Non refundable credit...what happens if you don't spend any $ when on ship?

[UnbridledEnthusiasm]

I know because it's the non refundable one that you cannot use it to cover service charges so do you just lose it if you don't spend it on dining, excursions, the spa, drinks, etc?

 

 

[shof515]

lose it, better to spend it on some extra drinks or dinning

[Son of a son of a ...]

No, it does not carry over to your next cruise or stay in your NCL account as OCB.  It disappears at the end of the first cruise. If B2B, then I don’t know.

[IAcruising]

You left out bottles of booze, and cigarettes. Works for me every time.

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

Shorex.  Nuff said.

[complawyer]

why would you not use it? it comes free, you can go to a specialty restaurant, by candy or other goodies at the store, worse comes to worse, buy a handful of ncl t-shirts when they go on sail .

 usually they go for 2/25 at the end of the cruise.l, so if you have a 100 obc that you havent used up as yet, you can splurge

[TheDawg79]

You use it or you lose it. Those are your two options to pick from

[mugtech]

2 hours ago, complawyer said:

 worse comes to worse, buy a handful of ncl t-shirts when they go on sail .

 usually they go for 2/25 at the end of the cruise.l, so if you have a 100 obc that you havent used up as yet, you can splurge

The t-shirts are always on sail, whenever the ship is moving, but sometimes they go on sale.

Happy New Year!!!!

[katiecat]

Can you gamble it?

[cmecruise1962]

Definitely check the restrictions...I tried to use mine on gambling and the Daily Service Charge and it was not allowed, so I lost about $140.  This was from CC points, so I will make sure I know FOR SURE next cruise!

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, mugtech said:

The t-shirts are always on sail, whenever the ship is moving, but sometimes they go on sale.

Happy New Year!!!!

Actually, when the ship is in a port, they are neither on sail or sale as they are behind locked doors on a ship that is not moving. 🤦‍♂️

[cruiser2015]

2 hours ago, katiecat said:

Can you gamble it?

That would be too easy.

Nope.

☹️

[roger001]

I screwed up once and left $65 behind.   Broke my heart!   

[laudergayle]

We have been able to use NR OBC for Bingo and Deal No Deal.  The charge shows as Cruise Staff Entertainment.

[schmoopie17]

What happens if you don't spend nonrefundable OBC?

I looked up nonrefundable in the dictionary. It said, "not refundable".

Here's where I would say YMMV...but in this case, not so much.

Edited December 31, 2023 by schmoopie17

[dbrown84]

Use it to book shore excursions that cost $50 or less.  You don't actually have to go on it.  When you get the excursion credit back, it will be refundable.  You could then get the cash on the last night 

[laudergayle]

3 minutes ago, dbrown84 said:

Use it to book shore excursions that cost $50 or less.  You don't actually have to go on it.  When you get the excursion credit back, it will be refundable.  You could then get the cash on the last night 

Tricky…lol.

[MeHeartCruising]

I've bought lots of crap on the ship that I would not otherwise buy in order to use up non-refundable OBC.  Better to buy something than to leave it go unused.  Buy them out of overpriced M&Ms if you have to.

[Sailing12Away]

11 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Shorex.  Nuff said.

In our case, all of our excursions were prebooked before we were informed we would be getting non-refundable OBC. So that wasn't an option for us.

 

9 hours ago, complawyer said:

why would you not use it? it comes free, you can go to a specialty restaurant, by candy or other goodies at the store, worse comes to worse, buy a handful of ncl t-shirts when they go on sail .

 usually they go for 2/25 at the end of the cruise.l, so if you have a 100 obc that you havent used up as yet, you can splurge

It's not as easy to use as one may think. On our last NCL trip we were coming onboard with 1K in OBC from our TA. A week before sailing NCL gave us an additional 1K in non-refundable OBC for not being able to use the hot tub in our cabin. So now we had 2K in credits to use up on a 9 day sailing, when all our excursions were already booked, we had more specialty dining than we wanted with our platinum dinners, already had the FAS.... Midway through the trip my sister & niece caught Covid, so they were out of commission and confined to their room which limited other ways we were thinking of using the credits (spa, go karts, etc).

 

As for just buying 'stuff' for the sake of buying it - all depends on how much room you've got in your suitcase when you have an international flight home to also deal with. We bought a bottle of Dom, bottle of fancy wine with dinner one night, and I don't recall what else. But ended up leaving about $100 on the table for NCL and had to spend an hour back and forth between the concierge and guest services to stand in line and get back the 1K in refundable credit back in cash on the last night.

 

Honestly it all depends on how much you're given and the other circumstances around it. But not all of us like jewelry or NCL branded 'stuff'. And despite being heavy drinkers, I don't want to buy multiple bottles of fancy bubbles just because I can. Fancy bubbles to drink didn't make up for the fact we were missing bubbles to soak in.

[complawyer]

i figure i would have trouble using up 2000 in credit also. as i stated, even though we've has stock since 2020, i never bothered with requesting the obc. this time however, for a 17 day cruise,it's $250 so i figured what the heck. if i dont use any of it, its no big deal since its free money anyway.

 

by the way, i was just being facetious about the t-shirts, and there is really nothingi would purchase in t he over-priced tradewinds store.

 

i dont use a travel agent, so i dont get extra obc from them, and i rarely if ever utilize a hot tub, and ive indicated i rarely book an excursion thru ncl (prefer to hire a cab)

 

that being said, however,  using 100 to 250 worth of obc should not present i problem. dont take this the wrong way, but how to spend (use) $2,000 of free money, seems to be a 1st  world problem

 

[ontheweb]

I think you nailed it. That was truly a first world problem!

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, Sailing12Away said:

In our case, all of our excursions were prebooked before we were informed we would be getting non-refundable OBC. So that wasn't an option for us.

Some have had success in working with the Shorex desk to cancel/rebook the excursions in order to have them consume OBC.  I've done this twice but it is not necessarily painless.  Also, as somebody else reported, if I buy a Shorex for full price with nonrefundable OBC, when they issue the $50 FAS credit a day or two later it takes the form of refundable OBC.  I did this on my last cruise and wound up paying less than $2000 for 16 CNs.😎

[ChiefMateJRK]

DD used OBC to purchase some RayBan sunglasses on the ship.  Those generally aren't discounted anywhere, so unlike most things they are not "overpriced" on the ship.  Everybody should have a nice pair of RayBans, especially on a ship.  Wear prescription glasses?  No problem.  Have your optometrist install prescription lenses.  I actually have a pair of Wayfarer bifocals. 🤡

[UnbridledEnthusiasm]

3 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

Use it to book shore excursions that cost $50 or less.  You don't actually have to go on it.  When you get the excursion credit back, it will be refundable.  You could then get the cash on the last night 

I like this idea but how would it work with the $50 off excursions promo that is automatically given? 

[itsnotjustme]

You lose it, so we are careful to be sure we spend it.

 

We generally pre-book our excursions, but we will leave the end-of-cruise airport transfer for purchase on-board with the NR OBC.  We also pay any (extra) tips at the specialty restaurants, and when we had extra left bought a bottle of Bailey's to take home.