After-cruise refund for OBC balance

[13cheermom]

Just wondered how long it takes for Princess to refund OBC balance at end of cruise.  We had shore excursions cancelled at last minute as well as some refundable OBC leftover.  With another cruise line we usually received a check within couple of weeks, first time with Princess and not sure of their policies.  It does say on statement referred to "Corporate Finance".  Thanks for any further information,  just wanted to know normal timeframe to expect to hear something.  

[Jazzytelly]

I would be interested in the answers to this. Not that I am expecting any surplus OBC as we always just go to the shops on board and use it up if any left over but just in case we have the same problem with cancelled excursions. 
 

Giving us a cheque in US dollars would probably cost me more to put in our bank than it is worth, so that would be no good to UK cruisers.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We waited 8 months in 2020 from cruises that happened before COVID hit, and received it only then because I kept escalating it within Princess. We will NEVER leave a Princess cruise with refundable OBC due to us again. What am I saying?  We will likely never leave another Princess cruise. 

[13cheermom]

13 minutes ago, Jazzytelly said:

I would be interested in the answers to this. Not that I am expecting any surplus OBC as we always just go to the shops on board and use it up if any left over but just in case we have the same problem with cancelled excursions. 
 

Giving us a cheque in US dollars would probably cost me more to put in our bank than it is worth, so that would be no good to UK cruisers.

Yes, but this was over $400 worth of cancelled shore excursions, hard to buy that much in the shops.  Also, I was highly disappointed in the items in any of the shops onboard.  I went repeatedly looking for something to buy, and our ship had a very poor selection. 😂

[13cheermom]

8 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

We waited 8 months in 2020 from cruises that happened before COVID hit, and received it only then because I kept escalating it within Princess. We will NEVER leave a Princess cruise with refundable OBC due to us again. What am I saying?  We will likely never leave another Princess cruise. 

First, recognized your name and want you to know our thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband for the terrible experience you have and continue to go through. I totally respect your decision going forward.

 We also had same experience with cancelled cruise in 2020, and same scenario of calling non-stop to have around $10K refunded for a family cruise to Alaska.  That's why I questioned normal timeframe, as I don't want to fall through the cracks once again.  It took us about 6 months in total to re-coup everything.  

[Coral]

It took 5 weeks for a cruise that ended on December 30th.

 

It comes in a white envelope with the name Bottom Line and Princess Cruises I believe. You may accidentally think it is junk mail so watch for it.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Coral

[beach bunnie]

For our February cruises, we got an email  with the refund amount in about 3 weeks and a check the next week.  So about 4 weeks.

[13cheermom]

Just now, beach bunnie said:

For our February cruises, we got an email  with the refund amount in about 3 weeks and a check the next week.  So about 4 weeks.

Curious, was this email the final statement from your shipboard account, or email just notifying you of refund pending?  Thanks for the information!

[Coral]

I never got an email outside of the final statement of the cruise.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Coral

[beach bunnie]

2 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

Curious, was this email the final statement from your shipboard account, or email just notifying you of refund pending?  Thanks for the information!

Yes, it was our final statement.  It arrived so late I thought we weren't going to get one.  The refund was actually for more than we thought we were going to get - but then we remembered there was a cancelled port, so some of it was refunded port charges.

[dreams_of_travel]

My last sailing ended on 16 January.  I got my refundable OBC check last week.  Approximately 10-11 weeks after disembarkation. YMMV

[victory2020]

Who do you escalate it to? I have a very small amount from a Dec 30 cruise. Never got a statement emailed to me

[PescadoAmarillo]

29 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

Who do you escalate it to? I have a very small amount from a Dec 30 cruise. Never got a statement emailed to me

Ask your TA to escalate it to their BDM (Business Development Manager). Emails to Customer Relations didn’t do anything for us. 

[Jazzytelly]

1 hour ago, 13cheermom said:

Yes, but this was over $400 worth of cancelled shore excursions, hard to buy that much in the shops.  Also, I was highly disappointed in the items in any of the shops onboard.  I went repeatedly looking for something to buy, and our ship had a very poor selection. 😂

Sorry when I wrote that I wasn’t expecting you to use it all in the shops as it was for cancelled excursions,  I was just saying we normally use ours all up ( that was before Covid of course) .

