Shore excursion changes coming!

[joe d]

Earlier this year I did an NCL cruise. At the time of booking it I did not realize that they had changed to a prepay policy for excursions. I did not like their policy and did my own thing in all 10 ports of call and switched back to Princess for my next cruise.

 

The current policy is one of the main reasons that I cruise with Princess.

[skynight]

This is just business talk for Princess is going to take your money in advance so you can't pay with OBC. Nothing more, no matter how Princess frames the wording.

 

Our research shows that many of our guests appreciate the opportunity to pre-pay for shore excursions and to reduce the size of their bill at the conclusion of a cruise. Guests also value the assurance of guaranteed space on popular excursions that may otherwise fill up before they have a chance to book onboard.

 

If a guest wishes to reduce the size of their bill they can do it now. Why penalize every guest for what some want?

 

All other premium cruise lines currently require pre-payment of shore excursion reservations, and Princess will assess the response to this policy among our own guests on Alaska itineraries aboard Grand Princess from May 11 to September 8, 2016. Discounts on select voyages will reward guests who reserve and pre-pay for their excursions in advance.

 

Why follow other cruise lines, market your positive differences.

 

During this test, Alaska shore excursion pre-reservations will require payment within 24 hours by credit card to avoid cancellation. Onboard credit will not be accepted for pre-reservations, and will be limited to payment for excursions reserved once onboard.

 

I can see longer lines now, can you?

 

We believe the assurance of local expertise, safe operating practices and verified value offered by Princess shore excursions, along with the convenience and confidence of pre-payment, will be well received. We currently plan to evaluate the response and make a final decision by the end of 2016 on implementing the policy fleetwide

 

This is a crock of talk to try and make you feel good about their move. Convenience for the customer really means 'did Princess earn more revenue.' I would push to go in the opposite direction and offer excursions that compete in cost and size with private ones. Maybe then they will improve their tour incomes. Their proposed plan will move additional passengers to private tours.

Edited December 24, 2015 by sknight

[Cindy]

Each of the 4 lines I've cruised has allowed us to book in advance on line and pay after boarding. Most have a cut off time for changes or cancelations (like 3 days before embarkation).

 

If I had to pay in advance' date=' I wouldn't book thru the cruise line. It's that simple.[/quote']

 

What lines have you cruised with? I've had to pre-pay for any excursions booked through the cruise line on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Carnival. Princess is the only line that hasn't required payment.

[bhopal21]

Thanks--I knew I had already commented on this topic but couldn't find it searching my history. Though I swear it seemed longer than just eight weeks ago :D

 

Prepaid excursions were offered on our SFO/AK cruise back in August.

 

Mike:)

[skynight]

What lines have you cruised with? I've had to pre-pay for any excursions booked through the cruise line on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Carnival. Princess is the only line that hasn't required payment.

Because other lines work this way does not make it customer friendly, it just makes it easier to get away with the policy.

[Cindy]

Because other lines work this way does not make it customer friendly, it just makes it easier to get away with the policy.

 

I think you misinterpreted the purpose of my post. I never said anything about it being customer friendly. I was inquiring of "Moki'smommy" which cruise lines allowed her to book in advance and pay after boarding. My experience has been that Princess is the exception to pre-paying.

 

[IECalCruiser]

I was thinking the same thing about so many 1st time Princess passengers sailing Alaska and it's probably why they decided to test the changes there to not receive much negative input about the changes to justify expanding it fleetwide.

Rigging the test to get the results they want?

[cruzsnooze]

I wouldn't book with pre payment for several reasons. Because I want to use my OBC and hate having to get refund If I need to cancel. I'll definatly go with private tours when Princess changes. I love the spin Princess puts on this about having reduced your OB account. Those that want to prepay can do so anyway and those that don't have a choice now.

[rob2102]

I'm surprised its taken them this long. Besides the obvious reasons, there is another point to consider. With no penalty, there is nothing stopping people from booking multiple excursions that they really don't plan on taking, just to hold a spot, which means either people who do want them might not get the one they want OR Princess has to expand space which may go unused.

 

I'd like to see a hybrid policy. 30 days before cruise start, all excursions 'lock' and cannot be canceled. At that point you can pre-pay or wait till on board, if you cancel your booking you get pre-paid excursions back otherwise they are added to your onboard bill whether you go or not (to allow for OBC use)

 

I think you make the best points. It is just good business sense and stops passengers for signing up for and then dropping excursions at the last moment. Difficult for the operators to plan and for passengers to have fair access to the excursions.

