Paying for gratuities on the ship/Next Cruise/OBC

I have read a lot of threads regarding waiting to pay for gratuities until on the ship. Doing this apparently allows you to book a future cruise and use the OBC towards the gratuities. Yet I am still confused how or if this works. Even my cruise rep at RCCL is advising me to do this. In a sense, he says I can book the future cruise (sounds like any cruise/any cabin) and receive $100 per person OBC. After that is done, I can use the OBC right away (any way I'd like) but he recommended for gratuities (I agree).

Is it really that simple? Is this still the policy? What happens if I have to cancel the future cruise? Will I have to "pay back" the OBC?

If you cancel the future cruise, you lose the deposit on that future cruise, which was equal to the amount of instant OBC you got.

The OBC is per cabin not per person and varies according to length of cruise and category booked

You do not specify what the OBC is used for. It is simply a credit on your onboard account. If you want to think of it as paying for gratuities, you can, but you don't otherwise designate what the OBC pays for.

But other than that, yes it's that easy. For a basic 7 day cruise in a balcony, the deposit will be $100 per room and you will get an instant $100 OBC.

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That's right...if you have $100 OBC, the first $100 you spend is covered.

It's not saving you much money. You still have to give them $100 of your money for the deposit on the balcony room, and then they give you $100 OBC that you can choose to use now (on the current cruise) or later (on the cruise you booked).

If you choose to use it on the current cruise, then $100 gets added to your OBC account and expenses from the current cruise will be deducted from that, and any remaining balance is charged to your credit/debit card (or paid in cash if you set up a cash account).

$100 certainly won't cover your gratuities, and $100 isn't that much money. Go to the store and buy an item of clothing, a pair of shoes, go out to eat, see a show etc...chances are you're paying close to $100 for it. $100 is such a small amount of money nowadays, it doesn't go far, so waiting to pay gratuities because you'll get $100 OBC isn't really going to make much difference in your bank balance, and you're still going to have to pay for the remaining balance of the tips, plus anything else you purchase on board, not to mention that you're only getting the $100 OBC after you hand over $100 of your money anyway.

I guess $100 is $100, and it's always good to save it where you can, but it's not much of a money saving strategy. If you wanted to pay the gratuities now, I'm sure that $100 OBC will cover some other expenses you incur on board and your bill will be less at the end of the cruise if you don't also have to pay the tips on board. If your goal is to have a small balance at the end, pay the tips now.

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Don't ever use the word "cancel" just move your cruise to another date (if you need to) and you still retain the OBC associated with your NCC (next cruising certificate).

I recently moved a NCC to a longer cruise than my original booked 7 nights and received the additional OBC for that length of cruise....easy...easy to do.

I personally prefer to never take the offered OBC for the cruise I am on at the time I book my next cruise onboard or spend it before I actually board the ship...not sure what would happen to that OBC if I would have to move that cruise (hoping it would just go back towards my future OBC)...but I'm sure other posters will know exactly what happens in this situation.

It's not saving you much money. You still have to give them $100 of your money for the deposit on the balcony room, and then they give you $100 OBC that you can choose to use now (on the current cruise) or later (on the cruise you booked).

 

If you choose to use it on the current cruise, then $100 gets added to your OBC account and expenses from the current cruise will be deducted from that, and any remaining balance is charged to your credit/debit card (or paid in cash if you set up a cash account).

 

$100 certainly won't cover your gratuities, and $100 isn't that much money. Go to the store and buy an item of clothing, a pair of shoes, go out to eat, see a show etc...chances are you're paying close to $100 for it. $100 is such a small amount of money nowadays, it doesn't go far, so waiting to pay gratuities because you'll get $100 OBC isn't really going to make much difference in your bank balance, and you're still going to have to pay for the remaining balance of the tips, plus anything else you purchase on board, not to mention that you're only getting the $100 OBC after you hand over $100 of your money anyway.

 

I guess $100 is $100, and it's always good to save it where you can, but it's not much of a money saving strategy. If you wanted to pay the gratuities now, I'm sure that $100 OBC will cover some other expenses you incur on board and your bill will be less at the end of the cruise if you don't also have to pay the tips on board. If your goal is to have a small balance at the end, pay the tips now.

 

 

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Dang, $100 is a $100 in my book. Plus to book regular the deposit is $500, that's a big chunk of change to have sitting in someone else's bank account earning interest. I always have at least $100 in seapass charges on my account so its like putting nothing down for a deposit on a future cruise. To each his or her own I guess....

Dang, $100 is a $100 in my book. Plus to book regular the deposit is $500, that's a big chunk of change to have sitting in someone else's bank account earning interest. I always have at least $100 in seapass charges on my account so its like putting nothing down for a deposit on a future cruise. To each his or her own I guess....

I agree, and I like the reduced deposit also. But I don't think that the OP should wait to pay their gratuities with the idea being that their OBC from booking on board will cover it. They'll get $100, assuming they book a balcony ($50 if they book an inside) and gratuities is close to $200 for 2 people. If their goal is to not have a bill at the end of the cruise, they're better off paying the gratuities now. That was what I was trying to say.

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But I don't think that the OP should wait to pay their gratuities with the idea being that their OBC from booking on board will cover it.

OTOH, if they pay the grats now and don't buy anything on the cruise, then they have nonrefundable OBC at the end of the cruise.

OTOH, if they pay the grats now and don't buy anything on the cruise, then they have nonrefundable OBC at the end of the cruise.

That's true.

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