ON Board Account Deposit

[Greg LaRose]

Daughters family does not have a credit card. According to the NCL web site if you use cash for your onboard credit account instead of a credit card, they require $100 a day per person so for 2 people 7 day cruise it would be $1400 down. After calling the people at NCl they said it is $500 per person for the first to people in the room for the entire cruise not per day. So 2 people would be $1000. Has anybody used cash for there deposit and if so how much did they really require at check in. Im not real comfortable with what the people at NCL tell me.

[debt]

Daughters family does not have a credit card. According to the NCL web site if you use cash for your onboard credit account instead of a credit card, they require $100 a day per person so for 2 people 7 day cruise it would be $1400 down. After calling the people at NCl they said it is $500 per person for the first to people in the room for the entire cruise not per day. So 2 people would be $1000. Has anybody used cash for there deposit and if so how much did they really require at check in. Im not real comfortable with what the people at NCL tell me.

 

There are a couple of ways around the cash deposit; they could give you the cash, you could buy on board credits for them. they're listed on the NCL website in the bon voyage gifts sections.

 

The other option, if they don't have a debit card with a visa/mastercard logo, they can purchase one at most check cashing places, load it up as much as they'd like, and go from there. There are fees for buying the card initially, but it does solve the problem fairly well.

[terrymtex01]

There are a couple of ways around the cash deposit; they could give you the cash, you could buy on board credits for them. they're listed on the NCL website in the bon voyage gifts sections.

 

The other option, if they don't have a debit card with a visa/mastercard logo, they can purchase one at most check cashing places, load it up as much as they'd like, and go from there. There are fees for buying the card initially, but it does solve the problem fairly well.

 

Debt.. the thing with buying the OBC is that is a good idea for most of it, but they would still be required to put down several hundred (at least enough to cover daily service charges) before boarding. The OBC's generally do not get applied to the onboard account for 24 to 48 hours after boarding. Also, we have never used the pre-paid credit cards, but I have read on here before that NCL wll not accept them. That is just hearsay, as I say, since we have never tried using one. 8-)

 

OP.. really they can use cash with no problem and from what I have been told several tiimes here on the boards as well as from the Concierge on the Pearl when I asked, as long as they have enough cash to cover daily service charges they are ok. The daily service charges are $12.00 per person per day. There are some restrictions when using cash though.

 

1. They will not be able to withdraw any of that cash until the last night of the cruise. Not from the front desk, nor from the casino. They will need to be sure and hold enough back to take with them into ports of call, for cash tips they may need, etc.

 

2. Once the cash they have put on deposit gets to zero, their keycards will stop letting them make any purchases onboard. They can always go by and put more cash on their account though, and that will solve their problem.

 

3. If using a debit card, they will run what I can pre-approved charges through the system. So if they put $500.00 down on the cruise they will get pre-approval for that. Then at the end of the cruise they will actually charge $500.00 or whatever the onboard account is up to that point. Then the debit card has a pre-approval of $500.00 on hold at the bank PLUS what is actually charged that last day of the cruise. The pre-approval can stay on hold for up to 30 days. This can cause probablems for some people.

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Daughters family does not have a credit card. According to the NCL web site if you use cash for your onboard credit account instead of a credit card, they require $100 a day per person so for 2 people 7 day cruise it would be $1400 down. After calling the people at NCl they said it is $500 per person for the first to people in the room for the entire cruise not per day. So 2 people would be $1000. Has anybody used cash for there deposit and if so how much did they really require at check in. Im not real comfortable with what the people at NCL tell me.

 

Do they have a debit card?

 

What I personally do, is put down a couple hundred or so AFTER I give them my card. If you do that, there's no min cash deposit and they use the cash BEFORE putting anything on the card...

 

or you can put them on your cc, and have them go to the purser's desk after boarding and put down what cash they want on their account.

[cheaperts]

Well let me just add a little here, we have aways used a debit card with plenty of money in the account. They hold 500 maybe, they tally charges as you go, so we buy the drink stickers, ding, an ecxursion, ding, a little cash in the casino, ding, our onboard account gets to near the hold amount and they hold an additional 250 or so. They will just keep hitting it as you go so that they always have preapproval for anything you have spent, the DSC, and a little fudge factor for other stuff

[SunShine0515]

I just called NCL in regards to this same matter. What the rep. told me is if you are going to use cash only you need $100 per person per day. It's just my DH and I, so on Day 1 I would need to have $200 on my account. She then stated that everyday after I would need to make sure there was this minimum amount on my account. I hope was she was explaining to me is correct, as I asked her multiple times.

