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Onboard Credit and Prepaid Excursions


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If anyone is on Ovation or has recently travelled on it, I wonder if they could answer a query for me.  If you book excursions before sailing you have to pay in full for them at the time of booking.  In the past, i have found that, once onboard, any balance of OBC that one doesn’t otherwise spend during the cruise has been applied towards refunding, via one’s credit card,  any amounts previously paid for the excursions booked before boarding. Example: prepaid excursions $500,  OBC of $750.  If purchases made whilst on board are, say, $400, the balance of $350 is refunded to you on your credit card at the end of your cruise as effectively being used towards offsetting the amount spent on excursions booked before boarding.  I am aware of course that unused OBC would otherwise be written off (so, if only $100 paid on excursions before boarding, in the example given, $100 would be refunded and the remaining $250 of otherwise unused OBC would be written off).   I recently spoke to Seabourn UK office to check that this was still the practice and initially received conflicting answers, including one saying OBC cannot be used in this way.  Eventually, I think I got a final answer: it’s at the discretion of the onboard ship accounting personnel.   So, my query is, what is Ovation’s current practice on this?

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We recently had no problem applying our OBC to booked excursions on the Ovation.  It is simply a matter of speaking with the customer service folks (at Seabourn Square) during your cruise and telling them your wishes.  They make the appropriate entrees in the computer system and shortly after the end of your cruise your credit card will be credited for the money you had previously paid for excursions (up to the amount of OBC).   It did not matter if the OBC was refundable or non-refundable as you were simply doing a swap of your OBC for previously paid excursions.

 

Hank

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On 9/26/2021 at 8:55 AM, alidor said:

It depends where the OBC. Ones from.  If it supplied by Seabourn, it is not refundable.  If it was supplied by your travel agent, or someone else, that part is refundable.

In my experience, they always apply the nonrefundable first to your excursions.  On the few occasions we have had some refunded we always got the balance back without any question of what is or is not refundable. 

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On 9/26/2021 at 6:00 AM, Hlitner said:

We recently had no problem applying our OBC to booked excursions on the Ovation.  It is simply a matter of speaking with the customer service folks (at Seabourn Square)

 

Yes, for prepaid shore excursions, it is easy to swap your credit card prepayment with your OBC after your board.

 

Can anyone confirm if the same is true for prepaid & prebooked spa services?

 

 

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The problem is not getting the tour you want, as you have already booked it months ago and paid for it on your credit card as well.

It is that other cruise lines allow you to spend your SBC (often a substantial amount of money) on tour reservations before you board, often up to a year before.

Having to go to Seabourn Square, wait inline and have them issue your credit card a credit and then immediately rebook you into the tour using your SBC just seems inefficient and unnecessary.

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If you wait until on board , you can book on the TV or fill a form out and you will not then have to wait  at the square. The on board credit will still be there and you will also know when other programs like the  beach bbq are or if new ones are available.

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On 10/3/2021 at 1:45 AM, dalliowner said:

If you wait until on board , you can book on the TV or fill a form out and you will not then have to wait  at the square. The on board credit will still be there and you will also know when other programs like the  beach bbq are or if new ones are available.

I would just rather NOT waste my time (In the Square OR in my Stateroom) redoing something which I had already done on land.

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On 10/2/2021 at 6:39 PM, labonnevie said:

Having to go to Seabourn Square, wait inline and have them issue your credit card a credit and then immediately rebook you into the tour using your SBC just seems inefficient and unnecessary.

 

On 10/4/2021 at 4:23 PM, adolfo2 said:

I would just rather NOT waste my time (In the Square OR in my Stateroom) redoing something which I had already done on land.

 

I agree that it would be better if you could book excursions without paying in advance (as Silversea does). That said, I just got off a Seabourn trip where I needed to flip my excursions from prepaid to changed against by onboard credit. Total time involved to accomplish that: one minute. I walked into the Square, said what I was there to do, and I was told they would have the night auditor take care if it. That was it. We didn't have to go through excursion by excursion, or reprint tour tickets (actually, there are no tour tickets any longer). So it's really not much of a waste of time or effort. 

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