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Onboard credit will not be accepted for pre-reservations

DrJohn

By DrJohn,
in Princess Cruises

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

Posted
Posted (edited)
Can you provide a link to where you found this information?

This letter emailed to TAs which I received from my TA is from their VP of North America sales & states it begins in summer 2017 & nothing about only in Alaska.

 

Dear Travel Partner,

 

Award-winning shore excursions have always made Princess cruises even more memorable. So it’s no great surprise that guests who purchase excursions directly through Princess rate their overall cruise experience higher than those who do not.

 

I’m pleased to announce two important shore excursion developments that Princess Cruises® will roll out fleetwide soon.

Best Price Guarantee

If your client pre-purchases a shore excursion and finds the same excursion elsewhere at a lower price, they receive 110% of the price difference in the form of a non-refundable onboard credit.

Best Price Guarantee will go into effect December 5, 2016 for all trades, excluding ports in Asia, Southeast Asia or Japan.

 

Pre-Purchase

Starting with Summer 2017 voyages, shore excursion reservations will require pre-payment.

Moving to pre-purchase for shore excursions brings us in line with standard industry practice and ensures the spots are only held by guests with firm interest.

We believe these programs will make it even easier for you to offer your clients the experiences that enable them to come back new®. Click here to learn more.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support. Please do not hesitate to contact your Business Development Manager with questions.

 

 

Thank you!

 

Best regards,

John

John Chernesky

Vice President

North America Sales

Princess Cruises and Cunard Line

Edited by Astro Flyer
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cactusrose

cactusrose

Posted
Posted
This letter emailed to TAs which I received from my TA is from their VP of North America sales & states it begins in summer 2017 & nothing about only in Alaska.

 

Dear Travel Partner,

 

Award-winning shore excursions have always made Princess cruises even more memorable. So it’s no great surprise that guests who purchase excursions directly through Princess rate their overall cruise experience higher than those who do not.

 

I’m pleased to announce two important shore excursion developments that Princess Cruises® will roll out fleetwide soon.

Best Price Guarantee

If your client pre-purchases a shore excursion and finds the same excursion elsewhere at a lower price, they receive 110% of the price difference in the form of a non-refundable onboard credit.

Best Price Guarantee will go into effect December 5, 2016 for all trades, excluding ports in Asia, Southeast Asia or Japan.

 

Pre-Purchase

Starting with Summer 2017 voyages, shore excursion reservations will require pre-payment.

Moving to pre-purchase for shore excursions brings us in line with standard industry practice and ensures the spots are only held by guests with firm interest.

We believe these programs will make it even easier for you to offer your clients the experiences that enable them to come back new®. Click here to learn more.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support. Please do not hesitate to contact your Business Development Manager with questions.

 

 

Thank you!

 

Best regards,

John

John Chernesky

Vice President

North America Sales

Princess Cruises and Cunard Line

 

Thank you so much. I thought I was going to have to go through every page of this thread.

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Mud_Shark

Mud_Shark

Posted
Posted

Hmm...

 

1) Often excursion rates are slightly higher onboard than they are when reserved in advance. This means, even if you can book the excursion you desire when you get onboard, you will likely pay a little more.

 

2) Princess sale prices are now focussed on granting more OBC, not discounting the price of the cruise. We, probably like many others, plan to use that OBC on excursions. This makes the "sales" far less desirable.

 

3) As non drinkers, the bulk of our OBC is used for excursions, with a little for coffee cards, laundry, miscellaneous purchases. Other than paying off gratuities, OBC now has limited appeal.

 

4) It might become better to play the waiting game and look for last minute deals rather than early "sales" which grant OBC instead of price discounts. At least last minute deals still discount the actual price.

