newbiecruiser55

On 12/2/2018 at 9:37 AM, Philob said:

On board purchases are made with your Sail/Room key card only.  As other have mentioned only the casino handles cash.  I've never seen an on-board vendor accept a credit card.

 

You get a print out of your on board charges on the last night or you can check your account at anytime, either on your cabin TV or going to the front desk and ask for a print out.

 

On the last night or on disembarkation day you can go to the front desk (where the line is) and settle your on board account with cash or let them have your credit card info in the beginning and everything you bought on board will be charged to it. 

 

Hidden fees?  Unless you've pre-paid the "daily service charge" or "tip, it will be added on your account every evening.  Drinks from the bar will have a 15-18% "tip" added on per check.  There's a line on your check if you want to add more.  Some room service items have a service charge.

 

If you think your cabin steward (or any waiter) did extra good, thank them and palm him/her some cash before you leave.

 

Some folks advocate going to the front desk and remove the daily service charge in the beginning and tip as they go along or tip at the end.   I'm not one of them, but "Search" around and you'll find hundreds of discussions or rants about this.

Thanks, we got the drink package for free (which was one of the Norwegian perks). We prepaid the gratuity on both the drinks and the daily service charge. Looks like I will be using my credit card then after all. If I can check it every night then checking out won't be overwhelming. I don't think there is a choice on Norwegian for tipping. You either pay up front or pay at the end, but either way it goes on your bill. Unless you have very poor service and complain then you pay the tips.

17 hours ago, jlp20 said:

On a seven day cruise, I check on charges on day two. I first verify MY charges are going onto my account. On day six I get a second print out to verify no other pax charges show. If you have ever seen the line at the purser's deck on the last morning, you understand why I check the day before. For longer cruises, the time frame is expanded with possible second mid cruise check. Kind of hard to remember if you had that drink six days ago. 

We got the drink package so hopefully no drinks get charged. That is why I wanted to pay with my card so that I wouldn't have to go through a bill at the end. However, if we can check daily then that isn't a big deal. Thanks so much for you post, it was very helpful.

I check that out before I made my decision. Even on our cruise line (Norwegian), they do not guarantee that you will make it back on time (though they will hold the ship for you). They take absolutely no responsibility for excursions even though you book them through the cruise line.

So we can pay with our credit card at time of purchase? I don't want to be shocked at the end of the cruise with our purchases.  I do want to think about our purchases as we make them.

We aren't taking a lot of cash along and we will take our credit card. I simply want to either pay right away with our credit card or with cash. 

We have already bought the drink package, so I'm really not sure what else we would purchase on the boat. We won't be doing any spas or other specialty dinners or shows. I just want to veg out and read a book by the pool. This is our first cruise so maybe I am being naive. So we can't pay for an excursion when we are on shore with cash?

Do you have to pay to use your safe in your room? Are there any other hidden fees I should be aware of (not talking about port fees or gratuities)? Norwegian wanted our credit card but I declined to give that stating we would use cash. That being said, can we simply use our credit card if we want to purchase something on the ship? We didn't book any excursions through the ship. Is there an opportunity to do that once we port? In other words are the vendors waiting at the ports selling the excursions. Only reason why I don't want to book in advanced through the ship or online is that I want to make sure that I'm not sick (don't always do well on water) when I get to a port.