Purchasing OBC in advance through Cruise Personalizer with Princess gift cards

[dshuns]

I have multiple Princess gift cards that I would like to use to purchase onboard credit for an upcoming sailing that I've already paid for in full.  I've previously redeemed Princess gift cards onboard at the Guest Services desk for OBC, but it's time-consuming to do so, especially when I have multiple cards.

 

It shows online that gift cards can be redeemed through the Cruise Personalizer, but there's no payment option showing for me to apply these - only options for credit card and PayPal.  Is anyone aware of a way to apply gift cards in advance through the Princess website?  I'd prefer to enter these myself online instead of providing the numbers one by one over the phone, as I have a lot of smaller denomination Princess gift cards.

 

 

[EDDY0827]

The default answer is "Call Princess".

[Thrak]

You can use them to purchase OBC but will need to call Princess. If you have a TA involved get the TA to make the purchase. Trust me. Princess screwed mine up badly when I called and got a rep who had no freaking clue what she was doing. It is actually a very easy transaction which I have done in the past. I called, gave the voyage info, and asked to apply the gift card as OBC. They ask for the number and the PIN and it's done. I just got a totally insane agent who tried to apply them as a bunch rather than one at a time - which is the proper way. It turned into a huge mess.

[STREETKING]

Exactly what Thrack said. I had gift cards that I had purchased and called yesterday and had money applied to my final balance, bought some casino credits, applied some to my wife's on board account and had $22 left so I bought the shrimp platter for our embarkation sail away. Everything went smoothly. I still can't figure out why you cant use the gift cards  to purchase items online so you could do it yourself. 

[CineGraphic]

When you call it's hit & miss. Some reps know how to process your gift card as payment, while others are clueless. I've experienced both extremes.

[dahuffy]

Quick question; where does one buy Princess gift cards? I've seen Disney and Universal Studios cards in my area  but never a cruise line

[flutprop]

1 hour ago, dahuffy said:

Quick question; where does one buy Princess gift cards? I've seen Disney and Universal Studios cards in my area  but never a cruise line

I am told Kroger stores have them. And pretty sure Target does.  

I got all mine from Princess website when they have the promo for get $25 (or $50) bonus card when you buy $500 (or $1000) of gift cards. I still need to email my TA the numbers so they can be applied before the bonus card expiration of 7/31

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, dahuffy said:

Quick question; where does one buy Princess gift cards? I've seen Disney and Universal Studios cards in my area  but never a cruise line

 

I got mine from Princess during their last two promotions. One promotion gave a $50 freebie gift card if you purchased a $1.000 gift card. The other gave a $25 freebie if you purchased a $500 gift card. I applied three of the $50 cards as OBC to a cruise. When I tried to apply 4 of the $25 cards as OBC to the same promo the Princess rep totally screwed it up. It's been a disaster ever since. I should have just had my TA do it and he could have dealt with the hassle caused by the IDIOT who screwed my stuff up totally.

 

I'm still holding three $1,000 plastic gift cards and four $500 plastic gift cards. I'll give them to my TA to apply toward final payment when that comes up. Final Payment is due August 5th so I'll contact my TA on Monday.

[dshuns]

I've noticed that the Princess Cruises e-gift cards purchased through the princess.com website, as well as the physical Princess gift cards bought through Amazon or in a grocery store, have a bar code on them.  On my last cruise when I took the gift cards to the Guest Services desk, they manually entered each card number instead of scanning or swiping the cards, which took quite awhile for them to do.  Does anyone know whether the Guest Services desk has begun scanning or swiping the codes instead of typing them in one-by-one?  (I'll be on the Ruby).  I have a number of gift cards and am trying to determine whether I should just wait until I get onboard to redeem them for OBC.

[richmke]

FYI: You can use Gift Cards to purchase Future Cruise Deposit. You cannot use OBC to purchase FCD. So if you want to use a GC to purchase FCD, do not convert it to OBC.

 

In order to purchase FCD with GC, go to the FCD desk when it is open, have the form filled out, and give them the GC to make the purchase.

 

Note: You don't have to use the entire balance of the GC. The remaining balance can be placed onto your OBC by the Passenger Service Desk. Or when you go to the Passenger Service Desk, you can have them only put a portion of the GC onto the OBC, and leave the balance for the FCD people.

[dave_k58]

can you purchase OBC with a Princess Credit Card.  I have a 0 balance  with a $250 credit on the card

[Roger88]

I always wanted to purchase Princess Cruises e-gifts or something. It would be a great present to give. I mean these days you may find cheap cruises for like 2-3 days, maybe even river cruises. 

[Esjung1]

I added mine once I got on board the ship for the 8/8 sailing.  I wasn't sure how much I wanted to apply (I had $400 worth) so I just waited until closer to the end of the cruise and then went to the customer service desk and had them added to cover all of my expenses.  I had shipboard credit coming into the cruise and I wanted to make sure that got used up first as it was a use it or lose it kind of thing. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Esjung1

[caribill]

13 hours ago, dave_k58 said:

can you purchase OBC with a Princess Credit Card.  I have a 0 balance  with a $250 credit on the card

 

Yes. But you may not get double points on the card for doing so as the charge may not say Princess Cruises anymore.

[Esjung1]

On 7/19/2019 at 8:39 AM, dshuns said:

I've noticed that the Princess Cruises e-gift cards purchased through the princess.com website, as well as the physical Princess gift cards bought through Amazon or in a grocery store, have a bar code on them.  On my last cruise when I took the gift cards to the Guest Services desk, they manually entered each card number instead of scanning or swiping the cards, which took quite awhile for them to do.  Does anyone know whether the Guest Services desk has begun scanning or swiping the codes instead of typing them in one-by-one?  (I'll be on the Ruby).  I have a number of gift cards and am trying to determine whether I should just wait until I get onboard to redeem them for OBC.

Mine were the same way, I purchased 44 of them before my cruise through All State at 15% off and had 4 left because the cost of my cruise went down when I made final payment.  I used the ones I had left to pay for my on-board expenses at the end of the cruise.  When I went to the service desk, there was only one person would could enter them and they had to be done manually.  In fact, I had to leave my gift cards with them overnight so they could be processed because there was an issue getting them approved.  The next morning I stopped to pick up my onboard statement and everything was applied correctly so I was thankful for that.