Not so settled cash account

[Dan83]

On the last evening I used a credit card to settle our cash accounts. About an hour later we picked up our 2 year old from the nursery. I had forgot that there would be one more nursery charge and I had messed up by closing the account too early. They swiped the sea pass and made the charge no problem. I had thought that once you settled the account it was closed, done, no more charges. On my credit card account it showed the one large purchase, plus another $24. So it worked out convenient enough for me. But makes me think that once they get a credit card, your account is no longer a cash account. What if we’d had towels checked out? This was the first time we’ve done cash account so I didn’t know what to expect. 

On a side note, the visit to guest services was the most painful I’ve experienced. 40 minutes(not including time in line) to check the lost and found, dispute a $10 chops cover charge for our 2 year old, and to pay off the cash accounts of 2 rooms. The paying off the accounts took the longest. It reminded me of the old school airline ticket counters. Endless pecking away at his computer while I simply wanted to pay our bill and leave. Hopefully this was not the norm. This was Liberty of the Seas last week sailing. 

[suesnake2002]

I always use a cash acct. Mainly cause my TA gives great OBC. And I seem not to have erroneous charges while cash is set uo.  Sometime on the last day I close my cash acct. I almost always get cash back. I then give a credit card. 

 You can not close the acct til the cruise ends. You basically switched from cash to credit. 

Maybe someone else can chime in with whats the earliest you can close your cash acct. altogether. It might be when all the bars are closed on your last nite. I don't know. 

[Merion_Mom]

3 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

 

 You can not close the acct til the cruise ends. You basically switched from cash to credit. 

 

 

^^^  This.

[not-enough-cruising]

56 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

I always use a cash acct. Mainly cause my TA gives great OBC. And I seem not to have erroneous charges while cash is set uo.  Sometime on the last day I close my cash acct. I almost always get cash back. I then give a credit card. 

 You can not close the acct til the cruise ends. You basically switched from cash to credit. 

Maybe someone else can chime in with whats the earliest you can close your cash acct. altogether. It might be when all the bars are closed on your last nite. I don't know. 

I don't know about earliest, but I am an early riser (always have been) even earlier on dis-embarkation day (nerves I guess), so I go down to GS around 0500 on that last morning with my cash in hand, settle the bill, and have no issues; usually takes 10 minutes or less.

[karena1]

That is why - 1. I always use a credit card. and 2.  I go down around 7 am each morning to check my account.  That way if there are any issues, I can take care of it right away - no lines.  I go to the gym at 6 and then to GS at 7 and get a print out.  Lots of times there are charges that should not be there, but super easy to take care of early in the morning when no one else is there.

[not-enough-cruising]

21 minutes ago, karena1 said:

That is why - 1. I always use a credit card. and 2.  I go down around 7 am each morning to check my account.  That way if there are any issues, I can take care of it right away - no lines.  I go to the gym at 6 and then to GS at 7 and get a print out.  Lots of times there are charges that should not be there, but super easy to take care of early in the morning when no one else is there.

And you have NEVER had charges show up on your CC statement days or a week later?  It seemed we always did, that's why I quit leaving a card on file.

[karena1]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

And you have NEVER had charges show up on your CC statement days or a week later?  It seemed we always did, that's why I quit leaving a card on file.

only once, for a mini bar charger - and we have been on 118 cruises.  I just called and it was taken off immediately.

[Ourusualbeach]

Interesting.  I had always thought that you only authorized the cruise line  to make one charge with your credit card by not having it on file thereby negating the mysterious charges that appeared after the cruise was over.

[Clarea]

15 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Interesting.  I had always thought that you only authorized the cruise line  to make one charge with your credit card by not having it on file thereby negating the mysterious charges that appeared after the cruise was over.

 

Me too, but that does not appear to have happened in this case.  Real mistake, fake mistake ("convenence" conversion of bills to USD, no matter what box is checked), or new policy?

[RCCL Fan]

I would actually love to hear the reasons everyone uses cash accounts.

 

I never have, to me it's just simple, put your cc on file and you get one bill and it's handled automatically.

 

I always see long long lines of people at guest services, particularly on the last day dealing with their cash accounts.

 

I'd love to hear why you prefer this method.

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

I would actually love to hear the reasons everyone uses cash accounts.

 

I never have, to me it's just simple, put your cc on file and you get one bill and it's handled automatically.

 

I always see long long lines of people at guest services, particularly on the last day dealing with their cash accounts.

 

I'd love to hear why you prefer this method.

 

No "mistake" charges after you leave the ship

 

No 5% fee for a casino cash advance.

