CCL tip for budgeting pre-cruise

[Paleochick]

This isn't really a money saving tip, but a budgeting tip. Before our recent cruise I ordered Fun Ship Dollars from Carnival (I used the online ordering system, but you can call them). I asked to have them saved for on board credit...I gave my booking number and my cabin number. I did this every pay period for several months before the cruise...it wasn't hard to add $50 here and there.

 

When we got on board, we had hundreds of dollars in credit. We were able to use it for everything: tips, excursions, drinks, shop purchases. It was fun going on a cruise with a large credit to begin with. There was no guilt in spending for this or that. It was a GREAT vacation because of this. :D

 

I thought I'd pass this on to fellow CCL cruisers.

[cruise_lover]

This isn't really a money saving tip, but a budgeting tip. Before our recent cruise I ordered Fun Ship Dollars from Carnival (I used the online ordering system, but you can call them). I asked to have them saved for on board credit...I gave my booking number and my cabin number. I did this every pay period for several months before the cruise...it wasn't hard to add $50 here and there.

 

 

When we got on board, we had hundreds of dollars in credit. We were able to use it for everything: tips, excursions, drinks, shop purchases. It was fun going on a cruise with a large credit to begin with. There was no guilt in spending for this or that. It was a GREAT vacation because of this. :D

 

I thought I'd pass this on to fellow CCL cruisers.

 

What a great idea! Thanks !! And you are right - doing it every month won't be an ouch to my pocketbook. Although it has never happen yet, any idea if you get the money back if you have to cancel the cruise?

[Paleochick]

What a great idea! Thanks !! And you are right - doing it every month won't be an ouch to my pocketbook. Although it has never happen yet, any idea if you get the money back if you have to cancel the cruise?

 

I'm sure they would cut you a check if you cancel. If you don't use all of the OBC (assuming it was obtained this way and not because the price of your cruise dropped), they'll cut you a check at the end for the remainder. Easy! You should definitely check with them about the details if you are concerned about canceling.

[tjwillis]

What a great idea! Wonder if this works on NCL. Anyone know?

[KAWS]

I'm sure they would cut you a check if you cancel. If you don't use all of the OBC (assuming it was obtained this way and not because the price of your cruise dropped), they'll cut you a check at the end for the remainder. Easy! You should definitely check with them about the details if you are concerned about canceling.

 

They will. We did this for our cruise last March and I checked it out before I bought the funship dollars. Turned out there was no refund for us - in fact we had to pay more, but it sure hurt a lot LESS doing this. We did the same for Princess except no funship dollars were mailed to us - we just called and they put it directly on our OBC account. I did ask "special services" to send me a print out though just in case something didn't credit properly.

 

I'll do this again for any of the cruises that we take from now on.