If pay by credit card precruise - once onboard can I get refund & use OBC instead?

[flwinejunkie]

This is probably a newbie question but couldn't find an answer...

 

I would like to book a massage now before Dec cruise, so I need to pay by credit card.  Once I'm onboard, can I go to guest services and ask for refund to credit card and use OBC instead?  I won't feel so guilty about the expensive massage if OBC pays for part of it.  LOL

 

Thanks for your help!

Mary Jon

[Steelers36]

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

[flwinejunkie]

28 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Thanks for the info.  

[firefightermediclasvegas]

I had a similar question for specialty dining.  I did a chat with Princess and their rep said to go ahead and reserve and pay.  He said once I get onboard, I can get a refund and use my onboard specialty dining credit.  I printed out a copy of my chat to take with us on the cruise to support a refund.

[skynight]

You can always just wait until you are on board. Seems like there are always openings available.

[Steelers36]

11 hours ago, firefightermediclasvegas said:

I had a similar question for specialty dining.  I did a chat with Princess and their rep said to go ahead and reserve and pay.  He said once I get onboard, I can get a refund and use my onboard specialty dining credit.  I printed out a copy of my chat to take with us on the cruise to support a refund.

Actually, second thought.  I suppose if the appointment made was not on Day 1 and you cancel within allowed cancellation period, they are going to credit back the fee, but I am not so sure it goes directly to credit card.  I believe it will be a credit to on-board account.  At least, that seems the logical thing.

 

Any real-life experience anyone?

[JF - retired RRT]

Here's another reason to wait until you board before booking (along with the "they're never busy" comment)...there are often specials that occur, i.e. book a massage on a port day, a % off the usual fee, etc.

Altho' it might be hard to find out the information about the specials since they no longer send all those annoying ads with the daily Patter.

[tamsno]

All purchases and refunds onboard go to your onboard account as a plus or minus running total available to view daily  including onboard credit  There are never direct credit card transactions.  

[57eric]

How do you book the spa before boarding?  I was surprised to learn this is possible.

 

Also, you can (or at least, you used to be able to) book shore excursions with OBC before boarding.  Why would the spa be different?

[Cuedon]

8 minutes ago, 57eric said:

How do you book the spa before boarding?  I was surprised to learn this is possible.

 

Via the website you can go to Onboard Services>Lotus Spa Services (View Options)>Browse Spa Services, and go nuts. You can see the individual time slots available.

 

...And off-topic, but I can't believe people actually get acupuncture onboard. The idea of people poking needles into me on a moving vessel just... 😱

[caribill]

10 hours ago, 57eric said:

How do you book the spa before boarding?  I was surprised to learn this is possible.

 

Also, you can (or at least, you used to be able to) book shore excursions with OBC before boarding.  Why would the spa be different?

 

History:

a) Originally OBC could not be used to book anything pre-cruise. At that time, pre-booked shore excursions were not billed until once on board when the costs were added to the on board account.

b) Princess decided that it did not want to be unique in relation to the competition and started requiring pre-payment for pre-booked shore excursions.

c) After a big negative reaction from Princess customers who often used OBC to help pay for the excursions after they were added to the on board account, Princess started to allow use of posted OBC as payment for pre-booked shore excursions. All other pre-booked items (specialty restaurants, spa, etc.) continued to be "pay when ordered" without the use of OBC.

[skynight]

13 hours ago, 57eric said:

How do you book the spa before boarding?  I was surprised to learn this is possible.

 

Also, you can (or at least, you used to be able to) book shore excursions with OBC before boarding.  Why would the spa be different?

Yes, why? But it is different. 

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

History:

a) Originally OBC could not be used to book anything pre-cruise. At that time, pre-booked shore excursions were not billed until once on board when the costs were added to the on board account.

b) Princess decideThat id that it did not want to be unique in relation to the competition and started requiring pre-payment for pre-booked shore excursions.

c) After a big negative reaction from Princess customers who often used OBC to help pay for the excursions after they were added to the on board account, Princess started to allow use of posted OBC as payment for pre-booked shore excursions. All other pre-booked items (specialty restaurants, spa, etc.) continued to be "pay when ordered" without the use of OBC.

That is exactly right. I remember the reaction to that original change on these boards was extremely negative towards Princess. Since we always hear that members of cruisecritic are a small minority of cruisers, I would imagine they were also getting a lot of negative comments from others not on these boards. The allowing of OBC for exxcursions only was their compromise to placate all the hostile reactions they were getting.