Paying on board account in advance?

[E&B]

We are sailing on the Spirit 7/29 and our final payment is due in April. We're planning on using our tax refund to settle the balance, and since the balance is less than the refund I was wondering if we can put $ on our onboard account before we sail? It would be nice to know that most of the expenses were taken care of in advance.

[heelfan94]

We did that on one cruise because we needed the airline miles to get free tickets. We called NCL and sent ourselves $800 in OBC and charged it to the card. That way we were able to get the last few miles and also pay in advance. I don't think it would be a problem.

[garycarla]

You could do what the last person said.

 

But, personally, why do it and take that chance (though rare) of somebody messing up some paperwork? Stick the cash in an envelope with your cruise stuff and take it with you. I have seen too many issues with NCL accounting to let them "hold" my money.

[heelfan94]

You could do what the last person said.

 

But, personally, why do it and take that chance (though rare) of somebody messing up some paperwork? Stick the cash in an envelope with your cruise stuff and take it with you. I have seen too many issues with NCL accounting to let them "hold" my money.

I think that's a good point, garycarla. On my last cruise my boss sent me OBC as a surprise. I emailed everyday from the ship and finally she had to ask if I didn't get her surprise. I got it, but a little late. For some reason the certificates were listed as "deliver 3rd day of cruise". It's probably better to take the cash and pay on board. :)

[mistyw]

We did that on one cruise because we needed the airline miles to get free tickets. We called NCL and sent ourselves $800 in OBC and charged it to the card. That way we were able to get the last few miles and also pay in advance. I don't think it would be a problem.

When you pre pay and have a credit can you receive the cash once you board to be used in the casino or for whatever ashore or is it only deducted from your final bill the last day? Thanks for your help.

[garycarla]

When you pre pay and have a credit can you receive the cash once you board to be used in the casino or for whatever ashore or is it only deducted from your final bill the last day? Thanks for your help.

 

 

You may not be able to actually get YOUR cash back, but here is what you can do. Anyone can go to Casino and get cash which is charged to your overall account. You then HAVE the cash to do whatever you want to do with it. They expect you to gamble with it, but nobody walks around to make sure you actually put it into the machines.

 

So, in theory, you could send yourself 7,000 in on board credit, then withdraw $1000 each day for casino use, meaning you would have your 7,000 back at the end of 7 days. I am not suggesting you do this, but just pointing out what could be done.

 

You onboard account is just a running ledger of expense and income. At the end you pay or receive the difference.

[mistyw]

I may just go ahead and do it then.

[slotaddict]

We did that on one cruise because we needed the airline miles to get free tickets. We called NCL and sent ourselves $800 in OBC and charged it to the card. That way we were able to get the last few miles and also pay in advance. I don't think it would be a problem.

 

On our Pearl cruise, I had a gift card (visa) in the amount of $500.00, its a long story but I could not give myself a 500 OBC, the card was declined. After trying to figure it out for days, I finally put 2 200.00 OBC's and a 75.00 OBC, seems the bank puts sometype of percentage on the gift card. In any event we had a card in our room that said we had OBC, i don;t know why but I went to the desk and pulled the bill to see if the correct amount was on there. To my surprise it was not, there were other OBC's so while trying to explain the mistake, they kept trying to point out that I had OBC's, well finally had to call the financial officer. He was sorry about our problem, but didn;t seem the least bit interested in making it right. Finally, he said he would email Miami and would let me know. Also, I did have a receipt because they emailed it to when I made the purchase. It took 6 days before the problem was straigtened out.

I asked why he couldn;t call Miami, I mean I could stand right there and call New Jersey, but they wouldn;t make the call.

It was finally corrected but it took some time.

If you give yourseld an OBC, just bring the receipt with you and check as soon as it is convenient that the proper credit is there.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[HurricaneSally]

You may not be able to actually get YOUR cash back, but here is what you can do. Anyone can go to Casino and get cash which is charged to your overall account. You then HAVE the cash to do whatever you want to do with it. They expect you to gamble with it, but nobody walks around to make sure you actually put it into the machines.

 

So, in theory, you could send yourself 7,000 in on board credit, then withdraw $1000 each day for casino use, meaning you would have your 7,000 back at the end of 7 days. I am not suggesting you do this, but just pointing out what could be done.

 

You onboard account is just a running ledger of expense and income. At the end you pay or receive the difference.

