Warning: Problem IF you have a credit on acct at end of cruise!

[Hapytocruise]

Both my husband and I had credit balances on account last day of recent cruise. We received a letter from guest relations indicating the amount and advising us to go to the guest relations desk to clear the matter up before we could disembark the following morning:confused:. My husband was sure it was just some sort of error as we did not owe them money - they owed us and it would only make sense that they would just put it as a refund on our credit cards. I insisted that he at least call to confirm as we had an early flight to catch and did not want an issue getting off the ship. We called the desk and were advised we must go and receive our refunds in cash as they would not process it through a credit card. We went to the front desk and were told by one person that it would be processed as a refund on our credit card:confused: however someone else interupted him and indicated that they did not want to process a credit via credit card. The credits were small - so a quick stop at the gift shop and a bottle of wine later - no credits. However we did witness the following morning a gentleman detained from leaving the ship, holding up the disembarkment line (his card was flagged so he could not leave) as he argued over the phone that "its a CREDIT I do not owe you any money".

[grandgeezer]

We had a $7 and change credit when we got off the Connie this spring and they processed it without even bringing it up.

[TommyD3]

If you have an OBC due to having booked the cruise onboard another sailing and you end up with a credit they WILL NOT credit your credit card. This is considered a non - refundable OBC. Normally one has to go to the casino and pay a 5% charge to get the credit out.

 

I have never heard of being refused disembarkation due to a credit balance:confused:

[A Sixth?]

 

I have never heard of being refused disembarkation due to a credit balance:confused:

 

If the ship-board accounting system is designed by the same team that maintains their web site, I sure can believe it's possible. :p

[koolforkatz]

This actually happened to us on a Princess cruise. We had a very large credit remaining because of a Princess move over offer. We had been told any unused OBC would be refunded back on our credit card. However when we put our cards in to exit the shop on disembarkation day, we got that noise they make and were told we couldn't get off and had to go to the front desk. As it turns out they had to pay off the OBC credit in cash. Different line, i realize, but similar experience.

 

 

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[TeaBag]

We got off Eclipse Nov 16 and they processed our credit of $61.93 without contacting us.

[Groovybusybee]

:confused:

 

A credit on your ship account at the end of a cruise???

 

You clearly haven't been trying hard enough, I see that my talents as a shopper par excellence are required.

 

Credit? Who knew such a thing could exist??.:)

 

Deb

[Wine-O]

We had a $61.11 credit, and it took 5 days to hit my credit card.

 

There are two kinds of OBC -- one from Celebrity and the other from your TA. The one from Celebrity is deducted from your account first, then if there is anything left over from the OBC from your TA, it is refunded.

 

If the TA offers to prepay your gratuities, ask them to provide it as OBC instead. That way once you get on board, the gratuities are paid with the Celebrity non-refundable OBC, and if you have any OBC left over, it will be your TA OBC, which is refundable.

 

Of course, if you can't spend all the Celebrity OBC, the 5% casino option mentioned above is the way to get it back.

[English Tim]

The day before the end of our Princess cruise, we collected $200 in cash, after a big argument.

 

I called the Purser who admonished her staff, stating if a guest has registered a credit card, they can have either a cash refund or a credit back to the card. I left about $30 on for the last day and I must check my statements to see if this has been refunded.

 

Thanks for reminding me!

[Grumpy100]

We just returned from Celebrity Equinox and had a $650 obc. We used it for excursions and didn't have to pay for any at all. Our last stop happened to be Naples and they cancelled our excursion to Isle of Capri and credited back our card with around $300 because each excusion was about $150 per person. We already had prepaid gratuties so we bought a couple of things at the gift shop and still had a credit of about $150 at the end of the cruise. The last night we got our bill showing the credit put on our credit card so I went up to the customer relations and checked to make sure that we were correct and that it was a credit on our credit card. They assured us that it was correct so we came home with a negative balance on our credit card. First time that happened.

And it was Celebrity so I guess it depends which ship you are on and who is processing you out.

Happy sailing. :cool::cool::cool:

[Orlandocruiser]

We had a sizeable credit due to a cancelled shore excursion ( one that we had purchased pre cruise) and a little bit of unused OBCR from our travel agent. We were detained leaving the ship and DH had to go to guest services to reswipe our card - quite irritating. If they didn't have our card at all why weren't we notified when we were using our card during thr cruise? We have decided that it was the cancelled shore excursion purchased pre cruise that was the culprit. Moral of the story - if something is cancelled that you purchased precruise try going to guest services before you leave the ship to get you card reswiped. BTW the credit appeared on our credit card statement just as promptly as a final bill would have.:)

[jcrandle]

This appears to be very inconsistently administered by Celebrity, or perhaps more accurately the purser on different Celebrity ships. We have had refundable OBC remaining on the Eclipse and the Reflection on our previous cruises, and in each case, the balance was refunded to our credit card a few days after disembarking.

[English Tim]

I have had to send an email to Princess asking for our money back. If they fail to return lot's of credits, they could make a small fortune!

[lopat08865]

Night before disembarkation the gentleman at guest services printed my folio & informed me my CC would be credited the small balance owed me. He gladly wrote his name and signed his name attesting to that. The credit hit my CC 2 days later.

[English Tim]

Night before disembarkation the gentleman at guest services printed my folio & informed me my CC would be credited the small balance owed me. He gladly wrote his name and signed his name attesting to that. The credit hit my CC 2 days later.

 

An update on my unused OBC with Princess. They told me on board that the money would be credited to my card. On-shore operations now tell me that is incorrect. They will not credit anything once passenger has disembarked. Now we know, but why can't they communicate with each other?

 

There often seem to be opposite policies between on-shore and off-shore staff.

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you used any decent credit card you got some bonus for the charges, which is likely to be reduced when a credit comes back. So it's in your interest to let the ship give you cash.

[gimletgal]

We had a sizeable credit due to a cancelled shore excursion ( one that we had purchased pre cruise) and a little bit of unused OBCR from our travel agent. We were detained leaving the ship and DH had to go to guest services to reswipe our card - quite irritating. If they didn't have our card at all why weren't we notified when we were using our card during thr cruise? We have decided that it was the cancelled shore excursion purchased pre cruise that was the culprit. Moral of the story - if something is cancelled that you purchased precruise try going to guest services before you leave the ship to get you card reswiped. BTW the credit appeared on our credit card statement just as promptly as a final bill would have.:)

 

That's interesting! I used a credit card to pre-book a shore excursion. The shore-ex was cancelled. My onboard account was credited with the amount of the cancelled excursion. No problem upon leaving the ship. As usual, Celebrity is being consistently inconsistent. :rolleyes:

[warmwinds]

If you have Shareholder OBC, and don't use it all, do you get that back? Or is it use it or lose it?

[gimletgal]

If you have Shareholder OBC, and don't use it all, do you get that back? Or is it use it or lose it?

 

Shareholder OBC is non-refundable. It will show up as OBCN on your statement.