Using Pre-purchased Shipboard Credit for Gratuaties?

[cruisingteachers4]

I have a AARP giftcard that I used to purchase Shipboard credit for my upcoming cruise. I was thinking about buying another giftcard so that all of my gratuities could be covered once I board.

Before I buy another $500 of shipboard credit, I just wanted to verify that I could use this for gratuities.

 

I would hate to buy the shipboard credit and then NOT be able to use it for gratuities. 

 

Thank you for your knowledge!

Edited March 3, 2023 by cruisingteachers4

[JCP3]

I did that on my last cruise without a problem.   I ended up with more credit than I used so the balance was refunded to the credit card I had on file. 

[cruisingteachers4]

Thank you!

[lissie]

Why not just pre-purchase the gratuities - what's the benefit of prepurchasing OBC? 

[boulders]

40 minutes ago, lissie said:

Why not just pre-purchase the gratuities - what's the benefit of prepurchasing OBC? 

The AARP gift cards are discounted by 10%, so it costs $450 to purchase the $500 gift card. 

[cruisingteachers4]

1 hour ago, lissie said:

Why not just pre-purchase the gratuities - what's the benefit of prepurchasing OBC? 

Great question - the reason is that I plan on using some of the OBC that was given to us by HAL and our travel agent when we get on board towards gratuities, but it isn't enough to cover all of them and I can't access those until we are actually on the ship. And this way we are saving 10% because of the AARP value gift cards. 🙂

[lissie]

1 hour ago, boulders said:

The AARP gift cards are discounted by 10%, so it costs $450 to purchase the $500 gift card. 

There are some huge benefits being  an American thtat cruises!