Shore Excursions are Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

[jt58203]

Maybe this is old news, but I was just in my cruise personalizer browsing excursions and it said....

 

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

[Aus Traveller]

Maybe this is old news, but I was just in my cruise personalizer browsing excursions and it said....

 

Pay Before You Sail, Or Pay Later Onboard

You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise. If you wait, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.

It probably works the same as gifting yourself on-board credit equal to the amount of the shore tours. When you would be paying for this by credit card, why not wait until the account is debited at the end of the cruise. You have much longer to pay for it.

[paul929207]

When it really matters is when you have lots of OBC. If you pay in advance for the excursions, you cannot use OBC to pay for them.

[TracieABD]

Another vote for paying on board. If your ship is unable to port- you will not have to worry about a refund or a credit to your axxount. You simply will not be charged.

[cactusrose]

Mine were discounted if paid in advance.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Does that mean if you book in advance you are locked in to the price? I have seen shore excursions prices increase after the initial posting. It would be great if you could reserve and lock in the price, but not pay until on board (with OBC).

[easyboy]

It probably works the same as gifting yourself on-board credit equal to the amount of the shore tours. When you would be paying for this by credit card, why not wait until the account is debited at the end of the cruise. You have much longer to pay for it.

I also prefer to be billed onboard and pay later.

[Nanaoften]

Excursions are usually cheaper if you book in advance...we have paid for one ahead of time because the tour operator wanted us to. It was something we did before and wanted to do it again for sure... If we waited to pay we were not guaranteed a spot...

[Aus Traveller]

Excursions are usually cheaper if you book in advance...we have paid for one ahead of time because the tour operator wanted us to. It was something we did before and wanted to do it again for sure... If we waited to pay we were not guaranteed a spot...

Was that a ship's organised tour or a privately-organised one? I haven't heard of Princess saying that the tour operator wants you to pay ahead of time to be guaranteed a spot. Once you book with Princess (even on the usual pay-later system) I believe you have your seat.:)

[beg3yrs]

Mine were discounted if paid in advance.

 

Excursions often go up in price as the cruise date comes closer. Excursions booked in advance get their price locked in, it has nothing to do with paying in advance.

[wishfulone]

Does that mean if you book in advance you are locked in to the price? I have seen shore excursions prices increase after the initial posting. It would be great if you could reserve and lock in the price, but not pay until on board (with OBC).

 

You're right. The closer you get to sail date, the dearer the shore excursions become but once you're locked in, then that's the price you pay whether you prepay or choose to pay onboard. I like to book the excursions as soon as they become available on the Personaliser but I always pay onboard.

[Mary Ann 2]

I just wish this was true for our cruise! We have come to see this option to pay onboard as one of the Princess perks. This has been discussed on other threads when it first became known - BUT on our Alaska cruise this summer, you couldn't reserve an excursion without paying for it. Not happy about that. So we went looking for independent excursions and found two great ones. One didn't require any advance pay and the other only wanted a deposit. I can only hope that this experiment on our ship FAILS this summer or they may roll it out fleet-wide. :(

[Woobstr112G]

Does that mean if you book in advance you are locked in to the price? I have seen shore excursions prices increase after the initial posting. It would be great if you could reserve and lock in the price, but not pay until on board (with OBC).

 

I'm the type who likes things out of the way at the first possible moment. The price increase thing you mentioned happened on my upcoming T/A on the CB in September. The excursions I booked back when would cost me an extra $160.00 if I booked them today. I know you can book back when and pay later, but like I said, I like getting things out of the way as soon as possible......:):):)

 

Bob

Edited May 1, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[RDC1]

I just wish this was true for our cruise! We have come to see this option to pay onboard as one of the Princess perks. This has been discussed on other threads when it first became known - BUT on our Alaska cruise this summer, you couldn't reserve an excursion without paying for it. Not happy about that. So we went looking for independent excursions and found two great ones. One didn't require any advance pay and the other only wanted a deposit. I can only hope that this experiment on our ship FAILS this summer or they may roll it out fleet-wide. :(

 

Hopefully their excursion revenue drops on the this summer in Alaska for the ship they are testing on. Otherwise you are likely to see this roll out fleet wide.

