What to do with my room credit

[hokiemare]

A little frustrated with Celebrity at the moment. I'm doing an Alaskan cruise on the Millennium in June 2016. The perks of my reservation included prepaid gratuities, the drink package and a $300 room credit. I'm traveling solo. My plan was to use my room credit on excursions - however if you book the excursions in advance, you have to pay for them in advance. I don't want to run the risk of getting on boat and having my desired excursions sold out. So now I have a quandary - what to do with my room credit? Spa pass? Celebrity trinkets in the gift shops? Overpriced jewelry on board? Premium drink package? Welcoming any and all ideas.

[Lois R]

I always travel solo and 300.00? You could dine in multiple specialty

restaurants and I don't know what excursions you are wanting to do but

they usually have plenty available. I had obc last summer on Solstice too

and found multiple excursions to do..... and yes, you could definitely use

the credit for the spa too. And yes, you could upgrade your drink package

as well.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Lois R

[agargoyle]

HI,

 

We have never been lucky enough o have such a large amount in OBC and even if we hardly do ship excursions anymore.

 

So I am not sure if this would work but....can you book your excursions now and pay for them.....cancel as soon as you get on the ship (I know the cancelation policy is usually 24 hours before the trip) and just re-book with you OBC. It would be a pain because you are tying up your money but just think you get a credit on your charge card so all those gifts you buy yourself will be paid off. Win-win situation.

[Riverviewnb]

If you don't pre-pay gratuities can you use OBC for this?

[neverbeenhere]

yes

[wendychloecruiser]

Determine whether the OBC is refundable or not. OBC from a TA is generally refundable and OBC from Celebrity is not.

 

Check out the gift shops, there might be something that surprises you. A watch maybe? What about gifts for others? If you like Martinis upgrade your package as that will take care of $11.80 per day.

 

And if there is absolutely nothing you want then don't spend it. You won't be out any money.

[jbuch02]

I'll try to help out with your question and my suggestions are assuming you're not too familiar with Celebrity Cruises.

 

As another poster suggested, you can book your excursions onboard and I would recommend doing this instead of prepaying them. If you go to the Celebrity Website, log in and find your reservation, you can preview all the excursions by port. Choose the ones you are interested in and pick a primary and a back-up. Don't book them though. All your doing is reviewing and choosing.

 

When you board you have three options: the first is to book your reservations from your cabin on the TV if this service is available. It's easy if it is. Follow the prompts from your my account link. The second is to obtain a reservation form from the excursions desk and mark the excursions you want, drop it in the box for these and your tickets will arrive in your state room. Your on board account will be billed for the excursions you requested. The third option is to simply go to the excursions desk in person and make your reservations. The sooner the better but there will be plenty of offerings and I don't think you will have any problem finding something you like and getting it.

 

I suspect you'll use most of your OBC if you book an excursion in each port. If you don't, make sure you dine in one of the specialty restaurants using your OBC to cover the up charge. Before you upgrade to the Premium beverage package, see if the offerings on the classic meet your needs. If you find out you love the Martini bar and want to go there every evening for one and/or like craft or premium beers, it's worth it to upgrade. If not, stick with the classic.

Edited March 27, 2016 by jbuch02

[CathyCruises]

If you don't pre-pay gratuities can you use OBC for this?

 

Absolutely. And very very few excursion sell out before boarding. If it was me I would just go straight to the excursions desk as soon as I got on board and would book then

[pizzalady1]

If you don't pre-pay gratuities can you use OBC for this?

 

The OP said that the pre-paid gratuities were a perk for booking.

[cruzzzinma]

When we took our Alaska cruise, I got my mimosa and walked straight to the shore excursion desk with my list - I was able to book all of them. I would wait till you get on board.

[cruisestitch]

A partial list of what to do with on-board credit:

 

Internet

Laundry/pressing/dry cleaning

Bottles of wine

Specialty dining

Bingo

Luggage Valet (where offered)

Wine tastings/liquor tastings

Enomatic machines (selected ships)

Drinks above the price point of a drink package

Photos

Gift shop purchases

Duty free purchases

Mini bar

Room service beverages (beyond the no-charge coffee, tea, lemonade, milk)

Gratuities (if not pre-paid)

Spa treatments

Hair salon/nail salon

Casino

 

 

The only thing this cannot be used for is to book a future cruise. You cannot use OBC for that.

[rjrpar]

Absolutely. And very very few excursion sell out before boarding. If it was me I would just go straight to the excursions desk as soon as I got on board and would book then

 

 

Totally agree. Keep it simple

[hokiemare]

Lots of good ideas. I'm thinking of booking a spa appt and maybe spend time in the casino. Not a big gambler but i would be spending house money!!!

[beaveh]

you won't have trouble spending it. A full body massage is about 160$ :(

[Cate M.]

We have a $200. credit. All our bookings have been done in Cdn. dollars. Is it true that our credit will be converted to US dollars and we will get less than the $200.?

[stoddaj1]

I don't think so. Our documents show USD for our onboard credit even though we booked in Cdn.

[Jenlegs]

We did pre-book one shore excursion for our recent Eastern Caribbean sailing, because we heard it was popular and would likely sell out. Long story short, my SIL forgot to book my MIL, and the trip did in fact sell out, but I went straight to the shore excursion desk on embarkation day to find that there was still space available. In fact, it looked as though they had added a second trip because it was so popular. The only time we couldn't get the excursion we wanted was when our trip was cancelled at the last minute -- there were only a couple of options available, particularly since most of them had already left.

 

My suggestion would be to do your research -- if there's something you absolutely MUST do, book it in advance, but otherwise, make it a priority once you board. Because Celebrity has a pretty liberal cancellation policy (24 hours before departure), we did a LOT of booking and cancelling, so the chances are good that you won't have any issues. Good luck!

[bigbenboys]

We just got back from a 7 night cruise on Reflection. We were in a Sky Suite and the Best all 4 perks with $850 OBC. We spent $120 going to The Porch 2 times on sea days. 2 bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue $310. 2 cruise pic of us. 2 bottles of men's cologne $160. Gifts for friends. I think in the end our bill was under $3.00. When I got to the airport my large bag weighed 69lbs just under the 70 limit.