What good are your shipboard credits?

[rostbp]

We always use our shipboard credits towards excursions. I understand you need to pre-pay for excursions so this would not be an option. We already have free dinner in the specialty restaurants and free alcohol. Can you use it towards gratuities and I guess photos?? :confused:

[Mary Ellen]

Yes, your OBC can be used for the hotel service charge, photos, gift shop, spa...

[SilvertoGold]

You do not have to prepay shorex: you can buy them on the ship (with your OBC).

Edited September 23, 2014 by SilvertoGold

[the2ofus]

Excursions need to be pre-paid only if you book them on-line on the HAL website before boarding. Excursions booked onboard are charged to your onboard account.

[PathfinderEss]

Ship board credits are great. Just wait till your on board to book your shore excursions and the OBC will pay for them.

[rostbp]

Afraid to wait to get on board to book excursions that the good ones would be full already.

[Hlitner]

Afraid to wait to get on board to book excursions that the good ones would be full already.

 

Some folks might say that a "good cruise line excursion" is an oxymoron :) Must admit that we like the Princess approach to onboard credits. They simply refund any remaining credit. On our last Princess cruise we had nearly $2000 in OBCs and were welcomed home by a check from Princess for a few hundred dollars of unused credit. It was the first time in an awful lot of cruising when we got paid by the cruise line at the end of the cruise :). On our next HAL cruise (38 days) we originally booked with the drink package and were wondering if we could spend all of our onboard credit. But when HAL dropped the price of our cruise by about $10,000....but we had to give up the drink package to save that money,....our problem was solved :)

 

Hank

Edited September 23, 2014 by Hlitner

[cruz chic]

Then there are people that book shorex privately that mirror the cruise line. If I wanted something the cruiseline offers I'd book thru them and save possibly missing the ship.

 

OP, your be surprised how quickly that OBC goes. If not, give it to me ;):D.

[lazey1]

Afraid to wait to get on board to book excursions that the good ones would be full already.

 

You are right to worry, the good shore excursions frequently fill up quickly so you are taking a chance by not pre-ordering and paying by credit card. Any OBC balance remaining after the hotel charges are taken care of will be refunded to your credit card, usually within 2 weeks.

[cruz chic]

You are right to worry, the good shore excursions frequently fill up quickly so you are taking a chance by not pre-ordering and paying by credit card. Any OBC balance remaining after the hotel charges are taken care of will be refunded to your credit card, usually within 2 weeks.

 

Maybe, but maybe not. If the OP buys the credits then they will be. If they came from HAL it's not likely. I had some OBC on my cruise last year (Oct). They took a look on line and told me that if I didn't use it I would lose it.

[3rdGenCunarder]

You are right to worry, the good shore excursions frequently fill up quickly so you are taking a chance by not pre-ordering and paying by credit card. Any OBC balance remaining after the hotel charges are taken care of will be refunded to your credit card, usually within 2 weeks.

 

Doesn't it depend on how you got the OBC? I thought they would refund OBC you bought for yourself, but not anything you get as a HAL promotion. Cunard doesn't refund. On our last crossing on QM2, I "donated" $13.68 to Cunard. Shoulda had one more drink and bought more Fortnum's shortbread in the shop...

 

We usually manage to consume our OBC in the bars and shops. We've got Explore 4 on our HAL next cruise, so I guess that means more time shopping or in the spa.

 

If a tour looks limited or it's something we'd hate to miss, we book in advance. If we don't have any particular preference for a port, we'll wait until we're on board and see what appeals to us or just go off on our own.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We always pre-book our shore excursions. There have times when we noticed that some tours were sold out when we got on the ship.

It is easy to use up the shipboard credit. We also pre-book specialty restaurants. But that shipboard credit can be used to pay for the Hotel Service Charge and we also use it to sometimes buy bottles of wine.

[rostbp]

Can you use the OBC for gratuities? What kind of hotel charges are there, everyone mentions? Do you think you can use the OBC on HAL train for food and drinks?

[sppunk]

Can you use the OBC for gratuities? What kind of hotel charges are there, everyone mentions? Do you think you can use the OBC on HAL train for food and drinks?

Yes you can use OBC to pay gratuities. It is $11.50/per person for anything under suite level, $12/per person for any suite.

 

I am pretty positive you cannot use OBC while on cruisetours.

Edited September 23, 2014 by sppunk

[Mary Ellen]

The hotel service charge is added daily to your shipboard account. That covers the standard gratuities for your cruise.

[Windsailer]

You can also use it to buy duty free liquor in the on-board shop. It gets delivered the last day of the cruise. We spent a bunch of our OBC that way on our recent Alaska cruise.

 

And there is always the casino - you can use OBC there.

[rostbp]

Ah - thanks - I do visit the casino, so my problem of OBC is solved.

[rostbp]

What are the hotel service charges for?? I thought the hotels were included in the land/sea tours.

[LindaM]

You can take your OBC out of the casino in the form of cash. Very easy. Do a search to find out exactly...I just did it, but I don't want to give you incorrect information.

[Mary Ellen]

What are the hotel service charges for?? I thought the hotels were included in the land/sea tours.

The ship is also a 'hotel'. As I said earlier, the service charge covers the standard gratuities on board.

[Lizzie68]

Then there are people that book shorex privately that mirror the cruise line. If I wanted something the cruiseline offers I'd book thru them and save possibly missing the ship.

 

OP, your be surprised how quickly that OBC goes. If not, give it to me ;):D.

 

I'm one of those people - ever since my 2nd cruise. I use reputable shorex people, have never had any problems, and it is so much easier going in a van of 8 or less rather than a busload. We are often finished and back at the ship long before the HAL shorex returns.;) I must admit to doing the occasional ship excursion, it just depends on the port.

[cruz chic]

I'm one of those people - ever since my 2nd cruise. I use reputable shorex people, have never had any problems, and it is so much easier going in a van of 8 or less rather than a busload. We are often finished and back at the ship long before the HAL shorex returns.;) I must admit to doing the occasional ship excursion, it just depends on the port.

 

I just don't see the point of doing the same thing as hal. Hals shorex can be boing in the Caribbean or the Panama canal. Climbing into the back of a van might be ok if you have good knees. It's not ok for me. Frankly, I don't care if people book privately. I just don't like people that choose to bully others for not doing the same. I see it way too often.

[cruz chic]

Just to clarify I don't really have a lot of problems exercising, walking etc. I just have issues crawling around in vans. A small bus would be ok. Also no one has ever bullied me on a roll call. It's more people on these boards that look down their nose at hal excursions. There is nothing wrong with them (except the boredom factor). I've loved many of the hal shorex I've taken.

[DaveOKC]

We always use our shipboard credits towards excursions. I understand you need to pre-pay for excursions so this would not be an option. We already have free dinner in the specialty restaurants and free alcohol. Can you use it towards gratuities and I guess photos?? :confused:

 

We use ours toward Spa items (such as the Thermal Pool) and dinner wine packages.

 

Not sure about the casino - some folks say you can use it for that.

 

DaveOKC

[mahi mahi]

We always use our shipboard credits towards excursions. I understand you need to pre-pay for excursions so this would not be an option. We already have free dinner in the specialty restaurants and free alcohol. Can you use it towards gratuities and I guess photos?? :confused:

 

Appears you are posting on the wrong thread. Haven't done a HAL cruise. Maybe you are paying too much and don't really need any OBC. Why worry about it.