Can OBC be used for Gratuities

[LewiLewi]

I have just read a post on the Windstar CC board that says that onboard credit can not be used toward daily gratuities.

Is this correct?

 

[Misty Morning]

This is correct, OBC's cannot be used to pay for gratuities

[LewiLewi]

7 minutes ago, Misty Morning said:

This is correct, OBC's cannot be used to pay for gratuities

That is strange. OBC’s are used on every other cruise line towards gratuities.

What are the daily gratuities and can you choose to not pay them automatically, but rather pay them individually at the end of the cruise as you see fit?

[milepig]

46 minutes ago, LewiLewi said:

That is strange. OBC’s are used on every other cruise line towards gratuities.

What are the daily gratuities and can you choose to not pay them automatically, but rather pay them individually at the end of the cruise as you see fit?

They just went up a bit and I can’t recall the current rate. They are mandatory and cannot be waived. We always give more to a handful of staff and go we’ve bonded with, after a cabin steward or bartender of server. 

[marinaro44]

4 hours ago, milepig said:

They just went up a bit and I can’t recall the current rate. They are mandatory and cannot be waived. We always give more to a handful of staff and go we’ve bonded with, after a cabin steward or bartender of server. 

Rather than singling out a handful, I make a gift to the Crew Welfare Fund as all of the crew go out of their way to take care of us...and everyone else.  The folks in the laundry, galley and other back-of-the-house departments deserve credit and gratitude as much as the wait staff and room stewards.

 

Glad the gratuities are mandatory so cheapskates can't stiff the crew.

[salmn]

7 hours ago, LewiLewi said:

I have just read a post on the Windstar CC board that says that onboard credit can not be used toward daily gratuities.

Is this correct?

 

When we were on Wind Spirit in November, we could not use the OBC given by Windstar for gratuities, but we were able to use the OBC given by our travel agent.

[milepig]

1 hour ago, salmn said:

When we were on Wind Spirit in November, we could not use the OBC given by Windstar for gratuities, but we were able to use the OBC given by our travel agent.

we had a strange sequence.  We had 2 canceled tours so wound up with a credit for those. We then used OBC to rebook new tours which left us with a credit on our account from the canceled tours that was more that our tips. We wound up with maybe $400 in credit that we were reimbursed. 

Edited January 24, 2020 by milepig

[Redtravel]

rate is now $14.50 pp per night

If you have promotion OBC, you cannot use it for gratuities.

If the OBC is from your TA, you can use it for gratuities.

When you embark, visit guest services and get an accounting.
Be sure that you are aware of how much promo credit you have. It must be spent on the ship or lose it. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, Redtravel said:

rate is now $14.50 pp per night

If you have promotion OBC, you cannot use it for gratuities.

If the OBC is from your TA, you can use it for gratuities.

When you embark, visit guest services and get an accounting.
Be sure that you are aware of how much promo credit you have. It must be spent on the ship or lose it. 

 

Underlining like this is considered shouting in netiquette.  Please refrain.

[Redtravel]

Sorry.

 

The gratuity issue is a big deal on Windstar.  It seems that many people are not aware that they cannot use OBC to pay gratuities.  On my first cruise, I was unaware.  I had spent my OBC on excursions. There were several people that were surprised when they got their final statement on the last day. They were unaware of the policy. They found out when it was too late to spend the OBC.  Now, they send a preliminary statement 2 days before the end lf the cruise.  It does state in small print

 what you can buy with OBC.  It does not say that OBC from your TA can be used for anything or cashed in.  They often make errors. You must check your statement and immediately report errors.  On my last cruise, they double charged me for gratuities.  It was corrected.  Make sure that you bring your copy of cruise confirmation.  

[LewiLewi]

Thank you all for your replies. I will check with the front desk as soon as I board.

[CanadianKate]

If an experienced Windstar cruiser knows, how do I decode my OBCs?

My invoice shows: 

 

Onboard Credit, quantity 100

Perks, Shipboard Credit $500 per person, quantity 2

Shipboard Credit $100, quantity 1

 

 

My TA offered $100 credit for this cruise. 

