Weird Excursion cancellation refund

[Pushka]

I'll call Viking Monday but recently cancelled an excursion on our May 5 Ocean cruise. Instead of going back to the credit card, it now appears in MVJ as a negative amount in my account (obviously I've paid for the cruise in full). I thought it might go towards payment of another excursion on that cruise, which I booked yesterday, but that amount shows as a pending amount on my credit card so clearly not used for future excursions. 
 

Is this a glitch or usual practise? I can't see any shipboard credits or vouchers in MVJ. I thought the refund would go back to original form of payment. Will I be able to access this money on the cruise? Although other than massages I don't think I'd use it all ($430 AUD) and we have already purchased SSP and gratuities. Help?

[OneSixtyToOne]

It’s been my experience that it is credited to your original payment method. It takes a few days to clear and show on your credit card account. If you book another excursion it will be a separate transaction and a separate charge.

 

I recently did this and had a credit showing for a few days until everything cleared various accounting systems.

Edited March 12, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

It’s been my experience that it is credited to your original payment method. It takes a few days to clear and show on your credit card account. If you book another excursion it will be a separate transaction and a separate charge.

 

I recently did this and had a credit showing for a few days until everything cleared various accounting systems.

I also have a river cruise and cancelled one of those excursions and it's been a month and nothing yet. Yet another refund arrived very quickly. I'll call in a few weeks.

[Canberra601]

Slightly off topic, but we had some issues with refunds associated with two paid excursions that were cancelled whilst on board earlier this year.   The issue related to being refunded in USD to our on-board account, when we had in fact paid in AUD.  When converted to AUD the exchange rate used for the refund was significantly lower then the rate that was current at that time (and had no relation to the exchange rate at the time that we paid for the excursions).  When I queried this at the client service desk, the person could not explain why the exchange rate used was so different to the current rates.  He tried to explain that Viking takse a forex fee/commission out, but this made no sense.  I asked that either Viking refund me the actual AUD I paid, or the USD based on the exchange rate that the USD was credited to my onboard account.  It was not a huge amount of money, but was a matter of principle to me.   The matter was resolved and I was credited with additional USD that night, but then the same thing happened two days later when a second excursion was cancelled.   So do be aware of this potential issue if any of your excursions are cancelled when you are on board.