shipboard credit question

Hello, this will be our first cruise aboard a Viking Ocean ship. My TA is giving us $500.00 SBC. If we book some excursions and pay for them using a CC, will Viking allow me to move my SBC to those and refund my CC payment, once we get on the ship? We have done this on other ships.:cool::cool::cool::confused:

Not in my experience. No.

I think the only way you can do that is if you actually cancel the excursion and then re-book using your onboard credit. Of course, that may also result in your getting closed out of a sold-out shorex. On the other hand, the credit can be used for the gratuities (assuming they are not pre-paid or otherwise included in your tour).

I was told no. Once you get on board you cannot change anything that has been charged on your credit card. The gratuities do add up quickly ($15 pp/per day).

Just used OBC to book optional tours for our trip using the

MY VIKING JOURNEY web site. In fact when I log in it says we have $20 left to spend any way we want. The web page automatically deducts from your OBC and will then ask for credit card info at checkout. Do checkout for all "must have" tours ASAP. They aren't booked, credit card, OBC, or included tour until you checkout

Not all accounts are set up that way. Ours wasn’t. I had to pay for my optional s with a credit card.

it depends on then the credit is actually placed in your account.

our repeat customer OBC went in as soon as we paid (in full at time we booked) and I WAS able to use OBC for excursions

question is WHEN the credit gets applied.

I was able to see my credit balance on "My Viking" ... you may not see until actual sailing ....

Viking lost our on board credit. Our travel agent had provided obc to us on over 25 cruises with other cruise lines without a problem. With Viking, it somehow disappeared.

Could not use my OBC from Viking to book excursions. Viking has obscure different OBCs

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

All our Viking supplied OBC is already showing in MVJ (17 mo before sailing) and available for booking excursions when they open. Our TA is also providing additional OBC, which they will credit to Viking when we make final payment. I believe that will also show on MVJ when provided to Viking.

Dear Fellow Cruisers:

Two week ago when booking optional tours Viking Ocean automatically deducted our "Viking" OBC and only charged to my credit card the remaining balance. All I did was click on my "Wish List" for optional tours and go directly to checkout. I then went back and selected the included tours. Very easy and customer friendly process at 3:00 am east coast U. S. time.

Joel Barry

I recently cancelled one of our booked optional excursions for our October cruise and my most recent invoice shows it as a credit balance. Does that mean it will not be refunded to my credit card, but rather is an On Board Credit? If so, will that be applied to our gratuities at the end of the cruise?

Note: I did find the answer on the Viking website FAQ (yes, refunds are processed on board and applied to final balance).

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency here. When we previously cancelled optional excursions BEFORE the cruise (and the closing of the pre-boarding booking period) we got credits back on our credit card, rather than credits to our account. When we cancelled on board, we got credits added to our onboard account. We had a credit balance at the end of our most recent cruise, which we were initially told would go back to our credit card, but that didn’t happen. I called after a couple of weeks to inquire as to status and was told the refund would come in the form of a check from Viking. It took about three weeks for the check to arrive.

Viking policies are consistently inconsistent. For example I could NOT use my Viking OBC when purchasing optional tours 2 weeks ago.

I do love the Viking cruises, both river and ocean. However, it can be frustrating to have things vary so. I know sometimes there are different policies related to the different countries of origin for the passenger. As far as the Ocean side of Viking in general, I need to keep reminding myself how new they are to this. Especially with the varied shore excursions and so many new continents, countries, and ports. It is still a work in progress, and they get so many things right in my mind, I need to have patience. Hopefully, things will become more consistent over time.