

 

I am guessing what they meant was you could not get your refund then and there. I am assuming at the end of the cruise, if you had not spent the entire credit, you would have had the amount credited back to your credit card account.

 

Otherwise, making you spend your refund would be illegal, wouldn't it?

[Guest]

Gee, I hope that isn't a change in policy and that you just misunderstood. On our 2002 Alaska Infinity cruise, we ran into bad weather and had an excursion cancelled. We had a credit of over $200 on our shipboard account at the end of the cruise and Celebrity credited our credit card for that amount.

 

Hilary

[LoneStar72]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kelmac:

Those online reservations--the tickets will be in your stateroom, or your cabin person will deliver them within 24 hours of boarding. I kind of like this system.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I've booked shore excursions online in advance on all 3 previous cruises, and have had the tickets either show up in the stateroom, or be included with the cruise documents. But I've *never* been charged in advance for them. My main problem is one of "surprise" -- I was anticipating (and budgeting for) a large credit card bill several weeks *after* the cruise, not *before*.

 

Oh, well, since it appears to be standard practice, at least with Celebrity and a few others, this thread can serve as information for others to consider before booking shore excursions in advance on line. You'd think, though, that the cruise lines would want to encourage, rather than discourage, this practice (and I think having to pay in advance is a discouraging thing.) At the very least, they should put a notice in large text on the screen where you click "submit" to book the tour(s), that your credit card will be immediately charged. The notice may be there already, but if it's buried in the rest of the "fine print", most people will miss it and end up with the same "unpleasant surprise" that I got.

 

John

[ccletzgo]

you can view all the excursions on the web site, then to purchase, you have to actually click "purchase".and go into a differant area of the shore excursion site. "purchase shore excursions" means exactly that.

 

Also, if you could book without purchasing, they would never know how many people are really going to be on the excursion. One may be "booked up" but have only 4 people show up, or cancel at the last moment. The company's that provide shore excursions for the cruise line need to know approx. what to expect................

 

Lets Go!

 

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[Boo's Mom]

Lonestar72.... You might try this:

 

Check to see if all of the excursions you booked are still available. If so, then go online and cancel the excursions that you have already paid for. (This of course, will work depending on your billing cycle of your credit card)

 

Then, (again, working with your billing cycle)...rebook the excursions, so that the payment for them is not due for another month.

 

If you have already received your bill....and you do this asap....the credit will show up on your creditcard account...in time. When you rebook now....the new charges will become due in a month.

 

Just some thoughts. It's no fun to experience a disappointment when you are this close!!

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[LoneStar72]

Thanks, Jill, but all that cancellation and re-booking sounds like *work*, and this is supposed to be a *vacation* I went ahead and paid the credit card bill, because it sounds like "advance billing" is now accepted practice, at least on Celebrity and a couple of others. As I said, I just don't like surprises.

 

John

[smudge's mom]

Celebrity has been doing this at least since Jan 03 when we cruised on the Summit. Personally, I loved having the excursions all paid for before we left - made our onboard account look really small at the end of the cruise.

 

Things that were cancelled were handled as a shipboard credit and that worked for us also - gave us more "money" to play with on board without seeming we were spending a lot.

 

I am surprised that some of you who "budget" their cruise expenses were against the excursions appearing on the credit card bill. I would think having some more of the cruise expenses paid prior to the cruise would make the bill that came after the cruise look so much better.

 

But really, it's just "accounting." Whether one pays for something up front or after the fact - one still has to pay for it.

 

When we took an NCL cruise in '04, I was disappointed that the excursions were charged on my shipboard account instead of appearing on my charge card.

 

I guess the real fact is - no matter what system a company uses, someone will not like the way they do business. Isn't that always the way?

[Screwbit]

I was going to challenge the Princess' advance charging comment, but notice others have done so. Unless things have markedly changed(and no cruise industry changes would surprise me), you won't see Princess charge you until you're home from your trip.

 

'til the cruise of the Century

 

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[LoneStar72]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by smudge's mom:

I am surprised that some of you who "budget" their cruise expenses were against the excursions appearing on the credit card bill. I would think having some more of the cruise expenses paid prior to the cruise would make the bill that came after the cruise look so much better.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>There're two issues with budgeting -- amount and time. I wasn't surprised by the amount, just the timing, since it hadn't worked that way on 3 previous cruises, with 3 other cruise lines.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>But really, it's just "accounting." Whether one pays for something up front or after the fact - one still has to pay for it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>True, but there's a concept called "cash flow". I don't have unlimited cash flow, and wasn't anticipating paying up front for shore excursions (and, I'll have to admit, if the info on this policy is somewhere on Celebrity's website, other than something implied by "purchase shore excursions", I sure didn't see it.)<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I guess the real fact is - no matter what system a company uses, someone will not like the way they do business. Isn't that always the way?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Like the old man said after he kissed the cow, "Everyone to his own taste!"

 

Seriously, though, I don't understand how this early charging could be in the best interests of the cruise companies. I would think that they'd like to know as far in advance as possible what the demand would be for their various shore excursions -- if there was a lot of demand for particular tours, they could contract for more seats, busses, boats, helicopters, planes, etc., and thus be able to increase their sales. Conversely, if there wasn't a lot of demand for some excursions, they could cancel them early, and keep customers from being inconvenienced by a last-minute cancellation (plus give them sufficient time to consider booking an alternative tour, which would keep their revenue from decreasing.) Thus, the cruise companies ought to be encouraging people to book shore excursions in advance on-line. Having the charges show up immediately on the passenger's credit card, in my opinion, is not the way to encourage that practice.

 

John

[gardencat]

Of course if they get the money from you sooner they have use of it sooner, could help their cash flow situation.

[lssteele]

Ok...here's my story and I'll try to condense it...our daughter worked for Princess for about 7 years. The year after she quit (to get a "real" job..yech!) we went on another Princess cruise (double yech..'cause I had to pay for it... while she worked we cruised free! ). I had booked several shore excursions before we left but as we got on the ship we ran into the officer in charge of shore excursions... She happened to be a good friend of our daughter's from when our daughter worked on that particular ship and by the time we got to our cabin...our tickets for the next day's excursion were sitting on our beds...comped. We didn't pay for any of our shore excursions the rest of the trip...Princess had not charged in advance so this worked out great for us.

 

Now, I'm taking my first Celebrity cruise and wonder if I want to book in advance for shore excursions and have to pay for them. Should I just take my chances that they will be available?? I really don't want to pay ahead of time but I don't want to miss them either.

 

 

Panama Canal on the Galaxy

[Boo's Mom]

issteele.... We have booked excursions (on Celebrity) both ways....online & onboard.

 

I recommend online. Lots of excursions will sell out...and then there is the issue of the lines @ the excursion desk. Yuck.

 

I will book my excursions tomorrow....online...will sail in about 2 weeks...and the payment on the credit card will be due in late July. Works for me.

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[lssteele]

Thanks for the advice...I hadn't thought about waiting until a couple of weeks out..I have only booked shore excursions on line once and I did it several months before the cruise..just because I could. I'll wait and time it to come on my credit card as I'm getting through with my cruise.

 

Panama Canal on the Galaxy

[i-m-ed]

I like to spread my excursion purchases over a few months to help take the sting out of paying for everything all at once.

 

If I'm under budget for a given month I'll either make a payment towards my cruise or purchase a shore excursion.