Shipboard Credit

Hello all--booked on the Seaside in May 2018, first time MSC. I was being nosy on the website and saw that you can prepurchase shipboard credits. Is there any benefit to this? They are at cost (i.e. a $50 credit costs $50 usd). Thoughts?

They are good if you want to buy a gift for someone cruising.

They are good to prepay for extras like spa and restaurants. Even for shore excursions

Hello all--booked on the Seaside in May 2018, first time MSC. I was being nosy on the website and saw that you can prepurchase shipboard credits. Is there any benefit to this? They are at cost (i.e. a $50 credit costs $50 usd). Thoughts?

No benefits at all.

I can't, for the life of me, understand why anyone would want to pay money upfront for OBC - I don't mean any offence when I say this. If, for instance, something were to happen in the meantime, I wouldn't relish the thought of trying to get the money back if I paid for OBC. Having insurance doesn't guarantee a full refund. Anyway, why give your money to a company to 'hold' for you.

When the dates fall right for me, I love the fact that I can get up to 6 weeks free credit on my credit card to pay for my onboard spend. So I get a month or more after my return home before I have to concern myself with settling my onboard account.

On one of my bookings, the final payment date is 17 weeks prior to sailing and I'm having a hard time getting my head around the fact that some company will have this money so far in advance. (Needless to say, I won't be booking with this company again! It just so happened they had a fantastic offer on a cruise I'd been price tracking and no-one else could match it. I wasn't advised at the time of booking just how far in advance final payment would be and only found out when I read the invoice. Up 'til now, I've only ever paid the balance 10 weeks out.)

The pros & cons of on board credits (OBC) are about as various as everyone's opinions and/or preferences on the subject. While you're on the ship you may or may not accumulate charges to your account (i.e. for drinks, specialty dining, photo package, spa treatment, last minute decision to go on an excursion, etc.). And yes all of these can be pre-purchased prior to embarkation. But for the sake of this post, let's say you don't pre-purchase anything and you have no special experience options (i.e. Fantastica, Wellness, Aurea, Yacht Club, etc).

After 3 days on board, you rack up $400 in charges to your account (doesn't matter what you bought). By the end of the 7-day cruise, your total bill comes to $1,000 that will be charged to your credit card on file on the last night of the cruise to settle your bill. Done deal.

But let's say you have purchased $500 of OBC prior to the start of your cruise. In this very simple example, the $1,000 in charges you accumulated during your cruise will be settled by first using the $500 in OBC, leaving a balance of $500 to be charged to your credit card. Same result - your bill is settled and you disembark from the ship and go home.

As you can imagine there are many variations on how this can play out. You can have that same $500 OBC and only accumulate $100 in charges by the end of your cruise. In which case, the $400 of OBC remaining will be refunded to the credit card used to make the purchase. Again, same result - your final bill is settled and you go home. So it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I like to purchase some OBC so that nothing is charged to my credit card at the end of our cruises - just personal preference. Some cruises, I get some money back on my credit card; while others, I go over a little bit.

The pros & cons of on board credits (OBC) are about as various as everyone's opinions and/or preferences on the subject. While you're on the ship you may or may not accumulate charges to your account (i.e. for drinks, specialty dining, photo package, spa treatment, last minute decision to go on an excursion, etc.). And yes all of these can be pre-purchased prior to embarkation. But for the sake of this post, let's say you don't pre-purchase anything and you have no special experience options (i.e. Fantastica, Wellness, Aurea, Yacht Club, etc).

After 3 days on board, you rack up $400 in charges to your account (doesn't matter what you bought). By the end of the 7-day cruise, your total bill comes to $1,000 that will be charged to your credit card on file on the last night of the cruise to settle your bill. Done deal.

But let's say you have purchased $500 of OBC prior to the start of your cruise. In this very simple example, the $1,000 in charges you accumulated during your cruise will be settled by first using the $500 in OBC, leaving a balance of $500 to be charged to your credit card. Same result - your bill is settled and you disembark from the ship and go home.

