depositing cash for onboard expenses

My friend is cruising with us for my birthday with NCL. She does not earn a lot of money and has worked her socks off to pay for what for her will be a holiday of a lifetime. We have the UDP so apart from a drink or two on shore she won,t have a massive amount of spending money. She doesn,t have a credit card to use for any onbaord expenses so would have to depoit cash. The info on NCL website states she has to deposit $450. is this per cabin or per person, and can they insist as this will more or less be her total amount

My friend is cruising with us for my birthday with NCL. She does not earn a lot of money and has worked her socks off to pay for what for her will be a holiday of a lifetime. We have the UDP so apart from a drink or two on shore she won,t have a massive amount of spending money. She doesn,t have a credit card to use for any onbaord expenses so would have to depoit cash. The info on NCL website states she has to deposit $450. is this per cabin or per person, and can they insist as this will more or less be her total amount

We have used cash for the last 2 cruises and have put down as little as 300 total for 3 of us, 1 cabin. Nobody questioned it .

Keep in mind that for a 7 day cruise the DSC will be $94.50. So that would be the absolute minimum she would need to put down. Additionally there might be tax applied to your beverages while in Port. And lastly, it is UBP (Ultimate Beverage Package) not UDP (Ultimate Dining Package).

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If there is time before your cruise I recommend your friend get a credit card if possible. If there is not enough time I still recommend they get one.

Just for emergencies if nothing else.

Keep in mind that for a 7 day cruise the DSC will be $94.50. So that would be the absolute minimum she would need to put down. Additionally there might be tax applied to your beverages while in Port. And lastly, it is UBP (Ultimate Beverage Package) not UDP (Ultimate Dining Package).

 

 

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thank you. yes i know its UBP it was a typo

We have used cash for the last 2 cruises and have put down as little as 300 total for 3 of us, 1 cabin. Nobody questioned it .

Brilliant,thatsgreattoknow

If there is time before your cruise I recommend your friend get a credit card if possible. If there is not enough time I still recommend they get one.

 

Just for emergencies if nothing else.

thankyoufortheadvicebutitsonly26daystillwegoandmightbeabitlate

We pay cash and have left 300, after having the UBP and paying the DSC ahead of time. If we need more cash, we go and put more on. We like to prepay everything and just aren't credit card people...just don't count on the ATM always working if you need to pull more cash out during the cruise.

I've never tried it but has anyone ever used one of those pre-paid VISA debit cards?

I figure that the friend could put some cash on that and use it like a credit card towards the on-board account.

The generally accepted minimum is $300 but talk to them and see if they will accept less. It might pay for her to prepay the gratuities if possible.

thankyoufortheadvicebutitsonly26daystillwegoandmightbeabitlate

That's the longest word I've ever seen.

Hubby and I are taking 2 7 day back to back cruises. Assuming we prepay our gratuities, will we be able to just put down $300 cash? And when we leave, if we haven't used that $300 cash, will we get the leftover in cash?

Thanks for all the great info on the boards. Very much appreciated!!!

Hubby and I are taking 2 7 day back to back cruises. Assuming we prepay our gratuities, will we be able to just put down $300 cash? And when we leave, if we haven't used that $300 cash, will we get the leftover in cash?

Thanks for all the great info on the boards. Very much appreciated!!!

If you put down $300 it will run till it runs out; that is from one cruise to the other.

In general they will only refund $50 in cash and send anything more than that by cheque. You could point out that as you paid by cash they should pay out by cash; that may work.

If you put down $300 it will run till it runs out; that is from one cruise to the other.

 

In general they will only refund $50 in cash and send anything more than that by cheque. You could point out that as you paid by cash they should pay out by cash; that may work.

That is not 100% correct.

On our last NCL cruise, we paid off everything before we departed. - tips, UBP, etc.

when we checked in ,we just told them we will put cash down.

When we got onboard, we started to drink. and our cards worked. By the 3rd day, we wanted to buy something small in the gift shop, and we did, but, as soon as we bought it, they first let us buy it, then our card were locked, and we had to go down to reception and put cash down.

At the end of the cruise, we got a full refund that was due to us.

I've never tried it but has anyone ever used one of those pre-paid VISA debit cards?

I figure that the friend could put some cash on that and use it like a credit card towards the on-board account.

I don't think this will work. It's clearly not a credit card. And when they start doing pre-authorizations they will probably exceed the balance quickly.

We pay cash and have left 300, after having the UBP and paying the DSC ahead of time. If we need more cash, we go and put more on. We like to prepay everything and just aren't credit card people...just don't count on the ATM always working if you need to pull more cash out during the cruise.

There's nothing wrong with cash if that's how you prefer to do your account but it's really really recommend people at least have a credit card for emergencies. If you get sick/hurt and need medical treatment, if there's an emergency back home, if you miss the ship; etc. There's a million things that could happen that would require you to have access to more money than you can get from an ATM. It's one thing when you are at home and have friends/relatives and access to your home bank but in another country; you are limited to what you can pull out of an ATM in a day.

Just put a bit of cash on the account when you've boarded the ship. If she DOES spend it all, they will ask for more! Many, many folks do a "cash account"....she should keep back some cash for taking ashore.