On Board Credit (OBC) Question

[marc b]

We have an OBC from our travel agent on upcoming cruise. I seem to be seeing some conflicting info, so any help would be appreciated. And if this has beem answered 1000 times, thanks for the patience for 1001.......

 

I know I can use this toward spa, shore excursions, specialty restaurants, drinks, and gift shop purchases (probably forgetting some others). I am curious if it can be used for the daily tips or the casino - even with 3 % charge ?

 

We should easily burn through it, but I was just curious. Thanks !!

[peg013]

You won't know for sure until you are onboard. We had $650 OBC from NCL and an additional $250 OBC from our TA on the Star May 27 - June 3. TA said all of the $250 he gave us should be "refundable" but only $175.00 ended up being refundable when we got a copy of our bill on the first full day of the cruise.

 

You can only use "refundable OBC" for the DSC. I do not know about the casino.

 

You can use non-refundable OBC for tips for the Concierge, your butler or anyone else including an extra little something for your room steward if you want to. I asked accounting on the Star and was told only the DSC is prohibited from being paid by non-refundable OBC. Anything else you can add to your bill is fine. We had enough refundable to pay our DSC with $7.00 left over. We charged the $80.00 tip for the butler (we didn't ask for any extras) to our account and it was reduced by the non-refundable OBC so I know it works. Our final bill after $900 OBC was $18.88 which was correctly charged to our CC. I also purchased two FCR's with $300 of the OBC so I effectively now have two $250.00 deposits that didn't cost me anything!

[marc b]

Interesting - That is strange about the DSC and the extra tipping, but I suppose there is some method to their madness.

 

The casino question is merely a curiosity. If one had $ 100 OBC left over on the last night could you just go down to the casino, pay a $ 3 service fee, get $ 100 in chips, then go cash them in ? (if not, start drinking heavily, or expensively or leave a nice extra tip)......

[dutchess43]

Peg013 I tipped my butler & concierge in cash how did you go about tipping from your card?

[peg013]

Peg013 I tipped my butler & concierge in cash how did you go about tipping from your card?

 

Since we had "extra" nonrefundable OBC we just went down to "Accounting" to the right of Guest Services and told them who and how much we wanted to give them. They complete a short voucher which you sign and they give you a copy of it and a legal size envelope to present it to the person in.

 

He then asked about any others and I told him I'd be tipping the others with cash since I just wanted to use up my non-refundable OBC.

 

He said they actually prefer you do it this way so the higher ups know you were pleased with their employees services. I just wanted to make sure the Butler would receive the whole amount and no "taxes" or whatever would be taken out of it. He assured me that they would receive the entire amount with their next pay. It is up to the individual to pay the taxes of their own countries.

 

I think next cruise I'll see if I can get some opinions on the method the butlers/room stewards, etc actually prefer.