As you can imagine there are many variations on how this can play out. You can have that same $500 OBC and only accumulate $100 in charges by the end of your cruise. In which case, the $400 of OBC remaining will be refunded to the credit card used to make the purchase. Again, same result - your final bill is settled and you go home. So it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I like to purchase some OBC so that nothing is charged to my credit card at the end of our cruises - just personal preference. Some cruises, I get some money back on my credit card; while others, I go over a little bit.

actually that makes sense, and now that I think about it, isn't s bad idea. Thanks

There have been times when I have prepurchased OBC to cover my daily gratuities so I don't have a bill after cruising. Recently I prepurchased OBC because we were on a five week cruise (B2B2B) transatlantic, and I didn't want any charges on my Credit Card, because we would be overseas when the CC bill would be due, and didn't want to take the chance of not being able to pay it from overseas while we were gone and thus incur late charges. So there can be valid reasons for prepurchasing it.

Another way of getting around that is to put credit on your credit card - much more straightforward than handing it over to a company to 'hold' for you.

I have added some ship board credit myself, for an upcoming cruise. Phoned MSC to check what happened to any surplus at the end of the cruise and was surprised to find out its a use it or lose it. As it is my money, I would have expected a refund. Anybody experienced this?

I think this question might belong on this thread. Just found out at final payment that MSC gave us $300.00 OBC for some reason along with the Surfer wifi package. In all the cruises we've taken over the years ( about six over many years) we have never had OBC. We are in the YC for our Oct 21st Divina. So here's the question (finally). The only thing we can think of to use the credit on would be the specialty restaurants, the Italian one and Galaxy. How would the OBC be applied? Just go and have dinner then the charge would be taken care of with the OBC? Or should we buy a specialty dinner package pre cruise? Sorry for being so long winded.

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I have added some ship board credit myself, for an upcoming cruise. Phoned MSC to check what happened to any surplus at the end of the cruise and was surprised to find out its a use it or lose it. As it is my money, I would have expected a refund. Anybody experienced this?

When I have had leftover SBC I go to casino to a slot machine, transfer the amount to machine, then cash out, and then take script to cashier for cash.

I think this question might belong on this thread. Just found out at final payment that MSC gave us $300.00 OBC for some reason along with the Surfer wifi package. In all the cruises we've taken over the years ( about six over many years) we have never had OBC. We are in the YC for our Oct 21st Divina. So here's the question (finally). The only thing we can think of to use the credit on would be the specialty restaurants, the Italian one and Galaxy. How would the OBC be applied? Just go and have dinner then the charge would be taken care of with the OBC? Or should we buy a specialty dinner package pre cruise? Sorry for being so long winded.

 

 

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OBC is just put into your on board account and then any item that is chargeable is offset against until all the OBC has gone.

Further purchases are then charged to your credit/debit card you registered at embarkation

It's just money to spend however you like with regard to the ship and her activities.

It can pay grats, excursions. spa, dining(specialty) and many other purchases

Pete

OBC is just put into your on board account and then any item that is chargeable is offset against until all the OBC has gone.

 

Further purchases are then charged to your credit/debit card you registered at embarkation

 

 

 

It's just money to spend however you like with regard to the ship and her activities.

 

It can pay grats, excursions. spa, dining(specialty) and many other purchases

 

 

 

Pete

Thank you.

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Hello all--booked on the Seaside in May 2018, first time MSC. I was being nosy on the website and saw that you can prepurchase shipboard credits. Is there any benefit to this? They are at cost (i.e. a $50 credit costs $50 usd). Thoughts?

No benefits at all.

When I have had leftover SBC I go to casino to a slot machine, transfer the amount to machine, then cash out, and then take script to cashier for cash.

Thank you, good suggestion :-)

I think this question might belong on this thread. Just found out at final payment that MSC gave us $300.00 OBC for some reason along with the Surfer wifi package. In all the cruises we've taken over the years ( about six over many years) we have never had OBC. We are in the YC for our Oct 21st Divina. So here's the question (finally). The only thing we can think of to use the credit on would be the specialty restaurants, the Italian one and Galaxy. How would the OBC be applied? Just go and have dinner then the charge would be taken care of with the OBC? Or should we buy a specialty dinner package pre cruise? Sorry for being so long winded.

You will be charged pre-cruise if you do that so it won't be taken out of the OBC. IIRC, gratuities are $12 pppd, so that will take a chunk out of the OBC - something to bear in mind.