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Refundable/Non refndable OBC


GRACECRUISE
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We have a 14 day cruise booked in Dec. Between Stock OBC, TA OBC, FCC credits and ZPM code we have more OBC than the hotel fees for the 3 of us. (nice problem to have) Part of the excess OBC will be used to up the tips. There will still be some left over and I understand we can no longer pull it out via casino use. We used to pull it via the casino and use it for extra tips and parking fees.

 

My question is: We have pre-ordered the liquor for our cabin and have made reservations for Pinnacle and Tamarind. Since these are prepaid for, is any of this considered as refundable credit in the excess OBC?

 

I can cancel the liquor and purchase once on ship. I can look at booking new dinner reservations on board and cancelling the ones we have. We have a nice balcony cabin so do not need a cabana (don't think folks would use it,anyways). Dad feels like this is his last cruise (hope not) so trying to figure out what I can do with it.

 

Just looking for any suggestions.

 

Thanks

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Definitely cancel your in cabin liquor order. You can buy bottles from Room Service once on the ship -- same price.

Also buy some Beverage Cards -- you can use them to buy drinks -- even at Happy Hour and bottles of wine.

If you don't use up the Beverage Cards, what is left on them will go back as shipboard credit and then refunded to your credit card.

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I agree with KK. Cancel your liquor order and purchase it once you are onboard. Also, if you are thinking about doing any shore excursions, you can book those once onboard (though there is a risk that you may not get your first choice). Any interest in a wine package? Again, that can be ordered onboard. A few lunches at the Pinnacle? A wine tasting? Some service from the spa? A nice little piece of jewelry from the onboard shop?

 

 

I'm happy to help others spend their money ;)

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Thanks for the info. I did cancel the liquor. Will repurchase on board. Think I will buy the $250 beverage card. We may use once or twice at Pinnacle and Tamarind and then cash it back in the last day. If we don't use all the OBC, the crew can enjoy it. It will be holiday time.

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....... There will still be some left over and I understand we can no longer pull it out via casino use. We used to pull it via the casino and use it for extra tips and parking fees.

Thanks

 

Then it must have changed since June 2018.:cool::cool::cool:

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I'm currently on the Prinsendam. My OBC is split into three components in My Account. The first one is the TA portion, the second is comprised of my shareholder benefit plus $100 for the FCD and the third one is the additional $100 for the ZPM. Both of the last two credits, from HAL, have a notation after them saying "Not Valid for Casino or Cash).

 

Fortunately, we have more than exceeded the HAL portion and still have a credit balance with less than a week left in the cruise.

 

It seems that HAL caught onto people withdrawing their OBC via the casino and has now put a stop to that. I thought I had read reports, from DaveOKC?, that HAL had charged him post cruise for amounts used in the casino...

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I'm currently on the Prinsendam. My OBC is split into three components in My Account. The first one is the TA portion, the second is comprised of my shareholder benefit plus $100 for the FCD and the third one is the additional $100 for the ZPM. Both of the last two credits, from HAL, have a notation after them saying "Not Valid for Casino or Cash).

 

Fortunately, we have more than exceeded the HAL portion and still have a credit balance with less than a week left in the cruise.

 

It seems that HAL caught onto people withdrawing their OBC via the casino and has now put a stop to that. I thought I had read reports, from DaveOKC?, that HAL had charged him post cruise for amounts used in the casino...

 

Additionally I thought the shareholder OBC cannot be used to pay gratuities??

 

Annie

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I'm currently on the Prinsendam. My OBC is split into three components in My Account. The first one is the TA portion, the second is comprised of my shareholder benefit plus $100 for the FCD and the third one is the additional $100 for the ZPM. Both of the last two credits, from HAL, have a notation after them saying "Not Valid for Casino or Cash).

 

It seems that HAL caught onto people withdrawing their OBC via the casino and has now put a stop to that. I thought I had read reports, from DaveOKC?, that HAL had charged him post cruise for amounts used in the casino...

 

Last March our onboard account was adjusted the final morning to reflect not being able to use casino charges with OBC (it said this on the statement). In the past we have done this without a problem.

 

Now, as many things on HAL, this may vary by ship (we were on the Rotterdam in March). Still, I would not chance it and would assume that you cannot use it. In our case it was only a few dollars and we were not doing it for the purpose to convert OBC to cash, so we were not concerned about it, but if someone was pulling hundreds of dollars out this way, I would advise against it.

