NCL Excursion Credits - one per excursion, or lead passenger only?

[Named-Tawny]

Hi Folks!

I have a quick question about how the $50/excursion credit works - specifically, what happens if the lead passenger is not doing an NCL excursion that day?

There's at least one day on an upcoming Caribbean cruise where I'll probably want to go SCUBA diving, and my partner may want to do the NCL zipline excursion.  I'll probably do the SCUBA independently.

Would my partner still be able to take advantage of the excursion credit if I'm the lead passenger?  Or would I be better off calling NCL to switch our ordering so that my partner is the lead passenger instead?  Does it make a difference?

[AtlantaCruiser72]

The discount only applies to the lead passenger if booking online in advance. The shore excursion staff onboard may be willing/able to apply it to guest 2 if you the excursion book onboard, and guest 1 is not doing an NCL excursion for that port, but it’s not 100% guaranteed they will do so.  I don’t know if calling NCL to book in advance over the phone would allow them to apply the discount to guest 2

[ClevelandCruisin]

If you book an excursion through your cruise page, it will show the credit off before checkout. It's per stateroom I believe and 1 person only. I doubt calling would be of any good, unless you want to hear the same things we've told you already.

[Named-Tawny]

24 minutes ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

If you book an excursion through your cruise page, it will show the credit off before checkout. It's per stateroom I believe and 1 person only. I doubt calling would be of any good, unless you want to hear the same things we've told you already.

I mean, presumably if I called, they could switch things so that my partner was the lead passenger and I'm the second passenger, no?

[ClevelandCruisin]

Just now, Named-Tawny said:

I mean, presumably if I called, they could switch things so that my partner was the lead passenger and I'm the second passenger, no?

If you switched it, they would get the credit and you would not. But I'm not sure how that works if you're labeled as the primary guest. If you switched it, they would get all the credits and you will get none. 

[ClevelandCruisin]

Also another thing to add, if you don't book an excursion,  you don't get the credit. 

[Named-Tawny]

4 minutes ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

If you switched it, they would get the credit and you would not. But I'm not sure how that works if you're labeled as the primary guest. If you switched it, they would get all the credits and you will get none. 

Yes, that would be the point, if I wasn't doing excursions, but my partner was.

[ClevelandCruisin]

1 minute ago, Named-Tawny said:

Yes, that would be the point, if I wasn't doing excursions, but my partner was.

I understand that. Like I said you're the primary guest. I'd give them a call or use the messenger feature on their site to ask them. 

[julig22]

Excursion operators seldom if ever ask for id, they just do a head count and collect the tickets.  

[MeHeartCruising]

6 hours ago, julig22 said:

Excursion operators seldom if ever ask for id, they just do a head count and collect the tickets.  

 

^^^ This.  Just book the excursion and get the $50 discount.  An excursion ticket will show up in your room.  Give it to whomever you want to take the excursion.  The excursion host will collect them at the time of the excursion, but I've never had anyone even look at the names on them or verify them.  They may look at them to verify you have a correct ticket for that particular excursion, but that's it.  It's usually just someone collecting them from everyone as they step on the bus to the excursion.

 

The above approach only works if you're not worried about who actually pays for any remaining cost of the excursion.  It will be billed to the first person.  But if you're a couple using common payment method, it likely won't matter.

 

But, If an accident were to happen on the excursion, there could be confusion as to who was actually on the excursion and who might be injured (or whatever).  Not that I'd worry about that much.

 

 

[ggTexasGal]

I would be very wary of booking an excursion in my name (for MY discount) and then sending my partner on that excursion with my booking.  Just remember, the Excursion Ticket has YOUR name on it!

If the excursion has any physical activities, the vendor almost always has a "Release from Liability" (or some form like that) and,  you attest that you will follow ALL safety briefings and vendor rules. All passengers must sign!

Signing someone else's name is, at best, fraudulent.

NCL could possibly be notified by vendor at time of excursion.

I wouldn't place myself, or partner, in that position, as it could result in loss of re-embarking the ship.

Potentially being left at that port is NOT worth $50 to me!