 

 

Let me clarify something for you. I put cash down on my last Norwegian cruise in October and then tried to get money out to spend in the casino and I wasn't allowed to do it. I only put down the cash so I could limit my casino spending.

 

I'll never do that again. I couldn't gamble with one dime of my own money, go figure.

[mistyw]

Yikes...Maybe I'll re-think this. Thanks!

[mistyw]

Thanks for the warning. Could you get casino credits say in the amount of $400 that would cancel out with the $400 you pre-paid?

[Crusin'Cousins]

Although we do not gamble, we've been able to use the casino for cash several times with no problems. I would suspect that your $400 casino credit (cash given to you from the cashier, right?) would offset the prepaid credit to your on-board account.

 

Here's another on-board account question for someone "in-the-know":

Is it possible to charge the first half of our cruise on one NCL MC account and the second half of the cruise on another NCL MC account? If, so, how do we go about doing this? I ask this question due to the monthly limitation of only $250 in NCL credits being allowed to post to an account in any given month. There is a possiblilty that we may earn over $250 NCL credits within the month which we wouldn't want to lose. If we can switch accounts in the middle of the cruise, it would ensure that we could accumulate all of our points. Does anyone know if this is possible?

 

Thanks!

[Toyz711]

we had a minor problem in the middle of the cruise...the ship's bill was only amount, but the credit card company was holding more (no, they didn't have an extra hold on the card). we went ahead and charged the card, mid-cruise. but another card down for the rest of the cruise..that clear up the original problem and we didn't have any other problems after that.

if you put cast down on your account, you would have to put a lot down to be able to get cash back...more then the total of the service charge and excursions booked...they aren't going to give you the whole amount back, leaving nothing to pay your bill with.

[HurricaneSally]

we had a minor problem in the middle of the cruise...the ship's bill was only amount, but the credit card company was holding more (no, they didn't have an extra hold on the card). we went ahead and charged the card, mid-cruise. but another card down for the rest of the cruise..that clear up the original problem and we didn't have any other problems after that.

if you put cast down on your account, you would have to put a lot down to be able to get cash back...more then the total of the service charge and excursions booked...they aren't going to give you the whole amount back, leaving nothing to pay your bill with.

 

Let me say this again, since it happened to me, I could not get ANY cash out of my account at the casino, even though I had no excursions and the service charge was being billed to my husbands account. Believe me, I was really annoyed.

 

Now, if you have firsthand experience, then you can add what yours was, but if not, don't let people think they can do this, since they can't.

[sassyj38]

I have put OBC's on my son,my husbands and my acct and have the receipts which I will bring with me......I put enough for the tips and excursions to be paid for and a certain amount of spending money for each of us that way everything is there.

[garycarla]

Let me say this again, since it happened to me, I could not get ANY cash out of my account at the casino, even though I had no excursions and the service charge was being billed to my husbands account. Believe me, I was really annoyed.

 

Now, if you have firsthand experience, then you can add what yours was, but if not, don't let people think they can do this, since they can't.

 

Were you trying to get cash OUT of your account, or getting cash an CHARGING it to your account. Two different things. Have "charged" cash to my account many times. No problems.

[HurricaneSally]

Were you trying to get cash OUT of your account, or getting cash an CHARGING it to your account. Two different things. Have "charged" cash to my account many times. No problems.

 

You can call it whatever you want, my card was not backed by a credit card, only cash. I put 1,000 on the account on embarkation and wanted 40.00 to play in the slot machine. I went to the window with my card in my hand and was told "sorry" no dice.

 

I went to the pursers desk and complained and was told, my seapass card had to be backed by a credit card in order to get a cash withdrawal.

 

I too, thought I would be able to get cash in the casino, but I was not, and I want to make sure people are aware of this rule. Please don't give them false information.

[slotaddict]

Yikes...Maybe I'll re-think this. Thanks!

 

 

Don;t get me wrong, I would do it again, I would just check immediately that the credit was there and bring the receipt.

The problem came when they emailed Miami and three days later there was still no answer from Miami.

Which is interesting because the casino was able to email the Spirit casino and my casino credits were transferred in a matter of hours.

[garycarla]

You can call it whatever you want, my card was not backed by a credit card, only cash. ....

 

Oh! That is different.

 

We do EVERYTHING on a credit card. EVERYTHING. Anyone that travels should have and use a credit card. I don't understand why people do not.

[HurricaneSally]

The OP asked about cash on the card and I was assuming they didnt' want to back it with a credit card.