I'm pretty sure the $100 credits were to make up for our cancelled cruise. 

Not sure where the other $1000 credit (or the 2 bottles of wine) comes from although my TA said there were additional credits on the account related to a promotion and I see the Pick Your Perk special which refers to bottles of wine as well as 'up to' $1000 on board spending.

 

Are any of these obviously good for gratuities?

 

As this is a Trans Atlantic with only one port of call,  if I'm to spend all this, it looks like LewiLewi will have a better chance at finding me at the spa or the shop than in my cabin! 

 

 

[Del Rio]

We just returned (on January 10) from a wonderful 7 days on the Wind Spirit (our third Windstar cruise with many more to come.)

 

Whether you book directly with Windstar or with a TA, we all receive an email shortly before our cruise:

Subject line: Bon Voyage! Here are your travel documents for your upcoming Windstar Cruises trip.

Attached to that email is a pdf document  titled GTB Ticket.  I believe "GTB" stands for "Good To Board", but I am not sure and I have never bothered to ask.

 

While there is a lot of information, over about 10 pages, it is very easy to read on a desktop or laptop computer and as a pdf can be directly printed.  Here is the wording on this topic copied directly verbatim:

HOTEL SERVICE CHARGE (GRATUITIES)

A Hotel Service Charge (HSC) will be added to your onboard account.

This charge is per day per person and will be added and collected via

your onboard account. Promotion Shipboard credit cannot be applied

to the HSC charges. Prepaid Shipboard Credit can be applied to the

HSC charge.

 

This seems very clear to me.  And this information is provided before you board and again when you "preview" your account the day before disembarkation.  While typed comment on CC can be misunderstood, the tone of this discussion does bother me greatly.  So while I might be unclear about why this bothers some folks.  But I must say this:

If you (or we) can afford a Windstar cruise, I am very surprised that the added gratuity bothers you.  AND if Windstar clearly states the "promotion shipboard credit" cannot be used for this, why do you then see $14.50 per person, per day to be such a strain on our travel budget?

[milepig]

3 hours ago, Del Rio said:

We just returned (on January 10) from a wonderful 7 days on the Wind Spirit (our third Windstar cruise with many more to come.)

 

Whether you book directly with Windstar or with a TA, we all receive an email shortly before our cruise:

Subject line: Bon Voyage! Here are your travel documents for your upcoming Windstar Cruises trip.

Attached to that email is a pdf document  titled GTB Ticket.  I believe "GTB" stands for "Good To Board", but I am not sure and I have never bothered to ask.

 

While there is a lot of information, over about 10 pages, it is very easy to read on a desktop or laptop computer and as a pdf can be directly printed.  Here is the wording on this topic copied directly verbatim:

HOTEL SERVICE CHARGE (GRATUITIES)

A Hotel Service Charge (HSC) will be added to your onboard account.

This charge is per day per person and will be added and collected via

your onboard account. Promotion Shipboard credit cannot be applied

to the HSC charges. Prepaid Shipboard Credit can be applied to the

HSC charge.

 

This seems very clear to me.  And this information is provided before you board and again when you "preview" your account the day before disembarkation.  While typed comment on CC can be misunderstood, the tone of this discussion does bother me greatly.  So while I might be unclear about why this bothers some folks.  But I must say this:

If you (or we) can afford a Windstar cruise, I am very surprised that the added gratuity bothers you.  AND if Windstar clearly states the "promotion shipboard credit" cannot be used for this, why do you then see $14.50 per person, per day to be such a strain on our travel budget?

Actually, it adds a third kind of credit and 

asked things even murkier. 
 

What is “Prepaid shipboard credit”?? 
 

and how are we supposed to know the difference between WS OBC and TA OBC??  All I ever know is when my TA sends the “”you’re booked and have $xxx in OBC.” Nothing about from him vs. WS. 

[Del Rio]

48 minutes ago, milepig said:

Actually, it adds a third kind of credit and 

asked things even murkier. 
 

