Cash for onboard charges

New to Celebrity and need info, please.

We always use the credit card and link to our sea pass card and pay when our credit card bill arrives. However, I am considering paying cash instead.

How does this work? Do we have until the end of the cruise to pay at guest relations or do we have to do at boarding process?

Is it possible to submit a certain amount of cash for credit to our account and pay the balance with our card since pre-payment would merely be an estimate?

Thank you.

New to Celebrity and need info, please.

We always use the credit card and link to our sea pass card and pay when our credit card bill arrives. However, I am considering paying cash instead.

How does this work? Do we have until the end of the cruise to pay at guest relations or do we have to do at boarding process?

 

Is it possible to submit a certain amount of cash for credit to our account and pay the balance with our card since pre-payment would merely be an estimate?

 

Thank you.

I have no idea but why would you not use a CC ? - you get 30 days to pay it off, and if you have a X CC you get double points that can be redeemed for OBC, or if you use another CC you get rewards or cash back etc.

I have read about people who set up cash accounts on Celebrity on Cruise Critic but have not done that ourselves. However, we have opened a Credit Card account but paid the full balance in cash. We normally have a high amount of OBC [incuding purchased OBC] so do not deposit cash at the start of the cruise. However, I have gone to Guest Relations at various points during the cruise and deposited cash when it look like we are going to spend more than our OBC. At the end of the cruise, when we know what our remainig expenditure is [likely to be] I will make a further payment hopefully leaving a zero balance. If, by any chance, we have some unexpected additional spend, it will be covered by our credit card.

Was just thinking ahead, that is all. We don't have X credit card, just received our Royal, though.

Thank you for your response.

You don't need a Celebrity credit card---any CC will work. If you use cash, you have to bring $300 per person to guest relations to cover your expenses. Once that amount is used up, they can suspend the ability to use your card until you bring more cash. Personally, I think cash is a hassle.

smartest way, IMNSHO is to guarantee at boarding with a credit card then pay it off in cash the evening before.. keeping in mind that so will a WHOLE bunch of other people..

that way the bulk is paid off, but you still have the ability to charge that *Last* drink before going to bed that night. If you wander down to GS during dinner or the show the line may not be quit as bad.

You don't need a Celebrity credit card---any CC will work. If you use cash, you have to bring $300 per person to guest relations to cover your expenses. Once that amount is used up, they can suspend the ability to use your card until you bring more cash. Personally, I think cash is a hassle.

Also there is no standing in line on the last day of the cruise to pay off the balance or pick up your refund.

Then as an extra bonus there are those previously mentioned reward points you receive for using a credit card.

Yes you can pay off the account in cash. We prefer doing that, on the evening before we leave. We just use the leftover cash we took out for the trip. Anything we spend after that is just added to the credit card and of course we pay it off the next bill.

A Celebrity Credit Card doesn't have anything to do with how you pay

off your bill. Any credit card will do....as long as that logo says,

"VISA", "MC" or "AE" on it you are good to go:)....your Royal CC will

work just fine.

You can certainly go the whole "cash" route, if you like. Most cruiselines allow a certain amount of charges before they ask for cash....others might ask for $200-$300 to be put on your account upon boarding....

Thanks. I always use a CC and always one with perks. I appreciate the ideas. I didn't know if guest relations would allow me to give cash toward onboard charges once I submitted my credit card. Now I know.

Thanks. I always use a CC and always one with perks. I appreciate the ideas. I didn't know if guest relations would allow me to give cash toward onboard charges once I submitted my credit card. Now I know.

Oh, they will always take money!

So do I. It is simply easier and more pleasant not needing to waste any of your time on a cruise bothering to go to Guest Relations to add cash to your account, being concerned about trying to estimate how much you will have to add, and especially not needing to carry large amounts of cash that may be lost or stolen.

 

Also there is no standing in line on the last day of the cruise to pay off the balance or pick up your refund.

Then as an extra bonus there are those previously mentioned reward points you receive for using a credit card.

 

Yes, but not everyone lives in the USA and, for everyone else, there is the FX conversions to consider. We purchase OBC at times that Celebrity offer a really good exchange rate. We purchase US$ cash at times the exchange rate is good. [These times rarely coincide.] We use our credit card at the times we are fortune enough to travel when the exchange rate is good. With the size of our on board account, even an additional cent to the pound can be worth enough to make the effort required worthwhile and the difference is usually considerably more than one cent. As they say "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves".

It is also worth noting that the Celebrity Credit Card is not available to anyone outside the USA and, perhaps, Canada.

Yes, but not everyone lives in the USA and, for everyone else, there is the FX conversions to consider. We purchase OBC at times that Celebrity offer a really good exchange rate. We purchase US$ cash at times the exchange rate is good. [These times rarely coincide.] We use our credit card at the times we are fortune enough to travel when the exchange rate is good. With the size of our on board account, even an additional cent to the pound can be worth enough to make the effort required worthwhile and the difference is usually considerably more than one cent.

But my previous remarks, which you quoted, were in reply to the posts of Tinykygal, the OP, and Kitty9 (whom I quoted), both from the USA and there was no FX conversion involved.

Perhaps I should have made that clearer up front to avoid any misunderstanding.

Oh, I totally agree that your circumstances are different and can indeed sympathize with your need to deal with foreign currency conversion and exchange rates.

 

But my previous remarks, which you quoted, were in reply to the posts of Tinykygal, the OP, and Kitty9 (whom I quoted), both from the USA and there was no FX conversion involved.

Perhaps I should have made that clearer up front to avoid any misunderstanding.

