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OBC

Bobbiegentry

By Bobbiegentry,
in MSC Cruises

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Bobbiegentry

Bobbiegentry

Posted
Posted

What can OBC be used for on MSC prior to boarding?

I understand that by definition, OBC is OnBoard credit - got that. 

 

This will be our very first sailing on MSC so not familiar with the rules here. We've sailed on Princess, RCCL, Viking, Celebrity and even Carnival. Each allows OBC to be used for selected purchases (think, excursions). What does MSC allow?

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amurray88

amurray88

Posted
Posted
54 minutes ago, CruisingFox27 said:

In my experience OBC can only be used for purchases on board. Anything prebooked, excursions, dining packages etc have to be paid prior to boarding. 

 

Any unused OBC will be refunded at the end of the cruise. 

I didn't know OBC would be refunded? I'm just off MSC Seaview and used the casino process to withdraw my money as cash.

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HipHipOnAShip

HipHipOnAShip

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

In my experience OBC can only be used for purchases on board. Anything prebooked, excursions, dining packages etc have to be paid prior to boarding. 

 

Any unused OBC will be refunded at the end of the cruise. 

NOT necessarily correct.  There are different types of OBC some of which are non refundable and are "use it or lose it"

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amurray88

amurray88

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, HipHipOnAShip said:

NOT necessarily correct.  There are different types of OBC some of which are non refundable and are "use it or lose it"

I thought that is the case. The casino tip definitely helped us withdraw €150 👌

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

Posted
Posted

Here is my OBC tale of joy :).  On our first MSC cruise we booked in the Yacht Club on the Divina and our cruise agency gave us about $800 of OBC.  Having been on an awful lot of cruises (with many different lines) we just assumed we would be able to get that refunded at the end of the cruise.   The last day of our cruise (I think it was a 20 day voyage) I stopped by the Concierge Desk and asked how to get all that OBC refunded.  She told met that MSC does not refund OBC (at least not at that time) and I needed to spend it or lose it.  DW went down to the jewelry store and bought a pair of earrings for about $300 which mean we still had about $500 left.  Since it was the last night of our cruise I decided to go to the casino (I do not like gambling in smokey cruise line casinos).  I went to the BlackJack tables and asked the pit boss for $500 and he told me I had to go to the cage.  At the cage they did give me the chips (which effectively wiped out our onboard credit).   I went back to the table and decided I would just lose that money and have some fun.  Within 10 minutes I had doubled the stake to just over $1000.  At that point I took the chips back to the cage and they handed me a nice stack of $100 bills.

Even the pit boss and dealer thought it was amusing.  I was not the only one at that table getting rid of their OBC.   I suppose I could have simply waited a few minutes and then cashed out those $500 chips but I was just being nice to the cruise line..or so I thought.

 

I do not know if the policies are still the same.  Having cruised on many lines I can post that policies vary on cruise lines.  So, for example, on Seabourn you cannot use OBC in the casino.  On some other lines if you do get chips with OBC they used to give you specially marked chips that you could not cash in..  The idea was you needed to gamble with those chips but when you won a hand they were replaced by regular chips which you could cash in.   On other ships there was no problem using OBC in the casino.  

 

Hank

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

Posted
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12 minutes ago, phissy said:

OBC can also be used for DSC.  Other cruise lines do not allow this but, MSC allows daily charge to be applied against account with the OBC. 
Balance we go to Casino and play to cash out.

Most cruise lines we cruise (Celebrity, Princess, HAL, Seabourn, etc.) do allow OBC to be used for tips/gratuities/DSC or whatever else you want to call it.  In fact, I do not recall any of the 16 cruise lines we have cruised having an issue with using OBC for gratuities.   In the case we posted about above (on the Divina) our booking not only included all that OBC but also included pre-paid gratuities.    And being in the YC it can actually be difficult to use OBC, especially since we seldom to never take cruise line excursions.

