Using OBC for gratuities

[ronmar22]

I know that OBC can be used for extra gratuities for room steward/butler services, however, is it possible to use it for things such as room service and bar servers?  If so, how does one go about doing so? 

[canderson]

You write the tip on your bill.

?

At the end of your cruise, your OBC is used to help settle your bill.

[ronmar22]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

You write the tip on your bill.

?

At the end of your cruise, your OBC is used to help settle your bill.

Thanks for the reply.  However, I do not ever remember getting a "bill" when receiving room service or when getting a drink served.  On the drink service, you just hand the server your card (when you have drink package).  Am I correct?

[canderson]

13 minutes ago, ronmar22 said:

Thanks for the reply.  However, I do not ever remember getting a "bill" when receiving room service or when getting a drink served.  On the drink service, you just hand the server your card (when you have drink package).  Am I correct?

You can always ask for a 'paper' bill to sign, even for $0, at bar and restaurant venues for drink service, and add a tip to that.  We've done that many times.  

 

If your room service order isn't 'billable', it might be possible to ask to have a $0 receipt brought, but we've always used cash for that.

[ronmar22]

3 minutes ago, canderson said:

You can always ask for a 'paper' bill to sign, even for $0, at bar and restaurant venues for drink service, and add a tip to that.  We've done that many times.  

 

If your room service order isn't 'billable', it might be possible to ask to have a $0 receipt brought, but we've always used cash for that.

Ok, we'll certainly request a bill when possible.   We have always used cash for room service as well, however, we have sooo much OBC we thought we could be extra generous for the good service and use the OBC.

[klfhngr]

51 minutes ago, ronmar22 said:

Ok, we'll certainly request a bill when possible.   We have always used cash for room service as well, however, we have sooo much OBC we thought we could be extra generous for the good service and use the OBC.

Is there any way that you can transfer to my May cruise?! 😉

[ronmar22]

1 hour ago, klfhngr said:

Is there any way that you can transfer to my May cruise?! 😉

Ha ha.  I’ll try but then that would require another post asking if that’s possible and if so how? Lol

[canderson]

2 hours ago, ronmar22 said:

Ok, we'll certainly request a bill when possible.   We have always used cash for room service as well, however, we have sooo much OBC we thought we could be extra generous for the good service and use the OBC.

Due to some wild repricing on a top suite in November, we had $6900 in non-refundable OBC for 15nts of B2B.  It paid for all excursions and the wine bill, leaving a bundle at the end of each leg to make happy crew members.  The timing was perfect since it was by far the best service we've ever had on an X cruise.

[ronmar22]

5 hours ago, canderson said:

Due to some wild repricing on a top suite in November, we had $6900 in non-refundable OBC for 15nts of B2B.  It paid for all excursions and the wine bill, leaving a bundle at the end of each leg to make happy crew members.  The timing was perfect since it was by far the best service we've ever had on an X cruise.

We don’t have quite that much but with the included beverage package, gratuities and WiFi we have plenty to get rid of.  Plus add in the fact that we are not really interested in excursions offered.  We have been to all the ports before and will likely enjoy ourselves onboard on most stops.  DW will enjoy shopping but will not spend OBC just to get rid of it when we know that many hard working crew members could put the $$ to good use.

[Arizona Wildcat]

30 minutes ago, ronmar22 said:

We don’t have quite that much but with the included beverage package, gratuities and WiFi we have plenty to get rid of.  Plus add in the fact that we are not really interested in excursions offered.  We have been to all the ports before and will likely enjoy ourselves onboard on most stops.  DW will enjoy shopping but will not spend OBC just to get rid of it when we know that many hard working crew members could put the $$ to good use.

We had a similar situation some years ago.  Gave shore excursions as prizes for trivia winners and had happy crew including the staff in Blu.