OBC from travel agent

[sunscreen]

Looking for advice or confirmation on the following.   So we are to receive a sizeable OBC from our travel agency for our transatlantic cruise.   I have been reading that the OBC does not get credited to the acct til we are actually on the ship thus preventing me from using it to book shore excursions.  We have the Princess Plus pkg which includes gratuties,  wifi, drinks etc.  So therefore would want to use the credit for excursions.   I just got an email from Princess regarding booking shore excursions which of course I have to prepay and I want to book so I ensure they are not sold out.     How can I use this onboard credit towards the shore excursions as I believe I read something about seeing the SE desk when we get onboard.  Any advice would be appreciated.   

[Go-Bucks!]

I don't have a solution to your problem, but my TA used to credit my account with all the OBC pre-cruise but now they're adding half of it pre-cruise and the rest on embarkation day. I have the same issue as you because I can't book all the excursions I want until after boarding.

[karatemom2]

Have you already paid for the Princess Plus package? It seems like many people wait and pay for it the first day onboard to avoid the added expense it creates by inflating their travel insurance cost. Maybe you can hold off and use your credit to pay for the package and prepay for your excursions instead. 

[lx200gps]

7 hours ago, sunscreen said:

Looking for advice or confirmation on the following.   So we are to receive a sizeable OBC from our travel agency for our transatlantic cruise.   I have been reading that the OBC does not get credited to the acct til we are actually on the ship thus preventing me from using it to book shore excursions.  We have the Princess Plus pkg which includes gratuties,  wifi, drinks etc.  So therefore would want to use the credit for excursions.   I just got an email from Princess regarding booking shore excursions which of course I have to prepay and I want to book so I ensure they are not sold out.     How can I use this onboard credit towards the shore excursions as I believe I read something about seeing the SE desk when we get onboard.  Any advice would be appreciated.   

FWIW, it's been our experience that even if an excursion shows as sold out before the cruise, there will probably still be slots available for on-board booking. That was our experience last month on the Discovery. We had wanted to book a specific San Francisco tour, but it had been "sold out" for a long time on line, forcing us to be on the waiting list. One of our first stops upon embarkation was to visit the Shorex desk, where there were plenty of open slots for that very"sold out" tour.

[Coral]

I book with an agent who knocks the price off of the cruise price (not OBC). This solves the issue. 

[Coral]

8 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

Have you already paid for the Princess Plus package? It seems like many people wait and pay for it the first day onboard to avoid the added expense it creates by inflating their travel insurance cost. Maybe you can hold off and use your credit to pay for the package and prepay for your excursions instead. 

Depending on how they booked, they may need to rebook the cruise (if booked into a Plus rate code).

 

I agree about booking in on the ship. The price may go up between now and then but it solves the issue and also you don't have to pay insurance on that.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Coral

[EllieinNJ]

I always ask my TA to send me cashback instead of OBC.  This way I will use the cruise line's OBC and then pay the balance.  Nice to get a check a week after the cruise.  

 

I found out on other cruise lines that TA OBC once on board is not always refundable.  Talking about Carnival and MSC.

[lx200gps]

24 minutes ago, Coral said:

Depending on how they booked, they may need to rebook the cruise (if booked into a Plus rate code).

 

I agree about booking in on the ship. The price may go up between now and then but it solves the issue and also you don't have to pay insurance on that.

I had been watching the price of the excursion we wanted for a few months prior to the trip, and it never changed, even as the tour showed Sold Out. The price was exactly the same when we did book it on board at the time of embarkation.

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

I book with an agent who knocks the price off of the cruise price (not OBC). This solves the issue. 

That equates to real cash in your pocket rather that some OBC you have to use on the ship for items you might not really want. 😉

[Coral]

1 minute ago, MissP22 said:

That equates to real cash in your pocket rather that some OBC you have to use on the ship for items you might not really want. 😉

Or I can book private excursions and use the money that way.

[MissP22]

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

Or I can book private excursions and use the money that way.

That's even more of a big savings. Only the newbies have been scared into believing that they'll miss the ship.