Dear NCL, re: OBC and Booking Excursions

[che5904]

personally it seems to me that NCL wants you to use the promo OBC for the on ship money makers rather than the lower profit excursions. obviously they make money on the excursions but i bet they make more on the drinks. so they give you $50, you spend $50 on a froo froo drinks, those froo froo drinks costs them $17.5. however, they give you $50, you spend $50 on a shore excursion, that excursion may have cost them $40 to the tour operator. so it 'cost' NCL more to give you that free $50. Hope that makes sense.

.

 

Well I think the name of the credit says it all 'on board' credit. I also believe and agree this is given to encourage spending on board where they will make their most profits.

 

And nothing against these posters that say that they don't spend on drinks, gift shop purchases, spa treatments, photos, very few specialty restaurants. And I really am not trying to insult anyone but being realistic. But sorry the fact that you can't find anything to spend your OBC probably is not a big thing for NCL. NCL makes very little on the cabin space you rent for the week. They make their money on everything you purchase on board. So if you purchase nothing on board then to NCL you are just taking up space.

 

There is another thread on here that was discussing how much of the actual cruise fare that you pay that went to NCL.

 

An example breakdown

 

Inside cabin $459.00

Less NCF fees $177.47 (fees that do not go to NCL pockets)

Total that goes to NCL $281.53 for 6 days.

(of course on top of that you will have gov't fees and taxes)

That figure breaks down to $46.92 per day to pay for all expenses incurred for your cabin (cabin steward wages, laundry etc), as many meals as you wish to eat, and probably many other small expenses that come with each passenger on board. Not a lot of money for all you get included.

[miztressuz]

All of the other mass-market lines, with the exception of Princess, I think, require you to prepay excursions. And they have required this for years before NCL started doing it. NCL just moved towards what everyone else was already doing.

 

I prefer being able to book early and pay onboard, too, but it is what it is.

 

forgot to add 'thanks!' for the info. tried to edit my other post but apparently too much time past (i'm still at work, shhhh :) i had to take care of something else and saw my post still up on screen without the gratitude)

[miztressuz]

Well I think the name of the credit says it all 'on board' credit. I also believe and agree this is given to encourage spending on board where they will make their most profits.

 

yes, but i can book an excursion 'on board' and they still make a profit. just probably not as much. otherwise, they would not let you use OBC for excursions at all and just ring your credit card on ship. (for which you could digress into the defeating the purpose of cashless ship, etc etc all a full debate there)

 

but its a subtle encouragement, and i bit, because as mentioned I have no OBC and therefore its coming out of my pocket either way. and the excursion my hubby wanted is the jetskis.... its not like if it gets full they will whip out more jetskis and guides like they can sometimes do for Bus type tours. so i did it, but i'm waiting for the other possible excursions... try to keep my money in my pocket just a bit longer.... sometimes it earns lint which is about as much as my savings account :p

[miztressuz]

I didn't realize Disney doesn't require pre-payment, either. Carnival and HAL definitely do, from my recent experience with both. RCL and Celebrity do, from previous research.

 

yeah so far Disney doesn't do pre-payment but you have to be PIF before you can even book excursions and even then there's a window of time (depends on your loyalty ranking, more loyalty earlier booking, but still PIF) which some lament. it's not a perfect system but they are generous with the OBC if you cruised with them alot and rebook onboard. so i don't mind having to wait to book (just need more vacation money so i can get higher on the loyalty table and get some serious scratch in OBC :D)

 

and off topic, but so far on Disney you can use the non-refundable OBC for your gratuities. i was surprised about that but i won't ever complain :) so if you just couldn't find anything else to spend that OBC on, give your room steward/waiter/etc a really nice tip :p

[Mom.to.2]

Does NCL make you pay the service charge prior to cruising, or is this added to your on-board account? Could you use OBC to pay this service charge?

[che5904]

Does NCL make you pay the service charge prior to cruising, or is this added to your on-board account? Could you use OBC to pay this service charge?

 

No at this point you have an option if you wish to prepay your DSC, otherwise it will be added to your on board account.

 

Maybe, maybe not regarding using your OBC to pay the service charge.

 

Depending on the terms and conditions and where the OBC originated from.

 

You can use any OBC for purchases while on board: excursions, specialty restaurants, spa treatments, bar, soda, gift shop, photos, future cruise rewards etc.

 

Non-refundable OBC (which most are) cannot be used for tips, DSC or cash advances or casino cash advances.

 

Refundable (OBC you have purchased yourself and limited OBC gotten from a TA) can be used for above.

 

If your TA has gotten OBC from different sources then some may or may not be refundable.

[che5904]

I could be very wrong here, but I believe I read somewhere on CC that when you have both refundable and non-refundable OBC, they pull from your refundable credit first, so I don't think your scenario would work, Jasalth.

 

NCL used to use your non-refundable first and then apply your refundable, there actual accounting program used at the time could not differenciate between what was n-OBC and what was r-OBC. The problem is that since this new accounting program was put in place that can tell the difference, I really don't think they have all of the kinks ironed out yet. When it first came in there were a quite a few angry posts about accounts being messed up. They were suppose to have sent word to the ships that would fix these problems. The not being able to use your n-OBC to pay your DSC is also newly incorportated (been there for years but they couldn't enforce it with the program they were using). The pay upfront for your shore excursions is also newly incorporated.

 

So I think thats why there are so many conflicting reports on what can be used where and when and how.

[rockabutzer]

We have $900 OBC for our May cruise and $950 OBC for our December cruise.....can't wait!:D:cool:

 

 

Okay.....I didn't see anything on the NCL website where you could do this. Do you contact your PCC and request to put $ on your OBC pre-cruise? know I did this with Carnival and would like to do the same with NCL.

[shof515]

Okay.....I didn't see anything on the NCL website where you could do this. Do you contact your PCC and request to put $ on your OBC pre-cruise? know I did this with Carnival and would like to do the same with NCL.

 

call up the ncl bon voyage department, they can help you

[Freckles_51]

I seem to remember reading about someone that had their excursion cancelled because they did not stop at that port and they said they received non-refundable OBC for it and then ended up losing part of it because it was near the end of the cruise.

 

I would have to take that up with NCL should that occur and if I had pre-paid before sailing. I don't think it is fair to refund cancelled excursions asnon-refundable OBC when I pre-paid out of pocket.

 

On the other hand, perhaps that poster booked the excursion onboard using non-refundable OBC in the first place?

[davesgirl51]

its also about money...

 

if you have $200 in your OBC...

 

you use $100 for an excursion...

 

that leaves $100 to use on the ship... but only $200 spent total....

 

If you have $200 in you OBC...

 

and NCL requires your to pay up front with cash $100

 

you still have $200 OBC that you HAVE to still spend.

 

Thats $300 total... x that extra $100 by 3,000 passangers... its a lot of money... its a numbers game... but I agree it does suck.

 

But I am going to spend it anyway :)

[rockabutzer]

call up the ncl bon voyage department, they can help you

 

 

Mahalo, I will do that.

[peg013]

Okay.....I didn't see anything on the NCL website where you could do this. Do you contact your PCC and request to put $ on your OBC pre-cruise? know I did this with Carnival and would like to do the same with NCL.

 

You can buy OBC from the Bon Voyage department but all of mine is either from NCL or my TA.