How Much OBC do you Pre Purchase?

[dipper303m]

anyone know if they are offering Australia travelers a better rate for AUD>USD (i.e. like the OP pointed out for CAD)

[LMaxwell]

None.

 

But maybe I should. Buy stacks and stacks of OBC. Pay off. Collect points. Go on ship. Cash out OBC from pursers desk at no charge. Repay myself, keep all the credit card reward points.

 

Hmm...

[srlafleur]

None.

 

But maybe I should. Buy stacks and stacks of OBC. Pay off. Collect points. Go on ship. Cash out OBC from pursers desk at no charge. Repay myself, keep all the credit card reward points.

 

Hmm...

 

There are people who do exactly that...:D

[Mnamom1105]

it is a personal preference. If Canadian, the exchange rate is SOOOO worth it!

 

For us Americans - depends. If you know you can only spend "x" amount, then do that as OBC and when it's gone, it's gone. We don't prepay. I have started an envelope with my spending money for Oct cruise already - and know I need to save some for me to do a spa treatment, our drink packages, 9 year old to play games, and we are doing Mystery Dinner, plus an excursion or two and maybe a night at Chops. If I can have $ saved up for it all before hand, I have my "OBC" but with myself. NOW, that being said, hubby will put a card on file that we get points from and I will "pay him" with the cash I have saved when we get home so that way we get points on our card (hrm, wonder how many points we have now and if we can redeem for a visa gift card to use for OBC????)

[Sarvowinner]

anyone know if they are offering Australia travelers a better rate for AUD>USD (i.e. like the OP pointed out for CAD)

 

Unfortunately not, in fact I got hit with a charge for paying for the cruise by credit card as it has to go through Florida.

[DebJ14]

What is the advantage of pre-paying OBC?

 

I honestly don't know.

 

I agree. I just put it on my credit card and pay it when the bill comes after the cruise and collect my mileage. I don't quite understand why I would want to fork over even more $$ before I sail. Bad enough you have to pre-pay excursions and specialty dining. I prefer them added to the onboard account like Princess does.

 

Maybe people do it because they don't have a high enough credit limit to support a high balance on the onboard account? That way they can add the OBC in smaller increments and pay them off.

Edited May 14, 2015 by DebJ14

[LemonNeko]

I'm from Canada so with the exchange rate it made sense for me to pre-buy the OBC. I got $500.00 for a 7-Day for two adults and 1-Child. Not sure we will use that much since I pre-paid tips. We didn't get the drink package so we will be using it for drinks, cupcakes, yoga classes, bingo, arcade, couple of photos and we will likely book one shore excursion. I also like the psychological effect of this is how much I have once it's gone I get no more, but if it wasn't for the exchange rate I wouldn't pre-buy.

[xxoocruiser]

Never purchase OTB. Reason being that there's no point to RCCL having my money until I actually spend it.

[KellyJean]

I recently purchased OBC for my upcoming September cruise. My theory is so that my spending money for onboard is already taken care of which is one thing I have to worry over.

[Aussie FF]

I got back from my 3 B2B2B cruises on Rhapsody last month.

I purchased $500 OBC for each leg.

I cashed out more than $300 on each leg.

With my bingo winnings, I have lots of dollars for my next cruises, at a rate I won't be able to get in Australia for a long time, if ever.:D:D:D

I've never pre-purchased before, I only did it because of the favourable exchange rate.:)

[dschultz56]

During the year my wife and I give each other RCCL gift certificates as birthday, anniversary, etc. gifts. We then apply them to a cruise and have already pre-paid some of what we will spend on-board.

[EGG]

None.