 

Which, to me, would remove a major competitive advantage for Princess. That is to be able to reserve excursions, but pay for them on board with OBC.

 

If that goes away my incentive to sail with Princess will drop substantially since excursions is where most of our OBC is spent.

[RDC1]

Does that mean if you book in advance you are locked in to the price? I have seen shore excursions prices increase after the initial posting. It would be great if you could reserve and lock in the price, but not pay until on board (with OBC).

 

 

Currently you can. Once you book an excursion the price is locked, even if you don't pay until the end of the cruise.

[Woobstr112G]

When it really matters is when you have lots of OBC. If you pay in advance for the excursions, you cannot use OBC to pay for them.

 

Fear not, as my DW will have no trouble putting the extra/available OBC's to good use in the Effy/Facets stores.....:D:D:D

 

Bob

Edited May 1, 2016 by Woobstr112G

[wishfulone]

I just wish this was true for our cruise! We have come to see this option to pay onboard as one of the Princess perks. This has been discussed on other threads when it first became known - BUT on our Alaska cruise this summer, you couldn't reserve an excursion without paying for it. Not happy about that. So we went looking for independent excursions and found two great ones. One didn't require any advance pay and the other only wanted a deposit. I can only hope that this experiment on our ship FAILS this summer or they may roll it out fleet-wide. :(

Was that for every excursion or just the ones that involved a flight? You've always had to pay early for those and there's no cancellation after a certain date.

[RDC1]

Was that for every excursion or just the ones that involved a flight? You've always had to pay early for those and there's no cancellation after a certain date.

 

Princess is running a test this summer in Alaska on one of the ships, the Grand, I think. When you book any excursion prior to the cruise on that ship, you have to pay at time of booking.

[satxdiver]

One of the major perks of cruising with Princess is that they allow you to reserve shorex and not pay for them until you board the ship. When I have cruised on other cruise lines who require you to pay when you reserve the shorex, I never book them pre-cruise and often find another private shore excursion instead. Princess changing their policy will cause me to rethink cruising with them.

[Pushka]

This was reported a few months ago and for our Alaska cruise. One ship required prepayment, our ship gave the choice.

Edited May 1, 2016 by Pushka

[framer]

The real question is how they will treat the prepaid excursion ? The question becomes does non refundable OBC get used 1st and then prepayment gets treated like additional money in your account that is refundable if not needed?

 

framer

Edited May 1, 2016 by framer

[Hawka]

Does that mean if you book in advance you are locked in to the price? I have seen shore excursions prices increase after the initial posting. It would be great if you could reserve and lock in the price, but not pay until on board (with OBC).

when you book but have not paid it is locked in at price you booked it at , i know this only cause of a tour i booked for dolphin watching at Akurora NZ it was $139 [i think thats right ] when i clicked on booking it about a week or two later it went up but my booking it had not it stayed at the price i booked so even if i paid on board at the end or before i paid the cheaper price .

Edited May 1, 2016 by Hawka

[john watson]

I should pre-book and pay for any excursions that I thought might be a sell out with little or no option of the cruise line adding another run of the same excursion. Things where there will be limited spaces at the venue or where you are limited by the tour operator only having a few sets of equipment.

 

In general I should book later and pay later where you are confident of availability.

 

Regards John

[paul929207]

The real question is how they will treat the prepaid excursion ? The question becomes does non refundable OBC get used 1st and then prepayment gets treated like additional money in your account that is refundable if not needed?

 

framer

When you pre-pay an excursion, it is charged directly to a credit card. It is not charged to your onboard account. So OBC is not used.

[Kartgv]

I wouldn't do this for every cruise, but for an upcoming 29 day cruise, we booked and paid up front for excursions we wanted to take through Princess. The main reason is that, even with a substantial OBC, our final bill is going to be very high just due to bar bills and gratuities and other miscellaneous. We'd rather not add tour costs to it. If I were getting any significant interest on my money in the bank I'd have 2nd thoughts about pre-paying, but that's not happening anytime soon. It's always nice to have the option to do it either way.

 

We cancelled a prepaid excursion on the Crown in 2014 and it was refunded to our onboard account immediately.

Edited May 1, 2016 by Kartgv