Warning About Using Up Onboard Credits

[Katie333]

I suppose going to ask the charges to be manually added together is a possibility though it sounds like from some more recent posts, they can't actually do this. :confused:

 

So it remains that you use the person's card who has the credits first and foremost.

 

Regarding the hotel/dining charge using up the room, that won't work when the OBC you have exceeds this amount, particularly when that charge is per account. I have an upcoming cruise where my account will likely receive the full $600 OBC. For that particular cruise, my dining/hotel charge will cost me about $150. No way am I giving up that extra $450! I was also thinking about sending myself some OBC while the CAD$ is so strong. I better make sure that gets added to the 'right' account.

[asctony]

On our cruise, the Elite/Platinum/Suites Lounge was open every night except the night that the Captain's Circle Parties were held. There is a different drink special every night ($2.99).

 

We received a card at the beginning of the cruise that stated what the special would be each night.

 

Carolyn

 

Yes, that was a month or so ago. We were on the Island in Jan 2011 and that was the way it was done. However, somewhere on this forum, it has been posted recently that this has changed and the new policy is that it will only be on Port days. Another way of saving money for the cruise line.

 

In addition, the $2.99 drinks that many people talk about at the bars after 8pm are very transparent to many cruisers as we could not find them on that Jan 2011 cruise and the bartenders knew nothing about such an offer. Others posted on this forum that it is posted in the Patter or on the back of the bar menu. I checked all our patters and still have them and there is no mention of $2.99 drinks from 8PM in any bar.

Things change daily or on each ship as there is no standard policy throughout the fleet. another example is dress code, etc.

[cruisinmouse]

This also happened to us on the Diamond Princess in Jan. In the preliminary statement the credit on one account was applied to the balance owing on the other account but when the final bill came the account with a balance was charged to our card and the credit was lost. I saw the purser on disembarkation morning who gave me a manual slip for a credit to my card, however this manual slip was never processed by Princess and did not appear on my bank statement. I had to dispute the charge on my card with my credit card company.

[wizard-of-roz]

Looks like I need to bring my CPA with me, when I cruise! :rolleyes:

 

Note to self: Next time don't marry a Plumber, marry an accountant! :p

[Tweedy]

So I have a question after reading this thread...

 

I have a B2B coming up. We recently put enough money onto our shipboard account to cover hotel charges and shore excursions. I did not specify to whose account the money was to reside on but all charges go onto my account. Should I be worried or does this thread only apply to onboard credits such as those received from your TA, FCC, etc?

 

I'm a little worried after reading this thread.

[cboyle]

In addition, the $2.99 drinks that many people talk about at the bars after 8pm are very transparent to many cruisers as we could not find them on that Jan 2011 cruise and the bartenders knew nothing about such an offer. Others posted on this forum that it is posted in the Patter or on the back of the bar menu. I checked all our patters and still have them and there is no mention of $2.99 drinks from 8PM in any bar.

The drink special in the Elite/Platinum/Suites lounge is $2.99. There is a different drink "on special" each night.

 

I don't know anything about the drink specials in the bars.

 

Carolyn

[sultan_sfo]

But who makes more money?

 

...

Note to self: Next time don't marry a Plumber, marry an accountant! :p

[cboyle]

So I have a question after reading this thread...

 

I have a B2B coming up. We recently put enough money onto our shipboard account to cover hotel charges and shore excursions. I did not specify to whose account the money was to reside on but all charges go onto my account. Should I be worried or does this thread only apply to onboard credits such as those received from your TA, FCC, etc?

 

I'm a little worried after reading this thread.

Just get a printout a day or so into the cruise and see where the credits were assigned. If it is not to your liking, go talk to the PSD. Just don't wait until the morning of disembarkation!

 

Carolyn

[Toto2Kansas]

This also happened to us on the Diamond Princess in Jan. In the preliminary statement the credit on one account was applied to the balance owing on the other account but when the final bill came the account with a balance was charged to our card and the credit was lost. I saw the purser on disembarkation morning who gave me a manual slip for a credit to my card, however this manual slip was never processed by Princess and did not appear on my bank statement. I had to dispute the charge on my card with my credit card company.

 

The exact same thing happened for us last week/month. But I actually asked the head purser about this during the voyage while I was getting a print out of charges for both accounts, and was told they would be combined on the last night and debits would be taken from credits on our combined accounts. I have two credit back slips from the Royal ( in excess of $300) that I am going to guess will not show up on my credit card. But I definitely will fight this change, as the entire time our print outs showed one cancelling out the other, and was told by Stacey (the head purser) that they definitely would be combined on the final night. So, there was no telling this would happen at the end of the cruise, as all of the print outs showed it just as it has for many years, one cancelling out the other. But that final bill the last morning is when you find out it's been changed. We even went down the final night of the first cruise and asked for our shipboard account to be combined and carried over to the next leg of the voyage, which they did without problem, as we had carry over credits from the first sailing.

