Princess BOGO Excursion Promotion

[mthomp5]

We received the email for our September 2025 cruise on the Sun.  Did the math for 3 out of 4 excursions for my hubby and I and we would only save about $40 out of the $600+ we had already paid (via a combination of OBC and credit card).  The 4th excursion had no discount available. 
 

I think we booked when there was a sale on the excursions and prices had gone up since.  It’s not worth it to us to cancel and rebook for that amount of savings. I’m worried something could go wrong with Princess systems. 

Edited July 20 by mthomp5

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, hpeabody said:

 

AFIK, there is still a max 90 day prior rule in effect.  I doun't know if they make exceptions since outsourcing

 

For quite some time now we have been able to submit the request and have it approved well beyond the old 90 day limit. They changed the rule so people could use their OBC to book excursions.

[mthomp5]

8 minutes ago, mthomp5 said:

We received the email for our September 2025 cruise on the Sun.  Did the math for 3 out of 4 excursions for my hubby and I and we would only save about $40 out of the $600+ we had already paid (via a combination of OBC and credit card).  The 4th excursion had no discount available. 
 

I think we booked when there was a sale on the excursions and prices had gone up since.  It’s not worth it to us to cancel and rebook for that amount of savings. I’m worried something could go wrong with Princess systems. 

Well…oops.  I am bad at math and I had it reversed!  Make that…it would now cost us $40 more to book under this sale. 😂

[Globaler]

1 hour ago, LeeW said:

Checked the two Princess excursions I had booked and price is now higher than I paid.  Obviously not going to cancel and rebook.

Ditto - same with me.

[hpeabody]

3 hours ago, that said:

@hpeabody

Not our experience.   We have rec’d benefit submitted for cruises thru New Year’s Eve 2025.

 

Bon Voyage Tuesday

 

 

 

Oh, if that is the case I need to look into this.  I have a december cruise I'd like book an excursion for early.

[hpeabody]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

For quite some time now we have been able to submit the request and have it approved well beyond the old 90 day limit. They changed the rule so people could use their OBC to book excursions.

 

Thanks, Michael.  I need to look into this.

[that]

@hpeabody

My mistake

apology about Stockperks and benefit

the farthest out cruise was August 2025

NOT New Years

 

Edited July 20 by that

[rwest898]

9 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Fyi, just received this email promotion.  Anyone else receive it?  This was tied to our October of 2025 Sun Princess Med/TA cruise.

 

 

 

 

I got it today also. 

[paddingtonbear]

4 hours ago, dickinson said:

I received the email and looked at my cruise for next June.  Hadn't looked before so don't know what prices were.  One port, Kusadasi, the excursion I would want only has 18 tickets available so there is some pressure to purchase now.  It is refundable though.  I checked Viator and they are much less expensive but don't include tickets.  I also didn't see the Terrace Houses in a tour but maybe they did have one.  Feel a little uncomfortable in Turkey with a private tour with us three people and would rather be on a larger excursion.  

 

So how does this work?  If I book one excursion for two people does Princess discount the second person or is it when I book a second excursion in a different port?

They start at 20 tickets and when they get down to zero it goes back up to 20. This far out it wouldn’t be the last 20 tickets that they are working through now so don’t worry. 
 

I booked a ship excursion a month ago for September 2025 in an earlier BOGO50% sale.  If I’d booked it 2 days before (I foolishly thought I’d confirm with DH) it would have saved us $30USD pp. Now the price is the same as it was in the “sale”.

 

make sure you click right through to see the price as it is sometimes different to the price on the excursion page. 
 

Do your research and buy early if you need a ship excursion. 

[paddingtonbear]

For some people a ship’s excursion might be their only opportunity to see Paris. This is one I’d definitely do with a ship excursion as the traffic in Paris can be bad. And, it’s a long excursion. 
 

IMO, Paris is worth seeing even if it’s only for a short while.

[GonzoWCS]

Great information thanks!

 

Cheers

[cr8tiv1]

I just wasted an hour of my night that I will never get back looking at "promotional excursions" for my voyage.

 

Most prices have increased between the time I first looked at them until now.  With the "sale" it is more expensive than if I had booked it when they first opened.  Even the ones that were "sold out" are now available.  

 

Did not book any new excursions.  How did I fall for this?  I know better.

 

I will admit that looking at the excursions via the app is a little easier than signing in to Princess.com.

Edited July 20 by cr8tiv1

[dickinson]

6 hours ago, paddingtonbear said:

For some people a ship’s excursion might be their only opportunity to see Paris. This is one I’d definitely do with a ship excursion as the traffic in Paris can be bad. And, it’s a long excursion. 
 

IMO, Paris is worth seeing even if it’s only for a short while.

I totally agree with you.  We did it in 2015 and am so glad we did. It was wonderful. 

[dickinson]

6 hours ago, paddingtonbear said:

They start at 20 tickets and when they get down to zero it goes back up to 20. This far out it wouldn’t be the last 20 tickets that they are working through now so don’t worry. 
 

I booked a ship excursion a month ago for September 2025 in an earlier BOGO50% sale.  If I’d booked it 2 days before (I foolishly thought I’d confirm with DH) it would have saved us $30USD pp. Now the price is the same as it was in the “sale”.

 

make sure you click right through to see the price as it is sometimes different to the price on the excursion page. 
 

Do your research and buy early if you need a ship excursion. 

Wow!  Big difference. We were not going to even work on our June 2025 excursions til we get back from our upcoming cruise shortly.  We will be going to Ephesus and the ship's excursions are a LOT more than private. 

