Celebrity onboard credit

[kiek]

I want too know if I can use the onboard credit to pay the gratuities on celebrity?

[leaveitallbehind]

Yes.  Your ship sponsored OBC is used as a credit to offset any charges made against your stateroom account. Any amount charged on your stateroom account for any reason is offset as it is charged by any amount of OBC that is available at the time. 

 

So purchases at the on board stores, shore excursions, gratuities,  spas, charged drinks, specialty restaurants charges, etc., all are covered by your OBC.  In fact you cannot specify a specific use for the credit as it is applied indiscriminately against your account as a charge is made.  The only on board charge that is not applicable is any future cruise booking deposit made on board which must be charged to your credit card separately. 

 

Cruise line sponsored OBC is also non-refundable so any amount not used is lost.  You can, for a fee, withdraw your OBC in the casino for use there. The chips issued are specifically marked and different from the regular chips and cannot be cashed out and must be played.  However, any winnings are paid with standard chips that can then be cashed out.

Edited January 8, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[kiek]

Thanks for your exellent answer

[cruisin lady ca]

Will add to the prior explanation as I just learned this.  While you can use OBC to pay for booked and paid for prior to your cruise, you cannot use OBC to prepay your gratuities.  

[39august]

Charge for taking OBC in the casino? When did this start? I have done this several times on different ships and have never been charged.

[leaveitallbehind]

8 minutes ago, 39august said:

Charge for taking OBC in the casino? When did this start? I have done this several times on different ships and have never been charged.

Referring to a non-refundable OBC withdrawal on Celebrity. We just did so last week on Equinox to clear out our non-refundable OBC balance.  Per their FAQ's: Yes, as of July 1, 2015, onboard credit can be used in our casinos. Is there a transaction fee in the casinos? Yes, a 5% transaction fee will be applied on your SeaPass® card.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[wrk2cruise]

I've never  been charged this fee by the casino either.  I believe I heard it is waived for Suites and some loyalty levels.  To me it's ridiculous as it's probably one of the highest margins they would get on OBC.

[bEwAbG]

You can use OBC in the casino to play with no charge.  You keep any winnings.  They stopped allowing people to cash out their nonrefundable OBC several years ago.

 

The fee applies if you want to do a cash transaction at the casino cage, i.e., a charge to your onboard account

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, bEwAbG said:

You can use OBC in the casino to play with no charge.  You keep any winnings.  They stopped allowing people to cash out their nonrefundable OBC several years ago.

 

The fee applies if you want to do a cash transaction at the casino cage, i.e., a charge to your onboard account

 

Thanks for the update on the no charge.  (And my comments were specific to using the OBC in the casino, not cashing out NR OBC). 

 

We just did that last week where we converted most of our remaining non-refundable OBC in the casino on the last night and were issued the designated chips that could not be cashed in but could be played, which we did.  We then were issued standard chips on our winnings, which we then cashed out.  In that manner (as we were fortunate enough to have winnings) we converted our remaining non-refundable OBC to cash. 

 

I honestly did not check to see if a fee was charged against the remaining OBC (which was intentionally left as a minimal amount just to cover any fees) as it would have basically zeroed out our OBC account.  If no fees were charged then we only lost out on less than $10 of the NR OBC.

[lucymorgan]

21 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

You can use OBC in the casino to play with no charge.  You keep any winnings.  They stopped allowing people to cash out their nonrefundable OBC several years ago.

How do you do this?  Do the slot machines allow you to transfer your OBC credit to the machine or do you need to visit the cashier and get some chips?  Thank you

 

 

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, lucymorgan said:

How do you do this?  Do the slot machines allow you to transfer your OBC credit to the machine or do you need to visit the cashier and get some chips?  Thank you

 

 

 

When we withdrew our OBC the cashier issued chips, which were marked differently than the normal chips.  They could be used for any play but could not be cashed out themselves.  Winnings were paid in standard chips that could then be cashed out.  I don't play the slots but would assume it would be the same (whether through chips or on your card) and any winnings would be issued via a receipt which can then be cashed out. 

 

The main point is the OBC issued in the casino must be used for play and will not be initially given as a cash out.

Edited January 10, 2020 by leaveitallbehind

[Gordoncruickshank]

If you have prepaid your gratuities you can also use non refundable OBC to make additional gratuities to certain staff. If it is to the restaurants it goes into the tip pool and gets divided up. You cannot make a gratuity to an individual waiter. You can also use this to make extra gratuities to the room attendant and the butler if you have one.

 

We usually do an extra gratuity to the restaurant and will often use surplus obc to do this and we are happy that it gets put into the pool.

 

The form can be obtained from guest services. The often tell you that you cannot do this but the forms are there (or they were there this time last year). 

[lucymorgan]

16 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

When we withdrew our OBC the cashier issued chips, which were marked differently than the normal chips.  They could be used for any play but could not be cashed out themselves.  Winnings were paid in standard chips that could then be cashed out.  I don't play the slots but would assume it would be the same (whether through chips or on your card) and any winnings would be issued via a receipt which can then be cashed out. 

 

The main point is the OBC issued in the casino must be used for play and will not be initially given as a cash out.

Thank you leaveitallbehind - very helpful.  I think I will get credit early in the cruise then so I can use up the credit by the end of the cruise - unless I am uncharacteristically very very lucky!!!  🙂 

Edited January 11, 2020 by lucymorgan