Can you overpay your cruise?

[HazelSmrf]

I booked directly through a Carnival PVP for my upcoming cruise on the Oct 16th sailing of the Valor. This is my first cruise and we're very excited!

 

My question is, can you overpay your cruise to get shipboard credit? I figured if we'd do this in advance we'd have no nasty credit card bills after the cruise, but I'm not sure if doing this is an option?

[kbatschke]

If you want to avoid CC bills after the cruise, you can pre-pay your Sign & Sail account with cash (minimum $250 deposit I believe.) At the end of the cruise, go to the pursers desk and settle up. If you have a credit, they write you a check, if you owe more than your deposit, you simply pay it then. The only drawback that I can see is if you have a disputed item, Carnival has your cash. If you put it on your CC, they you can dispute the charge with your CC company and let them fight it out with Carnival. I'm sure disputed charges are by far the exception, but, personally, I like having the CC company as an advocate IF I need them.

 

Have a great cruise!!!

[kujobie]

Yes, you can call and have $$ applied to your sail and sign account

[Cotton]

Kujobie's correct. Lots of folks do that. Smart move.:)

[Everlast]

Put the cash on your sail and sign card. I pay cash everywhere including deposits on hotels, you need a cc to hold a hotel room but i find i will spend too freely if i use credit. As far as a dispute, we had one last year and there was no problem bringing it to the pursers desk. They took care of it with a smile. Join the cash minority.:)

[HazelSmrf]

Thanks for the replies, I think i'll do that! The cruise is still over 5 months away but I have money now, and you never know what will happen between now and then! I'd rather have that out of my mind and know that no matter what happens I'll have some credit on the ship waiting for me.

[serene56]

Go to carnivals web page and buy funship dollars (call the number instead of placing an order online) I get one 50.00 each month. I will take them with me and place them on my account. Worked out great last cruise and I have started for my next cruise for February 2006

[KruznKel]

Why prepay???? What is wrong with using the credit card for the trip and having the money at home making interest in the bank for the month before the bill comes in??? Do you prefer to give the credit card companys your cash... I would rather spend their money and use it for the month and then pay it off! If you are going on a cruise you have a limit get a credit card with the limit of cash you have available then you wont spend over... win win you get to spend all that money and make interest on the money in your bank and not give it to CC companys! until your bill comes in NO INTEREST paid out by you only gained!

[kujobie]

Why prepay???? What is wrong with using the credit card for the trip and having the money at home making interest in the bank for the month before the bill comes in??? Do you prefer to give the credit card companys your cash... I would rather spend their money and use it for the month and then pay it off! If you are going on a cruise you have a limit get a credit card with the limit of cash you have available then you wont spend over... win win you get to spend all that money and make interest on the money in your bank and not give it to CC companys! until your bill comes in NO INTEREST paid out by you only gained!

 

Good point, unless you have a problem budgeting.

[tazmanrmv]

Go to carnivals web page and buy funship dollars (call the number instead of placing an order online) I get one 50.00 each month. I will take them with me and place them on my account. Worked out great last cruise and I have started for my next cruise for February 2006

 

Serene, do you take them with you and turn them in at the ship, or do you have to mail them to Carnival? I know it's a weird question, but it sounds like a really good idea, so i went to Carnival's site, and read the terms of the certificates and it said something along the lines of "recepient must mail certificates to Carnival Cruise Lines, blah blah blah".

[serene56]

Serene, do you take them with you and turn them in at the ship, or do you have to mail them to Carnival? I know it's a weird question, but it sounds like a really good idea, so i went to Carnival's site, and read the terms of the certificates and it said something along the lines of "recepient must mail certificates to Carnival Cruise Lines, blah blah blah".

 

 

I took them with me and turned them into the Pursers office--no questions at all. (Im sorry but I dont like that i have to buy something then mail them in to get my credit. What happens if they are lost???) But from reading thebaords I learned I could take them with me.

[klfrodo]

Serene has a wonderful idea however, I thought I read on these boards somewhere that accepting the coupons on the ship is at the complete discretion of the ships hotel manager ie purser. The only proper method of using said coupons is to mail them in per the instructions.

 

I'm happy as can be for Serene and the fact that she was able to use these on board. I would be very disappointed if I got to the ship only to find that my ship didn't accept these in person.Does it make sense that they wouldn't??? No, but then again what does make sense anymore. I can hear my argument at the pursers desk.

Purser: "No, we don't accept these coupons on the ship. The instructions say to mail them into the home office. Did you read the instructions?"

Me: "Well, Yes I did read them but someone on CruiseCritic said I could use these when I got on board the ship."

Purser: "Who? CruiseCritic?"

Me: " Yes, the world famous chat board for cruisers."

Purser: " Oh, Them. Well, if you find one of them on the ship maybe they'll give you cash for these coupons. Otherwise please send these coupons into Carnival and we'll be happy to apply these to your account. Next person in line please."

Me: Dang it

 

If my understanding regarding the use of these after boarding the ship is incorrect I'm sure someone will correct me on these fine and friendly boards.

[Dawn Berry]

We always load up our sail and sign cards before hand. I just take money/check/debit card to my travel agent and she calls the cruise line and puts it on our account. If you do this, keep all of the receipts and confirmation numbers along the way and immediately check the pursers desk when you embark to make sure it all matches up. We find this is easier too (much to the dismay of a lot of people "why let the cruise company keep your money for that long"). It makes us more comfortable to know that we already have money waiting for us and we don't have to do the last minute "okay, how much can we take, how much do we need to leave in the account, etc.". BTW we don't have/use credit cards. And, if you don't use it all, they refund in cash to you the last day of the cruise. We still sign in with our debit card just in case we go over the money we have already sent, but that rarely happens. Also, this doesn't mean that we can't budget. But we also don't have a large income to play with. We budget all year for our cruise and that includes the sign and sail portion. And since we don't have credit cards and only use our debit, you can never be sure what can happen to your account while you are sailing - credit fraud, bank errors can wreck the account and mess it up while you are away and then at the end of the week, what do you do? We have taken a lot of guff from familiy and friends for doing it this way, but it makes us comfortable and allows us to really enjoy our cruise with no worries, so we don't listen to them :)

 

Dawn

[kujobie]

That's what would worry me. Much easier to just call and transfer funds directly to sail and sign. No mailing, no trip to the pursers desk, it's done.

[serene56]

I like to have things in hand-- by calling and placing my credit--which I did also-- I have nothing but a confirmation to prove.

 

If I was given a hard time I would have said they were a gift to me and the person only gave them to me last week.. But like I siad--from reading the boards most people just turned them into the pursers desk. Maybe one or two couldnt.. I would have went down at various hours since the same person is not always working.

 

(on the other side -- there are funship dollars AND gift certificates. I dont think the gift certificates can be used onboard.