 

Hope this helps.

[helicopter]

I can assure you (from experience) that they will accept whatever amount you hand them (as long as it covers gratuities). I would prepay the gratuiities that way if they hand them 50.00 they will take it.:) Believe me they are going to accept whatever money you hand them. My son only put 50.00 on his (tips prepaid) and not one word is said. You are under no obligation to buy anything once on the ship. There are people who will spend thousands and those that at the end of the cruise may only spend 100.00. This is not something I would worry over, tell them to hand them what they can:) Personally I don't advise using debit cards, sometimes they will hold a little more than necessary and it could take a week to be released, cash is much easier.

[helicopter]

Keep in mind these are "recommended amounts", the way they see it if you have put down 500.00 you will probably spend it ... so of course they want you to put more money down;)

[sns1009]

So, just to make sure I'm understanding right, I can give them $600 at the start of our cruise and no credit/debit card and I should be fine as long as we don't spend over $600. There are 3 of us in the room. My husband, me & our 4 year old.

[helicopter]

You will be fine. Remember if you have not prepaid your tips they will come out of the amount you put down.:)

[Glitter1023]

I am glad I found this. I was starting to get worried because we are going on a 7 day with three of us. And the way the NCL site says it we would have to$2100. Whew!

[sns1009]

We just returned from a 7 day trip on the Sun. When we were boarding we told them we would be using cash and they didn't even care. Once on board we went to the reception desk and added $300 to our account. There were 3 of us in the room and we prepaid our service charges. They didn't even seem to care how much we added. Very simple & no lines. Then we just checked once in awhile to see our balance and added money as needed.

 

At the end of the cruise we had $6 left and our receipt said NCL would just mail us a check.

[mitsugirly]

I pay cash for my on board every time. No problems. I have found that you can call NCL 5 different times and you will get 5 different answers every time.

 

They only thing that they want you to make sure you have paid with a cash account is your DSC. So, I was told once that they will make you AT LEAST pay for the DSC for each person using the cash account. However, I have pre-paid my on board cash account prior to cruising so the money is there and ready to be used prior to boarding and have told them this at check in (that my cash account is paid up for the entire cruise and it includes my DSC) and they didn't question it at all. They handed me my room card and away I went.

 

You can also prepay online your DSC and it will show up on your reservation and they will know that you have paid it. :)

[agabbymama]

I pay cash for my on board every time. No problems. I have found that you can call NCL 5 different times and you will get 5 different answers every time.

 

They only thing that they want you to make sure you have paid with a cash account is your DSC. So, I was told once that they will make you AT LEAST pay for the DSC for each person using the cash account. However, I have pre-paid my on board cash account prior to cruising so the money is there and ready to be used prior to boarding and have told them this at check in (that my cash account is paid up for the entire cruise and it includes my DSC) and they didn't question it at all. They handed me my room card and away I went.

 

You can also prepay online your DSC and it will show up on your reservation and they will know that you have paid it. :)

 

Well, I sure had a different experience for our Pacific Northwest cruise on NCL Star in September '11. Thru the year, I purchased OBC in small increments until I had $1100 at cruise time. When we got to the pier in Vancouver, they still demanded a credit card to "open" my account, when I refused, he told me I could go to the credit desk and deposit $1000. I showed him my OBC purchases and stated there was not enough on the credit card to him any good. He told me he was not running a charge or hold against the card, that he still needed it to open my account. That he had no way of verifying that I had the OBC, but if I said I did, then it would be there when we got on the ship.

 

Then when we got to our cabin, there were vouchers there for the $1100 that I had to go to the front desk, sign and turn in, then they put the money in my account. I also had $25 OBC from my TA and $25 OBC pp from NCL and both of these were non-refundable OBC. My $1100 was refundable. I requested a copy of the bill every couple of days, and these amounts were shown with "non-refundable" and "refundable" beside the amounts.