[ClevelandCruisin]

I wouldn't book it in my name and send someone else either. If anything were to happen in the event of an accident or whatever,  they would want to be responsible for those on the tour. But I can't speak for the shortcuts everyone else does. 

[julig22]

2 hours ago, ggTexasGal said:

I would be very wary of booking an excursion in my name (for MY discount) and then sending my partner on that excursion with my booking.  Just remember, the Excursion Ticket has YOUR name on it!

If the excursion has any physical activities, the vendor almost always has a "Release from Liability" (or some form like that) and,  you attest that you will follow ALL safety briefings and vendor rules. All passengers must sign!

Signing someone else's name is, at best, fraudulent.

NCL could possibly be notified by vendor at time of excursion.

I wouldn't place myself, or partner, in that position, as it could result in loss of re-embarking the ship.

Potentially being left at that port is NOT worth $50 to me!

As far as I can find, nothing in the T&Cs or on the tickets says that tickets aren't transferrable.  I'm not even sure that the passenger name is on the ticket (most of the info is on the stub that you keep) and I don't recall ever seeing a tour with a passenger manifest.  The possible exception might be on "drive yourself" tours - I don't know if you give your license info to NCL or if the excursion people collect that on site (most likely).

As to release from liability, of course you should sign your own name.  NCL clearly states that they have no responsibility other than as a ticket agent.

I highly doubt that any vendor would "report" a discrepancy if they even notice - why would they bother?

 

The $50 discount is per stateroom - they used to split it - an accounting decision on the part of NCL, not an individual discount.  Now if someone is using their Latitudes discount to buy excursions for someone else, that's a different issue, as that is "your" discount and is addressed in the T&Cs.

[ggTexasGal]

2 hours ago, julig22 said:

As far as I can find, nothing in the T&Cs or on the tickets says that tickets aren't transferrable.  I'm not even sure that the passenger name is on the ticket (most of the info is on the stub that you keep) and I don't recall ever seeing a tour with a passenger manifest.  The possible exception might be on "drive yourself" tours - I don't know if you give your license info to NCL or if the excursion people collect that on site (most likely).

As to release from liability, of course you should sign your own name.  NCL clearly states that they have no responsibility other than as a ticket agent.

I highly doubt that any vendor would "report" a discrepancy if they even notice - why would they bother?

 

The $50 discount is per stateroom - they used to split it - an accounting decision on the part of NCL, not an individual discount.  Now if someone is using their Latitudes discount to buy excursions for someone else, that's a different issue, as that is "your" discount and is addressed in the T&Cs.

I just got home and pulled our tickets stubs for every excursion that we took Jan 2019.  Our Stateroom #, and our names, are printed on every excursion.

(This has been the case as far back as I can recall, since 2008).

Below are T&C's  (see the bulleted statements, especially)!

$50 USD Shore Excursion Credit
Offer is applicable to first guest on the cruise reservation.
The first guest shall receive free shore excursions priced at $50 or less (“the promotion”)
In the alternative, first guest will receive $50 in Shore Excursion Credits to apply against shore excursions priced greater than $50.
$50 Shore Excursion Credit is applicable to all tours, including debarkation tours.
In the event the tour is less than the value of the credit the $50 Shore Excursion Credit will be adjusted to match the tour value.
The first guest may redeem the promotion of $50 Shore Excursion Credit on more than one shore excursion per port.
Latitude Members Discount is combinable with the $50 Shore Excursion Credit.
In the case of multiple excursion credits or discounts, the $50 Shore Excursion Credit will be applied first followed by any additional shore excursion discounts.
In the event a port of call or shore excursion is canceled, the guest will be refunded the amount that the guest paid for the excursion.
For shore excursions purchased prior to cruise, the promotion or $50 Shore Excursion Credits will be applied to the first guest at time of purchase.
For shore excursions purchased onboard, the promotion or $50 Shore Excursion Credit will be applied to the first guest’s onboard account.
Please see additional restrictions below:

• If the first guest purchases shore excursions tickets for other guests, the promotion and $50 Shore Excursion Credit will not apply to such tickets.
• The first guest cannot purchase shore excursions for themselves where the duration of such excursions overlap in time.
• For port calls in Great Stirrup Cay and Harvest Caye, the promotion and $50 Shore Excursion Credit does not apply to equipment rentals.
• Pre-cruise and post-cruise land tours are not eligible for this promotion.
• $50 Shore Excursion Credit has no monetary value, are non-refundable, non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for actual currency of any value.
• Other guest in the stateroom are not eligible to receive the promotion or $50 Shore Excursion Credits.

