Check Your Excursions - Prices are Down!

[blaskoma]

I have been procrastinating on booking excursions through Princess (YMMV) for my September 2024 cruise due to the recent price increase.  Checking them today the two I have been looking at have decreased in price!  Needless to say I booked them 🙂  I would advise if you are looking to jump on and check!  Not certain how long this will last.

Edited February 24 by blaskoma

[Ken the cruiser]

According to what the email I received yesterday, the ones associated with selected Northern European cruises like the July 2024 Baltic cruise were booked on ends 2/25 (Sunday).

  

 

The interesting thing is we didn’t know the excursion prices had dropped on some of the ones we had booked until we compared the current price with what we had initially paid for them. The savings ranged from $5-15 per person depending on the cost of the itinerary. But at the same time, some of our other booked excursions had gone up.

[blaskoma]

Thank you!

 

[Torfamm]

I noticed at the beginning of the week that an excursion we’d been considering in the Mediterranean had gone up in price from $84 to $115 and ruled it out at that cost. It’s on sale now for the old price.

[Crystaltipps67]

2 hours ago, Torfamm said:

I noticed at the beginning of the week that an excursion we’d been considering in the Mediterranean had gone up in price from $84 to $115 and ruled it out at that cost. It’s on sale now for the old price.

We got that offer for our upcoming Med cruise (next month). But the two I booked ages ago to use up OBC are still more expensive even after the 20% 'discount' compared to what I paid. It seems to be a sham.

[dickinson]

The one I booked before the big price increase is on "sale" for more than I paid.

[amajaa]

Do you pay normally more for excursions once you are onboard ( ignoring the sale price currently being offered) . I'm trying to decide whether to book now or wait till we are onboard in case we change our mind. What happens about the 10% Elite discoubt?  

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, amajaa said:

Do you pay normally more for excursions once you are onboard ( ignoring the sale price currently being offered) . I'm trying to decide whether to book now or wait till we are onboard in case we change our mind. What happens about the 10% Elite discoubt?  

 
Excursion prices generally increase as the sailing date approaches and some can sell out. We don’t book a lot of Princess excursions, preferring to do independent tours, but there are usually one or two ports where we will opt for Princess excursions. This may be due to the specific tour offered or because of concerns around port time. It’s generally best to book early to get the lowest price and ensure your space. This recent “sale” is a real bait and switch - they highly inflated the prices and are now offering discounts that bring them back down to the original price in some cases or not even that low. 
 

Even if you buy ahead of time, you will still get your Elite discount back as an OBC onboard. Just be sure you check in with Guest Services to make sure you get your credit.  

Edited February 24 by karatemom2

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, amajaa said:

Do you pay normally more for excursions once you are onboard ( ignoring the sale price currently being offered) . I'm trying to decide whether to book now or wait till we are onboard in case we change our mind. What happens about the 10% Elite discount?  

I don't know about the bait and switch issue, but rather I attribute the adjustments to "supply and demand". We have 10 PCL excursions booked on our upcoming 21-day Baltic cruise and were able to cancel/rebook 5 of them for a lower fare, 2 had stayed at the same price, and 2 had gone up in price. However, as others have stated, the more popular ones will either sell out or their price will increase, especially once onboard. For example, on the South America cruise we just finished, the disembarkation transfer from the ship in San Antonio (Chile) to the Santiago airport, with an 8-hour excursion included, went up from $199 pp when it was first made available to $309 pp if you waited to book it onboard. This is the main reason we always book our excursions as early as possible. What is also nice is that PCL lets you use the OBC (military, promotional, shareholder, etc.) they give you in advance to book them.

 

As far as the 10% Elite discount goes, we got it posted to our onboard account as refundable OBC on our last cruise, probably because we also used $$$ and refundable OBC along with any nonrefundable OBC to pre-book our excursions. BTW all onboard transactions, to include these refunds, are listed in your Princess App Folio section.

 

Edited February 24 by Ken the cruiser

[Jakdgr]

Thanks for posting about excursion prices - a tour in Alesund in September (troll path)went up in price by USD150 pp a few weeks ago from when I first saw it and I checked this morning after reading here and it had dropped down USD100pp - with AUD FX rate being not great I jumped on this price change (thanks OBC)!

