Why I will never use my onboard credit early again...

Long story short...if you rebook for lower rate and lose onboard credit you’ve already used, it’s a nightmare to straighten out. I also learned that drink packages and shore excursions stay with the room, not the person. I booked my teens in an interior and husband & I in aft balcony. Travel agent was assured at booking this met requirements...which it does not. Swapped daughter for husband, all is fine. Except she’s 15, so it cancels his drink package that we bought at buy one get one half off on Black Friday. Get that straightened out to notice husband now going to beach in St. Thomas and daughter going off shore fishing. [emoji849] Still have to make that call to straighten out. And I’m two calls and several emails in to fixing the lost-but-used onboard credit. I thought it was almost straightened out, but an email telling me how to repay the credit never arrived as was promised from the resolutions team via the phone agent who never really understood the issue to begin with. I’ve spent almost two hours total on hold and I’m not done yet. But from now on, I’ll use my onboard credit to pay my gratuities.

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Really doesn't matter what you use your OBC on, does it? What a nightmare, tho!

Long story short...if you rebook for lower rate and lose onboard credit you’ve already used, it’s a nightmare to straighten out. I also learned that drink packages and shore excursions stay with the room, not the person. I booked my teens in an interior and husband & I in aft balcony. Travel agent was assured at booking this met requirements...which it does not. Swapped daughter for husband, all is fine. Except she’s 15, so it cancels his drink package that we bought at buy one get one half off on Black Friday. Get that straightened out to notice husband now going to beach in St. Thomas and daughter going off shore fishing. [emoji849] Still have to make that call to straighten out. And I’m two calls and several emails in to fixing the lost-but-used onboard credit. I thought it was almost straightened out, but an email telling me how to repay the credit never arrived as was promised from the resolutions team via the phone agent who never really understood the issue to begin with. I’ve spent almost two hours total on hold and I’m not done yet. But from now on, I’ll use my onboard credit to pay my gratuities.

 

 

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I had issues too when I used my obc in cruise planner and had to reprice. The first time I simply had them transfer me to resolutions. Resolutions agreed to put the obc back on so my stuff wouldn’t cancel. The second time I repriced my cruise planner reset immediately and I was able to pay the missing obc on the same call.

I agree this was a hassle. I will avoid using obc prior to final payment in the future.

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Had the same issue. We were able to upgrade cabins so moved the teens into their own room versus having us split. Lost my DH's drink package that I'd paid $45 per day for, now selling for $53. The worst was the girls refreshment package. It stayed with the room and was now $9 more per day. I couldn't move my DH dinner package because we'd lose the times we'd secured (cannot move anything can only cancel and repurchase). All they could offer was that I spend my first day onboard trying to straighten it out at a restaurant. Nice... very frustrating. Good luck!

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Long story short...if you rebook for lower rate and lose onboard credit you’ve already used, it’s a nightmare to straighten out. I also learned that drink packages and shore excursions stay with the room, not the person. I booked my teens in an interior and husband & I in aft balcony. Travel agent was assured at booking this met requirements...which it does not. Swapped daughter for husband, all is fine. Except she’s 15, so it cancels his drink package that we bought at buy one get one half off on Black Friday. Get that straightened out to notice husband now going to beach in St. Thomas and daughter going off shore fishing. [emoji849] Still have to make that call to straighten out. And I’m two calls and several emails in to fixing the lost-but-used onboard credit. I thought it was almost straightened out, but an email telling me how to repay the credit never arrived as was promised from the resolutions team via the phone agent who never really understood the issue to begin with. I’ve spent almost two hours total on hold and I’m not done yet. But from now on, I’ll use my onboard credit to pay my gratuities.

 

 

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I truly feel your pain... Not that it helps you any :(

I went through the same issue of having excursions, reservations and beverage packages all screwed up because they are assigned to Guest 1, guest 2 and so on in stateroom. Not to the individual passengers. We had originally booked Myself and son in one room, and Wife and DD in other. But when and RCI agent said that there was not problem with kids being assigned to their own room because it was adjoining, we re-assigned my wife and I in same room, and both kids in the other. Well, a few day later, I went in the planner and noticed the MESS. I lost my wife's Bev Package that I had pre purchased on sale. Restaurant reservations also got all messed up. My wife was now assigned the Scuba excursion instead of my son. And a whole lot of other stuff. It took hours on the phone to straighten everything out, and they never did honor the beverage package pricing I had originally gotten.

In the end, we switched the room assignments back to the original way, Me and son on one, Wife and DD in other. I waited and got the bev package for my wife on another sale. Not quite as good as the original but close.

I'm glad this all happened a few months before the cruise so I had time to mostly forget about it by the time we boarded and ended up having a great time on our Anthem cruise.

I'm sure you will too

dp

I understand having to fix the beverage packages but are the shore excursions necessary to fix? I only remember the vendors collecting tickets, not checking IDs. Is my memory wrong/correct or does it depend on the excursion?

