Pre cruise dining, OBC & other MSC ridiculousness

[marktwothousand]

Ok, so I’m usually an organized thinker so this might seem like a combined rant with questions, please bear with me

 

i am getting a whopping $600 USD through a combination of various OBC on an upcoming 2 weeker. Can this be used for anything pre cruise? I am wanting the specialty dining which is “advertised” to be cheaper pre cruise. Is that actually true or can it be a good deal on board too? Because I will wait to get on board to use my OBC if it’s a deal. 
 

and then to tie it all up in a nice bow, I got 3 different answers on airport transfers from Southampton: first call, “they’re available”. Second call, “sorry they’re not offered.”, “third call; they are offered but you have to go through your agent and can’t use OBC”

and none of the above can be counted against OBC pre cruise? Really? I guess it’s good that you can draw OBC as casino money, because changing it all to cash will be one of the first things I do when the casino opens!!! 

 

to boot, I’m in Canada, paid USD for the cruise, everything on board is in GBP and all the ports are in Euros. Welcome to MSC

 

Edited July 27 by marktwothousand

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

i am getting a whopping $600 USD through a combination of various OBC on an upcoming 2 weeker. Can this be used for anything pre cruise?

Maybe this helps, maybe not. Maybe it will only work for the higher prices once on the ship?

Acupuncture

Airport transfers

Alcove Rental (some ships)

Apple products etc. and Ilounge classes

Art Auctions

Babysitting

Barber Shop services (Edge only)

Beverages -- Alcoholic, carbonated soft drinks, specialty coffees and teas, bottled water

Bingo

Bottles of wine

Casino

Chef’s Table

Duty free liquor and cigarettes

Extra cost entrees and other items in Main Dining Room and specialty restaurants

Extend Your Stay program

Fitness classes

Flowers

Gelato

Gift shop souvenirs, purses, cosmetics, clothing, jewelry, etc.

Gratuities, and extra gratuities

Guests dining with you in Luminae (applies to Suite Passengers only)

Guest entertainers' CD's and DVD's

Hair and nail salon

Hollywood hot glass experiences (some ships)

Internet

Laundry/pressing/drycleaning

Luggage Valet

Martini Flights

Medical Center purchases (but not treatments)

Mini bar

Portrait photo sessions

Pay-per-view movies

Persian Gardens passes

Personal Training Sessions

Photos & cameras

Room service up charge items, and late night delivery fee

Shore Excursions

Shuttle to town (some ports)

Spa -- massages and treatments

Specialty restaurants

Teeth Whitening

Telephone calls using ship's system

Transfer to another passenger's account

Voyage in Review DVD

Wine and liquor tastings

Zumba

This is thanks to another CC Poster which I thought was quite extensive.

P.S. Maybe you need a better travel agent. This is for Celebrity before we switched over to MSC.

Edited July 27 by morpheusofthesea

[chrisgp999]

OBC stands for ON BOARD Credit.  Keys words are in bold, caps.  Pre-cruise means you're not on board.

[JT1962]

3 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Ok, so I’m usually an organized thinker so this might seem like a combined rant with questions, please bear with me

 

i am getting a whopping $600 USD through a combination of various OBC on an upcoming 2 weeker. Can this be used for anything pre cruise? I am wanting the specialty dining which is “advertised” to be cheaper pre cruise. Is that actually true or can it be a good deal on board too? Because I will wait to get on board to use my OBC if it’s a deal. 
 

and then to tie it all up in a nice bow, I got 3 different answers on airport transfers from Southampton: first call, “they’re available”. Second call, “sorry they’re not offered.”, “third call; they are offered but you have to go through your agent and can’t use OBC”

and none of the above can be counted against OBC pre cruise? Really? I guess it’s good that you can draw OBC as casino money, because changing it all to cash will be one of the first things I do when the casino opens!!! 

 

to boot, I’m in Canada, paid USD for the cruise, everything on board is in GBP and all the ports are in Euros. Welcome to MSC

 

Unlike other mainstream cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, etc., MSC does not allow you to use onboard credit for purchases prior to boarding. The best option is to cash out through the machines in the casino once onboard, assuming they haven’t disallowed this since my last MSC cruise in February. 
 

I’ve never seen airport transfers offered online, other than an excursion that visits other places and ends at the airport. You can call MSC and book airport transfers prior to sailing or book return transfers once onboard. 

 

The 3 different responses on airport transfers is typical for MSC. If you booked through a travel agent, they will usually try to tell you you can’t book anything by calling them. But I have gotten some representatives to do it.

[JT1962]

1 hour ago, chrisgp999 said:

OBC stands for ON BOARD Credit.  Keys words are in bold, caps.  Pre-cruise means you're not on board.

Several cruise lines do allow you to use OBC for purchases of items that will be used once you are onboard the ship - excursions, specially dining, etc. I have done this on Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess.

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

i am getting a whopping $600 USD through a combination of various OBC on an upcoming 2 weeker. Can this be used for anything pre cruise?

 

I do not believe MSC, unlike other cruise lines, allows you to use OBC to pay for pre-cruise purchases.   We paid with our credit card for our Two Meal Dining package on our last cruise even though we had OBC from MSC in our account. 

 

Also, the OBC we received from our TA did not show up until after we were onboard the ship. 

 

6 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

I am wanting the specialty dining which is “advertised” to be cheaper pre cruise. Is that actually true or can it be a good deal on board too?

 

 We found the pre-cruise price better than the price being charged onboard on our cruise last February. 

 

 

Edited July 28 by DaKahuna

[oceans.calling]

X

Edited July 28 by oceans.calling
Wrong forum

[luckyinpa]

just make sure you do use it somehow. ive read stories where even TA credit isnt given back on the ship even though it IS refundable so i have him mail me a check after the cruise. he did call and MSC said they wont refund his OBC he gives to me..crazy! every other line did.

 

on my X cruise i booked using the ships OBC almost a year out for one of their excursions so appreciate that flexibility. maybe one day MSC will update their programming to allow such a convenience but my guess is they want you to forget about it and lose it.

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

on my X cruise i booked using the ships OBC almost a year out for one of their excursions

 

On our last Celebrity cruise we booked 5 shore excusions pre-cruise all using OBC.  

 

[alysonofagun]

Hey Mark!!! 👋🥰

We sailed from Southampton last year and my friend has just sailed earlier this month - on board currency was Euros rather than GBP! Not that it makes it any different when your OBC is in $!!

Re: airport transfers - do you mean to/from one of the London airports rather than Southampton itself?