What is “Prepaid shipboard credit”?? 
 

and how are we supposed to know the difference between WS OBC and TA OBC??  All I ever know is when my TA sends the “”you’re booked and have $xxx in OBC.” Nothing about from him vs. WS. 

There are only two types of credit, regardless of what name a passenger or cruise line may use for them.

• Promotional credit is the kind the cruise line (might) give you as some type of incentive for buy their cruise.
• Prepaid credit is the type someone had to actually pay for and then "gift" to you.  (Sort of like a gift card.)  Almost every cruise line will let someone (including your TA) buy onboard credit.  When my daughter took a cruise for her honeymoon, I bought her some shipboard credit, by cc, before they left.

Either you do not use a TA; never get any shipboard credit from your TA; or are only trying to make an unusual point here.  If your TA gives you a "thank you gift" of $200 in onboard credit, they paid for it with real dollars.  I cannot imagine any travel agent NOT telling you that extra (or only) onboard credit on your account was  a "thank you gift from us, for your business".

 

[milepig]

I use a TA. 

[CanadianKate]

Del Rio: There's a third kind of credit, that of compensation for our cancelled cruise. So I have one from the TA, one from WS as an apology and then 2x$500 that I assume is part of the Pick Your Perk promo. I'm guessing I qualify since I booked this cruise in December in response to the cancelled cruise. But there's no start date on that promo. 

The wording on my credits is exactly what I wrote which don't match what you described except for the perks one. 

 

The trip has always been budgeted for. And it was also paid in full and then cancelled, leaving me no choice but to book a different Windstar trip or lose out on travel this winter since Windstar had all my vacation money except the $450 service charge I knew I'd be charged on board. So I had no money to book on any other cruise-line since all required payment in full since we were within 60 days of departure. 

 

But now I'm being given $80 a day extra to spend and have no clear answer from here on what I can spend them on, so I'll just have to wait until next week and ask once on board.  I just don't want to spend the whole $1200 on spa stuff I don't really want and have to pay $450 if I can spend $100 or $200 less and get real value to me from the credits. 

[Del Rio]

54 minutes ago, CanadianKate said:

Del Rio: There's a third kind of credit, that of compensation for our cancelled cruise. So I have one from the TA, one from WS as an apology and then 2x$500 that I assume is part of the Pick Your Perk promo. I'm guessing I qualify since I booked this cruise in December in response to the cancelled cruise. But there's no start date on that promo. 

The wording on my credits is exactly what I wrote which don't match what you described except for the perks one.

 

CanadianKate, thanks for the clarification, related to the cancelled sailings.  Since the original comment in this thread was about frustration over what OBCs could be used for gratuities, that was the path I was following.  I know the cancelled cruises can make this a more complex issue.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Del Rio

[MRGACRUZR]

On 1/25/2020 at 9:48 PM, CanadianKate said:

Del Rio: There's a third kind of credit, that of compensation for our cancelled cruise. So I have one from the TA, one from WS as an apology and then 2x$500 that I assume is part of the Pick Your Perk promo. I'm guessing I qualify since I booked this cruise in December in response to the cancelled cruise. But there's no start date on that promo. 

The wording on my credits is exactly what I wrote which don't match what you described except for the perks one. 

 

The trip has always been budgeted for. And it was also paid in full and then cancelled, leaving me no choice but to book a different Windstar trip or lose out on travel this winter since Windstar had all my vacation money except the $450 service charge I knew I'd be charged on board. So I had no money to book on any other cruise-line since all required payment in full since we were within 60 days of departure. 

 

But now I'm being given $80 a day extra to spend and have no clear answer from here on what I can spend them on, so I'll just have to wait until next week and ask once on board.  I just don't want to spend the whole $1200 on spa stuff I don't really want and have to pay $450 if I can spend $100 or $200 less and get real value to me from the credits. 

$89  per day All In package. All drinks with gratuities, tips, laundry and internet. Pretty sure you can buy the package with tips included using your Windstar OBC. Call to be sure.

