When can I use on board ship credits?

[PeterPan48]

Question Regarding use of-on board ship credits.  

Can I use them to book excursions before I am on board?  And if any $ remaining, book excursions after boarding. My TA said Viking wants those credits to be used for laundry, spa, etc.  
Thanks. 

[TayanaLorna]

If they show up on My Viking Journey, you should be able to use that money for excursions.  Often OBC from a TA does not appear on your account until you board the ship.  In that case you can use it for drinks, massages, gratuities once on board.

[ericosmith]

I'm not sure how common this is but my only Viking cruise so far ended with me having to cancel the day prior.  However, I had paid for shore excursions with a credit card and when my travel agent released onboard credit a few days before the cruise, Viking refunded my credit card charge.

[CDNPolar]

We just took this to Viking recently through the tellus@viking email.

 

We have a cruise coming up with two different types of shipboard credit (SBC).  One was given to us by the TA and one is from Viking as perk because of a challenge we faced.

 

Two very different ways to use them too.

 

The SBC from the TA, will be automatically applied if we add Siver Spirits or book excursions before embarkation.

 

The SBC from Viking can ONLY be used once we board.  If we want to use this credit towards SS package, then we would have to wait until we board to add that to our account.

 

There might be those that have different experiences, but this is direct from the mouth of Viking.

 

Oh, and we booked a cruise recently where Viking were giving a SBC of $325 CDN pp at the point of booking, and this one falls to use for SS or shore excursions before we board.

 

We have seen many times in the past because we typically add SS at the time of booking that the TA SBC goes immediately to that.

 

Call Viking and ask them how this particular SBC will be handled, or email tellus@vikingcruises.com

[PeterPan48]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

We just took this to Viking recently through the tellus@viking email.

 

We have a cruise coming up with two different types of shipboard credit (SBC).  One was given to us by the TA and one is from Viking as perk because of a challenge we faced.

 

Two very different ways to use them too.

 

The SBC from the TA, will be automatically applied if we add Siver Spirits or book excursions before embarkation.

 

The SBC from Viking can ONLY be used once we board.  If we want to use this credit towards SS package, then we would have to wait until we board to add that to our account.

 

There might be those that have different experiences, but this is direct from the mouth of Viking.

 

Oh, and we booked a cruise recently where Viking were giving a SBC of $325 CDN pp at the point of booking, and this one falls to use for SS or shore excursions before we board.

 

We have seen many times in the past because we typically add SS at the time of booking that the TA SBC goes immediately to that.

 

Call Viking and ask them how this particular SBC will be handled, or email tellus@vikingcruises.com

Thanks everyone. 👏. Going on WC Sky 1/6/24. SS and gratuities included. Have a boatload of SBC I would like to use for excursions but am somewhat limited by Vikings rules and regulations. Will call to clarify but often different answers are given by different people who answer the phone.  🤪. Email might be best because I will have it in writing. 

[CDNPolar]

51 minutes ago, PeterPan48 said:

Thanks everyone. 👏. Going on WC Sky 1/6/24. SS and gratuities included. Have a boatload of SBC I would like to use for excursions but am somewhat limited by Vikings rules and regulations. Will call to clarify but often different answers are given by different people who answer the phone.  🤪. Email might be best because I will have it in writing. 

 

Email tellus and ask your questions.  They will likely respond with a phone call, but then you can ask them to put in writing the response.

 

It is so concerning that you call and get different information from each person you talk to.  Please reference this to tellus as well.

[Mich3554]

6 hours ago, PeterPan48 said:

Thanks everyone. 👏. Going on WC Sky 1/6/24. SS and gratuities included. Have a boatload of SBC I would like to use for excursions but am somewhat limited by Vikings rules and regulations. Will call to clarify but often different answers are given by different people who answer the phone.  🤪. Email might be best because I will have it in writing. 

We were on the Neptune world cruise this year and this is how it worked.  I’d assume it will be the same for the coming WC.    You will receive the credit in 2 chunks.  The first chunk, you can use for excursions before you get on the ship.  We used all that up, and more which went on a credit card.  When we got onboard, we had another chunk of credit available to us.  If you want to add excursions, you can use that then but not before.  
 

Viking keeps track of which excursions are paid with OBC (non refundable credit) and your credit card (refundable).  When you charge things to your account, non refundable (which is also that second chunk of credit you get when you board) gets used up first.  It does make sense.  Non refundable credit is a ‘use it or lose it’ thing, refundable credit gets refunded to you, so it’s important to know what you have of each.  They will tell you when you get credited on the TV as to whether the credit is refundable or not. 
 

Another thing they allowed was that when we reached London, we were allowed to use some remaining credit to use Luggage Forward to send things home.  As we were continuing on to NYC, we used that chance to send home most of the summer shoes and clothing and DH’s scuba stuff since he wasn’t going to use it.  Viking also allowed us to carry over the credit onto BIE/Norway and Arctic until we used it up.   

Edited September 17, 2023 by Mich3554