Well, we used up the huge amount of OBC!

[Brandiwine1977]

On 4/6/2022 at 7:34 PM, RumpunchGirl said:

I am not able to use my OBC to prepay my gratuities. When I click on the PAY NOW button, it only gives me the option to pay with a credit card.  We were able to buy beverages for our room, a shore excursion and specialty dining. We have a lot of OBC left so I'm confused. Any thoughts?

I have a good amount of OBC and cannot buy anything for our cruise in May.  I keep getting an error.  I've been on the phone with the fun shops 2 different times, with ridiculous hold times, to be told both times they couldn't figure it out and they would "escalate the situation" or "put in a ticket"  NOTHING.  And I'm going to be pissed if they don't fix it and the stuff goes up May 1. 

[RumpunchGirl]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:56 PM, Joe817 said:

Your OBC will be used automatically to pay the gratuities at the end of the cruise without you having to do anything. Gats are automatically deducted from your OBC balance on the last day of the cruise. Any thoughts? Yes! Go to the steakhouse, purchase a few shore excursions; go to the casino and have a good time. Go to the funs hops and buy a bottle of really nice liquor. The variations are endless! 

We wanted to use OBC to prepay now as the price goes up May 1.  It's not a huge difference but it's annoying that I can't seem to use it now.

Edited April 13, 2022 by RumpunchGirl

[AandBmom]

On 3/27/2022 at 12:09 PM, ontheweb said:

No excursions? The one time I was not sure we could use all our OBC, DW bought the most expensive Anne of Green Gables excursion (was on HAL), and my worries were gone.

we couldn't use credit ahead and I wasn't sure if desirable excursions would still have space.  Plus we typically hire locals directly. 

[AandBmom]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:05 AM, teknoge3k said:

Having lots of OBC is fun! We have $2700 for our upcoming cruise and I have no clue how I am going to spend it.

 

We will not do excursions through Carnival, we use the locals instead. I know we can use it for gratuities, but we've prepaid them and I'll likely leave it as is. 

 

We have hundreds of pictures from ships, as we bought the "unlimited print & digital images" package Carnival had a few years ago. 

 

We have Cheers as part of our promo, so don't need that. 

 

I know John Heald stated we couldn't buy gift cards with some of the OBC. If I can't do that, I'll likely buy a bunch of GoPro cameras or something and sell them on Ebay. 

 

you can buy gift cards.

Also, i read ahead that you can't dump it in to the casino and cash out, but i did put A$50 in and spun, it went up to $94 and i cashed out for the whole amount in USD.  So you can clearly do this.  Just not sure if there are limits. 

[AandBmom]

On 4/6/2022 at 8:34 PM, RumpunchGirl said:

I am not able to use my OBC to prepay my gratuities. When I click on the PAY NOW button, it only gives me the option to pay with a credit card.  We were able to buy beverages for our room, a shore excursion and specialty dining. We have a lot of OBC left so I'm confused. Any thoughts?

try the casino trick.

[AandBmom]

On 4/13/2022 at 9:37 AM, 13cheermom said:

Do you remember how long it took to receive that refund in regards to the actual cruise date?  Also did it come in the form of a check as others have stated?  Thanks!

so i asked about this and guest services said you get refunded for credit added by you or for certain reasons but not the type we had left over from past bookings/cancellations. 

[nascartim]

As far as using the OBC for gratuities, you do not need to prepay them, if you can great, but if you don't,  you will automatically be charged on your last full day which will come off your OBC. Those that cannot prepay for other things, I'm not exactly sure if this is the reason, but I recall some other posts about the people that are using a TA are not able to do certain things that someone who bought directly from Carnival can do. I'm not sure if this is some of the problem or not, I'm sure others can add to this to see if this is the reason.