I know on other cruises some people have been quarantined and so couldn’t use their OBC , they couldn’t even get to the onboard shops. 
 

So my question still stands really in the unfortunate circumstance that we end up with unused OBC how do we get it back, it is no good at all giving us a US dollar cheque, we would lose too much trying to cash it. So I would be interested to know what happens for cruises sailing out of the UK , I am sure it said somewhere on our last Princess cruise ( 2019 ) that we would be given US dollar cash from reception which would work as we can always use that for extra gratuities on future cruises etc. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Jazzytelly

[13cheermom]

21 minutes ago, Jazzytelly said:

Sorry when I wrote that I wasn’t expecting you to use it all in the shops as it was for cancelled excursions,  I was just saying we normally use ours all up ( that was before Covid of course) .

I know on other cruises some people have been quarantined and so couldn’t use their OBC , they couldn’t even get to the onboard shops. 
 

So my question still stands really in the unfortunate circumstance that we end up with unused OBC how do we get it back, it is no good at all giving us a US dollar cheque, we would lose too much trying to cash it. So I would be interested to know what happens for cruises sailing out of the UK , I am sure it said somewhere on our last Princess cruise ( 2019 ) that we would be given US dollar cash from reception which would work as we can always use that for extra gratuities on future cruises etc. 

Oh yes I totally understood what you were saying in your response.  I know on another cruise line we more frequently sail with (pre-covid) we could cash out last night for any unused OBC.  Not sure if that is still done in these times (covid), on that particular line.  I would hope for anyone outside US, they would return funds in the form in which they were paid originally.  Good Luck to you!

[nho9504]

Out of curiosity, how soon you know you have the OBC in your account that you could not reasonably use up before the end of cruise?

There is a way to get it back without buying the junks in the shop or overspending on dining venues etc.  It works for the nonrefundable OBC also.  The mechanism is use your casino account even if you do not gamble a penny.  This works for Princess, HAL, and Royal Caribbeans (latest exp on the 1st leg of a B2B on Royal last Dec) thru personal experiences.  Friends said worked the same on Carnival ships as well.  

 

On our 2nd leg of RCCL B2B a small refundable OBC popped up due to some refund of port tax.  The amount is small enough we do not bother to try to get it back with casino method.  RCCL final statement showed the refund amount and to the card used onboard to guarantee payment.  The credit showed up in our AMEX in 4 days after we disembarked.

 

Unfortunately if the OBC happens on the last day of the cruise, you are out of luck with the casino method.  (due to the limited operation hours and early cut off of cash out deadline.)

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by nho9504
Add contents

[SNJCruisers]

15 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

Unfortunately if the OBC happens on the last day of the cruise, you are out of luck with the casino method.

If I may infer then you can download nonrefundable OBC on say day five onto your casino account, have a few pulls and then cash out?  

Don't know if we will be doing extra specialty dining or any Princess excursions yet, so there would be nothing to use our 150 OBC each week of our B2B on, so the casino cash out would work if possible.  If not, then it'll either go towards an excursion or multiple nights at the CG or the Gastro pub.

[nho9504]

It does not matter whether you need to free up your OBC or you simply just want to get some cash.   We almost always use the casino method to put charges on our shipboard accounts by way of the casino account. 

 

In all ships the casino account is independent from the shipboard account,  that means the settlement is totally independent.  Casino account has a cut off time during the last day of cruise to cash out any balance sitting at the casino account.

 

Also in all ships, well all the modern ships, you are able to charge your shipboard account for a deposit into your casino account.  It will show in your shipboard account as Casino or something like that   Your casino account now has a $ deposit in it you can use to play.  This process is best done at the slot machine as not only this is fully automatic, but also without any extra fee.  The key is, you Must Remember to transfer the money now at that machine where you have done the charge to your shipboard account.   Cash out the $ in the machine to your Casino account BEFORE you get up and leave !!!  Also remember to take your cruise card out from the machine.   Now I do not know if without the ship card, and only the Medallion, just how this would work on a Princess ship...  But you can always get a ship card at the customer service I imagine.  Or, the stupid Medallion has enabled this Very Useful function?