 

Some of the pressure might be coming the actual tour operators. If this is the way other cruise lines operate, then they might be forcing princess to comply.

 

I essentially prepay most of my shore excursions any way, via gift cards, but that's me. So I don't know how much of an issue it might be. You always have the option of buying them on the ship

[azbirdmom]

I sure am glad we didn't choose the Grand for our return to Alaska next summer! If this policy goes fleetwide, we will either book independently or wait until we get onboard to book with Princess if we have OBC to burn, hoping that there is something interesting still available. If there are a lot of people in the same camp as us, I can foresee Princess not being able to predict demand for excursions, at least during the roll-out. Now they have a significant number of tours reserved before sailing, some pre-purchased, some not, so that provides a good indication of demand. I know that other lines have figured this out, but I do think that overall this policy will result in less revenue for Princess and create dissatisfaction among long time passengers like us who have continued to book excursions through Princess.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Our last two trips to Europe have been on HAL, and they require payment when excursions are booked. We also had OBC we wished to use for paying for the tours.

 

We did a combo of touring on our own, private tours and a few ships tours. In one case we booked the tour beforehand as the place we visited was "must do", for the other tours we booked as soon as we got on board and all were available.

 

I hate to see Princess join the flock, but I assume that due to the generosity of the current policy there may be some abuse of people booking many tours and cancelling out.

[cherylandtk]

We're sorry to see this change being considered and we agree with all the comments above regarding use of OBC, testing in a market with high first-time cruisers, disappointment in calling this a new 'option' when that option already exists. If it comes to pass, we definitely will be booking fewer excursions through the cruise line.

[Murphey]

I haven't seen an explanation of what happens if you cancel onboard????

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

Just another example that the management team at Princess has lost touch

 

with what its customers like and want. Instead accountants are hunting out

 

any item that can be squeezed to make more money.

 

It kinds of reminds me of the government here did away paper tax discs for cars

 

saved £6,000,000, none payment went up to £80,000 000

 

 

yours Shogun

[thinfool]

All that their press release offers are (invented) excuses.....not reasons.

[nukesubsailor]

I book my cruises very early in almost every case. That means Princess has the use of my deposit for 18 months or so. I make the final payment when due. That means Princess has the use of my money for 75 days or so.
Now they are considering getting the use of my excursion money in advance.
That is going too far in my opinion.
If I pay in advance for an excursion and then Princess cancels the excursion, then Princess should not only refund what I paid for that excursion but also a nominal amount of interest. That would make up for the interest I could have earned with that money had it remained in my possession.

[4x4bob]

[quote name='Pam in CA']Yup. If it were optional, I wouldn't have a problem but I don't want to pre-pay. What isn't explained is what happens if you pre-pay a shore excursion and cancel. Various lines have different policies. Some require you to book another tour, for instance. Would Princess credit your credit card or give you onboard credit if the excursion is cancelled? Excursions are canceled by Princess all the time for various reasons such as weather, not enough interest, tour operator problems, etc.[/QUOTE]

Pam in Ca has some good points. And, I would like to add my concerns.
So, you book one or two tours in each Port and Pre-Pay.

Then a big Whoops happens and you can not go on the Cruise at the last moment.

What will happen to your Pre-Payment? Will Princess offer future credit on your next cruise provided you go before the end of the year at which time the offer expires?

Or, will this become another item that requires processing through your trip insurance and months of interacting to obtain payment?

At this time we would not be happy if Princess rolls this out fleet wide after the Alaska trial.

Bob

[kruisey]

Have just sent an e mail to Customer Relations stating if they enact this ruling it would be to their advantage not their passengers.
I think Princess treats us as having empty heads at times with these tactics.

