Can onboard charges be paid ahead of time?

[sharonmae]

When people say, "You can buy a soda card", or "You can buy a coffee card", do you actully mean you can buy one with cash or are these charges always added to your account to be paid with your charge card at the end of the cruise? My DH agreed to a cruise because he thought everything was included. Every day it seems I'm hitting him with additional charges. Wine, beer, soda, good coffee, excursions (private, not through Princess), some specialty foods, alternate restaurants, balcony dining, Chef's table. Can any of these be paid for ahead of time, or with cash on board so he doesn't get hit with a huge bill at the end of our 19 day cruise and decide we can't afford to cruise again?

[NeurosurgeryNP]

I am sure that you can place cash down on your account on the first day of the cruise. Just go to the purser's desk on arrival. They will not bill everything up front, but if you have the cash down, the credit card charge will be much less at the end of the cruise.

[teripp]

Somewhere there is a previous post about this. The gist of it if I remember correctly was that you can put money on your acconunt in advance. ( I remember that I thought it was a great idea to plop down 500 buck on account so you would not have to pay on the back end or at least not pay much) Just call customer service and they will take your advance payment. I would of course get a confirmation number or email of the transaction (s) and bring it with you as back up. I think this can be done up to 2 weeks before you sail but please check me out on that as I am not sure.

[Toto2Kansas]

Yes, you can add shipboard credit before your cruise. Just contact your TA or Princess and they will explain to you how they will do it.

 

Cruises are in no way all-inclusive. Lots of extras to pay for onboard unless you sit by the pool and sip iced tea all day long, that there isn't a charge for. :)

Our shipboard account for a 7 day cruise can run as high as $500-$1000 depending on if we book shipboard excursions. Even on a 7 day sailing, your gratuities alone will be close to $150 for the both of you for the minimum.

 

Other high end cruise lines such as Regent are more so all-inclusive, but mid range cruise lines like Princess, RCI, Celebrity, Carnival, they are not.

 

And please don't forget, your shipboard account will be charged $10.50 for balcony cabins and below and $11.00 for mini suite and above PER PERSON PER DAY for gratuities to room stewards and waiters.

[dyanalee]

Our shipboard account for a 7 day cruise can run as high as $500-$1000 depending on if we book shipboard excursions.

 

 

 

I don't feel so bad then because ours at the end of the 15 day cruise was $1530, and that included 4 excursions, pictures, my husband's beer, my coke and non alcoholic beer, and a couple of sales at the boutique, and the gratuities. It can add up pretty fast though when you just whip out the card! :D

[newbie cruiser77]

Do you have to pay in advance or can you put cash on your ship account when onboard???

[ck53]

You can put cash down on your account when you board.

 

Last year, I called customer service and they told me to buy $100 gift certificates and they applied those to out account. I didn't want my husband to paya bill @ the end, as the cruise was a gift to him so I did what they recommended for $1000. The day we boarded in our room was an envelope showing the gift certificates that had been applied to our account.

 

The one suggestion, is that if you go that way, get a confirmation (written) from Princess that this has been done. Sometimes communication between the head office and the ship can get mangled.!

[chrysalis]

Do you have to pay in advance or can you put cash on your ship account when onboard???

 

you can put cash or traveller's checks towards your account when you on board.

[newbie cruiser77]

Thats great, We have two people in our party on the grand next year who don't have (or want) a credit card for there charges so wish to only apply cash to there account

[cruiseryyc]

No one is forcing you to buy a coffee or soda card - have been on 13 cruises and have managed to do without both of those items!

[dyanalee]

Thats great, We have two people in our party on the grand next year who don't have (or want) a credit card for there charges so wish to only apply cash to there account

 

 

 

I would think that they have to put up a credit card in case they go over the amount that they pay in cash. I know when we were boarding the ship, they did not give us a choice of credit card or cash, they wanted a credit card.

[Putterdude]

They are always happy to take cash from you at anytime during the curise. We have also had the experience where our sons bought some gift certificates for us from Princess that were applied to our OBA.

[WeBeGone]

Not only can you pre-load your cabin account, you can purchase casnio credits. Then you just redeem your credits for cash in the casnio.

[LaurieCM]

if you only want to pay cash, they will send a note when you are getting close to the amount you gave them at embarkation. Then you can go down to the desk and either add a credit card number or hand over more money.