 

As for the 20 tickets.. our experience is the opposite of yours.  Over the years I have found that it always says 20 tickets until there are LESS than 20 tickets still available and then it goes to sold out.

[paddingtonbear]

2 minutes ago, dickinson said:

 

LAs for the 20 tickets.. our experience is the opposite of yours.  Over the years I have found that it always says 20 tickets until there are LESS than 20 tickets still available and then it goes to sold out.

Oh I’ve given the wrong info then! So sorry. 
I have a terrible feeling that I was corrected in this once before 😩

[phabric]

I received the Sale email.  I had booked my excursions for Nov 2025 awhile ago.  Most of my more expensive excursions had gone up in price and the cheaper price excursions stayed the same price.
 

I wanted to see if the Sale would benefit me.  I picked a new excursion, next page click both passengers, next page both passengers showed the same price.  Where do you see the 50% price?

 

I probably won’t change as I am Canadian and excursions are in US$.  My credit card is in CDN$ so an exchange rate, if I cancel another exchange rate.

[milolii]

21 hours ago, Globaler said:

I just looked back and I had already booked the Best of the Golden Circle at $510 it’s now $640 so if I had purchased on 50% offer it would have been 480. Still less but not the large savings you would hope for.

Try Iceland Everywhre.  https://www.icelandeverywhere.is

[Thunderbird19]

Check the prices on any BOGO offer you receive.  For our Fall cruise,  I found that they have raised the prices on the vast majority of the excursions so that there is not any true savings when booking excursions for 2 people.  I had printed out excursion prices about 6 weeks ago so can compare to the BOGO pricing.  Shady advertising by Princess, disappointing!

[Cruisemeister2002]

I accessed this a week or so ago. Went into an excursion I had already booked and it was more money even with the second person getting a 50% discount. I understand the need for cruise lines to maximise their profits but since I was able to book excursions I have lost count of the different prices for the same excursions. Sometimes up in price and sometimes down. We all know there's a huge mark up on what they actually cost. But sometimes where an excursion is all day and many miles from your cruise ship it pays to just put up with the price and guarantee your ship hasn't sailed before you get back to port, Also there's the security issue of making your own way in places you don't know. 

[Shaver John]

We just rebooked one tour and have decided to book an additional 6 tours due to the sale. Yes, we did find it to be a sale, and so did our cruise travel mates. Not sure why we found this and others did not, but I do think Princess did a good job with this sale, at least for us. Saved us a few hundred dollars as we see it.

[Firstin87]

We received the sale email Friday and I, too, spent a lot of time last night reviewing shorex for our June 2025 cruise.  I'm not ready to decide on them yet, so spent time narrowing it down and trying to choose, then got frustrated with feeling rushed and struggling with their technical difficulties on my computer (probably due to the CrowdStrike issue).  We haven't been on Princess in 6 years, so I've got a couple questions for those of you with experience:

 

1.  Is it unusual for shorex's to go on sale?  Should I feel the need to jump on this by the 23rd or can I feel confidant there will be another sale by the time we're ready to book shorex?

 

2.  What is the process for cancelling a Princess shorex?  On NCL, who we're most experienced with, you have to call to cancel a shorex, then you rebook.  On Royal, which we're sailing for the first time next month, you can cancel online and rebook immediately.

 

Any tips on the 'sweet spot' time for booking shorex?

 

Thank you all!

[Gardenbunny50]

I have bought 3 of the ports - first on 5/9 and again 6/1.  Seems like a sale was on then but they applied my $210 OBC to first purchase. A lot had already been sold out so I went back on 6/1 - think it was regular price for that one.  Been to all these ports but many years ago, so I picked different things.

I got the email on BOGO so I need to look and do some math to see how what I paid lines up with this deal.

If it is less than what I have paid, think  they offer credit refund?

Still want the 4 hr National Canadas Park in Tenerife but still sold out.  No wait list offered so I keep watching.  May have to wait til on board.

Being Elite we get our 10% discount on board as OBC. So that helps offset final OB charges.

[Thrak]

Wowie Zowie! The excursion to Paris we were interested in wasn't listed under the BOGO but I just now looked again and was surprised to find the price has gone down!!! It was previously listed at something like $349 per person. Today it shows at $295 per person. I don't have my Shareholder OBC applied yet but we did have $300 OBC apiece anyway so I booked it. It "may" go down more but I doubt that and it will be more likely to go up. I don't know why it's showing as less today than it was before but I'll take it. (Yes, it's still stupidly expensive for something that has a 3 hour bus ride each way but, that's just how it is. There's no way I'm going to trust a private booking with that kind of travel time involved.)

 

I still have $250 Shareholder OBC to be applied and will likely also apply some (discounted) Princess gift cards as OBC when we get onboard. I'll definitely be buying cards to pay for my cruises and flights as well. (I wish they would go back to the 10% discount on the cards but 8% is definitely better than paying full price.)

[Thrak]

43 minutes ago, Gardenbunny50 said:

If it is less than what I have paid, think  they offer credit refund?

 

The booked excursion "should" have a cancellation info link so you can check the consequences of cancelling and rebooking.

[cr8tiv1]

48 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

The booked excursion "should" have a cancellation info link so you can check the consequences of cancelling and rebooking.

 

Questions for those in the know.  If...I already purchased an excursion at the "regular" price charged to my CC a long time ago,

 

When I get onboard, can I have the shore excursion desk remove the charge to the credit card and apply onboard credit without cancelling and rebooking at the higher fare?

 

Hence, no out of pocket expense for making this change?