[Malleykatt]

For our Baltic cruise in July all the excursion prices went up a couple of weeks ago. Looking now a couple I wanted to look at have dropped to original price. Booked them today.

[DHP1]

We paid our excursion about 2 weeks ago for our cruise in August and now the price has drop. Can we asked for a credit? I could cancel our excursion however, with the exchange rate may cost the same. 

Edited February 24 by DHP1

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, DHP1 said:

We paid our excursion about 2 weeks ago and now the price has drop. Can we asked for a credit?

In our case we cancelled the booking, then rebooked it immediately afterwards. Then went to the Cart and paid for it with the “credit” that resulted from the cancelled excursion. It’s been our experience in the past that that’s the only way you can receive “credit” for the price reduction.

 

Edited February 24 by Ken the cruiser

[NavyVeteran]

1 hour ago, DHP1 said:

We paid our excursion about 2 weeks ago for our cruise in August and now the price has drop. Can we asked for a credit? I could cancel our excursion however, with the exchange rate may cost the same. 

 

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

In our case we cancelled the booking, then rebooked it immediately afterwards. Then went to the Cart and paid for it with the “credit” that resulted from the cancelled excursion. It’s been our experience in the past that that’s the only way you can receive “credit” for the price reduction.

Yes, the only way to get credit is to cancel and rebook the cancel. They don't re-price excursions. The only risk is that you may not be able to rebook if the cruise is sold out.

When you cancel a shore excursion pre-cruise, they don't refund immediately. If you immediately rebook, then the refund is applied to the rebooking and not refunded.

Note that if you cancel a pre-booked shore excursion, you don't necessarily receive a refund of the same amount charged to your credit card. You receive a refund of the amount paid in onboard currency (either US or Australian dollars depending on the cruise). This refund is converted to your local currency at the time of the refund. I have cancelled several excursions on Australian cruises and lost money because of the change in exchange rates between Australian and US dollars between booking and canceling the excursions.

[TrixieBel]

1 minute ago, NavyVeteran said:

I have cancelled several excursions on Australian cruises and lost money because of the change in exchange rates between Australian and US dollars between booking and canceling the excursions.

Yes. It can go either way depending on the exchange rate. I recently prebooked two specialty dinners for our cruise and my credit card was charged (USD converted to AUD). Then I cancelled both dinners a couple of weeks later as we had decided to cancel and rebook the cruise under a better booking deal. The amount refunded to my card for the cancelled dinners was AUD$30 more than it cost me to book them. The exchange rate was good to me.. ☺️

[Jakdgr]

@TrixieBel love that when FX rate goes our way😁

Out of curiosity was your new booking considered a re fare (and assume you had refundable deposit?)

Jo

 

Edited February 24 by Jakdgr
Typo

[daydreamer16]

I haven't been on Princess for awhile, can you use OBC if you book online? 

[Ken the cruiser]

43 minutes ago, daydreamer16 said:

I haven't been on Princess for awhile, can you use OBC if you book online? 

Yes, you can use OBC Princess posts to your account to pre-book excursions. To find out how much OBC has been posted to a specific booking, click on the Payments section of the booking in your Princess account. Go down to the Credits section. Here’s an example from one of our 21-day bookings where we received OBC from each of us posting an FCD to the booking, from both being military veterans, and from one of us owning 100 shares of Carnival stock.

 

Edited February 25 by Ken the cruiser

[MacMadame]

I booked our excursions the day they became available and now 2 of them are a lower price with only one being the same price. So for our 2025 cruise, it wasn't a bait and switch. 

 

I was planning to book the excursions at the new price and then cancel my original ones but it sounds like, if I do that, I'll end up with OBC and not a refund to my credit card. Is that correct?

[NavyVeteran]

You cannot book the excursions at the new price until after you cancel them at the old price. The system will not let you book two multiple excursions at the same time. You have to cancel first and then rebook.

If you cancel and immediately rebook, the credit for the cancellation will be used to pay for the rebooking, so you will not need to pay anything by credit card to rebook. If you paid for all of your excursions with credit cards without using OBC, then you will receive a refund for the difference to your credit card. If you paid for some of your excursions with OBC, then you will receive the refund back to your OBC.