Pre-funding shipboard account

[Sunshine91]

RevNeal - I saw in another of your posts that you had pre-funded your account for the upcoming Noordam inaugural cruise. DH & I will be joining you on that trip :) & look forward to meeting you - I've enjoyed reading all of your other posts.

 

Anyhow, we were unaware that the shipboard account could be pre-funded - the service-charge (auto-tip) alone on this cruise will be $200 for us - so to have that taken care of ahead of time (plus some extra) would be great. Is this something we arrange thru our TA or HAL directly? If HAL, do we just send them a check? What are the actual mechanics of pre-funding? Does anyone else do this? Thoughts please - both pro & con. What happens to the $$$ if you pre-fund your account & are unable to take the cruise?

 

Thanks everyone. I've learned so much from lurking. :)

[Iggipolka]

I also put a bunch of money on my shipboard account about a month or so before boarding. I just called HAL and gave them my debit card number and asked them to email confirmation to me. They did and the credit was there when I boarded. It was so nice to not have to worry about my credit card statement the month after the cruise! :)

[PRINSENDAM]

What happens to the $$$ if you pre-fund your account & are unable to take the cruise?

 

:)

 

 

The unused balance goes to charity.... Rev Neals Bar Account!!!!! ;)

 

 

Stephen

 

PS: See you on board!

[RevNeal]

RevNeal - I saw in another of your posts that you had pre-funded your account for the upcoming Noordam inaugural cruise. DH & I will be joining you on that trip & look forward to meeting you - I've enjoyed reading all of your other posts.

 

Thank you so much. I will enjoy meeting you, too. The Noordam cruise will be a GREAT trip.

 

Anyhow, we were unaware that the shipboard account could be pre-funded - the service-charge (auto-tip) alone on this cruise will be $200 for us - so to have that taken care of ahead of time (plus some extra) would be great. Is this something we arrange thru our TA or HAL directly? If HAL, do we just send them a check? What are the actual mechanics of pre-funding? Does anyone else do this? Thoughts please - both pro & con. What happens to the $$$ if you pre-fund your account & are unable to take the cruise?

 

You can call ship's services and make a deposit to your shipboard account. The number is: 1-800-541-1576 and have your booking number ready. They accept most major forms of credit as well as check/debit cards. If you want to mail them a check they can tell you how to do that too. You can download a form from their website by click here: Gift_Order.pdf. On the left-side column you'll see a blank for: "Shipboard Credit Amount."

 

I normally deposit the nominal pre-authorization amount of $70 pp/pd, and forego registering a credit card with them (since I don't like using credit cards). That's $490 for a week-long cruise, or $700 for 10 days. On a 7-day cruise I THINK they won't let you pre-deposit anything more than $500. On the Panama Canal Cruise (21 days) last year I deposited $1000, and ended up having to add only a few dozen dollars by the end of the cruise.

[RevNeal]

The unused balance goes to charity.... Rev Neals Bar Account!!!!!

 

LOL ... the "Reverend Neal Memorial Libation Fund." Donations are appreciated.

 

No ... in all seriousness, if you are unable to make the cruise that you've deposited money to they will cut you a refund check or re-credit it to your debit/check/credit card.

[PRINSENDAM]

LOL ... the "Reverend Neal Memorial Libation Fund." Donations are appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Rev Neal.... or do you prefer Father Gregory? Sounds like Rasputin!:rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to seeing you on board. Cabin change... we are now in 7045. Come and visit!

 

Stephen

[RevNeal]

Pop over to the Roll Call board and let them know over there of you cabin change. :) They'll also put you on the contact list for CC get-togethers and such.

 

I'm in "my" favorite cabin on a Vista: 1037. Call for drinks or such.

[I Luv Crusin]

I'm going on the Veendam in April and I have already pre-purchased my shore excursions and a 1st night visit to the Pinnacle Grill. I'd love to put some money on the shipboard account So we don't have to worry about using the credit cards.

 

It's a 7 day cruise so the tips would be 140.00 and so if I put 500.00 on account that should be plenty because :rolleyes: We are not big drinkers or gamblers.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Lesley

[gizmo]

You got a lot of pro's so how about a con?

 

I would never do this.

 

Why give the cruise line your money ahead of time? They are collecting interest on it not you.

 

If anything happened that prevented me from taking the cruise, I would not want the hassle of getting my money back.

 

I collect points on my credit card. This can pay for air and hotels.

 

I realize there are diferent strokes for different folks. :)

[gizmo]

double post

[peaches from georgia]

Several reasons I would never consider paying ahead and don't understand why anyone does:

 

1. If you pay ahead in cash and do not use a credit card, you have no way to put your payment in arbitration in case of a dispute. You will be at the cruiseline's mercy if you think you deserve a refund, with no one to negotiate on your behalf.