 

We have only done 4 cruises, all with Princess, so we are not yet tied to Princess for the platinum or elite benefits. We were thinking of continuing the trend of 1 or 2 cruises per year, but little by little, the benefits of cruising over other vacations is eroding. Not ready to say yet that we are taking our ball and going home, but certainly ready to investigate other options. We have until the summer to make final payment on our 2017 Fall cruise plans, and will think carefully before deciding on cruising or something else. I am a planner and like to pay things off very early. No more of that while we consider our options.

 

Don

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dickinson "Live from...." Rare

dickinson

Posted
Posted

Princess called me today. Someone from Customer Relations. She told me the line about it being Alaska only. I told her I heard it was for all cruises but she said no only Alaska. Basically I don't believe her. It seems that Princess is telling their agents one thing but their website (according to this thread) and letter to TAs says something different. Maybe it was originally for everything but with the backlash they changed it to just Alaska? Who knows. Time will tell.

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dickinson "Live from...." Rare

dickinson

Posted
Posted

Went to the princess site and looked under shore excursions. Saw the info about prepayment. It did not say summer 2017. then it hit me. Why do they have this info up now when the policy is not in place? Mismanaging the new policy??? Oh yes!

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RDC1

RDC1

Posted
Posted
Hmm...

 

1) Often excursion rates are slightly higher onboard than they are when reserved in advance. This means, even if you can book the excursion you desire when you get onboard, you will likely pay a little more.

 

2) Princess sale prices are now focussed on granting more OBC, not discounting the price of the cruise. We, probably like many others, plan to use that OBC on excursions. This makes the "sales" far less desirable.

 

3) As non drinkers, the bulk of our OBC is used for excursions, with a little for coffee cards, laundry, miscellaneous purchases. Other than paying off gratuities, OBC now has limited appeal.

 

4) It might become better to play the waiting game and look for last minute deals rather than early "sales" which grant OBC instead of price discounts. At least last minute deals still discount the actual price.

 

We have only done 4 cruises, all with Princess, so we are not yet tied to Princess for the platinum or elite benefits. We were thinking of continuing the trend of 1 or 2 cruises per year, but little by little, the benefits of cruising over other vacations is eroding. Not ready to say yet that we are taking our ball and going home, but certainly ready to investigate other options. We have until the summer to make final payment on our 2017 Fall cruise plans, and will think carefully before deciding on cruising or something else. I am a planner and like to pay things off very early. No more of that while we consider our options.

 

Don

 

The customer service agents are just saying Alaska. But the letters sent to the TA's imply everything. Also someone posted a letter that said the new policy will be rolled out this summer, so apparently the roll out which has not yet occurred might be when they inform the customer service agents.

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

Posted
Posted (edited)
The customer service agents are just saying Alaska. But the letters sent to the TA's imply everything. Also someone posted a letter that said the new policy will be rolled out this summer, so apparently the roll out which has not yet occurred might be when they inform the customer service agents.

In response to my email expressing my concerns about the shore excursion changes, I received a phone call today from a Customer Relations manager on behalf of Jan Swartz.

 

She informed me that their agents telling passengers the changes only apply to Alaska are wrong. She said it's a training issue that it will be corrected to provide accurate information to passengers.

 

That confirms what the email my TA forwarded to me from the Princess VP of North America sales stated...the shore excursion changes are being implemented fleetwide in summer 2017.

Edited by Astro Flyer
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RDC1

RDC1

Posted
Posted
I booked several Princess Shorex for my June 27th 2017 sailing several months ago. They have not asked for payment yet? I did find out from my TA that their OBC is refundable and that unused credit will be returned via check.

 

If you cancel on the ship the refund goes to the person named on the reservation, not the person who originally paid for it.

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cflutist

cflutist

Posted
Posted

We booked our Shorex on August 6th 2016 for a cruise departing Dover for Land of the Midnight Sun and Spitsbergen on June 27th 2017. I don't know why they were available so early. But my question is when will Princess ask me to pay for them since according to all the posts I read that OBC cannot be used starting with June 2017 sailings to pay for pre-booked shorex.

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