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I also have the burden of to much OBC :D I have been told that on the first day instruct the front desk of the order in which to debit the OBC. I have up to $600 that maybe refunded if it remains unused. Burn off the non refundable first. Don't forget wi-fi.

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Spoke to TA and they can not advise refundable amount. I will check once on ship, being an accountant, I check the bill often. We will buy a drink card and up the tips. Just happy we have a family cruise booked prior to Christmas. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

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  • 1 month later...

we are currently on a 21-day Rotterdam. After 58 cruises on six different Cruise Lines including Holland America this is the first time we've been told that we cannot use our non-refundable credit as Casino play money. The deceiving part is - it shows up as coming off the credit on our statement but they tell us that we will get a credit card charge for the casino part when we get home and the non-refundable onboard credit will go unused. Many people are going to be upset when they get these credit card bills that they thought were covered by the non-refundable onboard credits. Has anyone actually experienced this? - getting a credit card bill for the casino charges when they had remaining onboard credit?

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20 minutes ago, sannekw said:

we are currently on a 21-day Rotterdam. After 58 cruises on six different Cruise Lines including Holland America this is the first time we've been told that we cannot use our non-refundable credit as Casino play money. The deceiving part is - it shows up as coming off the credit on our statement but they tell us that we will get a credit card charge for the casino part when we get home and the non-refundable onboard credit will go unused. Many people are going to be upset when they get these credit card bills that they thought were covered by the non-refundable onboard credits. Has anyone actually experienced this? - getting a credit card bill for the casino charges when they had remaining onboard credit?

As mentioned in a prior post - it happened to me ON THE ROTTERDAM last March.  I got  charge to my account on the final morning mentioning that it was for Casino charges not covered by the OBC.  In my case it was less than $10, so no big deal and I was prepared in case it happened.  I bet that it will happen on your cruise as well - HAL handles alot of things differently by ship, so it is not surprising that some people report one thing (on this issue) and others report something different.

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I would think that you can still load up a slot machine with maybe $200, do a few pulls of the one-armed-bandit, and cash out, which puts the remaining funds on your casino account.  If you then go to the casino cage and present your key card to cash out, they will give you whatever is left of your original $200.   That $200 will be charged to your cabin account, and if you have either TA credit (which is cash) or your own, pre-purchased credit, it will come from that, not the HAL provided OBC.    If you have only HAL provided OBC, then that $200 will be charged to your credit card.

This is a convoluted way to get spending cash, but it still does not have the 3% handling fee that is charged if you go to the front desk to get your $200.    I think HAL just wants to prevent you from using their free OBC for cash,  They are happy to let you use it for drink packages, Spa, HSC, shore excursions, etc.

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16 minutes ago, TAD2005 said:

I would think that you can still load up a slot machine with maybe $200, do a few pulls of the one-armed-bandit, and cash out, which puts the remaining funds on your casino account.  If you then go to the casino cage and present your key card to cash out, they will give you whatever is left of your original $200.   That $200 will be charged to your cabin account, and if you have either TA credit (which is cash) or your own, pre-purchased credit, it will come from that, not the HAL provided OBC.    If you have only HAL provided OBC, then that $200 will be charged to your credit card.

This is a convoluted way to get spending cash, but it still does not have the 3% handling fee that is charged if you go to the front desk to get your $200.    I think HAL just wants to prevent you from using their free OBC for cash,  They are happy to let you use it for drink packages, Spa, HSC, shore excursions, etc.

 

I think you are correct.  IF you have refundable OBC, it should be taken from that.

 

But HAL uses non refundable OBC first so I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but it should 😉

 

It has long been said that non refundable OBC cannot be used for the casino or HSC so, if HAL is now following through, no one can dispute that.  My concern is how will they distinguish when you have both refundable and non refundable.  Hopefully if they caught up on the non refundable thing, they will have this taken care of.  🤞

 

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We had a significant amount of OBC on our recent cruise.  Large enough that we never used it all.  As I had forgotten to bring USD for tips (we were cruising in Europe), we decided to use our OBC to pay for the additional gratuities.  When I went to the Front Office, they reviewed our account to see if we had spent enough to cover the non-refundable OBC, which we had - just with the internet and wine packages.  Once that was done, we were given the requested amount which was debited against our account.  There was no charge for this; I specifically asked about a charge.  I was told that because we had a credit balance, there would be no charge.  So I don't think one has to go through the Casino as described above to get funds, as long as one has spent enough to cover the HAL OBC, at the time of the request for funds.

Edited by Alberta Quilter
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