OP - You indicated that your TA had booked - I wouldn't fix myself - that's your agent's responsibility if they made the error. Cruise lines rarely will talk to you unless you booked with them - they refer you to your agent.

I understand having to fix the beverage packages but are the shore excursions necessary to fix? I only remember the vendors collecting tickets, not checking IDs. Is my memory wrong/correct or does it depend on the excursion?

Vendors do get the full name on a list but the only time I have seen them check against tickets was when people were missing. Maybe it would matter if someone were driving a vehicle. If you really care the Shore Excursion desk can reprint the tickets for you.

I had no problems when I got a price drop and had OBC removed that had already been used but got to keep my Black Friday pricing for my drink package, or with cancelling a purchase made via OBC and rebuying it using that same OBC (two separate issues on two separate rooms). It sounds like your biggest problem came into moving people around. Sorry you had so much trouble and I'll keep that in mind if I need to move people after buying things :(

OK, so I have a question related to this. We have two cabins booked, with my DH in one with one of our teenagers, and I am in the other with our other teenager. Our travel agent said it's totally fine to switch cabins once onboard, so that my husband and I are in the same room. With all of our excursions, drink packages, etc, will this get messed up at that point? How can we move the guys around so that everyone's in the correct cabins without messing up all of our reservations? Do these issues only arise when rebooking to save money pre-cruise, or will we run into this same problem if we switch once onboard?

OK, so I have a question related to this. We have two cabins booked, with my DH in one with one of our teenagers, and I am in the other with our other teenager. Our travel agent said it's totally fine to switch cabins once onboard, so that my husband and I are in the same room. With all of our excursions, drink packages, etc, will this get messed up at that point? How can we move the guys around so that everyone's in the correct cabins without messing up all of our reservations? Do these issues only arise when rebooking to save money pre-cruise, or will we run into this same problem if we switch once onboard?

Nothing will happen if you leave it "on paper" that you're in separate rooms. We went to guest services, and they gave us two "keys" that worked for the rooms for the people that were switching. So I had a seapass card and a key, as did one of my children. And our seapass cards also worked to open the other room.

Nothing will happen if you leave it "on paper" that you're in separate rooms. We went to guest services, and they gave us two "keys" that worked for the rooms for the people that were switching. So I had a seapass card and a key, as did one of my children. And our seapass cards also worked to open the other room.

Thanks for that reply. I just want to make sure I understand. We will each have our seapass cards, and the two passengers who switch cabins will also have a key to the cabin they're not assigned to? Can both of us parents get access to both cabins? Is there no way for them to just allow access on our seapass cards rather than to have to keep up with a key as well (I'm mostly worried about my 14 year old losing his key - repeatedly!)

Thanks for that reply. I just want to make sure I understand. We will each have our seapass cards, and the two passengers who switch cabins will also have a key to the cabin they're not assigned to? Can both of us parents get access to both cabins? Is there no way for them to just allow access on our seapass cards rather than to have to keep up with a key as well (I'm mostly worried about my 14 year old losing his key - repeatedly!)

That's the way it worked for us... I had two cards and one of my sons had two cards. We were mainly concerned that the two rooms would have different muster stations, and wanted an adult with each kid just in case.

We got them lanyards that they kept their cards in/on with a plastic pouch for like an ID badge. Made it a little "bigger" so they'd know if it wasn't in their pockets if they chose not to wear it around their neck.

OK, so I have a question related to this. We have two cabins booked, with my DH in one with one of our teenagers, and I am in the other with our other teenager. Our travel agent said it's totally fine to switch cabins once onboard, so that my husband and I are in the same room. With all of our excursions, drink packages, etc, will this get messed up at that point? How can we move the guys around so that everyone's in the correct cabins without messing up all of our reservations? Do these issues only arise when rebooking to save money pre-cruise, or will we run into this same problem if we switch once onboard?

Thanks for that reply. I just want to make sure I understand. We will each have our seapass cards, and the two passengers who switch cabins will also have a key to the cabin they're not assigned to? Can both of us parents get access to both cabins? Is there no way for them to just allow access on our seapass cards rather than to have to keep up with a key as well (I'm mostly worried about my 14 year old losing his key - repeatedly!)

I also want to add that once we were on board, my wife and I shared one room and both kids were in the other even if "Officially" my son was in my room and my wife in the kids room. Nothing got screwed up with reservations that way.

As for key assignments, we happened to be on Anthem so my wife and I both got the wow bands. My wife wore both bands so gave her access to both rooms, and both bev packages so she could get 2 drinks at once. I carried both our seapass card, and that gave me access to both rooms and both bev packages.;p We easily had our fridge fully stocked before the first evening was over

Kids also each had a wow band and we just had my son's wow band programmed to the other room. He still had his seapass card that could open our room.

It just so happened that our adjoining rooms were not in the same Muster Stations, so we made sure to attend the one we were officially assigned to.

dp