Arcade charges

[jahannah]

Oh I see. So back to the original question, but rephrased... If charging is not allowed on a child's sea pass card, can they use that card to load arcade credit? Or rather, would an adult need to use their card to load arcade credit on to a child's card? I am hoping it is the latter.

 

I am pretty sure that the block on charging works everywhere but that machine outside the arcade.

[Llmtax2000]

Oh I see. So back to the original question, but rephrased... If charging is not allowed on a child's sea pass card, can they use that card to load arcade credit? Or rather, would an adult need to use their card to load arcade credit on to a child's card? I am hoping it is the latter.

 

 

To answer your question -- once on board, guest services can completely disable charging on the card. That means no charging, even at the arcade. I've done it, it works.

 

If your child later wants to go to the arcade, you can give him/her a $20 bill, and they can put the cash on their card and play $20 of games. They still won't be able to charge. I've done it, it works.

[Host Jacquelyn]

To answer your question -- once on board, guest services can completely disable charging on the card. That means no charging, even at the arcade. I've done it, it works.

 

If your child later wants to go to the arcade, you can give him/her a $20 bill, and they can put the cash on their card and play $20 of games. They still won't be able to charge. I've done it, it works.

 

This is what I was waiting to hear :D:D! It sounds like it has worked for some, but not for others, then.

[Bigtex1622]

I have read varying reports that even if you do not allow charging on a child's SeaPass card, they can still rack up charges at the arcade......

 

If you do not want any charges on their card, why not go to guest services and ask for a extra room key.

I do it for friends, so they can get in, and not charge anything on it.

I am assuming that you want them to get into the room, and not charge anything.

 

Hope this helps.

 

:)

[conandrob240]

I hold on to my kid's cards. I don't allow my kids about the ship by them selves (they don't need to gain access to the room without me). So that is the only solution I have for you :(

 

Put me in the "Royal should not be able to get away with this camp". No charging privileges should mean exactly that. I think it's very dishonourable of Royal to allow anyone to activate a card in the arcade, even though charging has been disabled.

 

Seems way more than dishonorable to me. I doubt those charges would hold up if you really wanted to press it legally or even with your cc company. No charging means no charging.

[DandDM]

If you do not want any charges on their card, why not go to guest services and ask for a extra room key.

 

I do it for friends, so they can get in, and not charge anything on it.

 

I am assuming that you want them to get into the room, and not charge anything.

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

:)

 

 

Agree. We've done this.

[Diplomacy]

You can block all charges but be aware that if you buy them a soda package this "activates" the card again, even if you have no credit card tied to it.

 

At least this is the only explanation they could come up with when it happened to my daughter.

 

Don't trust anything you do online or at the pier. If you want to block charges go to the guest services first thing after boarding. Trust me they can disable it entirely for purchases, but for some reason only after you have boarded. Even if you didn't buy a soda package I would check with guest services again.

 

What you can do is have a second Sea Pass issued and this will automatically deactivate the first one (as if it were stolen). You can hold the little one's sea pass and get all of their sodas (and frilly coffee drinks?) for them. Kind of a have your cake and eat it too situation.

 

You do have to be willing to have a totally deactivated card, which means they can't get into their room or go to the MDR without you. It's viable though, up to around ~7 years.

[Diplomacy]

Seems way more than dishonorable to me. I doubt those charges would hold up if you really wanted to press it legally or even with your cc company. No charging means no charging.

 

Yeah, about that. The contract you signed trumps any verbal contract that you try to construct while on the boat with agents who don't agree to your terms anyway. You can't will into existence a contract without mutual consent that supersedes the written cruise contract... which you signed.

 

The purchases were authorized by you when you boarded the ship.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Diplomacy

[brillohead]

If your child will have a drink package, he'll notice soon enough if his card is missing.

 

Even without a drink package, he's going to need to go back to the room at some point.

