How To Buy Onboard Credit

[Luvsnorkeling]

Can anyone (who has done it before) advise how to purchase onboard credit prior to my Celebrity cruise?

 

And with purchased OBC (versus the kind awarded by Celebrity or my travel agent) if a portion of it is unused, will it be refunded to me after the cruise?

 

I have done a search on Celebrity's website and can find no information about purchasing onboard credit.

 

Thanks all!

[excitedofharpenden]

Hopefully this link works ok.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-gifts

 

You can buy in increments of $25. It will let you buy 9x at a time so if you need more than $225 just add another set to your basket.

 

Yes, OBC purchased this way is refundable at the prevailing exchange rate if your purchase currency is not USD. You may lose out on the conversion because of the difference in the bank sell (when you buy the OBC) and bank buy rate (when any unused OBC is refunded). 

 

Phil 

[Fouremco]

9 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Yes, OBC purchased this way is refundable at the prevailing exchange rate if your purchase currency is not USD. You may lose out on the conversion because of the difference in the bank sell (when you buy the OBC) and bank buy rate (when any unused OBC is refunded).

We always take our refund in cash in USD from guest services on the final night of the cruise. That eliminates any immediate conversion losses and reduces the future need to purchase USD for later travel.

[Sascol]

Curious - unless it is a gift for someone else, why would one buy an onboard credit for their own account?  Why not just pay your cruise expenses on your credit card rather than going through the hassle of putting a credit on your account and then worrying about getting it back after the fact?  I am sure I am missing an obvious answer.

[Lisah101]

38 minutes ago, Sascol said:

Curious - unless it is a gift for someone else, why would one buy an onboard credit for their own account?  Why not just pay your cruise expenses on your credit card rather than going through the hassle of putting a credit on your account and then worrying about getting it back after the fact?  I am sure I am missing an obvious answer.

It's a great way to give your kids a little spending power without letting them go crazy if you can attach it to their account.  I've also done this for friends who are cruising and called it "have a drink on me".  Also, if you have parents or others cruising with you it's a nice gift.

[Luvsnorkeling]

Thank you! The link is still good. And thanks also for the information about refunding unused OBC at the end of the cruise!

[Luvsnorkeling]

One more question...will Celebrity first use the OBC awarded by them or by your travel agent before using OBC you have purchased? Thanks!

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

5 hours ago, Sascol said:

Curious - unless it is a gift for someone else, why would one buy an onboard credit for their own account?  Why not just pay your cruise expenses on your credit card rather than going through the hassle of putting a credit on your account and then worrying about getting it back after the fact?  I am sure I am missing an obvious answer.

I have done it before because I like the cruise to feel a bit more all-inclusive. Same reason I pre-pay my gratuities.

[Fouremco]

16 hours ago, Luvsnorkeling said:

One more question...will Celebrity first use the OBC awarded by them or by your travel agent before using OBC you have purchased? Thanks!

They'll always use non-refundable OBC first, then refundable, but the source is immaterial. Generally speaking, that means that Celebrity's will be use first, as it's non-refundable, while TA's, purchased or gifted OBC will be used second. 

[Fouremco]

21 hours ago, Sascol said:

Curious - unless it is a gift for someone else, why would one buy an onboard credit for their own account?  Why not just pay your cruise expenses on your credit card rather than going through the hassle of putting a credit on your account and then worrying about getting it back after the fact?  I am sure I am missing an obvious answer.

 

16 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

I have done it before because I like the cruise to feel a bit more all-inclusive. Same reason I pre-pay my gratuities.

Spreading costs over a period of time instead of being hit with a post-cruise bill is certainly one reason. For non-US residents, currency exchange also plays into the picture in a couple of different ways.

 

The first was the preferential exchange rate that was offered by Celebrity for many years. I could purchase $1,000 USD in OBC for quite a bit less than it would have cost me having $1,000 USD charged to my credit card and converted to CAD. Unfortunately, Celebrity changed their approach to exchange rates a couple of years ago and this advantage has been reduced significantly.

 

Nevertheless, there are (infrequent) times when the Canadian dollar will mount a short-term rally against the USD and buying, whether cash or in the form of OBC, becomes the smart thing to do. The same applies when there is a forecast for a long-term decline in the value of the Canadian dollar. In mid-2014, when exchange rates were in the 1.069 range, I purchased quite a healthy amount of OBC for a couple of 2016 cruises. Had I waited to be billed at the end of the cruises, I would have faced exchange rates in the 1.454 range, quite a large increase.   