Shore excursion credit can be redeemed by booking online via NCL.com, by calling 1-866-625-1167, or onboard.

[ggTexasGal]

16 hours ago, Named-Tawny said:

Hi Folks!

I have a quick question about how the $50/excursion credit works - specifically, what happens if the lead passenger is not doing an NCL excursion that day?

There's at least one day on an upcoming Caribbean cruise where I'll probably want to go SCUBA diving, and my partner may want to do the NCL zipline excursion.  I'll probably do the SCUBA independently.

Would my partner still be able to take advantage of the excursion credit if I'm the lead passenger?  Or would I be better off calling NCL to switch our ordering so that my partner is the lead passenger instead?  Does it make a difference?

@Named-Tawny If you don't want any disputes about this while on your cruise, you might want to take the advice of changing you partner to the Primary passenger.  Especially, if indeed, you want that person to be able to use all the Shore Excursion Credits!  *** See my post #14 ***

[julig22]

8 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

I just got home and pulled our tickets stubs for every excursion that we took Jan 2019.  Our Stateroom #, and our names, are printed on every excursion.

(This has been the case as far back as I can recall, since 2008).

Exactly as I said.  The info is on the stub that you keep.  That doesn't mean that it is also on the ticket you give to the excursion operator.

Still not seeing anything that prohibits a person from giving a ticket to someone else.  I've known people to give their tickets away because for whatever reason they decide to not go and are past the deadline for a refund.

But everyone needs to do what they feel is best and interpret the rules/intent of the promo as they wish.

[ggTexasGal]

What I did not add above was that (January 2019) we had multiple excursions cancelled due to Severe Wind Conditions.  Therefore, I have the FULL tickets from each of three cancellations.

Each one has our Names and Stateroom on both parts.

[RumRunner2021]

27 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Still not seeing anything that prohibits a person from giving a ticket to someone else. 

It's right there:

 

40 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

$50 Shore Excursion Credit has no monetary value, are non-refundable, non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for actual currency of any value.

 

[julig22]

14 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

It's right there:

 

 

Credit non transferable.  Nothing that says Tickets aren't transferrable.

[RumRunner2021]

Just now, julig22 said:

Credit non transferable.  Nothing that says Tickets aren't transferrable.

I'm guessing it says that on the T&C's on the back of the ticket.    @ggTexasGal can likely confirm.

[bgTexasguy]

Here is an example of how the 1st person booking the excursion in their name, but passenger 2 uses the excursion ticket can go terribly wrong...

Passenger 1 goes and does her thing, then returns to the ship.  Passenger 2 is on the excursion, but sadly there has been a traffic jam that now is holding the ship from leaving the port.  Security calls passenger 1 to report to front desk, because passenger 1's name is on the ship's log as being on an excursion that has not returned.  And passenger 2 is "missing." 

This could happen, and could get very ugly!

[bgTexasguy]

6 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I'm guessing it says that on the T&C's on the back of the ticket.    @ggTexasGal can likely confirm.

Actually, the back of the ticket goes into lengthy NCL legal jargon equal to, "NCL acts as an agent to book the excursion, but NCL does not hold any liability, since you are out of our care while on the excursion." (Or, something to that effect, only much lengthier!)🙃

[RumRunner2021]

8 minutes ago, bgTexasguy said:

 

This could happen, and could get very ugly!

A lot could happen.  When it comes to getting on and off a ship, I won't risk any complications just to save $50.  I'm guessing that most of us with a traveling companion in the same room prefer to do these things together anyways.

[Named-Tawny]

Well that was easy.  Didn't even have to call - they have a webchat feature now.

Five minutes later, and we're switched up.  Partner is lead passenger. 

It's updated on the cruise receipt docs, and in the passenger list, but the Shorexes themselves still list me first - I'm sure that'll switch soon enough when they update.