No longer required to pre-pay shore excursions

[joll]

We have just returned from a cruise so I'm not sure if this topic has been covered. 

When I was checking our bookings for a future P&O and Princess cruise, it states in the shore excursions booking area for both Cruise Lines that I have the choice of pre-paying or can reserve the tour and pay onboard.  May be they weren't getting enough advance bookings and have decided to revert to the previous arrangement.  

Anyway I went ahead and reserved a number of tours and the details have been included in my cruise personaliser.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I just tried booking an excursion for the Princess Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we're going on in August and payment was required immediately. Obviously it hasn't reverted for all cruises.

[victravellers]

On 2/9/2019 at 1:27 PM, joll said:

We have just returned from a cruise so I'm not sure if this topic has been covered. 

When I was checking our bookings for a future P&O and Princess cruise, it states in the shore excursions booking area for both Cruise Lines that I have the choice of pre-paying or can reserve the tour and pay onboard.  May be they weren't getting enough advance bookings and have decided to revert to the previous arrangement.  

Anyway I went ahead and reserved a number of tours and the details have been included in my cruise personaliser.

Interesting, was this a Princess Australia cruise? Where did you see the option to pre pay or pay onboard, was it after you selected your shore tours?

[NSWP]

Australian based Princess cruises I would say,  Aussies just going for the ride and not wanting to fork out the big money for shorex.    I am on Majestic and Sapphire next year in Asia and both require prepayment of shorex.

 

That is why Tips are now hidden in cruise fare for Australian based cruises, so many Aussies taking them off.  P&O UK has gone the same way, jacked up prices to include gratuities. The Brits are good at lining up to take off the tips too, cannot be done now.

Edited February 11, 2019 by NSWP

[joll]

2 hours ago, victravellers said:

Interesting, was this a Princess Australia cruise? Where did you see the option to pre pay or pay onboard, was it after you selected your shore tours?

 

Our cruise is on the Diamond Princess in Japan (May 2019) - Onboard account in $USD,  booked directly on the Australian Princess site.

 

I went into Manage Booking, Excursions Reservations, and it displays confirmed reservations for the tours I have already chosen.  There are also boxes with the option to Edit or Cancel these selections.

 

At the bottom of this page it states:

NEW - Pay before you sail, or Pay Later Onboard, then further quote 'You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise.  If you want, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.'

 

When initially selecting a tour from the Browse and Reserve Excursions Section, and submitting the reservation, a message comes up advising if the tour is confirmed and at that point there is also the option of paying before you sail.

 

Our other cruise is on P&O Australia (account in $AUD) and they now have the two options for when you pay for tours.  Unfortunately, when I booked some tours a few weeks ago I had no choice but to pay upfront. For some reason, they cancelled the bookings when the new system came into place and refunded the credit card.  I had to resubmit the reservations and added some others but my cruise personaliser is still showing incorrect information - another call to P&O required!!!

Edited February 11, 2019 by joll

[OzKiwiJJ]

When I tried booking the excursion it just stated that bookings that weren't prepaid would be cancelled after 24 hours. 

[victravellers]

1 hour ago, joll said:

 

Our cruise is on the Diamond Princess in Japan (May 2019) - Onboard account in $USD,  booked directly on the Australian Princess site.

 

I went into Manage Booking, Excursions Reservations, and it displays confirmed reservations for the tours I have already chosen.  There are also boxes with the option to Edit or Cancel these selections.

 

At the bottom of this page it states:

NEW - Pay before you sail, or Pay Later Onboard, then further quote 'You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise.  If you want, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.'

 

When initially selecting a tour from the Browse and Reserve Excursions Section, and submitting the reservation, a message comes up advising if the tour is confirmed and at that point there is also the option of paying before you sail.

 

Our other cruise is on P&O Australia (account in $AUD) and they now have the two options for when you pay for tours.  Unfortunately, when I booked some tours a few weeks ago I had no choice but to pay upfront. For some reason, they cancelled the bookings when the new system came into place and refunded the credit card.  I had to resubmit the reservations and added some others but my cruise personaliser is still showing incorrect information - another call to P&O required!!!

