Young@heart25

My sympathies go out to you and your family.

Thank you so much for sharing your very touching story. I'm amazed at the strength you have.

Kind of disheartening to hear that there is not ONE answer to the dilemma of cash and debit cards. We are c-card-less by choice and used cash on our last cruise but that was on RCL and they obviously have different rules.

Glad I have several month's to figure this out

Thanks for the comments if you have experienced this in person

That's what's confusing me.....the answers seems to be so varied. I think the best advice would come from someone who recently sailed and used a cash deposit. Hopefully someone will chime in soon. I know there's no way I can leave a cash deposit of $3500 (5 of us, 7 days). And I don't want two holds (or more!) on our debit cards (which are from our joint bank account) for weeks after the cruise ends. There has to be a reasonable option.

I'm also curious about this. We would prefer to use cash for our deposit rather than our debit card. There are 5 of us in two rooms (2 adults and 3 children). We planned on paying our DSC in advance, and asking to have the kids cards deactivated from charging. DH doesn't drink alcohol, and I won't drink more than a few over the 7 days (Gem from NYC to Bahamas). Other than one or two specialty restaurants, we won't be charging much to our rooms. Based on some of the comments above, should we pre-plan a set amount of cash to give them for each room and stick with that amount? Will they demand more cash or demand a CC or debit card be used? Does this all happen once on-board, or does it happen before boarding? Sorry for all the questions....this is our first cruise and I'm so confused trying to figure everything out! :confused: