Can ship board credit be applied to payments before sailing?

[TKS]

We are booked for our first Viking cruise next summer, and we find ourselves with a substantial ship board credit.  Can it be used to pay for such things as gratuities & upgraded alcohol packages BEFORE we sail?  I understand those are less expensive if paid prior to sailing. 

[formernuke]

Yes, as well as shore excursions

 

[zelker]

1 hour ago, TKS said:

Can it be used to pay for such things as gratuities & upgraded alcohol packages BEFORE we sail?  I understand those are less expensive if paid prior to sailing. 

Hmmm.....  I thought the charge was the same for both, regardless if you prepay or pay onboard at the end of the cruise.  

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, zelker said:

Hmmm.....  I thought the charge was the same for both, regardless if you prepay or pay onboard at the end of the cruise.  

They are indeed the same .  Prepay or pay onboard.  If you have SBC’s to use though, (not OBC’s), you need to use them ahead of the cruise (like SDP, excursions, tips) or you’ll lose it.

[zelker]

15 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

They are indeed the same .  Prepay or pay onboard.  If you have SBC’s to use though, (not OBC’s), you need to use them ahead of the cruise (like SDP, excursions, tips) or you’ll lose it.

On our MVJ account, it shows we each have $62 remaining of SBC out of $250 each that came from our TA and it says if we don't use it before we board, it will be transferred to our onboard account and we can use it there.  

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, TKS said:

We are booked for our first Viking cruise next summer, and we find ourselves with a substantial ship board credit.  Can it be used to pay for such things as gratuities & upgraded alcohol packages BEFORE we sail?  I understand those are less expensive if paid prior to sailing. 

 

40 minutes ago, zelker said:

On our MVJ account, it shows we each have $62 remaining of SBC out of $250 each that came from our TA and it says if we don't use it before we board, it will be transferred to our onboard account and we can use it there.  

Couple of thoughts. 
You have to use voucher credits before boarding or they disappear. 
 

Some Travel agent shipboard/onboard credits show up in MVJ but it’s my experience that they usually don’t. 
 

As others have said, the prices for daily service charge, silver spirits, or excursions are the same whether prepurchased or paid onboard UNLESS you can make the exchange rate work to your advantage.  If you’re paying before boarding in £ for instance, you might be able to save a few pence.  But generally speaking it doesn’t make a lot of difference. 
 

If there is a chance you are going to book a cruise onboard AND your Travel Agent’s credits are refundable, then you might want to wait to prepay the daily grats.  The onboard credit the future sales consultant offers as part of the incentive to book onboard is not refundable and has to be used (in most situations) on the current cruise.  This (along with difficulty in getting a refund when COVID cut our cruise short in 2020) has made us start to not prepay the service charges. 
 

You might want to push on your Agent a bit, at $250 pp you aren’t getting the maximum credit that Viking allows agents to provide.  Those credits are:

$150pp Cruises of up to 7 nights

$300pp Cruises of 8-14 nights

$500pp Cruises if 15 nights or more

[zelker]

16 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

 

Couple of thoughts. 
You have to use voucher credits before boarding or they disappear. 
 

Some Travel agent shipboard/onboard credits show up in MVJ but it’s my experience that they usually don’t. 
 

As others have said, the prices for daily service charge, silver spirits, or excursions are the same whether prepurchased or paid onboard UNLESS you can make the exchange rate work to your advantage.  If you’re paying before boarding in £ for instance, you might be able to save a few pence.  But generally speaking it doesn’t make a lot of difference. 
 

If there is a chance you are going to book a cruise onboard AND your Travel Agent’s credits are refundable, then you might want to wait to prepay the daily grats.  The onboard credit the future sales consultant offers as part of the incentive to book onboard is not refundable and has to be used (in most situations) on the current cruise.  This (along with difficulty in getting a refund when COVID cut our cruise short in 2020) has made us start to not prepay the service charges. 
 

You might want to push on your Agent a bit, at $250 pp you aren’t getting the maximum credit that Viking allows agents to provide.  Those credits are:

$150pp Cruises of up to 7 nights

$300pp Cruises of 8-14 nights

$500pp Cruises if 15 nights or more

That was a bonus $250 pp.  We also got $500 pp. 

[Clay Clayton]

52 minutes ago, zelker said:

That was a bonus $250 pp.  We also got $500 pp. 

that’s great!  Surprised but glad for you. 

[zelker]

23 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

that’s great!  Surprised but glad for you. 

Was told there were specific sailings the bonus applied to.  We're on the Nov. 17 Canal and luckily it was one of them.  

[C-sea]

16 minutes ago, zelker said:

Was told there were specific sailings the bonus applied to.  We're on the Nov. 17 Canal and luckily it was one of them.  

That's great you have an agent that shares this info with you. Thank you for letting us know there is the possibility of this type of onboard credit.

[Peregrina651]

7 hours ago, TKS said:

We are booked for our first Viking cruise next summer, and we find ourselves with a substantial ship board credit.  Can it be used to pay for such things as gratuities & upgraded alcohol packages BEFORE we sail?  I understand those are less expensive if paid prior to sailing. 

 

What it comes down to is that SBC/OBC comes in different flavors and each flavor has it own rules.  Some credits can be used in advance and some can't. Some credits can be refunded to you at the end of the voyage and others can't. Some credits can be applied to gratuities and other can't

 

I think the best way to  find out what kinds of credits you have and how they can be used is to ask Viking directly. They will look up your account to see exactly what you have and be able to tell you what the rules are for whatever types of credits you have (or your TA can do this for you).