That’s good to know, thanks, I have tonne of on board credit to spend and was hoping to use some of it on shore tours. I will have a look at my booking and see if I get the same options.

[Porky55]

5 hours ago, joll said:

 

Our cruise is on the Diamond Princess in Japan (May 2019) - Onboard account in $USD,  booked directly on the Australian Princess site.

 

I went into Manage Booking, Excursions Reservations, and it displays confirmed reservations for the tours I have already chosen.  There are also boxes with the option to Edit or Cancel these selections.

 

At the bottom of this page it states:

NEW - Pay before you sail, or Pay Later Onboard, then further quote 'You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise.  If you want, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.'

 

When initially selecting a tour from the Browse and Reserve Excursions Section, and submitting the reservation, a message comes up advising if the tour is confirmed and at that point there is also the option of paying before you sail.

 

Our other cruise is on P&O Australia (account in $AUD) and they now have the two options for when you pay for tours.  Unfortunately, when I booked some tours a few weeks ago I had no choice but to pay upfront. For some reason, they cancelled the bookings when the new system came into place and refunded the credit card.  I had to resubmit the reservations and added some others but my cruise personaliser is still showing incorrect information - another call to P&O required!!!

Interesting, we are booked on Diamond Princess to Japan in May and HAD to pay for our excursions up front and personally, seeing there are only a limited number of English speaking catered tours - I would much prefer to book and pay for an excursion once we choose it. 

Leaving it reserved in your basket leaves the the option for it to “disappear” when you have boarded the ship (oops, so sorry 🙁 from Guest Services).

Even if it says it is confirmed - paid is so much more definite.

Just sayin 😏

[joll]

On 2/11/2019 at 7:21 PM, Porky55 said:

Interesting, we are booked on Diamond Princess to Japan in May and HAD to pay for our excursions up front and personally, seeing there are only a limited number of English speaking catered tours - I would much prefer to book and pay for an excursion once we choose it. 

Leaving it reserved in your basket leaves the the option for it to “disappear” when you have boarded the ship (oops, so sorry 🙁 from Guest Services).

Even if it says it is confirmed - paid is so much more definite.

Just sayin 😏

 

Weeks ago when I first looked at the excursions for our 11 May 2019 Japan cruise, there were a number of tours offerred in both Japanese and English and yes you did have to pre-pay.   When I was reviewing the tours (4th February??), I noticed the tours in Japanese have now been deleted and we have the NEW option of the cost being added  to our onboard account.  Previously we were reluctant to pay upfront prior to final monies being paid to confirm the cruise.

We have over 700 days cruising in various parts of the world with Princess and have had no problems regarding confirmed reserved tours which were charged to our account.  

It appears Princess has reverted to their old system but may be it is only for certain cruises or for Aussie passengers.  I haven't seen any comment on the main Princess Cruise Critic site so will post there to see what is happening elsewhere.

[Porky55]

36 minutes ago, joll said:

 

Weeks ago when I first looked at the excursions for our 11 May 2019 Japan cruise, there were a number of tours offerred in both Japanese and English and yes you did have to pre-pay.   When I was reviewing the tours (4th February??), I noticed the tours in Japanese have now been deleted and we have the NEW option of the cost being added  to our onboard account.  Previously we were reluctant to pay upfront prior to final monies being paid to confirm the cruise.

We have over 700 days cruising in various parts of the world with Princess and have had no problems regarding confirmed reserved tours which were charged to our account.  

It appears Princess has reverted to their old system but may be it is only for certain cruises or for Aussie passengers.  I haven't seen any comment on the main Princess Cruise Critic site so will post there to see what is happening elsewhere.

 

Will watch with interest, please let us know how it goes.

I like to prepay as much as possible before our cruise, this is the main reason for paying when we book the excursions.

Rose

[NSWP]

I prefer to pay shorex before cruise as well, cuts that final on board bill down a bit.

[Porky55]

7 hours ago, NSWP said:

I prefer to pay shorex before cruise as well, cuts that final on board bill down a bit.

Sure does, leaving more to spend on unexpected, perhaps more exciting things! 😉 like - a great bottle of red. 

Or jewellery, or shoes ...... sorry getting carried away now 😊

Edited February 15, 2019 by Porky55