 

Now you have a $ balance in your casino account.  You can use it to play, or you just cash it out at the window the next day or the day before the final day.  If you still have $ in the casino account, some ships casino staff would give you a reminder call to cash out, but not all ships casino staff would do that.  It is up to you to cash out your $ at the casino cage, i.e. window, before the cut off deadline (often is 5pm the last day).

 

We almost always get some $ using the casino method from each of our accounts if it is a cruise that ends at US port.   The charges just become like any other shipboard charges, which are first offset by any OBC in your account, and the rest settled by your guaranteed card.  (and you will earn some points from that if your guarantee card earns any travel bonus pts.)  This is also an excellent method to generate minimum spend to earn the new card sign up bonus if you happen have one that has a very good sign up bonus provided you spend X amount of $ within the first 90 days,  things of that nature.

 

The exception time we do not do this is if we have a lengthy land trip post cruise, like wandering in Europe for a month...  Then we try not to do it because carrying a lot of USD cash when traveling thru Europe, is not advisable for obvious reasons. 🙂

 

Again, this is not something new, nor unique to Princess, nor a secret at all.   It is been like that for years.  Actually long time ago Royal would charge 3% on that but in recent years, they no longer charge a fee.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by nho9504

[downsmead]

My understanding was that USA passengers got the money paid back to the card used against on board expenditures, presuming the OBC was refundable, though the above posts indicate that a cheque is often issued, albeit an ‘automatic’ payment though often not immediately. Whereas U.K. passengers always have to contact Princess U.K. to request a cheque for the outstanding OBC, it is not an automatic repayment here.

Edited April 3, 2022 by downsmead

[nho9504]

8 minutes ago, downsmead said:

My understanding was that USA passengers got the money paid back to the card used against on board expenditures, presuming the OBC was refundable, though the above posts indicate that a cheque is often issued, albeit an ‘automatic’ payment though often not immediately. Whereas U.K. passengers always have to contact Princess U.K. to request a cheque for the outstanding OBC, it is not an automatic repayment here.

 

That is why you want to get the OBC via the casino method while onboard and let to leave it until after the cruise ended.  Even if your CC charges 3% on foreign transaction fee, it is still worthwhile to take your own money back much sooner than going thru the aggravating process.

[I object 2]

Our refund came in a white envelope with a return address reading:

 

c/o Bottomline Technologies, Paymode-X

For Princess Cruise Line Ltd

75 John Roberts Rd

Unit 1B

South Portland ME 04106

 

Yikes, I almost threw it away thinking it was more junk mail.

[victory2020]

4 hours ago, nho9504 said:

Out of curiosity, how soon you know you have the OBC in your account that you could not reasonably use up before the end of cruise?

There is a way to get it back without buying the junks in the shop or overspending on dining venues etc.  It works for the nonrefundable OBC also.  The mechanism is use your casino account even if you do not gamble a penny.  This works for Princess, HAL, and Royal Caribbeans (latest exp on the 1st leg of a B2B on Royal last Dec) thru personal experiences.  Friends said worked the same on Carnival ships as well.  

 

On our 2nd leg of RCCL B2B a small refundable OBC popped up due to some refund of port tax.  The amount is small enough we do not bother to try to get it back with casino method.  RCCL final statement showed the refund amount and to the card used onboard to guarantee payment.  The credit showed up in our AMEX in 4 days after we disembarked.

 

Unfortunately if the OBC happens on the last day of the cruise, you are out of luck with the casino method.  (due to the limited operation hours and early cut off of cash out deadline.)

 

 

Does NOT work on HAL. It appears that you can on your account, & then the last day it is adjusted - happened to me twice

[gullgeorge]

As  a US passenger we have always received a check from Bottomline Technologies even though they have a credit card on file.  The 1/22 cruise took 2 months to receive which is about a month longer than it used to.

[Host CJSKIDS]

I’m waiting for one from my 2/26 Regal but it’s only been 4 weeks.

[nho9504]

On 4/3/2022 at 6:28 PM, victory2020 said:

Does NOT work on HAL. It appears that you can on your account, & then the last day it is adjusted - happened to me twice

why would you not to cash out from your Casino account it soon after you have done it?  I don’t see how they can reverse it if the cash already withdrawn from your casino account.  Make you pay back to the cage?  
 

Edited April 5, 2022 by nho9504