Excursion and OBC question

[wifeofbedo]

Hi All,

Just wondering about paying for excursions. There is an excursion we would like to do and use our OBC to pay for it. 

Do I need to wait till I'm onboard or could I book it after final payment? Would it still get charged to my credit card after final payment? 

We always book a private excursion, but this time we have OBC to use from the Plus package and we won't be shopping on the ship that much. 

If it matters, we are on the Regal doing British Isles cruise.

 

Another quick question while I'm here too....as a Canadian cruiser, it used to be cost effective for us to give ourselves an OBC (purchase an OBC gift) before cruising) as the rates that Princess used for conversion were much better than what we would get at the bank. Has anyone done this lately? 

 

thanks for any advice! 

[Anastas617]

I will be cruising on Caribbean Princess and booked three excursions. All three were charged to my on-board credit. I can't recall what it looked like when I was booking, I just know that it was obvious I was using OBC.

 

Not sure if it matters, but I had already paid in full before I started booking excursions.

[caribill]

Most OBC that exists before a cruise can be used to book Princess excursions.

 

Note that the cost for each person's excursions will come from that person's OBC, so if most or all of the OBC is in one person's name (such as stockholder OBC would be), excursions booked for the other person may not have enough OBC available.

 

If that applies to your OBC, you can call Princess to book the excursions and ask that the cost comes from one person's account.

 

Some types of OBC cannot be used in advance of the cruise for excursions. Examples are OBC given by Princess as compensation for a previous problem and also OBC that people gift to you..

[trinitygirl]

OBC from Princess can definitely be used to purchase your excursions - when you click through to the payment page, you can choose to use OBC and if there isn't enough, you just add your credit card number for the excess.  

 

I am planning to purchase OBC prior to my cruise too, to pay for my on board spending, because the USD to AUD rate is pretty great, a saving of about 15 cents per dollar. 

[pink845]

As a fellow Canadian, please be careful when booking your excursions via your Cruise Personalizer.   The Cruise Personalizer may look like the price of shore excursions are in CDN dollars, however, THEY ARE IN USD.  Secondly, you can call Princess and have the agent book the excursions for you as well.  That is what they get paid for.  Thirdly, if you have OBC, yes, that money can be applied to your shore excursion any time you want (before you make final payment or after you make final payment).  Or, you could simply leave the OBC there on your account and pay for your shore excursion with your credit card.  We like to make sure that all shore excursions are paid with our credit card so that in the event that we need to cancel the whole darn vacation, then our credit card insurance pays out everything to us, including that shore excursions.  We have several credit cards with various insurance on them but one of them requires that  EVERY SINGLE travel related expense is charged to that credit card, so a $200 OBC credit used for a shore excursion would Nullify out our insurance.  Silliness galore. But true.  Fourthly, if you cancel your excursion (not helicopter rides, or other far flung excursions, you have until 5 days to cancel and you will get a refund to your credit card.  If you booked with your OBC, you will get your OBC credit put back into your folio to be used on board for something else.  (Same 5 days prior required.)  Finally, if you wait until you board, the excursion you want may be sold out.    I myself like to have all shore excursions prepaid on my credit card, and then I love to use the OBC that Princess has given me for COFFEES, now that Princess has taken away my free coffee.  (another hot topic on the forum).  Also, should you happen to be Elite, you get 10% off shore excursions if you book onboard and if you book in advance of the cruise, Princess will give add the 10% discount to your onboard folio upon your boarding the ship. 

[trinitygirl]

46 minutes ago, pink845 said:

We have several credit cards with various insurance on them but one of them requires that  EVERY SINGLE travel related expense is charged to that credit card, so a $200 OBC credit used for a shore excursion would Nullify out our insurance.  Silliness galore. 

The easy way around this is simply not to make an insurance claim for an excursion you didn’t actually pay for (where you used OBC to book).  The insurance company would have no way of knowing anything about those excursions,  and anyway, it is not an ‘expense’ if you didn’t pay for it.   It would be an issue if you used part OBC/part credit card to pay for excursions, so don’t do that in such a case. If you have a lot of OBC, excursions are a great use of OBC.  I agree definitely not to risk waiting til You get on board - that way lies heartbreak.

[Rick&Jeannie]

There is another way to book excursions with OBC which allows each person to pay with their *own* OBC (assuming that both people have OBC).  Book your excursion under *your* Princess account using your own OBC.  Log out, log in as the second person.  Book the same excursion using *that* person's OBC.

 

Make sure that the account for the second person is set up and he/she can get into the cruise personalizer just like you before you start this method.  Also...don't delay if you use this method!  If the excursion is showing less than a few remaining seats you need to be quick about getting that second booking made.

 

This is simply one way to do it while not having to phone or chat with a Princess rep.

[wifeofbedo]

Thank you everyone - lots of great information here!  

I need to call my Princess rep anyways so I'll get her to do it. 

 

Happy Sailing! 

 

 

[JudithLynne]

When one books a shore excursion on the Princess website, is OBC automatically used for payment, or do you need to contact Princess directly to make that happen?

[caribill]

12 hours ago, JudithLynne said:

When one books a shore excursion on the Princess website, is OBC automatically used for payment, or do you need to contact Princess directly to make that happen?

 

You do not have to contact Princess.

[JudithLynne]

Thanks Caribill for the info.