Specialty dinning using OBC

[ccr1956]

We have a generous amount of OBC. Our cruise is Feb. 1st. When I went on the Medallion app to reserve specialty dining they charged my credit card instead of our OBC. When I called Princess they said I could take care of it once on board. Has anyone experienced this? 

[phoebe2m]

Yes this is the way it works. As soon as you get on board make your reservations.

[Hlitner]

You can get it adjusted, once aboard, but it is a mild pain since you will need to visit the Guest Relations desk.  We simply wait until we aboard to make reservations.  Since we dine late (after 7:30) we seldom have a problem getting reservations.

 

Hank

[VaCruzers]

Our experience in booking specialty dining in advance was that our credit card was charged. I had read on these boards that we could make adjustments at guest services. All they could do was cancel our reservation for the credit to be returned to our card. Then we had to go to the specialty restaurant to rebook our reservation. It was a little frustrating and we weren't able to rebook the same day/time we had. Not sure how that was no longer available in the 5 minutes it took to walk from guest services to the venue, but we ended up with a workable solution. Next time, I'd just wait until onboard and go to specialty restaurant upon boarding. 

[jwattle]

6 hours ago, ccr1956 said:

We have a generous amount of OBC. Our cruise is Feb. 1st. When I went on the Medallion app to reserve specialty dining they charged my credit card instead of our OBC. When I called Princess they said I could take care of it once on board. Has anyone experienced this? 

You aren't able to use OBC to pre book specialty restaurants, only excursions.

 

[ccr1956]

I wish I had known that before I made the reservations. Princess should advise on the app that your card will be charged. Oh well, live and learn.

[nini]

6 hours ago, ccr1956 said:

I wish I had known that before I made the reservations. Princess should advise on the app that your card will be charged. Oh well, live and learn.

Agreed. It just seems silly that you can't use OBC for that. It really does not seem any different from booking a shore excursion.

[caribill]

25 minutes ago, nini said:

Agreed. It just seems silly that you can't use OBC for that. It really does not seem any different from booking a shore excursion.

 

The only reason that Princess even allows OBC to be used to book excursions pre-cruise is that Princess used to allow you to make reservations pre-cruise, but not pay for them until the cruise which meant it was easy to use OBC.

 

But then Princess changed to requiring shore excursions to be paid when booked, requiring full payment at the time of booking.

 

There were major complaints by customers because using OBC on board was a main use of OBC. So pre-cruise excursions were booked less which meant Princess had a hard time selling them pre-cruise. Princess relented and now allows using OBC pre-cruise to pay for excursions.

 

Other items such as specialty dining never could be reserved pre-cruise using OBC.

 

The competition (CCL, HAL, RCI, Celebrity) does not allow use of OBC pre-cruise to pay for shore excursions.

[SSAtlantic]

I am not sure about Celebrity not allowing OBC for pre booking shore excursions, but you can definitely prebook specialty dining using OBC. 

[trinitygirl]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

.The competition (CCL, HAL, RCI, Celebrity) does not allow use of OBC pre-cruise to pay for shore excursions.

That is not the case with Celebrity.  I have a bunch of OBC on my two Celebrity cruises this year and I have used it to book all of my shore excursions.  It’s terrific to know they are locked in in advance.  You can also use OBC to pay for wifi and speciality dining on Celebrity.  

Edited January 21, 2023 by trinitygirl

[nini]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The only reason that Princess even allows OBC to be used to book excursions pre-cruise is that Princess used to allow you to make reservations pre-cruise, but not pay for them until the cruise which meant it was easy to use OBC.

 

But then Princess changed to requiring shore excursions to be paid when booked, requiring full payment at the time of booking.

 

There were major complaints by customers because using OBC on board was a main use of OBC. So pre-cruise excursions were booked less which meant Princess had a hard time selling them pre-cruise. Princess relented and now allows using OBC pre-cruise to pay for excursions.

 

Other items such as specialty dining never could be reserved pre-cruise using OBC.

 

The competition (CCL, HAL, RCI, Celebrity) does not allow use of OBC pre-cruise to pay for shore excursions.

 

That is right! Now I remember being able to book shore excursions without paying up front.

Memory Lane.....