ericmcgovern Posted July 3 #1 Share Posted July 3 Going to Alaska at the end of July, and I have been keeping an eye on the excursions as Princess keeps sending out "deals". On a few of the excursions we booked, the prices did actually drop. Based on guidance from Princess (via chat) I cancelled and then immediately rebooked at the lower rate. It was actually very painless and showed (in a somewhat confusing way) that the credit I had from cancelling was going to be in excess of what I now owed. However there was zero indication that I now have a positive balance and no indication of how that balance would be refunded to me. After a few days I called Princess and had to walk the agent through some basic arithmetic to show them that indeed I was due money back. They then indicated that in 10-15 business days I would get a refund back on the original form of payment...and if I didn't to talk to the excursion desk onboard. My just wild guess is that onboard they will look at me like I am from Mars and tell me they should take care of it via support. Based on past experience I don't have a ton of faith that 15 days will come and I will see the money back on my credit card. Has anyone else had a balance from finding cheaper excursions before the cruise? Honestly I was hoping it would just show up as OBC and everything would be good. I believe on board that is what happens when you change excursions (or they cancel and you find one that is cheaper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donwoods123 Posted July 3 #2 Share Posted July 3 Just off the Ruby. One of our pre-cruise booked excursions (we reserved 3 places) dropped in price a few weeks before the cruise. We cancelled the excursion and rebooked. Two spots were originally booked with onboard credit. The difference in cost for these was returned to our account. The other was paid by credit card and the difference was returned to the card. The accounting was a bit confusing, but the math worked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericmcgovern Posted July 3 Author #3 Share Posted July 3 That is good to hear - do you happen to remember the time frame for the amount returning to your card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donwoods123 Posted July 4 #4 Share Posted July 4 1 hour ago, ericmcgovern said: That is good to hear - do you happen to remember the time frame for the amount returning to your card? They did it surprisingly fast. I checked a few days later and it was there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topspot Posted July 4 #5 Share Posted July 4 We refared excursions as well when there was a sale back in May. It took a few phone calls, but after about 2 weeks we finally saw what was owed to us returned to the credit card that was used to purchase the excursions. One phone call I was told I needed to have my TA get the refund. This was untrue as I purchased the excursions, TA had nothing to do with excursion purchase (though she told me she'd call if I did not receive the refund). I had screen shots of everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshli Posted July 4 #6 Share Posted July 4 About a month ago, the price on an excursion we booked decreased. We cancelled the original reservation and rebooked at the lower price. Two days later, a credit showed up on our credit card for one of us and about 2 to 3 days later, the 2nd credit was applied. Makes no sense why the credit for both didn’t show up at the same time since it was 1 reservation and one credit card. Princess sure doesn’t make it easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Wildcat Posted July 4 #7 Share Posted July 4 45 minutes ago, topspot said: We refared excursions as well when there was a sale back in May. It took a few phone calls, but after about 2 weeks we finally saw what was owed to us returned to the credit card that was used to purchase the excursions. One phone call I was told I needed to have my TA get the refund. This was untrue as I purchased the excursions, TA had nothing to do with excursion purchase (though she told me she'd call if I did not receive the refund). I had screen shots of everything. Topspot, understand you booked the excursions; but in the rules (some 20 pages of stuff) it says if the booking is assigned to a TA that any cancelations must go thru them. Agree pretty silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donwoods123 Posted July 5 #8 Share Posted July 5 22 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said: Topspot, understand you booked the excursions; but in the rules (some 20 pages of stuff) it says if the booking is assigned to a TA that any cancelations must go thru them. Agree pretty silly. We booked through a TA. We booked our own excursions, canceled one because it went on sale, and rebooked it at a lesser price. We did it all ourselves without involving our TA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRLD Posted July 5 #9 Share Posted July 5 On 7/3/2024 at 4:12 PM, ericmcgovern said: Going to Alaska at the end of July, and I have been keeping an eye on the excursions as Princess keeps sending out "deals". On a few of the excursions we booked, the prices did actually drop. Based on guidance from Princess (via chat) I cancelled and then immediately rebooked at the lower rate. It was actually very painless and showed (in a somewhat confusing way) that the credit I had from cancelling was going to be in excess of what I now owed. However there was zero indication that I now have a positive balance and no indication of how that balance would be refunded to me. After a few days I called Princess and had to walk the agent through some basic arithmetic to show them that indeed I was due money back. They then indicated that in 10-15 business days I would get a refund back on the original form of payment...and if I didn't to talk to the excursion desk onboard. My just wild guess is that onboard they will look at me like I am from Mars and tell me they should take care of it via support. Based on past experience I don't have a ton of faith that 15 days will come and I will see the money back on my credit card. Has anyone else had a