 

2. If you pay off your credit card charges the month you get the bill, you are paying no interest anyway and it costs you nothing, so why not use the advantages offered with cc payment? Put the money aside at home, saved to pay off your cc bill, so you will not be tempted to spend it.

 

3. Like gizmo, we get points when using our cc, so why not get the benefits.

[RevNeal]

Gizmo, thanks for listing a few cons. Ditto with Peaches. Sadly, (1) not everyone has been as careful with their credit and money management as others; as a result, such individuals may not HAVE credit (or sufficient available credit) to do as you suggest. (2) Some who, after many years of hard work, have rebuilt their credit are skittish about using credit cards. Credit card abuse can be an addiction for some, and hence their use can be dangerous if unchecked by sound financial safe-guards (like per-deum spending limits). Due to past nightmare situations, people like this REFUSE to use credit cards for anything other than absolute HAVE TOs ... and an on-board account` is not a "have to" when paying with cash is a REAL, viable option.

 

There was a time when I HAD to pay my onboard bill in cash, in advance, because I had insufficient available credit line on my cards. Then, there was a period of time when I had NO credit cards at all, and had to pay in advance because of that. THEN, there came a time when I had limited credit, and I used it sparingly in order to build that credit back up. During those days I never carried more than a $50 balance on my cards, and paid off everything as quickly as I could. As a result, I received credit line increases rather quickly until such time that REAL danger existed that my spending would, again, get out of hand. So, I had my bank put a per-dium limit on my credit card purchases. That limit is BELOW the pre-authorization amount for a 7-day cruise on HAL. Today, I have sufficient credit to use credit cards again, and I have at least one card without a spending-limit ... which I nearly never use. I am -- quite frankly -- terrified of getting myself into the hole I was in 13 years ago. I'm not going to do it ... not to make it easier to pay a bill on a cruise. NOT when paying by cash is an option.

 

Granted, the cruise line earns some interest off my money. But, given my limited finances (I'm a minster ... and not of a large, wealthy church), I'm not about to be earning much money off it myself if it were to be in my checking or savings account. Since I wouldn't be earning much -- if any -- interest on it, it subsequently costs me no money for them to earn interest on it ... AND I'd rather not run the risk of owing finance charges to a credit card company again. I've already expended the equivalent of several years worth of salary in that direction due to a combination of poor financial management and a church that couldn't pay my salary. NEVER AGAIN will I allow myself to get into such a situation.

 

As Gizmo indicated ... different people, with different situations, have different need and different ways of making their own lives livable. I, for one, am GLAD that we're different. The world would be WEIRD if everyone were the same.

[I Luv Crusin]

We are going on a financial diet and by pre-funding our shipboard account we will be able to go on this cruise. The other option is to not go! (the air and cruise fare is already paid off!) I'll take losing a little bit of interest over not cruising any day! I'm doing 3 cruises in 2006 and really need to watch my dollars, cents and Euros! :D

 

Having a finite amount of money will help.

[gizmo]

We are going on a financial diet and by pre-funding our shipboard account we will be able to go on this cruise. The other option is to not go! (the air and cruise fare is already paid off!) I'll take losing a little bit of interest over not cruising any day! I'm doing 3 cruises in 2006 and really need to watch my dollars, cents and Euros! :D

 

Having a finite amount of money will help.

 

???? This really confuses me. Why is the other option not to go?

[kryos]

You got a lot of pro's so how about a con?

 

I would never do this.

 

Why give the cruise line your money ahead of time? They are collecting interest on it not you.

I'm sorta of the same mind as you. I never make a pre-deposit on my shipboard account, but I do love the ability to pre-order shore excursions through HAL and to pay for them in advance. Shore excursions can represent a huge chunk of your onboard spending, and I prefer to get these paid for and out of the way before I cruise.

 

Also, especially on longer cruises where I bring a larger amount of cash than normal, I sometimes go down to the purser's desk towards the end of the cruise and deposit some money on my account ... especially if I see that I have a lot of cash still on me. In that case, I'd rather let HAL handle it than to have a lot of cash in my pocket as I travel home. You can always go down to the purser's desk and deposit money on your account. They'll be glad to take it off your hands. :)

 

But I never prepay my account in advance. I just make sure I have extra money moved into the checking account so that I can pay off that charge on my AmEx card as soon as it appears on my first post-cruise statement.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Sunshine91]

Thanks everyone, for your thoughts & comments. At this point am not sure what DH & I will do - will decide after the holidays.

 

I did call Ship Services & was told that I can pre-fund only via credit or debit card - they won't accept a mailed check. Ship Services will send a confirmation e-mail as a receipt.

