On Board credit available for excursion reservations?

[GidgetWidget]

I have a question-On our next cruise we have some on board credit.  I would like to prebook some shore excursions prior to sailing.  Are we able to use the onboard credit prior to sailing to reserve shore excursions? 

 

Thank You in Advance!

[franktown]

If  the onboard credit is showing in the cruise personalizer you can use it to book excursions.  It will give you the option when you book.  It's the only thing that I'm aware of you can use onboard credit for before actually being onboard.

Edited June 25, 2020 by franktown
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[xyankee]

When I booked the excursions for our May 2020 cruise out of Athens, Princess applied all our onboard credit to the total cost of the excursions and then charge my credit card for the balance.

[caribill]

When you book shore excursions, they will be in each person's name. When OBC is used for payment, it is only OBC in that person's name.

 

Example: You book a shore excursion for you and one other person for $100 each. You have $300 OBC in one person's name. In this example, the person with the OBC will have the $100 taken from the OBC, but for the person with no OBC, a credit card will be charged even though you still have $200 OBC left for the first person.

 

You can have both taken from the $300 OBC if you call Princess and do the reserving and payment over the phone.

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

When you book shore excursions, they will be in each person's name. When OBC is used for payment, it is only OBC in that person's name.

 

Example: You book a shore excursion for you and one other person for $100 each. You have $300 OBC in one person's name. In this example, the person with the OBC will have the $100 taken from the OBC, but for the person with no OBC, a credit card will be charged even though you still have $200 OBC left for the first person.

 

You can have both taken from the $300 OBC if you call Princess and do the reserving and payment over the phone.

That is how it should be, but when I called Princess and we both had OBC but I had extra because the shareholders OBC (even though we own the stock jointly) was in my name, the customer service representative would not allow it. So I ended up having to pay $30 something dollars more on the cc and having that left for using on the ship. It was not worth fighting for or asking for another rep since we would obviously spend at least that amount onboard. Now, unfortunately it is just $30 something extra dollars in addition to our deposit that we are owed. And who knows when and even if we will ever get it back.

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

That is how it should be, but when I called Princess and we both had OBC but I had extra because the shareholders OBC (even though we own the stock jointly) was in my name, the customer service representative would not allow it. So I ended up having to pay $30 something dollars more on the cc and having that left for using on the ship. It was not worth fighting for or asking for another rep since we would obviously spend at least that amount onboard. Now, unfortunately it is just $30 something extra dollars in addition to our deposit that we are owed. And who knows when and even if we will ever get it back.

When that rep refused, you should have called back and asked a different rep. He/she was wrong.

[Schonert]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

That is how it should be, but when I called Princess and we both had OBC but I had extra because the shareholders OBC (even though we own the stock jointly) was in my name, the customer service representative would not allow it. So I ended up having to pay $30 something dollars more on the cc and having that left for using on the ship. It was not worth fighting for or asking for another rep since we would obviously spend at least that amount onboard. Now, unfortunately it is just $30 something extra dollars in addition to our deposit that we are owed. And who knows when and even if we will ever get it back.

That was the exact same for me.  It was also put on as a foreign exchange charge, in US dollars.  I just got the refund yesterday.  So if the exchange rate does not change you will loose money due to the way they do it.  I wish I would have known as I have a US$ credit card.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

When that rep refused, you should have called back and asked a different rep. He/she was wrong.

I realized that, but it was well before Covid 19 and the difference was small plus we would have the difference onboard, so at the time it was not worth the hassle of hanging up and calling back. She even said using OBC precruise for excursions was brand new, and I knew she was wrong.