[di T]

I like to gift ourselves some on board credit, rather than taking it in cash. We like to give a little extra on the last night to some of the staff, I always get what’s left in cash on the last day rather than have it put back on my card.Dianne

[RichYak]

33 minutes ago, di T said:

I like to gift ourselves some on board credit, rather than taking it in cash. We like to give a little extra on the last night to some of the staff,

I like this idea. How do you use OBC to give extra gratuities to certain staff?

[mayleeman]

32 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I like this idea. How do you use OBC to give extra gratuities to certain staff?

You should be able to get help at Guest Services. Tell them you want to arrange an additional tip for someone (or a team), and they will give you a form to fill out. Name of recipient, position, and dollar amount. That just gets added to your bill, and any OBC is deducted from your balance before your final check out. (Not as direct as handing cash, but you can notify the crew member and they are quite grateful.)

Edited November 21, 2019 by mayleeman

[di T]

30 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I like this idea. How do you use OBC to give extra gratuities to certain staff?

On the last day I go to guest relations mention I have some refundable credit request it in cash, get some small notes 10s and 5s we give some dollars to the guys in the bars and places we have been looked after! Also the staff in the public bathrooms who I think are usually so pleasant.Dianne

[RichYak]

24 minutes ago, di T said:

On the last day I go to guest relations mention I have some refundable credit request it in cash, get some small notes 10s and 5s we give some dollars to the guys in the bars and places we have been looked after! Also the staff in the public bathrooms who I think are usually so pleasant.Dianne

This is very helpful. Thanks to you and @mayleeman

[Tao Diva]

I find buying OBC in advance can be a useful money management strategy and vacation planning tool. I like to pre-pay for what I can and pad my account with enough OBC to cover my planned "must-dos".

[dshuns]

My son purchased some shipboard credit for me last evening for an upcoming cruise at https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-gifts/items-results?category=ONBDCR&collection=ONBDCR.  He immediately received an email confirmation with a subject line of "Thank you for your Gifts by Celebrity order!" but has checked his AMEX account multiple times and the order still does not even show as pending.  For those of you who have previously made gift purchases through Celebrity's site, have you experienced delays in the order actually being processed?

 

 

[rucrazy]

How do they regulate OBC? when OBC is purchased and combined with say a Perk OBC .. how do they determine which to use first?

[Fouremco]

2 minutes ago, rucrazy said:

How do they regulate OBC? when OBC is purchased and combined with say a Perk OBC .. how do they determine which to use first?

They always use the non-refundable OBC first, so in your example, the Perk OBC would go first, then the purchased OBC.

[rucrazy]

22 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

They always use the non-refundable OBC first, so in your example, the Perk OBC would go first, then the purchased OBC.

Excellent thank you @Fouremco

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 11/21/2019 at 12:46 PM, mayleeman said:

You should be able to get help at Guest Services. Tell them you want to arrange an additional tip for someone (or a team), and they will give you a form to fill out. Name of recipient, position, and dollar amount. That just gets added to your bill, and any OBC is deducted from your balance before your final check out. (Not as direct as handing cash, but you can notify the crew member and they are quite grateful.)

On my September Reflection cruise i did so and found that their form is not set up to tip specific individuals - only categories such as food service. However, they had a category for cabin service and since there is only one person providing such service - my steward - I was able to use it to provide him additional gratuities. But I was not able to use it to provide additional gratuities to my specific waiter - luckily had enough cash left to take care of him.

[mayleeman]

@NantahalaCruiser Thank you. I guess I assumed Celebrity would be the same as Royal. I did this on the Allure when we had to change tables to a new floor part way through and I wanted to make sure our waiter and assistant got tipped (and that their bosses understood it was not the service causing our move). They told me to write down their names, positions, and our table number (since we only had the first names) so the tips would go to them rather than being pooled.

[airlink diva]

On 11/20/2019 at 12:18 PM, Lisah101 said:

It's a great way to give your kids a little spending power without letting them go crazy if you can attach it to their account.  I've also done this for friends who are cruising and called it "have a drink on me".  Also, if you have parents or others cruising with you it's a nice gift.

Thanks for the info.  I'm sharing a cabin with my nephew and need to have a limit on his spending.  I plan to place money and tell him how much for each day.  This will help out

[jameslee]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:45 AM, dshuns said:

My son purchased some shipboard credit for me last evening for an upcoming cruise at https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-gifts/items-results?category=ONBDCR&collection=ONBDCR.  He immediately received an email confirmation with a subject line of "Thank you for your Gifts by Celebrity order!" but has checked his AMEX account multiple times and the order still does not even show as pending.  For those of you who have previously made gift purchases through Celebrity's site, have you experienced delays in the order actually being processed?

 

 

I was wondering did your son eventually get the $150 credit for the celebrity cruise

[dshuns]

Yes - it seems that online orders of OBC are processed manually, which results in it taking up to two days before the credit card transaction goes into "pending state.