[TonyFred]

I too fail to understand why you would sign up for a cash account and then take so much time and effort to pay it off with a card.

[PhoenixCruiser]

You took a 2 year old to Chops?

[papaflamingo]

4 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

And you have NEVER had charges show up on your CC statement days or a week later?  It seemed we always did, that's why I quit leaving a card on file.

I've done 27 cruises on Royal Caribbean.  We have always used a Credit Card.  I do check the bill on the TV periodically.  I think I've found one or two times that I was charged for a mini-bar charge.  Called GS and they took it off.  

BUT, No, I have never had any charges show up days or a week later.  NEVER in 27 cruises.  I can't possibly conceive of setting myself up to stand in line at GS on the final day of a cruise if I don't have to. I'll continue to take my chances. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by papaflamingo

[Johnamac123]

I check-in using a cash account, then switch to a credit card with a couple of days remaining. The primary reason is I don't want my credit card active in their system any longer than necessary. Also, I check my account on my TV daily....

[Merion_Mom]

30 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

You took a 2 year old to Chops?

 

Do you object to parents having dinner with their toddler present?

[PhoenixCruiser]

 
Do you object to parents having dinner with their toddler present?

Not at all as long as the said toddler is calm and not crying or screaming through dinner.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Esmerelda]

We have done a cash account for our last 6 or 7 cruises. I put a chunk of money down on day 1.  On day 5 or so, I go down and add my debit card to our account.  I don’t think it’s ever been more than $100 that went onto my card.  You can check your account on your TV in your room every night.  I would never go back to the desk daily to check it.  We have never had any duplicate charges, holds, nor towel charges put on my card.  This system has worked very well for us many times.  😊

[NateUpNorth]

9 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Not at all as long as the said toddler is calm and not crying or screaming through dinner.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

 

Toddlers can be removed from the restaurant within minutes, usually to knowing smiles from other understanding people who have had children themselves.

 

It's the drunk adults that usually cause the biggest fuss during the situation, and likely an even greater fuss should they be getting "removed".

 

I've seen the second more often than the first in my brief cruising history.

[johnjen]

19 hours ago, suesnake2002 said:

I always use a cash acct. Mainly cause my TA gives great OBC. And I seem not to have erroneous charges while cash is set uo.  Sometime on the last day I close my cash acct. I almost always get cash back. I then give a credit card. 

 You can not close the acct til the cruise ends. You basically switched from cash to credit. 

Maybe someone else can chime in with whats the earliest you can close your cash acct. altogether. It might be when all the bars are closed on your last nite. I don't know. 

On our recent med, we went to guest services, knowing we had like $21 left on it and knew we weren't going to incur any other charges. They refunded us the money and closed the account, no issues. We closed it during our last sea day and the time was around noon.

[sgmn]

15 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

I would actually love to hear the reasons everyone uses cash 

 

I'd love to hear why you prefer this method.

I got fed up ticking one box to be billed in dollars and get my bank to change to £'s and finding out they were always doing the conversion themselves at a worse rate. Not a whole lot of difference but it was the principle that was important. 😁Now we just put down $500 in cash on first day or so and cash out around 10pm on last day, believe it or not the queue isn't normally that bad.  Also don't like coming home to a big credit card bill. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by sgmn

[Cruiser_1977]

My last two cruises I have set up my account with neither. I prepaid gratuities, had a drinks package and had OBC. I didn't add cash or link a Credit Card. NCL was a bit more incredulous than Carnival but they both let me board LOL

 

I will be doing the same thing in 10 days on RCCL. 

[johnjen]

15 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

I would actually love to hear the reasons everyone uses cash accounts.

 

I never have, to me it's just simple, put your cc on file and you get one bill and it's handled automatically.

 

I always see long long lines of people at guest services, particularly on the last day dealing with their cash accounts.

 

I'd love to hear why you prefer this method.

1. There's like a 10% surcharge on credit card accounts
2. Cash accounts avoid "latency" or "post-cruise" billing experiences incurred by some, not all cruisers
3. Long lines avoided with finalizing cash accounts especially if closed out the sea day before arrival the next morning, preferably in the early afternoons before people think about it

[johnjen]

I have a closely related question to add to this thread: Can you merge two sail pass accounts into just one, before boarding and doing it online at RCL? I had forgotten to look into that on our recent cruise.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, johnjen said:

I have a closely related question to add to this thread: Can you merge two sail pass accounts into just one, before boarding and doing it online at RCL? I had forgotten to look into that on our recent cruise.

 

You can do that as part of the online check-in, at check-in, or at Guest Services once onboard.