Some of our credits were government fees that were returned because they had dropped from the time we paid off our cruise (over $50 pp), and those are definitely refundable, as it is money you paid directly to the cruise line that you can have refunded if not spent onboard.

[asctony]

The drink special in the Elite/Platinum/Suites lounge is $2.99. There is a different drink "on special" each night.

 

I don't know anything about the drink specials in the bars.

 

Carolyn

 

Yes, there was a different drink each night for that event. However, if you read this forum you will see where others have posted about the drink specials in the bars. We learn something everyday on this forum.

[sultan_sfo]

Just finished completing PIF for an upcoming cruise.

For the first time, DW's "name" and credit card # was already pre-entered in my records as a non-owner. DW had finished her PIF before I did and had entered the credit card info. She is the owner but we both have individual credit cards in our individual names for the same account. Wonder this is part of the change of how to charge the shipboard charges.

 

Thanks to all who posted. I will have to be careful how we charge tours and wine because Stock OBC is in my name. I wonder if our single booking of a 20-day cruise which is also offered as 2x10-day cruise will complicate it further if Princess expects me to use up all my credits during the first 10-days of the cruise if their procedure considers our cruise as a 2x10day!

[whenistrivia]

We found out about the $2.99 drinks accidentally, by sitting at the Lobby Bar one night and looking through the drink menu booklet (same one you would find on tables in Explorer's Lounge and in the Wheelhouse Bar). On the back of the booklet there is an "insert", that details what drinks qualify for the $2.99 after 8:00PM special. I found that only about half of the booklets had that particular insert.. the rest of them had a different one that had nothing to do with that promotion.

 

As I recall, 3 or 4 beers qualify for the special, and I believe wine is not part of it, either.

 

Gary

[camofwilliamsburg]

After tips were paid we still had left over OBC on Crown and we cashed it out. NO problems.

[kruzinon]

That still wouldn't inform you of the money their going to steal from your one account on the last day.

 

Sure it would as you can monitor your account early in the cruise from the comfort of your bed instead of standing in line or trying to keep an eye on the pursers desk to see when there isn't much of a line and then you can put charges on the card that has most of the credits on it instead of the other one.

[asctony]

We found out about the $2.99 drinks accidentally, by sitting at the Lobby Bar one night and looking through the drink menu booklet (same one you would find on tables in Explorer's Lounge and in the Wheelhouse Bar). On the back of the booklet there is an "insert", that details what drinks qualify for the $2.99 after 8:00PM special. I found that only about half of the booklets had that particular insert.. the rest of them had a different one that had nothing to do with that promotion.

 

As I recall, 3 or 4 beers qualify for the special, and I believe wine is not part of it, either.

 

Gary

 

This just proves how 'flaky' these specials are. Wonder how some of the booklets had the insert and others didn't? Maybe someone took them as souvenirs. LOL

[jajohnson]

John, Your situation is totally different than what is being discussed here, so I don't think you have a worry one. The credits we are talking about are ''non-refundable" credits such as those you get with stockholder credit, Military credit, TA credit, or Captain's Circle credit. The ones here are not refundable if you don't use them, yours will be refundable if you don't use it. Both are credits, but totally different how they are handled. ;)

 

Toto

 

Thanks for the confidence builder. Our TA checked with Princess and the written transcript of our negotiation documents it ($5K) is a refundable OBC so we are good with that assurance. He aslo gave us several suggestions of what we should do on board that we will keep in our back pocket.

 

An interesting question arises, however, in how Princess keeps track of the refundable and non-refundable OBCs. Which OBC do they use first (of course it should be the non-refundable used first)? I hope they have carefully thought out their processes.

 

Now that we know, it will be a simple matter of balancing spending between accounts to assure all of the non refundable OBCs are used before cruise end.

 

John:D

[wizard-of-roz]

But who makes more money?

 

Yep! Those smart plumbers can make the accountant look like a pauper.

Okay, okay........I'll just make sure that we combine accounts!

[mrspaper]

Very hot topic. Already in the 4th page in one day.

Thanks for the info.