 

It's not like he's going to go days and days and days with his card missing and him not knowing it. Let him know that if his card is ever missing, he needs to report it to Guest Relations IMMEDIATELY and they can reverse / investigate any charges at that time. Problem solved.

 

I doubt that anyone is going to rack up thousands of dollars in arcade debt in a few hours' time. :rolleyes:

[reallyitsmema]

To answer your question -- once on board, guest services can completely disable charging on the card. That means no charging, even at the arcade. I've done it, it works.

 

If your child later wants to go to the arcade, you can give him/her a $20 bill, and they can put the cash on their card and play $20 of games. They still won't be able to charge. I've done it, it works.

 

Why would the cruise line put a disclaimer in the daily compass if it wasn't an issue? Disabling charging to a sea pass account does not disable the ability to load money at the machine in the arcade.

 

I understand what you are saying, you disabled your child's card at guest services. Your child knew they had no charging privileges and were told they could get cash from you to load onto their card to play in the arcade and did that, which answers the question will the machine take cash. Did they actually try to load additional funds to be charged to the sea pass account or did they come looking for more cash from you since they knew that is what they were told they had to do? They could have just been following the rules you set and didn't know the machine wasn't able to be disabled.

[Queen of Oakville]

Will this is the most informative arcade thread I've read yet.

 

I have no issue with a teen being able to load cash on his card and making his sea pass an arcade card. I do have issue with Royal allowing a teen to just rack up hundreds of dollars in arcade charges if you have disabled charging on a sea pass card.

 

 

 

Fortunately, my kid (8) is a little Alex P. Keaton. He'd see no reason in "paying" to play at the arcade when he could play xbox for free at the kid's club. {not sure what they have at AO ... but Fun Factory on X has xbox}

[Host Jacquelyn]

Why would the cruise line put a disclaimer in the daily compass if it wasn't an issue? Disabling charging to a sea pass account does not disable the ability to load money at the machine in the arcade.

 

I understand what you are saying, you disabled your child's card at guest services. Your child knew they had no charging privileges and were told they could get cash from you to load onto their card to play in the arcade and did that, which answers the question will the machine take cash. Did they actually try to load additional funds to be charged to the sea pass account or did they come looking for more cash from you since they knew that is what they were told they had to do? They could have just been following the rules you set and didn't know the machine wasn't able to be disabled.

 

I am wondering whether we all have been misunderstanding the "disclaimer".

 

"Please be advised that Children's SeaPass cards can be activated directly at the arcade even if those accounts have been deactivated by the Guest Services Staff for charging privileges"

 

Maybe this just means that cash can be loaded on to a disabled card so that the child can use it at the arcade? This is in line with what the other poster mentioned. IE - The card can be "activated" for arcade games by loading cash onto it, but it is still deactivated for charging purposes.

 

Edited to add: Therefore, it is not a disclaimer in the compass per se, rather a note to parents that their kids can still use their SeaPass card to play at the arcade if cash is loaded directly

Edited November 3, 2015 by Host Jacquelyn

[reallyitsmema]

I am wondering whether we all have been misunderstanding the "disclaimer".

 

"Please be advised that Children's SeaPass cards can be activated directly at the arcade even if those accounts have been deactivated by the Guest Services Staff for charging privileges"

 

Maybe this just means that cash can be loaded on to a disabled card so that the child can use it at the arcade? This is in line with what the other poster mentioned. IE - The card can be "activated" for arcade games by loading cash onto it, but it is still deactivated for charging purposes.

 

Edited to add: Therefore, it is not a disclaimer in the compass per se, rather a note to parents that their kids can still use their SeaPass card to play at the arcade if cash is loaded directly

 

Really don't know how else to say it, if your child puts their sea pass card in the machine and says add $20, $20 will be loaded onto the sea pass to be used in the arcade. Those funds can come from cash, as we know have someone who said cash works in that machine, or they will be charged to the child's sea pass account , even if they do not have charging privileges.