 

The last night of the cruise, I had $200 left of my $1100 and the $100 in non-refundable. So for those non-refundable on-board credits to still be sitting there, they had to have used my refundable OBC for the service charge, photo, and excursions first. However, the credit desk would not give me any cash. I was told the $200 would be mailed to my home address they had on file, and I would forfeit the $100 non-refundable.

 

It appears whoever onboard does the input, can do whatever they want, as others on this board have stated their non-refundable has been used before their refundable.

 

Just a word of caution to watch your bill and be prepared.

[Young@heart25]

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:

[mitsugirly]

Hmm, I guess at the ports NCL has different answers just like they do when you call them. You'll get a different answer every time from someone and it seems like everyone gets someone different than others. That's the one thing I hate about NCL...nothing is ever the same.

 

When we did it, we just "told" them we had already established our on board credit in $xx amount of dollars already and paid for it over the phone. They said ok and handed us our room cards and on we went. We did not show them our receipts or anything. I was told when I called in to pay for the on board credit prior to cruising that in fact the people checking you in at the port have no way to know if you have prepaid for any OBC. They told me the most they would REQUIRE you to put down would be the DSC for each person because that is what they are really concerned about getting. However, they did not ask us for any amount even though we had deposited more than that. :confused: I don't completely understand why they don't have a way to LINK the computers together from the check in to the ship that shows your OBC. It doesn't sound like it would be a hard thing to do with an IT tech...I mean come on. :cool:

 

 

Young...this all happens when you are checking in at the port prior to boarding.

[cooki801]

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

[Young@heart25]

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.

[abbygail]

My husband and I sailed on Norwegian Sun in Oct. We put down a 300.00 deposit for the two of us for a 7 day cruise, we added more as we needed, no big deal. Sailing on the Gem in April, planning on doing the same. Have a great cruise.

 

Abbygail

[meggie711]

Anybody have updated information on this? Just curious if anything has changed. If we pre-pay DSC and have the UBP already, is there a need to give a credit card at check-in? If so, anybody know the available credit required? I prefer emergency credit cards with low credit limits. :)

[Annmeat]

I wonder if you are able to deny yourself charging privs. as can be done with kids( never done it myself)

But I cannot imagine that any passenger will be let on the ship without some means of payment for expenses.

 

What if you need a toothbrush or ointment or want to play bingo?

[meggie711]

I wonder if you are able to deny yourself charging privs. as can be done with kids( never done it myself)

But I cannot imagine that any passenger will be let on the ship without some means of payment for expenses.

 

What if you need a toothbrush or ointment or want to play bingo?

 

That's why I was asking if you pre-pay your DSC, is there a certain amount of available credit that NCL requires on a card in addition. We won't be gambling, have the beverage package, and pre-pay the DSC, so does NCL have current guidelines for credit cards in addition to this. Seems to have been a lot of confusion in the past, so I didn't know if there's any updated information.

[tel2]

My sister-in-law pre-paid the service charge and had the UBP and UDP. She has no credit card and was unwilling to use her debit card for all the reasons NCL says it isnt a good idea. We were her back-up plan in case they wouldn't let her do it her way, but she put down 100. on the Jewel in the fall, and they said that was fine. She spent like 35.00 of it and got the rest reimbursed by check about 3 weeks later. I think she could have gotten it in cash on the final night, but she didnt want to stand in line and waste her last night.

 

Terry

[sparks1093]

That's why I was asking if you pre-pay your DSC, is there a certain amount of available credit that NCL requires on a card in addition. We won't be gambling, have the beverage package, and pre-pay the DSC, so does NCL have current guidelines for credit cards in addition to this. Seems to have been a lot of confusion in the past, so I didn't know if there's any updated information.

 

When we sailed on the Gem last year our friend put $152 on her onboard account. We had paid for her service charges and excursions.

[meggie711]

My sister-in-law pre-paid the service charge and had the UBP and UDP. She has no credit card and was unwilling to use her debit card for all the reasons NCL says it isnt a good idea. We were her back-up plan in case they wouldn't let her do it her way, but she put down 100. on the Jewel in the fall, and they said that was fine. She spent like 35.00 of it and got the rest reimbursed by check about 3 weeks later. I think she could have gotten it in cash on the final night, but she didnt want to stand in line and waste her last night.

 

Terry

 

Great to know, this is what we would like to do. Thanks to you both!