Problems on the Oosterdam

Money is fungible.

My own reason to pre pay gratuities is that even with OBC, I'd rather use it for enhancing my cruise experience, not for something I will pay anyway.

If it is something you "will pay anyway", what possible difference does it make if you take it out of your left pocket or your right pocket?

I am sorry you have a hard time understanding this concept.

 

Lots of people like to prepay on board expenses - whether it be laundry, shore excursions, specialty dinners or HSC. Lots of reasons for it but the 2 that come to mind are: 1)They may want to budget and prepay so that they don't have a large bill at the end of their cruise or.

 

2) Not everyone who cruises is from the U.S. And prepaying if the exchange rate is "right" can make a big difference to their total cost.

If someone cane save by obtaining a good exchange rate, of course that would make sense.

But, I am sorry that you seem to have a hard time understanding the concept that if you are able to pay for something in advance, you surely can pay for it a month or so later -- and, even at today's low rates of return, there is time value in money.

If someone cane save by obtaining a good exchange rate, of course that would make sense.

 

But, I am sorry that you seem to have a hard time understanding the concept that if you are able to pay for something in advance, you surely can pay for it a month or so later -- and, even at today's low rates of return, there is time value in money.

Why is it of interest or comment to anyone why, how or if someone prepays for something? Does it affect your cruise, your fare, your daily activities? You are not owed any kind of explanation.

Why is it of interest or comment to anyone why, how or if someone prepays for something? Does it affect your cruise, your fare, your daily activities? You are not owed any kind of explanation.

Of course not; but when, in an ongoing conversation, someone makes a statement which raises a question, it is only natural to express it.

Does my asking such a question affect you in any way?

Years ago I was on a cruise on Celebrity and was wearing my suit, a waiter walking by dumped thousand island dressing all over the back and sleeve of my suit and just kept going.... My waiter was aghast and the Maitre D came over in a Sicilian accent I cannot replicate said " We will get that guy" well a few minutes later a waiter came back literally cowering and apologized.

They took my suit jacket and I had it back dry cleaned ( Professionally ) the next morning, looking as good as it was when I had packed it a few days before.

One issue is that ships have moved away from traditional dry cleaning for environmental reasons. They use a "low water" process that isn't laundering, but it's not water-free.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-magazine/feature-magazine-articles/5782-summer-2011-sustainable-dry-cleaning-and-laundry.html

Not being satisfied with an OBC suggests that one plans to spend very little on board - and one of the best way to spend very little on board is to remove the service charge. Not saying that was poster's intent, but it is a possibility.

 

While on the gratuities topic, why would someone want to prepay gratuities? That is a concept hard to understand: if you can pre-pay, you certainly can pay after the end of the cruise, and paying something a month -or several months - before necessary simply seems curious.

I can see not wanting to accept OBC IF my plan was to use that money to help pay for a new tux. Because once you accept that OBC, anything you buy onboard is taken out of that OBC and not applied to the credit card you put on your account. If this happened to me, I would want the money, not OBC.

As long as compensation is made in a fair manner, all is good. OBC can easily be converted to cash if that is what is preferred and the OBC is not needed ;)

B

 

 

I can see not wanting to accept OBC IF my plan was to use that money to help pay for a new tux. Because once you accept that OBC, anything you buy onboard is taken out of that OBC and not applied to the credit card you put on your account. If this happened to me, I would want the money, not OBC.

Since what you use OBC for is not applied to your credit card, you will have that much available credit to apply to you new tux. Only if you would not do any significant amount of on board spending is there any real difference.

The point is: staff on the ship are able to grant on board credit on the spot, while most corporations have tight controls before generating cash disbursements. Of course, you can refuse the OBC and insist on pursuing a cash payment - but things being they way they are, you have to be willing to wait.

The exception to that would be if the onboard credit provided was for some reason nonrefundable and the passengers were traveling with a significant amount of credit already. We cruised over Christmas with over $1000 of nonrefundable OBC and gratuities paid by the line and disembarked with about $2.00 of remaining credit so if we had been given additional credit on a use-it-or-lose-it basis we would have had to scramble even more than we did to use up all of it - and under those terms it wouldn't have been equivalent to payment toward a replacement tuxedo.

Occasionally the lines will apply OBC on a refundable basis (most recently for us, when a port was missed the port charges were returned in the form of refundable OBC which will be returned if not spent) so there is a mechanism to do so. I suspect the controls may be tighter than for nonrefundable credit though.