[Astro Flyer]

[quote name='Woobstr112G'][I][SIZE="4"]Well said Frank. Seems like Princess is doing more and more to be just like everyone else and nothing really that special. I really love the way they tried to put a positive spin on it...:mad::mad::mad:

Bob[/SIZE][/I][/QUOTE]
Their spin that the change is to benefit passengers is laughable & would only fool passengers who do not know about the current option to prepay for tours. I find their spin on the change another indication that much of their marketing is geared towards new passengers & not towards already loyal passengers who prefer Princess for many reasons such as their current tour reservation system.
[quote name='IECalCruiser']Rigging the test to get the results they want?[/QUOTE]
Absolutely! :eek:

On the other thread from October it was posted that Carnival's cancellation fees for prepaid tours is 25% and for less than 24 hours in advance it's 100%. Not only is the new procedure a way to have our money well in advance but also another source of free income from what undoubtedly will be cancellation fees. I've read & been told by TAs that the average cabin turnover before sailing is several times. If Princess is like other cruise lines & charges cancellation fees that's a lot of additional income each time someone cancels a cruise with prepaid tours.

[IECalCruiser]

I'm glad the trial period is next year. We are on the Pacific Princess in the Med next year and will probably need to use Princess tours in several ports because our Roll Call is too small to support private tour minimums. I don't want to have to prepay for our tours. We have another Med cruise on the Majestic in the Spring of 2017 but hopefully we will be able to set up private tours for that cruise.

[fishywood]

[quote name='4x4bob']
So, you book one or two tours in each Port and Pre-Pay.

Then a big Whoops happens and you can not go on the Cruise at the last moment.

What will happen to your Pre-Payment? Will Princess offer future credit on your next cruise provided you go before the end of the year at which time the offer expires?

Or, will this become another item that requires processing through your trip insurance and months of interacting to obtain payment?
[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Astro Flyer']
On the other thread from October it was posted that Carnival's cancellation fees for prepaid tours is 25% and for less than 24 hours in advance it's 100%. Not only is the new procedure a way to have our money well in advance but also another source of free income from what undoubtedly will be cancellation fees. I've read & been told by TAs that the average cabin turnover before sailing is several times. If Princess is like other cruise lines & charges cancellation fees that's a lot of additional income each time someone cancels a cruise with prepaid tours.[/QUOTE]


Right now anyone who cancels their cruise and has pre-paid their gratuities, soda or AIBP stickers, or special occasion packages gets an automatic refund. No reason to assume otherwise should excursion payments become mandatory--or to assume a higher or stricter schedule of cancellation fees until someone has documented such.

I emphatically hope that Princess does not enact this fleetwide--but some of the posts here reflect some serious over-the-top paranoia that [U]any[/U] policy change represents the destruction of Princess as we know it. Especially considering this was announced months ago--though admittedly no one has shared until now the laughable example of corporate gibberish that the OP received via e-mail. Edited December 24, 2015 by fishywood

[OCruisers]

While we rather expected Princess would at some point require prepayment for shore excursions, HATE they are doing it. :mad:

LuLu

[RockAHula Baby]

I don't care for it. It's fine to have it as an option, but I don't like the idea of it being mandatory. I've already encountered the AK cruise tour land excursions having to be paid within 24 hours of booking and I don't like that at all. Especially as I am 9 months away from the cruise - having to pay them in advance that far out - why should Princess have the use of my money for 9 months in advance? I've also changed my mind on the land excursions a couple of times, resulting in charges and reversals and new charges. That could all be avoided if they would wait
Last year I was on a Princess Alaska cruise tour and they didn't even seem to know what they were doing with the charges. The documents in the Cruise Personalizer (Cruise tour answer book, etc) said that the land excursions had to be paid - I think it said at 5 days before the tour - something like that. At 21 days before the first day of tour I was charged for all excursions. I called Princess and was told this was their policy. I told them that it was not documented in the cruise personalizer and was told that I couldn't rely on the info in there !!! Why have the cruise answer book, the cruise tour answer book and the FAQ's if they're not accurate?
I also don't like how the excursion prices increase as you get closer to sail date. I've always been loyal to taking Princess excursions but am definitely considering booking independently now. I realize I would still pay them in advance but would probably save a good bit of money.

[Murphey]

Private tours people!!! Even at parity in price, you get smaller groups, see more and special treatment...I can't remember the last time I booked with Princess. They'll always get their share of the "newbie and nervous" crowd. :rolleyes:

[caribill]

[quote name='Astro Flyer']
On the other thread from October it was posted that Carnival's cancellation fees for prepaid tours is 25% and for less than 24 hours in advance it's 100%.[/QUOTE]

If you cancel a pre-paid Carnival excursion before the cruise, you get 100% of the cost back to your credit card.

If you wait to cancel until you are onboard, that is when the 25% and 100% penalties apply.