Excursions: book in advance vs. onboard with shipboard credit?

[cruiseej]

We're booked on the holiday cruise in the Caribbean on Sojourn, and I have a few questions about booking our excursions. (It's been a couple years since our last Seabourn cruise, and I know the rules change from time to time.) We will have $800 in shipboard credit, which I'd like to use for some of our excursions.

 

1) For a Caribbean cruise over the holidays, is it likely that most excursions will be available to book when we board, or would it be best to book in advance. (Nothing fancy, like helicopter trips, diving, etc.)

 

2) I assume that if I book excursions now, I have to pay for them now on my credit card on the Seabourn website?

 

3) Is it usually feasible to then cancel onboard and rebook, in order to use our shipboard credits? Or is there often a waiting list that would grab any excursions I cancel before I could rebook?

 

4) If I cancel an excursion I've paid for in advance with the credit card, does the refund go back to the credit card? Or does the refund go to my shipboard account? And if the latter, do excursions booked onboard use up shipboard credits first, such that if I end the trip with a credit balance, it will be refunded then to my credit card?

 

Thanks in advance for any answers/advice!

 

 

[SKP946]

Book the excursions now on your credit card, then on boarding the lovely staff at Seabourn Square will rebook them against your onboard credit and credit the amount back to your card. 

However they will not credit your card until you disembark.

(They use up the shipboard credits first)

I hope this make sense🙄

 

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by SKP946

[cruiseej]

1 hour ago, SKP946 said:

they will not credit your card until you disembark.

(They use up the shipboard credits first)

 

 

 

 

Perfect -- that's what I needed to know. It wouldn't help if they refunded a concealed excursion to my account, adding to my credits, and I had to spend all the credits.

 

Is it usually possible to cancel and rebook as soon as getting aboard without losing one's place on the excursion (to people waiting on a waitlist)?

[VegasDave]

I've done this many times and never had a problem. 

[Mauzac]

Thanks for this thread, I have wondered this also.

 

On the same theme... how does it work with hair appointments in the Spa?

 

On a cruise longer than a couple of weeks, I always need a haircut and it gets very booked up on Sea days.  If I book online in advance, I have to pay in advance also.  As the Spa is run by Steiner, will I be able to book and pay in advance but then once on board, get a refund on my credit card, use my OBC by cancelling and rebooking?  If so, who would handle that?  Guest Services or the Spa?

 

Sorry to hijack your thread CRUISEEJ.  🙂

[MJN1]

Mauzak,

same procedure. Book and pay on-line. Visit SB Square and they will handle it all.

[wesport]

On my recent cruise on the Ovation, I picked my tours, then called Seabourn to see how many spaces were available for the tours I wanted. I booked the couple that were close to selling out, and booked the others on  board using my OBC.  Just another option. I booked on the TV day one and got all the tours I wanted. Just another option. 

[cruiseej]

Thanks @wesport  I didn't know you could call Seabourn and get a real-time availability on excursions.

 

Since it's a Caribbean cruise, there aren't as many "must see" excursions as other locations, so I think we'll figure out the ones we care about the most about and book them soon. The others I can deal with when we get onboard, including trying to flip one or two to use our onboard credit if we haven't used it up on other excursions.

[Catlover54]

After disembarkation, be sure and follow-up with a reminder to yourself to make sure you got the appropriate credit to your card, sometimes they forget, or it is the wrong amount, or they refund one and not the other and you have to chase it down.

 

I do not like this system, also used on HAL. I prefer paying close to the time of the excursion unless it is a special nonrefundable excursion, with OBC if there is any, like on SS and Hapag Lloyd,  easier to track that way.

[SKP946]

On 7/22/2019 at 11:33 AM, cruiseej said:

 

Is it usually possible to cancel and rebook as soon as getting aboard without losing one's place on the excursion (to people waiting on a waitlist)?

 

I assume that they don’t actually cancel your excursion booking, just change the way it’s charged, as your tickets are in your room the day you embark.

I’ve never had a problem doing it this way.

[cruiseej]

 

Thanks. I was remembering a cruise on Regent, I think, where the process was cancel-and-rebook; it was mostly fine, but if there was a waitlist for the excursion, you couldn't do it because their software would automatically award the spots to the people on the waitlist when they refunded the pre-booked excursion. If Seabourn doesn't do it this way, that's great.

 

I actually don't understand why all the luxury cruise companies create all this extra work for themselves and their customers. Why not just let you book excursions without charging you? Then the charges would be on your shipboard account, to be paid by credits and/or credit card at the end of your trip. It seems like they go through lot of charging and refunding; is the interest they earn on pre-booked excursions that much that it's worth all the gyrations? 

[sanne]

You can now book Regent excursions on line using your OBC. Such a good idea. Hope Seabourn adopts this method, much easier for everyone.

[tv24]

Very clever ideas.  Thanks to everyone.  I book in advance only the excursions that are extremely special that I have my heart set on and don't want to miss.  But now I have some new ideas.

[Heather White]

2 hours ago, sanne said:

You can now book Regent excursions on line using your OBC. Such a good idea. Hope Seabourn adopts this method, much easier for everyone.

 

 

I thought that on Regent the excursions were included?

[sanne]

Yes they are, but there are some that come with an extra charge and these can be booked on line with OBC. This is a relatively new feature.