Just for fun... What do you spend your OBC on?

My husband and I treat ourselves to a Spa pass!

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It's usually taken up with our bar & wine bills ! One year we did have to make an effort to spend it so we did some of our Christmas shopping - perfume, Cunard bears for our great niece and nephew and a Swarovski necklace for me.

We also did a paid for wine tasting.

If there is any left after plenty of champagne and cocktails, then it has to be a Radley handbag.

Daisy

Just over 3 years ago they had a double OBC promotion for QG.

We got $3980 and had great fun blowing it! Sadly, they didn't repeat it.

Stewart

We twice had a similar amount to Bigmac. I was buying bags, sportswear, champagne etc left, right and centre,

Drinks, laundry, and Internet.

:whiskey-glass::champagne-toast::bottle-pop::tropical-drink::wine-glass:

It depends how much I have, but a nice watch if possible.

I did get once get $200 for a two night trip. That went on a bottle of wine each night and a trip to the library shop.

We keep an eye on our OBC and try to spend it down. Over Christmas we've boarded with around $1000 credit a few times now, which is more than we usually drink in 12 days (liberal carry-on policies help, but we can still ring up a tab). DW got a nice sapphire pendant to coordinate with a ring, a couple of years ago I got a 4k dive camera (not a good value, the touchscreen failed and customer service is only available to residents of Italy) and last year she got a Michael Kors handbag.

We had about $1.30 left in our OBC last year so I think we did pretty well. :)

We have close to $900 for our upcoming QM2 cruise it will go toward a spa day, cocktails, some caviar, fondue and some Cunard souvenirs.

Jonathan

Interesting reading this thread. We are on a 14 night cruise and paid the full Cunard fair we were given the choice of OBC (amount not specified) or parking at Southampton. Took the parking which amounts to £157 or around $200. We booked Britannia Club.

Sounds like a poor OBC or equivalent from the rest of your comments.

On our last RT crossing (16 nights) I think we had about $950 or so from shareholders credit and promotions. It went quickly between the not-inexpensive drinks (A couple of martinis before dinner for the two of us could easily be over $75 with tip), laundry (we boarded with lots of dirty clothes from a week in NY beforehand, and the WC discount doesn't apply to credit charges) and feeding my internet addiction. I DID monitor the balance and bought internet time before I needed it to use it up before sending the last laundry bag or two down in order to get the WC laundry discount.

This isn't a complaint about any of the particular charges or prices (at least here) but rather an example of what one cruiser got and how he spent it. The chance of something from Michael Kors is remote thus far in our trips.

- Mark

A couple of weeks ago we did the Q.V. British Isles Cruise and had $950 OBC and prepaid gratuities. A Barbour jacket, Barbour shirt, three Q.V. shirts, a Halcyon Days Christmas ornament, a few G&Ts and three shore excursions took care of our OBC.

Our OBC is normally used for shore excursions. When we were on the infamous QE pre-Christmas "cruise to nowhere" in December 2014, a number of vociferous passenger complaints resulted in Cunard giving everyone $75 OBC as a "goodwill gesture" on the final afternoon: we used that towards purchasing our favourite fragrances from the shop.

On a similar theme, many years ago when I used to travel with my late mother, we won a very nice amount on the bingo and used quite a bit of it to buy a limited edition print entitled "QE2 departing Southampton", which was signed by the artist, Simon(?) Fisher and former masters Bill Warwick and Peter Jackson. This print now has pride of place in my lounge, hanging over the mantelpiece and is a reminder of some very happy times. :)

I bought a quite nice fleece-lined waterproof jacket.

And alcohol. Lots of alcohol.

Spa pass - Besides normal spa trips, I also go there on formal nights to shower & shave so my wife can have the stateroom all to herself. It's like having a two-bathroom stateroom.

Booze - Booze - glorious Booooze!

In reality I spend it on gratuities, as most of the people in Britannia Cabins do.

Since Cunard is so different than other cruise lines and we can't spend it in the casino we bought: QM2 logo shirts, purses, red bowtie, extra cufflinks, extra stud set and a blouse.

By far the worst and most expensive internet Of any ships we have been on.😱

The first thing we allocate is our gratuities. Okay so this will involve a bit of calculating! Then drinks. Maybe an excursion or two although they are usually somewhat overpriced (like the wine!!) And if any left, anything in the onboard shops that catches our eyes.

This applies irrespective of whether we are in Britaniar or Grills.

The problem comes if on a fly cruise, as we have to be careful not to go overweight on our luggage for the flight home!

Drinks, the odd trip plus it covers the service charge plus any spare Cunard Teddy bear