[chamima]

The exact same thing happened for us last week/month. But I actually asked the head purser about this during the voyage while I was getting a print out of charges for both accounts, and was told they would be combined on the last night and debits would be taken from credits on our combined accounts. I have two credit back slips from the Royal ( in excess of $300) that I am going to guess will not show up on my credit card. But I definitely will fight this change, as the entire time our print outs showed one cancelling out the other, and was told by Stacey (the head purser) that they definitely would be combined on the final night. So, there was no telling this would happen at the end of the cruise, as all of the print outs showed it just as it has for many years, one cancelling out the other. But that final bill the last morning is when you find out it's been changed. We even went down the final night of the first cruise and asked for our shipboard account to be combined and carried over to the next leg of the voyage, which they did without problem, as we had carry over credits from the first sailing.

Some of our credits were government fees that were returned because they had dropped from the time we paid off our cruise (over $50 pp), and those are definitely refundable, as it is money you paid directly to the cruise line that you can have refunded if not spent onboard.

 

I didn't even realize this had happened to us until today. We were on the same Royal cruise(s) as Sue.I was busy checking to make sure all of the charges on both accounts were accurate that I looked quickly at our totals the last day and saw that I had a small credit balance and my husband had a small charge. As I said, I looked quickly and made the (incorrect) assumption that my credit balance had lowered his balance to it's low amount.

The only thing that will save my cursory checking is that there were $52 in taxes refunded to each of us and my balance was only $41. So i will be looking for an $11 credit from Princess.

Thanks for writing this thread and I will check more carefully in the future.

[nerysj]

We have 2 cabins booked on our June cruise. We have $600 OBC for my DH and myself, and $550 for our teenager's cabin. There is no way that the teenagers will use that full $550OBC, so I have reserved 3 excursions to try and use up the OBC, but pre-ordered through DH's credit card account...to which we should all be linked. This sounds as if it could be a real problem for us??

[shoreham01]

This is such a disappointing change, and such an unnecessary one. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. I find it so hard to believe that the accounts department could be so crass. It is going to make our cruise so complicated for no good reason.

[Toto2Kansas]

We have 2 cabins booked on our June cruise. We have $600 OBC for my DH and myself, and $550 for our teenager's cabin. There is no way that the teenagers will use that full $550OBC, so I have reserved 3 excursions to try and use up the OBC, but pre-ordered through DH's credit card account...to which we should all be linked. This sounds as if it could be a real problem for us??

If they don't make changes to the way the credits are handled, yes, it will be a problem for you if they have a credit and everything is charged to your or your hubbys account. :(

Can you only imagine how many times passengers will be checking their shipboard account now, all that printing and paper, just to balance out the accounts so they don't loose any credits back to the cruise line?

[Toto2Kansas]

I didn't even realize this had happened to us until today. We were on the same Royal cruise(s) as Sue.I was busy checking to make sure all of the charges on both accounts were accurate that I looked quickly at our totals the last day and saw that I had a small credit balance and my husband had a small charge. As I said, I looked quickly and made the (incorrect) assumption that my credit balance had lowered his balance to it's low amount.

The only thing that will save my cursory checking is that there were $52 in taxes refunded to each of us and my balance was only $41. So i will be looking for an $11 credit from Princess.

Thanks for writing this thread and I will check more carefully in the future.

 

Karen, if you didn't get a credit slip while onboard, or a refund in cash, I wouldn't be looking for that credit to be just applied to your credit card. Heck, I am going to bet that even with our two credit slips, one for over $50 the other for over $275, that I will have a fight on my hands before this is said and done. They started this onboard when they called that final morning and asked us to come down as they owed us money. What a sneaky way for the cruise line to handle this, after all of the years of combining accounts. And as I said, I even enquired about it, and was told just the opposite of what they ended up doing with the accounts that final morning. I spent an hour at the purser's desk that last morning onboard, and when I left, my blood pressure was maxed out and even though they applied the credits (supposedly, as I have yet to see them posted to my credit card account, but the charge for over $300 was posted almost immediately), I was still ticked off that I had to argue the point for so long before they gave in. It was no way to leave a ship after 22 delightful days 'almost' carefree. :mad:

[Tralynn]

Thank you so much for informing us of this change. Our TA and our FCC OBC's are always split per person, but my DH usually always orders our drinks, excursions, purchases, etc. Now, I'll have to be sure to transfer all of my extra OBC to him during the cruise.

 

Not exactly how I wanted to spend my cruise time....in line at the Purser's Desk. UGH!

 

Come on, Princess.......THINK! In the long run, this will cost you way more money than you'll get in unspent OBC's. I can't imagine those working at the Purser's Desk are cheering either.

[Toto2Kansas]

Be very careful trying to transfer your OBC onboard, I am going to doubt that they will allow this, at least at this point. The OBC is assigned to each persons name, and from what I have found out, it is non transferable. So you will have to keep a close eye on the accounts and the charges for each one. What a pain!