On board ship credits (money)

We booked our cruise with a travel agent for the British Isle cruise in June on the Carribean Princess. With our booking we got a 600 dollar credit to use on board the ship to pay for things. I am trying to figure out how we will use this money. It can't be used to pay for the cruise itself obviously and has to be spent on board. I've done some research and people talk about drink card, ice cream, spas, coffee card, water, etc. and none of these interest us much, maybe the coffee and water might be something. I'll have to look into whether side trips can be paid for using the credits. Any ideas how this can be used ?

Other options include

Gratuities charged to our account

shore excursions charged to your account

gift shop

internet charged to your account

I emphasis "Charged to your account" because you can not use OBC to pay for anything you pay for before the cruise with a credit card.

We booked our cruise with a travel agent for the British Isle cruise in June on the Carribean Princess. With our booking we got a 600 dollar credit to use on board the ship to pay for things. I am trying to figure out how we will use this money. It can't be used to pay for the cruise itself obviously and has to be spent on board. I've done some research and people talk about drink card, ice cream, spas, coffee card, water, etc. and none of these interest us much, maybe the coffee and water might be something. I'll have to look into whether side trips can be paid for using the credits. Any ideas how this can be used ?

You will have an onboard account set up and every thing including daily gratuities, tours etc will be charged as a debit to your on board credits and is firstly charged against those. ( I can assure you it doesn't take long to evaporate the credits ) Welcome to the bottomless money pit of our favourite cruise line. .

Don't forget the casino...it's "found" money after all. ;)

Thanks all

When you get on board, go to the passengers services desk, or the account kiosk, and get a copy of your statement.

It should show the credits on your account.

Day by day, there will be a Hotel Charge for each of you. This will start to eat into the credit.

If you book an excursion, either before cruise or onboard, it will be charged to your account and now your OBC is getting less and less.

If you don't book any excursions, don't shop onboard, don't drink, etc. you can use the casino.

Go to the casino with your card and set it up to work in the slot machines. Very easy. You'll need your birthdate and a 4 digit pin that you make up. Then, Withdraw money from your account.

If you Withdraw, say, $100, it will go on your OBC. Play the slots for a little while. As a previous poster said, it's found money. Maybe you'll be lucky. Either way, before the end of the cruise, go to the cashier with your card and ask to cash out the balance on your card. You'll get the money in cash.

Daily gratuities and one or two tours will use it up in no time flat!

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Daily gratuities and one or two tours will use it up in no time flat!

Our last couple of cruises had free gratuities so we use OBC for a wine package & specialty dining in addition to tours. We enjoy being wined, dined & toured for no extra cost to us. :D

And when there's still remaining credit there's always the option to make gift shop purchases. ;)

Although even the complimentary OBC isn't always truly free money because it often offsets the higher cruise fare to lower our net cruise cost.

12 day cruise in a balcony or lower cat. cabin will use up $13.50/pp/day for the auto gratuities. Two in the cabin and your gratuities will be $324 for the cruise. Mini suites and full suites have higher/day charges.

Two cocktails per day will be about $21/$22/day which is about $250+ for drinks.

Any tours you book and don't pre-pay will be charged to your on board account.

Your account will start with a negative balance. Each day whatever you spend on board + grats will be added to your account. Once on board check your folio and you will see how it works. You can use up $600 credit pretty quickly.

By the way, your OBC may not show up on the first day. Sometimes it appears on the second day. Not a big deal.

Should you find you have OBC left over, there are some nice shop onboard -- jewelry, watches, liquor, etc.

Gratuities tend to eat our OBC quite effectively.

If you take any Princess shore excursions, they plus the automatic gratuities should use up the OBC with no problem. Shore excursions on the British Isles cruise are relatively expensive compared to the Caribbean, so you should have no problem spending it all.

IF you don't spend it all (which is unlikely), since it comes from a travel agent, it is refundable to you. They will send you a check or give you cash if it's only a small amount left.

IF you don't spend it all (which is unlikely), since it comes from a travel agent, it is refundable to you. They will send you a check or give you cash if it's only a small amount left.

That may work for OBC a TA actually purchases however not for OBC that's from a TA's group sales OBC.

Travel Agent Grp Promotion*

*Please enjoy using these credits onboard as they are not refundable.

Only my military OBC doesn't have the asterisk & thus it's refundable.