Seaside - Placing credit card on account (ahead of time?)

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I can only really find older YouTube reviews/tours of the ship with any detail.

 

One indicated that the credit card you use for your shipboard charges can't be set up ahead of time, but rather at some kiosk once on the ship. Is that still the case?

 

Tom

[shipgeeks]

I believe so.  When we sailed previously, that was the case.  It was super easy, even for us who have never used an ATM or a smartphone.  You don't have to do it the instant you board; you can wait a day or two. And you can book shows and things at the same time.

[Two Wheels Only]

The system online isn't always reliable for cc setup. It usually "forgets" that you set it up and you have to do it on the ship, anyway.

 

Doing it on the ship is easy. You don't have to rush nor wait on line with everyone else. You can even wait a day or 2. There are several kiosks around the ship.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

So, they allow you to run up charges (specialty dining, chips in the casino, etc) without any $ backing it up?

 

Tom

[Two Wheels Only]

30 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

So, they allow you to run up charges (specialty dining, chips in the casino, etc) without any $ backing it up?

 

Tom

 

Yes....you will hear several announcements reminding people to register their card if they haven't by the 2nd day.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Just now, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Yes....you will hear several announcements reminding people to register their card if they haven't by the 2nd day.

 

Interesting. On Carnival, they'd be sweating bullets !! 

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Still - I find it strange that they don't allow you tackle this ahead of time during online check-in.

 

Tom

[PTC DAWG]

23 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Still - I find it strange that they don't allow you tackle this ahead of time during online check-in.

 

Tom

It takes the same mount of time either way…it’s a non issue on board to do it. 

[sammee]

On the Divina, the kiosk was right there when you entered the ship, there was also a worker helping those they may have a problem registering their card. It was an easy process.

 

[ready2cruzagain]

You can enter your information for your CC online ahead of time but once you get to the ship you will need to go to a kiosk and do it again.  You are allowed 24 hours or to run up $200 before you are cut off and when you try to use your credit card you will be informed to go to guest services. It is really easy. Just go to a kiosk and it is self explanatory.

[jame_g]

I was able to get my CC info entered ahead of time for my cruise last Oct once final payment was made. It just didn't keep it for my spouse/the second person in the cabin and I had to re-enter that after I was on board. So far it hasn't let me for my March cruise, but I will try again next week and see if it takes it.

Edited January 14, 2023 by jame_g

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Learning new "stuff" all the time 🙂

 

Tom

[pcrum]

As others have indicted, there are kiosks set up on the ship to take care of entering your credit card information.  We did it shortly after embarkation just to get it out of the way.  There were staff around to assist and no line at the kiosk.

[PompeySailor]

So we had our card entered in before cruise

On day 2 we had x2 $250 charges on our credit card 

(Bank alert) 

The system assumes the card entered is not shared and bills each person in cabin

 

It will come up as an MSC Switzerland charge (pending)

This causes a lot of North Americans to receive Fraud alerts and cards being locked

(Bloody nightmare at sea with no cell service to resolve)

let YC director know this is putting off a lot of customers 

 

So in a nutshell , what is entered pre cruise is a waste of time 

If you do it on ship as explained to us by the YC Director there would only be x1 $250 hold (pending) per cabin if card is linked to all occupants

 

we never registered our card all cruise, we were never tracked down or even asked to register 

However we did let the YC director know that $250 is a bit steep 

 

we returned 8 days ago and the x2 $250 pending are still showing on our account

 

And to clarify our onboard account spend was $0.00

probably why they didn’t come looking for us, but the Holds still remain 

 

our previous MSC cruise we had holds that took 30 days to drop off

 

There is a dedicated card terminal at concierge in YC 

YMMV