ShoreEx PSA ;)

[macandlucy]

We did an 11 day cruise on the Star this summer, and I wanted to share something I learned. I do not know if this applies fleet-wide or if it is ship specific, but it may come up for some of you pre-planners like me.

 

We pre-booked a shore excursion soon after booking our cruise. The excursion was for the second day of the cruise (the very next day after departure). It was offered twice that day, a morning and afternoon excursion. Before we sailed, I called NCL and booked the morning excursion. I was not charged at that time and told my charges would appear on board.  I received a confirmation email showing the morning shore excursion, which I printed and put with my cruise documents.

 

When we arrived on the ship there was the usual shore excursions tickets envelope in the cabin.  I was busy getting settled in and getting familiarized with the ship and I did not check the tickets until the evening. All of the other shore excursions were fine but the one going the next day showed the afternoon departure. I took my tickets and confirmation email down to the Shore Excursions desk to ask them to move us to the morning excursion that we booked. I was told the morning excursion was now sold out, and there was nothing they could do. I then spoke to the Shore Excursions manager who told me that my confirmation email was not a receipt (and I guess therefore not binding).  We ended up just rolling with it, but we did have some on-our-own plans for the afternoon, so it threw a wrench into those.

 

Moral of the story: I did not realize that the confirmation email, in fact, confirmed nothing. Next time, I will prepay my excursions so I do have something that is binding.

[brookie848]

Very interesting. 

 

Can you pre-pay for your excursions and still receive the shore excursion credit? We always have this, but rarely use it.

[Megalyn]

If you pre-pay, you will received a credit onboard after the excursion is completed.

[macandlucy]

If you book online, you must pay at the time of booking I believe.

 

We have only ever done it by booking over the phone and then paying on board, either with the Shorex credit or without. On another cruise, our friends prepaid and also had the shorex credit, and I *think* (but sorry, not sure) they did that over the phone in advance.  I remember them showing us their very low bill since they had prepaid their shore excursions, and the $50 per port was applied as a credit on board.

 

[smplybcause]

33 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

Very interesting. 

 

Can you pre-pay for your excursions and still receive the shore excursion credit? We always have this, but rarely use it.

 

Yes, but it will still be a non-refundable credit. 

[brookie848]

1 minute ago, smplybcause said:

 

Yes, but it will still be a non-refundable credit. 

That's fine. We've gotten really good at spending OBC at the end of cruises. 😀

Edited October 9, 2019 by brookie848

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, brookie848 said:

Can you pre-pay for your excursions and still receive the shore excursion credit? We always have this, but rarely use it.

 

Yes.   Folks, here's a thread I started a few months ago, to which others have helpfully added, with tips on  how to book shore excursions when you have the shorex promo:

 

 

[disneylover89]

I am only going to prepay my one excursion that means the most to me.  I don't want to take a chance of getting bumped or the price going higher. The rest I plan on just calling and reserving them. We have 2 rooms and each room has a $100 shore excursion credit per port.  There is no way that we are going to spend a total of $800 in non-refundable credits unless our DSC can come out of it which I don't believe it can.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[tinkr2]

9 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Yes.   Folks, here's a thread I started a few months ago, to which others have helpfully added, with tips on  how to book shore excursions when you have the shorex promo:

 

 

This was really helpful. I did a search earlier for shore info and it did not appear. I never book through any ship but I am going solo so 50 off for one is a good deal. And it was free bc I got all 4.