 

So, we might do some pre-funding for expenses we know we'll incur. We might take travellers checks to pay the balance. We might just pay it all on credit & then pay it off when the bill comes in. Then again, we might transfer sufficient funds into the checking account & use the debit card (that's what we did when we went to London in 2003). Seems like there are all kinds of options/combinations.

 

Again, thank you. :)

[Sunshine91]

Thanks everyone, for your thoughts & comments. At this point am not sure what DH & I will do - will decide after the holidays.

 

I did call Ship Services & was told that I can pre-fund only via credit or debit card - they won't accept a mailed check. Ship Services will send a confirmation e-mail as a receipt.

 

So, we might do some pre-funding for expenses we know we'll incur. We might take travellers checks to pay the balance. We might just pay it all on credit & then pay it off when the bill comes in. Then again, we might transfer sufficient funds into the checking account & use the debit card (that's what we did when we went to London in 2003). Seems like there are all kinds of options/combinations.

 

Again, thank you. :)

[Sunshine91]

Sorry for the dbl post - we've been having problems w/the DSL :(

[exprincessemployee]

Thank you so much. I have cruised on another line (Princess of course) and I was able to give them my credit card a few weeks before I got to the ship and I had what was called Express Check-in. When I arrived onboard I was just told which way to my cabin while everyone else had to wait in a line at the pursers desk to give their credit card information. I tried to do this with HAL and they would not let me so the pre-payment idea is just wonderful. Thank you, this is very useful information.

[gizmo]

Thank you so much. I have cruised on another line (Princess of course) and I was able to give them my credit card a few weeks before I got to the ship and I had what was called Express Check-in. When I arrived onboard I was just told which way to my cabin while everyone else had to wait in a line at the pursers desk to give their credit card information. I tried to do this with HAL and they would not let me so the pre-payment idea is just wonderful. Thank you, this is very useful information.

 

You no longer have to go to the pursers desk. Your account is now handled when you check in.

[RevNeal]

Thank you so much. I have cruised on another line (Princess of course) and I was able to give them my credit card a few weeks before I got to the ship and I had what was called Express Check-in. When I arrived onboard I was just told which way to my cabin while everyone else had to wait in a line at the pursers desk to give their credit card information. I tried to do this with HAL and they would not let me so the pre-payment idea is just wonderful. Thank you, this is very useful information.

 

You can go through "Express" on HAL by giving them your credit card at check-in and they swipe it and pre-authorize your account with that credit card's available credit line. pre-paying is an option for those of us who can't or don't want to use credit that way.

[TidePrideGA]

I fall exactly into the same category as RevNeal on this - and for the exact same reasons if you leave "poor financial management" in place and substitute "under capitalized a start-up business" for the church that couldn't pay. I absolutely REFUSE to use my credit cards for anything at all except to guarantee payments such as a rental car or hotel room - and then I actually pay cash for those. That credit is available in case of a real emergency, but emergency is very tightly defined.

 

What we did with the shipboard account was I set aside $500 a month in the month before and the two months before that (total $1,500 - our HAL amount was $1,470 for 3) by buying Traveler's checks with it and putting those in a special folder for the cruise. Then right before we left I deposited that amount in my checking account and registered my debit card with HAL. That way, the money was set aside early, but I still had the no-hassle convenience of having a card registered with HAL for express pay purposes. I only went to the purser's desk twice and that was mid-cruise and during the last day just to have them print my account for me so I could see where I was and check for accuracy. To my surprise, I came in several hundred dollars under what I had budgeted! I was soooo proud! (I had budgeted far less than HAL's amount).

 

This worked well for me. To each his own.

[lilyhammer]

I've prefunded my shipboard accounts on my last two cruises with Royal Caribbean and we never had any problems with it. But on my last cruise on the Westerdam, I had prefunded my account with $300 and asked friends and family to add to this too. We don't like to carry too much cash with us and figured we could take cash out of the shipboard account at any time, like we had on RC. To our surprise, the lady at the pursors office told us that any money taken out of our shipboard account would be treated as a cash advance (with the appropriate surcharge). Therefore, we could only spent this $$ on their onboard purchases. She did say that any unused cash would be refunded at the end of the trip. So the night before disembarkation I went to clear out the account (we had about $100 remaining) and we were told that we would have to come back the next morning (with the other 100 people in line) to take care of it. And no, if we didn't return the next day, they couldn't just credit our credit card. If we didn't show up, they would call our name over and over on the loudspeaker and hold up disembarkation until we did. This ended up being a major inconvenience for us and I'd recommend not pre-funding your account unless you are sure you are going to spend it all.