[MRGACRUZR]

So, this thread fosters a new question: can you use your Windstar Promotional onboard credit to purchase the "All In" package since it contains gratuities? Anyone had experience with this?

 

I've sent the question to Windstar and when they answer, I'll post it. Up until reading this thread I just assumed I could use it. Now, I wonder.

[Redtravel]

I use a TA too.  He always includes some OBC. Some of that is often a hidden promo from Windstar.  There is also the a OBC that is considered a gift from the TA.   When you board ask how much OBC you have and what part of that is refundable.  The refundable portion can be used toward the gratuities.  Refundable a OBC that you do not spend is refunded as a credit on your posted credit card. Just got a credit today from a January cruise. That was 5 weeks ago. 

[susiesan]

What category of OBC is the referral credit? We will receive $100 OBC each for bringing 2 friends with us on our Wind Spirit Tahiti cruise next January. Our friends get $100 OBC each also. Is this referral credit refundable or not? Can it be used to pay gratuities?

[Misty Morning]

18 minutes ago, susiesan said:

What category of OBC is the referral credit? We will receive $100 OBC each for bringing 2 friends with us on our Wind Spirit Tahiti cruise next January. Our friends get $100 OBC each also. Is this referral credit refundable or not? Can it be used to pay gratuities?

 

These OBC's are not refundable and cannot be used for Gratuities.  You can use them for drinks, spa, excursions or to buy stuff in the store.

[CanadianKate]

To summarize my experience.

 

In total I had $1600 of credits for my 1-port cruise. This will likely never happen again, it was a convergence of extra OBC due to the cancelled cruise and the pick your perks timing of my rebooking our cruise. 

 

Our plan was a tour in Madeira, and the rest towards spa/fitness. We aren't spa-y type people so a bang trim for me and a pedicure was all I could stand (and the pedicure wasn't relaxing because workmen were taking apart something on the deck over the spa.) My dh had a massage, manicure and beard trim. We couldn't use any towards the fitness because there was no fitness person on board to buy personal training stuff from. Sigh...

 

On day 4 or so, I went and got a statement and it was perfectly clear what was promotional credit, what came from my TA and how much I'd owe at the end of the cruise even if I had a extra promotional credit left over. 

 

So I shopped and shopped and shopped. 

I bought a $100 jacket that my dh liked. A few days later he went to get one for himself and it was on sale 40% off. I hadn't been to our cabin so had missed the note waiting for me saying I'd been credited the difference. The shop manager was ahead of the curve. 

 

So my pro-tip: if you want to buy something, do so at the beginning of the cruise and you'll be price protected if it goes on sale later. 

 

My other pro-tip: If you have a ton of credit, buy jewelry - it takes less room to pack!

 

Three days before the end of the cruise we had a letter including a printout of our account plus the exact amount that would 'go to waste' if I didn't shop more. The last night, as I packed, I decided what I had room for and spent the last $80. 

 

It was all very clear, no surprises at all. 

 

(BTW: I already had free internet and free laundry and we don't drink, so the all-in package wouldn't have worked for us.) 

[MRGACRUZR]

On 2/24/2020 at 6:57 PM, MRGACRUZR said:

So, this thread fosters a new question: can you use your Windstar Promotional onboard credit to purchase the "All In" package since it contains gratuities? Anyone had experience with this?

 

I've sent the question to Windstar and when they answer, I'll post it. Up until reading this thread I just assumed I could use it. Now, I wonder.

It makes my head hurt to try to explain this. Per Windstar, you can definitely buy the All In Package with your Windstar OBC. But, the gratuity portion of the All In Package has to be paid with cash.  Huh??? Translation: if you have $400 Windstar OBC and the All In Package is $2400, you will have a cash balance owed to Windstar of $2000. They will deduct the gratuities portion of the All In Package from the cash you owe. Sounds like a bookkeeping issue, as long as you owe enough to cover the gratuities portion of the All In Package. SMH.