 

Hank

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mnpurple

mnpurple

Posted
Posted

We had OBC for three rooms because we had a cruise cancelled during Covid. I was amazed to find out from the Concierge that the credit was double what I thought. I told my kids they had a bonus and they chose massages from the spa and also having some laundry done. That was after the credit covered the daily service charges. My husband and I didn't go that route and were refunded the difference.  So, it seems there are differences in if you can get a refund or not. Best to ask as soon as your board and then you can make an educated decision.  I did find it interesting that we were just given cash .

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phissy

phissy

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Hlitner said:

Most cruise lines we cruise (Celebrity, Princess, HAL, Seabourn, etc.) do allow OBC to be used for tips/gratuities/DSC or whatever else you want to call it.  In fact, I do not recall any of the 16 cruise lines we have cruised having an issue with using OBC for gratuities.

 

Hank

Sorry, I was thinking of NCL.  Over generalization on my part.

NCL has become difficult with OBC. Can’t use it in casino , for tips or DSC.

We cruised NCL in May. Haven cabin and concierge adamantly told us OBC cannot be used for tips with voucher, as in the past. Also, no more casino use.

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, mafig said:

So what is the story with MSC now.  We will have $600 obc and it is refundable according to the TA.  

My advice is sometime early in your cruise, when there is not a long queue, stop at the Guest Services desk (or the Concierge Desk if in the Yacht Club) and ask if your OBC is refundable and how that refund is given.  There are times when travel/cruise agents think something is so...but folks that work on the ships have a different point of view :).

 

Hank

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ddlb

ddlb

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, phissy said:

Sorry, I was thinking of NCL.  Over generalization on my part.

NCL has become difficult with OBC. Can’t use it in casino , for tips or DSC.

We cruised NCL in May. Haven cabin and concierge adamantly told us OBC cannot be used for tips with voucher, as in the past. Also, no more casino use.

Not only that you can’t use it for Cruise next certificates now. 

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frank808

frank808

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, mafig said:

So what is the story with MSC now.  We will have $600 obc and it is refundable according to the TA.  

That is what our travel agent told us. Found out the 5th night of the first cruise, we had $800 OBC to use up as it was non refundable even though it was from travel agent. Just went to casino and loaded the rest of OBC into gambling account. Played a few spins and cashed out the rest. No problems and was relatively painless.

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JAGR

JAGR

Posted
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1 hour ago, WannaCruise365 said:

Can you use the OBC to purchase Wifi once you get onboard? Does the Wifi package cost more or the same if you pre purchase?  Thanks 

More on board.  At least 15% surcharge applies to onboard purchases.

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phissy

phissy

Posted
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18 hours ago, Bobbiegentry said:

Getting back to my original question, then the consensus is that OBC CANNOT be used for ANYTHING prior to actually setting foot aboard the ship? 

Yes, cannot be used for anything prior to boarding cruise.

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Rossco01

Rossco01

Posted
Posted

The OBC issue refund also raises it's ugly head if for whatever reason they have to give you refunds for excursions/experiences and you've booked them on a second cabin. We have a two cabin booking for end of July. Unfortunately due to cancelled flight we had to do a cruise move (not too much of a problem) but as part of this process we were issued with refund for previously booked experiences/excursions. I queried why we'd only received partial refunds and the answer was that we'd received refunds for excursions/experiences booked on the website BUT for those we'd booked over the phone they could only issue OBC. Not really that happy about that as it means I have shell out the money again to get the discounts pre-cruise....and hope that the OBC is then refunded.

 

The reason they can't refund the money? well if you have a two cabin booking their online system only allows you to book experiences/excursions for the first cabin. They give you a phone number to call for to book anything for the second cabin. Apparently the way this is recorded on the system is "different" and they can't refund it. I've seen a lot of issues on managing our latest booking that seem to be "system" related. Even a cruise move seemed to need "another team to unlock the booking" before it could be completed.

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