balance from finding cheaper excursions before the cruise? Honestly I was hoping it would just show up as OBC and everything would be good. I believe on board that is what happens when you change excursions (or they cancel and you find one that is cheaper) My experience is if you cancel an excursion, then book another (even the same one at a lower price) they are two separate transactions. The cancellation (at least 5 days before the cruise) will result in a refund being sent to the original source of payment. The refund can take up to 15 days but is usually less. The new excursion purchase is a new charge to whatever form of payment you are using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMadame Posted July 5 #10 Share Posted July 5 On 7/3/2024 at 4:12 PM, ericmcgovern said: Going to Alaska at the end of July, and I have been keeping an eye on the excursions as Princess keeps sending out "deals". On a few of the excursions we booked, the prices did actually drop. Based on guidance from Princess (via chat) I cancelled and then immediately rebooked at the lower rate. It was actually very painless and showed (in a somewhat confusing way) that the credit I had from cancelling was going to be in excess of what I now owed. However there was zero indication that I now have a positive balance and no indication of how that balance would be refunded to me. The same thing happened to me. It's been months and no refund. I guess I'm going to have to make a phone call and I hate making phone calls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 5 #11 Share Posted July 5 I had booked two excursions for my husband and me on our upcoming August sailing on the Enchanted. They had one of their 20% off Caribbean Excursion sales shortly thereafter. I had paid for the excursions with a credit card. I simply canceled and rebooked the excursions at the cheaper rate. Rather than the full amount of the original bookings being refunded and the new amount charged, I simply received a refund to my credit card for the difference within a couple of days. It was easy peasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Rick&Jeannie Posted July 7 #12 Share Posted July 7 Well there you go...Princess being consistently inconsistent! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericmcgovern Posted July 12 Author #13 Share Posted July 12 On 7/7/2024 at 12:59 PM, Rick&Jeannie said: Well there you go...Princess being consistently inconsistent! Well this certainly is the truth! 15 business days have come and gone with no refund...so I call back and...I am really not sure what the agent told me. Something about I will receive an email that they are going to send to the Shore Excursion department...and if I don't get anything by tomorrow to call back? I really didn't understand what they were telling me, but they sure were confident! Of course...I have not received any email.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyVeteran Posted July 13 #14 Share Posted July 13 13 hours ago, ericmcgovern said: Well this certainly is the truth! 15 business days have come and gone with no refund...so I call back and...I am really not sure what the agent told me. Something about I will receive an email that they are going to send to the Shore Excursion department...and if I don't get anything by tomorrow to call back? I really didn't understand what they were telling me, but they sure were confident! Of course...I have not received any email.... Did you book any excursions with OBC? If so, they won't send a credit card refund if the total spent on excursions is more than the total amount charged to credit cards. In effect, they refund to the OBC first and then to the credit cards. Onboard, the excursions (and all other expenses) will be charged first to nonrefundable OBC and then to refundable OBC (including your credit card charges), so you will receive the refunds in refundable OBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericmcgovern Posted July 18 Author #15 Share Posted July 18 Welp I finally got it sorted...called up and got an agent who was willing to dig around. Turns out they refunded me almost instantly...to PayPal. I paid for one excursion via PayPal and it was one of the ones I didn't touch, so I was looking at my credit card for the refund - but it was sitting there in PayPal the entire time. Go figure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cr8tiv1 Posted July 18 #16 Share Posted July 18 2 hours ago, ericmcgovern said: Welp I finally got it sorted...called up and got an agent who was willing to dig around. Turns out they refunded me almost instantly...to PayPal. I paid for one excursion via PayPal and it was one of the ones I didn't touch, so I was looking at my credit card for the refund - but it was sitting there in PayPal the entire time. Go figure! I did exactly the same thing. It was returned to a card that it was charged with....my error. I was looking for it on a card that I "ALWAYS" use with Princess. Nice agent was so kind to fill me in. I apologized to her and thanked her profusely for solving this mystery. Old age happens to the best of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boku Posted July 18 #17 Share Posted July 18 (edited) On a recent cruise when the shore excursion reduced in price by just $9 pp i received an automatic refund in the form of OBC. Edited July 18 by Boku Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latebloomer56 Posted July 18 #18 Share Posted July 18 On 7/5/2024 at 2:30 PM, JamieLogical said: I had booked two excursions for my husband and me on our upcoming August sailing on the Enchanted. They had one of their 20% off Caribbean Excursion sales shortly thereafter. I had paid for the excursions with a credit card. I simply canceled and rebooked the excursions at the cheaper rate. Rather than the full amount of the original bookings being refunded and the new amount charged, I simply received a refund to my credit card for the difference within a couple of days. It was easy peasy. Same thing for us, they were quicker than we expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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