Excursion booking questions

[tinybiny]

I have a cruise booked for March and I see the excursions are already available for booking. I have never sailed Princess before and not familiar with anything.

 

I've only paid $100 deposit, but it seems like I can book excursions. I haven't tried it all the way through, but it looks like I can book before paying off the cruise.

 

If I book stuff now, do I pay now or does it go to my on board account?

What happens if I need to cancel or change my cruise? Will my excursions auto cancel or do I need to do that?

[NavyVeteran]

This is one Princess policy that sounds too good to be true - but it's actually true.

 

If you book now, it goes on your onboard account - unless you select the option to pay now. When you board, you will find an envelope in your cabin with your excursion tickets. Go to the Passenger Services Desk and request a printout of your onboard account - the excursions will be charged.

 

If you cancel your cruise, then the excursions will never be charged. If you cancel an excursion online before the cruise, then it will not be charged. If you cancel onboard before the cancellation deadline for that port (printed in the Princess Patter), then the charge will be removed from your onboard account.

 

There is no reason not to book your excursions now.

 

Some excursions sell out before the cruise. If you have not booked in advance, then you're out of luck.

 

Princess may raise the price of some excursions as it gets closer to the cruise. If you have already booked (even though you have not paid), you get the price you booked even if the price goes up. If the price goes down (or they have a 10% off sale as they sometimes do), then you can cancel and re-book at the new price (as long as the excursion is not Sold Out or Waitlisted). On a trans-Atlantic cruise that I had booked way in advance, over half of my excursions have raised the prices. However, I was able to book the ones that did not to take advantage of a 10% off excursion sale.

 

This flexibility in reserving excursions is one of the things I like about Princess compared with many other cruise lines. It gives me flexibility to book with no commitment, so that's good for me. It encourages me to book more ship excursions than I would otherwise, so that's good for them.

[OCruisers]

Yes, you certainly can go ahead and book your shore excursions now.

They will be charged to your on board account once you are on the ship.

Sometimes, the prices of excursions go up but you will be charged the price at which you booked. :)

[tinybiny]

That's great! Thank you both.:)

[JF - retired RRT]

At least one of the ships that's in Alaska, you have to prepay for the excursion. This is apparently a test to see if we'll tolerate it.:(