Can you use cash for your onboard account????

[OceanBull]

I could be wrong but I seem to remember depositing cash to use as our on board account years ago on a Carnival Cruise instead of giving them a credit card. Does anyone know if you can do that on NCL? I only ask because some people had experience with additional charges on their CC a few weeks after their cruises. :eek:

[CruisnGram]

Yes you can. It's completely up to you but the cases of additional charges on credit cards are rare, and the risk (in my opinion) is not having to worry about dealing with cash. You will have to keep a close eye on your bill and keep going back to the front desk to add more when your balance gets low. And, at the end of the cruise, will have to stand in line to get any reimbursement. Not to mention the risk of theft of a lot of cash that you will have to take with you.

 

A credit card is so easy, but of course, it's completely up to you.

 

CG

[MikeDavid]

Yes you can and this is how it works: (we asked about this very thing a couple days ago)

 

If you use your credit card, or bank debit card, for your on-board charges, NCL puts a hold of $300 on your account.

 

If you want to use cash instead, the deposit will be $100 per day, per person, for the length of the cruise. So if your cruise is 7 days long, you will need to deposit $700 cash per person in your party.

 

We were told by our PCC that the reason for this is, they only need to put a hold of $300 on your credit card because they now have your card number so they know they will get their money eventually. If you pay with cash, it would be very easy for you to walk off the ship at the end of the cruise and skip out on your onboard charges.

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise!! 2 days until we sail to Mexico!!! WooHoo!!!

[WinterSky]

We used cash to secure our onboard account for our first cruise but by our second cruise we were more relaxed and confident with NCL and used our credit card.

 

When we were doing the pre-boarding for the GEM last March we were asked for our credit card to secure the onboard account. We simply said that we preferred to use cash. We were told to go to the Reception Desk after boarding to set the cash account up.

 

We boarded, went to Reception and said we wanted to secure our onboard account with cash. We were asked how much we wanted to put down and since we had no idea how much was enough, we asked the Reception staff person to suggest an amount. She suggested $300 for the two of us in one cabin. That seemed low to us, so we put down $700.

 

You do have to pay attention to your bill but it is very easy to do so. All you have to do is stop by the Reception desk and ask for a printout any time at all. They are most helpful. When your account is getting low, you can add more cash if you wish as we did.

 

Simple. No problem at all.

[terrymtex01]

Not that my opinion means anything... but I do agree that the chances of you getting extra charges after you get back home are extremely low. Just think about how many people visit the boards here and post and compare that to how few you ever see where they are getting charged extra. Even when that does happen, I have seen, per the postings, that NCL does make it right, one way or the other. Either by crediting the charge back or providing the poster the info on what the charge was for. Sometimes it is a legit charge that was not made before you get off the ship.

 

By all means do what is comfortable for you, I just hate to think of you walking around with all of that easily stolen cash before the trip.

 

One tip I have for anyone who does want to use cash for their OBC... keep out the cash you want to take into ports with you. The front desk is not like a bank. If you deposit cash on your account, it is theirs until the last night of the cruise... you can't just go withdraw it and I have been told that you can not withdraw from the Casino cashier cage if you have a cash deposit, so that won't work to get your cash either. I don't know 100% for sure about not getting cash at the casino cashier if you have a cash deposit, but it makes sense to me and have been told that on several occasions.

[WinterSky]

..... One tip I have for anyone who does want to use cash for their OBC... keep out the cash you want to take into ports with you. The front desk is not like a bank. If you deposit cash on your account, it is theirs until the last night of the cruise... you can't just go withdraw it and I have been told that you can not withdraw from the Casino cashier cage if you have a cash deposit, so that won't work to get your cash either. I don't know 100% for sure about not getting cash at the casino cashier if you have a cash deposit, but it makes sense to me and have been told that on several occasions.

 

Great tip! Carrying cash for excursions ashore is a totally different thing than your onboard account secured with cash. Both when we used cash to secure our account and when we used a credit card to secure the account, we also made use of the cabin safe for extra cash.

 

There is also an ATM onboard where you can get additional cash if required.

 

Frankly, we were much more comfortable on our second cruise using the credit card and only carrying a little cash. The first trip was more stressful as I had to keep track of a couple thousand dollars in cash as it moved from my bra to the safe, to the bra, to the shops in port!