 

I understood your comments but, unfortunately, Cruise Critic has an International membership and many threads are resurrected months or years later. As such, I believe that it is important that, as well as answering an OP's question, it is important to ensure that a full picture is given.

smartest way, IMNSHO is to guarantee at boarding with a credit card then pay it off in cash the evening before.. keeping in mind that so will a WHOLE bunch of other people..

 

that way the bulk is paid off, but you still have the ability to charge that *Last* drink before going to bed that night. If you wander down to GS during dinner or the show the line may not be quit as bad.

This is exactly what we do. We guarantee our payment with a CC and the last night we pay our account with cash. Any last minute charge will go to our cc. :)

We always set up a cash account and add OBC before we go and settle up with cash on the the last.

It has also been known for us not to have used up all our purchased OBC and Guest Relations give it back to us in cash on the last night.

I have no idea but why would you not use a CC ? - you get 30 days to pay it off, and if you have a X CC you get double points that can be redeemed for OBC, or if you use another CC you get rewards or cash back etc.

We often pay cash to avoid paying the CC company (or the cruise line) an extra fee for currency conversion.

We've always used a credit card for our onboard purchases -- just seemed easier than cash. However, on our last X cruise (and two RC cruises before it) we got home and found an afer-final-statement minibar charge on our credit card. It wasn't much $$, but it took two calls to X and a follow-up with our credit card company to make sure the charge was removed. During this process, DH and I talked about going with a cash-only account on our next cruise. We're planning to go with Select Dining, and we have the drink package, so we probably won't be spending that much $$ onboard.

However, the one drawback to a cash-only account was pointed out by a fellow cruiser from our recent Century b2b. He posted that, on an earlier X sailing, he had settled up his cash account at GR the last night of the cruise. But, at the disembarkation point, his card produced a large "raspberry", instead of the usual sweet "good-bye" bo-ing. Security pulled him out of line and sent him to GR -- he had been "flagged" for a billing discrepancy. Back at the GR desk, he settled up the late charge, that had come in after his final accounting -- and got back in line to disembark. Apparently, GR had not notified security that he had fixed the problem. After his card put out another obnoxious sound, the poor man had to argue with Security to call the folks at GR, and get him cleared to leave the ship!

So, as much as I don't like handling late, unauthorized charges on my credit card statement -- I certainly wouldn't want to risk missing my flight because of a discrepancy in my final on board account, either!

However, the one drawback to a cash-only account was pointed out by a fellow cruiser from our recent Century b2b. He posted that, on an earlier X sailing, he had settled up his cash account at GR the last night of the cruise. But, at the disembarkation point, his card produced a large "raspberry", instead of the usual sweet "good-bye" bo-ing. Security pulled him out of line and sent him to GR -- he had been "flagged" for a billing discrepancy. Back at the GR desk, he settled up the late charge, that had come in after his final accounting -- and got back in line to disembark. Apparently, GR had not notified security that he had fixed the problem. After his card put out another obnoxious sound, the poor man had to argue with Security to call the folks at GR, and get him cleared to leave the ship!

 

So, as much as I don't like handling late, unauthorized charges on my credit card statement -- I certainly wouldn't want to risk missing my flight because of a discrepancy in my final on board account, either!

At disembarkation her card set off the alarm and she needed to go back to GR, where there was already a very long line of other unhappy people waiting ahead of her.

So our entire party was detained for nearly an hour waiting for her to be allowed off the ship.

We were lucky that we did not need to catch an early flight that day, but she was very upset about the whole thing and said she will never use a cash account again.

I think what bothered her the most was the embarrassment she felt with everyone in the disembarkation line staring at her when she set off the alarm.

I think what bothered her the most was the embarrassment she felt with everyone in the disembarkation line staring at her when she set off the alarm.

I've just never understood why that sound would embarrass anyone. It could mean many things, you have a voicemail you didn't get, you forgot to claim an item from security or duty free purchases, or that you forgot to settle your cash account and have a slight credit balance due to be refunded. And of course a billing discrepancy is always a possibility.

I've been "raspberried" leaving ship and just went to GS like I was told to resolve the issue - which just turned out my new key card wasn't properly programmed when the prior one was demagnetized.

Can i pay my bill with a travel card which is loaded with US dollers ? And can i give this card at the start instead of a cc?

Can i pay my bill with a travel card which is loaded with US dollers ? And can i give this card at the start instead of a cc?

As long as the card has a VISA, MasterCard, AmericanExpress or Discover Card Logo (not sure about CB and JCB...), it will be accepted.

Can i pay my bill with a travel card which is loaded with US dollers ? And can i give this card at the start instead of a cc?

From our experience on Royal Caribbean, it needs to have your name on it. We tried to pay with a prepaid Visa card, and as it didn't have our name on it they said they couldn't process it. We walked over to the ATM and got cash out. Cost $6 which compared to how much the exchange rate moved in those 2 weeks was worth it. We had locked in the US$ rate so that the money was in a US$ wallet on the card, and we knew exactly how much we could spend. The Aussie dollar can move around pretty fast in a fortnight, so it was good knowing we were not going to get an unexpected amount on our credit card if the exchange rate moved.

We also used a normal credit card as the hold for the card, knowing they would want to put their authorisation holds on the card each day. Those holds were off after about 5 days.

I would say the whole exercise in lining up twice and wandering to the ATM nearby would have been less than 15 minutes. We will be doing it again this way next time also.

As long as the card has a VISA, MasterCard, AmericanExpress or Discover Card Logo (not sure about CB and JCB...), it will be accepted.

No its a travel card that we have in Australia,you can load it up with your own money in 6 different currencys before you leave home.We used it a couple of years ago when travelling around 5 different countries,it was accepted in hotels and restaurants ,in fact i dont remember one place that didnt accept it,so that was why i was hoping to use it to pay our bill on the ship.(It is not linked to a cc)