Shipboard credits - casino chips

[FeelingCruisy]

First time going on Koningsdam in November.   We have cruise credits.   I assume we can use those credits to pay for our gratuities like every other cruise lines, or am I wrong in assuming so.  Also can I get casino chips from our cruise credits?

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, FeelingCruisy said:

First time going on Koningsdam in November.   We have cruise credits.   I assume we can use those credits to pay for our gratuities like every other cruise lines, or am I wrong in assuming so.  Also can I get casino chips from our cruise credits?

You can pay gratuities with OnBoard Credit -- it will be seamless with the daily service fee being subtracted from your 'wallet' daily. Whether you can spend said OBC in the casino may depend on where the credit came from. Others are more knowledgeable than me on this -- but I did want to reply to your question so you knew someone was listening!

[Will_Dieterich]

There are two kinds of OBC; refundable and non-refundable.  They will be marked as such in the app on your statement.

Refundable are those that go and give cash or gift cards to the front desk, or purchase on the web site.  Sometimes depending on the TA if they had a special deal for money that might be refundable and to you.

Everything else non-refundable.

Any bill from spa, drinks, daily gratuity, etc will come first non-refundable.   

Casino can only come from refundable.  

One trick if you plan to play a good sum of money is purchase gift cards where you get a rebate, aarp and amazon(if you purchase with a prime credit) are two places.  Then take to guest services and have them made into refundable obc then use that in the casino.

 

If you plan to bring cash for the casino you can take that down to casino and get that transformed into casino credit.

[FeelingCruisy]

6 hours ago, Will_Dieterich said:

There are two kinds of OBC; refundable and non-refundable.  They will be marked as such in the app on your statement.

Refundable are those that go and give cash or gift cards to the front desk, or purchase on the web site.  Sometimes depending on the TA if they had a special deal for money that might be refundable and to you.

Everything else non-refundable.

Any bill from spa, drinks, daily gratuity, etc will come first non-refundable.   

Casino can only come from refundable.  

One trick if you plan to play a good sum of money is purchase gift cards where you get a rebate, aarp and amazon(if you purchase with a prime credit) are two places.  Then take to guest services and have them made into refundable obc then use that in the casino.

 

If you plan to bring cash for the casino you can take that down to casino and get that transformed into casino credit.

Wow, thanks for the info.  This is totally news to me.  You are basically saying I can get an Amazon gift card worth $xxx and take it to the front desk and they can change that to non refundable credits right?  I've honestly never heard of such things.   Are there a list of accepted gift cards, or I can probably look it up.   Thanks for the info.   Basically first time on Holland.   Been looking at the menu, look pretty nice from what I see.    I saw someone posted menus that are for the Alaskan cruise.   I'm going on Nov 2, RT SAN Diego.   I suppose the Alaskan segment is the closest.   Different segments have different type menus.  So good as I am tired of the repetitiveness on Celebrity, which I don't think made any big changes to their menu in 15 or more years.  Opps .sorry getting off topic.   Thanks again 

[crystalspin]

6 hours ago, FeelingCruisy said:

You are basically saying I can get an Amazon gift card worth $xxx and take it to the front desk and they can change that to non refundable credits right?

No they would be refundable (sometimes back to the giftcard, sometimes not). Then the OBC could be used in the casino. AARP just changed their terms from 10% discount to 8%, but money saved still!

[Dismomx5]

12 hours ago, FeelingCruisy said:

Wow, thanks for the info.  This is totally news to me.  You are basically saying I can get an Amazon gift card worth $xxx and take it to the front desk and they can change that to non refundable credits right?  I've honestly never heard of such things.   Are there a list of accepted gift cards, or I can probably look it up.   Thanks for the info.   Basically first time on Holland.   Been looking at the menu, look pretty nice from what I see.    I saw someone posted menus that are for the Alaskan cruise.   I'm going on Nov 2, RT SAN Diego.   I suppose the Alaskan segment is the closest.   Different segments have different type menus.  So good as I am tired of the repetitiveness on Celebrity, which I don't think made any big changes to their menu in 15 or more years.  Opps .sorry getting off topic.   Thanks again 

The gift cards are Holland America Gift Cards, available at AARP. If you are an AARP member you can buy them for 8% less than what they are worth. When you apply them to your On Board account, they are refundable, meaning you would get any money not used back to the card(s) that you used to purchase the OBC Casino charges (including Bingo and Deal or No Deal) always come out of your refundable credits.

[jlawrence01]

12 hours ago, FeelingCruisy said:

Wow, thanks for the info.  This is totally news to me.  You are basically saying I can get an Amazon gift card worth $xxx and take it to the front desk and they can change that to non refundable credits right?  I've honestly never heard of such things.   Are there a list of accepted gift cards, or I can probably look it up.   Thanks for the info. 

 

At the beginning of each cruise, I stop by guest services late at night when they are bored to death and add a gift card to my account in the amount that I need to pay any gratuities that are in access of the OBC that I have on the cruise.  They swipe the gift card and the next day, the amount shows up on my account.  At the end of the cruise, any balance left (often $50-75) is refunded to the credit card that I have on file.  

 

Any credit that is non-refundable must be used on the cruise.  Any amount that you add via gift card is refundable.

[FeelingCruisy]

Thanks so much for clarifying, can't wait for my first Holland cruise

[POA1]

You can also get HAL gift cards at grocery stores such as Kroger's. and their affiliated chains. I believe that they can give you a pretty good gas discount there.