 

There are a bunch of arcade threads around that will say the exact same thing. Not trying to argue, just trying to get the point across that the machine can send information to the ship's system to charge you, but does not receive any information about charging restrictions. Stupid system, but it is what it is. Similar to putting a daily limit on someones card, if you put a $50 limit and they have spent $45 and try to buy something for $10, they can since they hadn't reached their limit yet.

[RSLeesburg]

I am by no means an expert, but the way it was explained to me was this - if you ask that your child's card be deactivated for charging purposes, it can be. But if you have the card deactivated, and then load money on the card, it is automatically reactivated - it needs to be so that arcade games can read the card. The money you put on the card for arcade games can only be used in arcade, but once card is reactivated, it is "active" for charging purposes too. There is no way to make card active for arcade and not active for charging purposes - it's either on or off. I cannot say if this is how it actually works or not, but this is how we were told it worked last time we checked in.

 

If this is true, then maybe the best option is to keep card active but set a low limit on the card, so if it does get lost you can minimize any damages.

[Llmtax2000]

Really don't know how else to say it, if your child puts their sea pass card in the machine and says add $20, $20 will be loaded onto the sea pass to be used in the arcade. Those funds can come from cash, as we know have someone who said cash works in that machine, or they will be charged to the child's sea pass account , even if they do not have charging privileges.

 

 

 

There are a bunch of arcade threads around that will say the exact same thing. Not trying to argue, just trying to get the point across that the machine can send information to the ship's system to charge you, but does not receive any information about charging restrictions. Stupid system, but it is what it is. Similar to putting a daily limit on someones card, if you put a $50 limit and they have spent $45 and try to buy something for $10, they can since they hadn't reached their limit yet.

 

 

I get that everyone's experience is different, but I had a very angry pre-teen in my cabin when I restricted charges on her card and she tried to play games in the arcade. The arcade machine WOULD NOT let her charge games. Trust me, she tried. I tried her card also. It WOULD NOT let her charge games.

 

So I put a limit on it instead the next day. She hit the limit, and the machine WOULD NOT let her charge games.

 

Again, angry pre-teen, no way to use the card in the arcade, unless I gave her cash. Even after she had used cash to the card, when the cash was gone, the machine WOULD NOT let her charge games.

 

Really.

[searoses]

I am pretty sure the kids need cash....on a large family cruise my little nephews were carefully begging from all their nice aunts and uncles to use the arcade....must have been at least day 5 before we all figured out they were getting cash from at least 10 people!!....

[Rocketlady]

I think we all should voice our opinions about the arcades situation to RC when

we get the surveys after our cruises or during the cruise. Some way RC should come up with a solution.

 

Some kids and some adults just don't realize what they are spending. I know the cruise lines use to have a problem with college kids racking up their

bar bills and had no way to pay for it when getting off. So the prepaid

idea came about.

 

But now they want our credit cards so we can max them out I guess.

 

Thanks for letting us know more about what to do with our 11 year old

grandson. Will let you all know how it works out in Feb.

 

Now how to get him off his computers for a week. LOL

[akcruz]

I am pretty sure the kids need cash....on a large family cruise my little nephews were carefully begging from all their nice aunts and uncles to use the arcade....must have been at least day 5 before we all figured out they were getting cash from at least 10 people!!....

 

You do not NEED cash to use the arcade. If the seapass has the ability to charge you can load "points" (which will be charged to their onboard account) to the card to use in the arcade OR you can put cash in the machine and load the "points" that way. If the seapass does not have charging capabilities you must then use cash.

 

The only way to get the games to play is with the seapass. You cannot put cash into the games.

[searoses]

Their passes were deactivated and their moms were giving them some cash each morning.....they had quite the system going...

[GUT2407]

How old is he? If he's old enough to be out and about on his own...he should be able to keep his card in a pocket and not lose it! You could attach it to a lanyard, hooked to a belt loop...and kept in his pocket...like a pocket watch!

 

I've been known to do that for me.