Specialty Restaurants using OBC

[majmaj4]

Pre cruise I am trying to make a reservation at Crown Grill using my OBC;  when I did the reservation I didn't see anything for payment, but now I see a charge on my credit card instead of using my (Shareholder) OBC.

 

Is there a way to make the reservation ahead of time and use the OBC.  

 

When I made an excursion reservation it looks like it did not charge me and so I assume used OBC.

 

Thanks,

[Rick&Jeannie]

You cannot make SD reservations pre-cruise with OBC.  We all wish!  All you can do is book excursions.

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[nini]

13 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

You cannot make SD reservations pre-cruise with OBC.  We all wish!  All you can do is book excursions.

 

This is so true... Even though it is very illogical!

Some have said that if you make reservations and they are charged on your CC, that once onboard, those charges can be reversed and be deducted from your OBC.

[majmaj4]

3 hours ago, nini said:

This is so true... Even though it is very illogical!

Some have said that if you make reservations and they are charged on your CC, that once onboard, those charges can be reversed and be deducted from your OBC.

I called Princess and they said I could get the charges reverse on board.  Seems like a pain for the people on board to have to handle that.

[DMullen]

Hello all, my wife using her app made a reservation for dinner for a group of 8. She added booking numbers for the other 6 people as directed on the app. All was good until she went to make reservations for a second meal. They use all our meal credits and not taking them from the others. After a call to princess she was told nothing they can do, it has to be fixed  on ship. She was told that the rep could make the second reservation and take credits from the others accounts and we would be all set. Not......they charged our CC $210 . So another phone call to Princess and they removed the second reservation and the $210 charge. The rep agreed that the app takes the credits from the wrong guest and they cant fix it.  So we know our first stop on ship is.

 

David

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, nini said:

This is so true... Even though it is very illogical!

Some have said that if you make reservations and they are charged on your CC, that once onboard, those charges can be reversed and be deducted from your OBC.

 

4 hours ago, majmaj4 said:

I called Princess and they said I could get the charges reverse on board.  Seems like a pain for the people on board to have to handle that.

The way a charge is reversed on board is to credit your cabin folio with Refundable OBC.

 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, DMullen said:

Hello all, my wife using her app made a reservation for dinner for a group of 8. She added booking numbers for the other 6 people as directed on the app. All was good until she went to make reservations for a second meal. They use all our meal credits and not taking them from the others. After a call to princess she was told nothing they can do, it has to be fixed  on ship. She was told that the rep could make the second reservation and take credits from the others accounts and we would be all set. Not......they charged our CC $210 . So another phone call to Princess and they removed the second reservation and the $210 charge. The rep agreed that the app takes the credits from the wrong guest and they cant fix it.  So we know our first stop on ship is.

 

David

This is true - the App presumes the guest doing the booking is paying for the meal.  Even without dining credits, the charge is always to the booking guest and not split among the dining party as what one might typically do when booking on board.

[nini]

5 hours ago, majmaj4 said:

I called Princess and they said I could get the charges reverse on board.  Seems like a pain for the people on board to have to handle that.

You are so very right. The charges can be reversed onboard which seems like a waste of everyone's time.

[voljeep]

well, if you are just a balcony cabin joe - no casino status - you just may have to go the CCard route

if you want Specialty Dining.  How many 'spaces' are going to be consumed by suites getting priority , B2B'ers, and PREMIER pkg with the 2 SD's included?

 

our last cruise, over Thanksgiving, was sold out, and we could only book Sabatini's the first night and nothing for CG despite going by on a daily/nightly basis to check if anything was available. NADA.

This was on the CB.

[nzOdy]

5 hours ago, nini said:

You are so very right. The charges can be reversed onboard which seems like a waste of everyone's time.

Yes, this whole thing is rather messy and ultimately has to be a cost sink for Princess, how many others other than myself and those commenting on this thread have taken agent time with either phone calls or live chat sessions and after discovering "it is what it is until you get on board", how many of these people will be eating into onboard guest services agents time? It should not be hard to modify the app to respect across party charging and have it consume dining credits if they exist.
Not only does this sour the customer experience but it means you start your cruise with a trip to guest services, not the best way to start your vacation.

After experiencing the Crown Grill multi-party booking for myself I sent a long techincal email to Princess Customer Relations. Who knows if they action on those messages, but I did emphasize the two things they should care about - COST to them in terms of agent/call-center time and burnt customer experiences.

 

-Dave