What can onboard credit be used on?

[artist47]

I'm glad to have the DSC. The whole tipping thing makes me quite uncomfortable, and I'm glad to have a defined way to compensate all the hardworking crew that made my vacation great.

 

I've been told that what the crew really values is filling in those comment cards. Mentioning a crewmember by name with a specific compliment is very valuable when it comes time for raises and promotions. This does the person much more good than handing them $5 or whatever.

 

Completely agree with this. Especially the last part about comment cards.

 

For those that give exceptional service (which is very normal in my experience), extra tips are warranted and appreciated as are hand written thank you notes, and small phone call cards, so they can call home and talk to their families. You have no idea how much a small, $5 phone card means to these people. $5 is the price of a Starbucks coffee....Just give one of these up and make a difference in someone's life. Just some thoughts.

:)

Edited January 27, 2014 by artist47

[icedancer43]

Why would they need to do that? The website (http://www.ncl.com/faq#service-charge) is very clear about Daily Service Charge and only one(s) with problem understanding the printed word are some rare individuals here.. :p

 

 

For people that are new to NCL, that is a valid question. On RCCL, the daily service charge specifically states that it is for the room steward, waiter, assistant waiter, and head waiter. That's why it is more personal to hand the money to them since it stated who was going to get our money. It appears that on NCL from posts that the money goes to people that we might not even see, which is very good to know. Thank you for belittling people just because they are asking honest questions and don't need to have sarcastic answers!

[Demonyte]

Thank you for belittling people just because they are asking honest questions and don't need to have sarcastic answers!

 

I'm sorry that you took it the wrong way, I was referring to our resident nay-sayer in my reply to another long-time member who is also familiar with the character. I understand that the post might have been confusing when you are a newbie here and not familiar with the recurring cast here on NCL board.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Demonyte

[Paraveina]

Where can you see your OBC in My NCL?

[Demonyte]

Where can you see your OBC in My NCL?

 

In some cases (for us it was for booking a suite more than 9 months in advance) you can see it like here:

 

 

In other cases you can't see it in MyNCL or Cruise Confirmation (PDF) but you need to specifically ask your TA or NCL rep for Amenity Confirmation that includes all extras attached to your reservation like for example comped dinners, wine, OBC, etc. For our upcoming trip we have other OBC too (from our TA) that shows only in Amenity Confirmation.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Demonyte

[JohnS43]

A friend of mine and I were recently on the Norwegian Star in a 2-Bedroom Suite. Not having cruised in many years, I didn't know too much about the rules for onboard spending and the Daily Service Charge. We each had $150 in onboard spending, and we both assumed we could use it for the DSC. Lo and behold, on the last morning, when we received our printed statement (there's no way to view your statement on the TV on the Star) we discovered what has been discussed here: you cannot apply the non-refundable onboard spending credit to the DSC. We each had a bill with an unexpected credit card charge for $84.

 

Of course at this point (debarkation morning) it was too late to be able to spend it on anything else: bars were closed, stores were closed, etc. So we ended up asking the butler if there was any way we could use the extra unspent money (which was quite a bit, since neither of us were drinkers nor did we purchase any shore excursions or other expensive items) as an additional tip for him, the concierge, and the cabin steward. At first they said, "no," but after a while they came back and told us to go ahead and do it. We ended up filling two of those charge slips (one for each of us) and assigning amounts of our credit to each of the three people (by name.) They all ended up with VERY hefty additional tips, as we'd also already tipped them in cash as well. (We also made it quite clear on the charge slips that NCL was NOT authorized to add these charges to our accounts and create an additional credit card charge!)

 

I know it's my fault for not having researched this prior to sailing, but I guess I just assumed that "onboard spending" included everything on board.

[Love my butler]

A friend of mine and I were recently on the Norwegian Star in a 2-Bedroom Suite. Not having cruised in many years, I didn't know too much about the rules for onboard spending and the Daily Service Charge. We each had $150 in onboard spending, and we both assumed we could use it for the DSC. Lo and behold, on the last morning, when we received our printed statement (there's no way to view your statement on the TV on the Star) we discovered what has been discussed here: you cannot apply the non-refundable onboard spending credit to the DSC. We each had a bill with an unexpected credit card charge for $84.

 

Of course at this point (debarkation morning) it was too late to be able to spend it on anything else: bars were closed, stores were closed, etc. So we ended up asking the butler if there was any way we could use the extra unspent money (which was quite a bit, since neither of us were drinkers nor did we purchase any shore excursions or other expensive items) as an additional tip for him, the concierge, and the cabin steward. At first they said, "no," but after a while they came back and told us to go ahead and do it. We ended up filling two of those charge slips (one for each of us) and assigning amounts of our credit to each of the three people (by name.) They all ended up with VERY hefty additional tips, as we'd also already tipped them in cash as well. (We also made it quite clear on the charge slips that NCL was NOT authorized to add these charges to our accounts and create an additional credit card charge!)

 

I know it's my fault for not having researched this prior to sailing, but I guess I just assumed that "onboard spending" included everything on board.

 

On the Sun, when you get near the last couple days of your cruise they send you a notice that you have unused OBC. No suprises on the final morning. Surprised this procedure is not fleetwide, but on the otherhand, they do things differently (better) on the Sun. The hotel director Brian Walters knows how to run a cruise ship. Best in the business.

[JohnS43]

On the Sun, when you get near the last couple days of your cruise they send you a notice that you have unused OBC. No surprises on the final morning.

 

I don't recall whether or not they did this, but even if they had done it, it still would have been a surprise when we received the bill, as we still would have assumed that we could've use the OBC on the last day when they bill the total amount of the DSC.

[Love my butler]

I don't recall whether or not they did this, but even if they had done it, it still would have been a surprise when we received the bill, as we still would have assumed that we could've use the OBC on the last day when they bill the total amount of the DSC.

 

The discretionary service charge is billed and subtracted from your account on a daily basis. Had you received the notice you would (should) have known there was an issue.

[swedish weave]

I had some non-refundable OBC on the Getaway and received a notice in my cabin that it could not be used for DSC or in the Casino.

 

Has anyone else seen this restriction or confirmed it with NCL ??

[JohnS43]

The discretionary service charge is billed and subtracted from your account on a daily basis. Had you received the notice you would (should) have known there was an issue.

 

Sorry, I guess I misstated my comment -- what I meant to say was, even if we knew it was being billed daily, we had no way of knowing that they wouldn't just be offset by the OBC at the end of the trip. In fact, I'm not really sure exactly how it was done-- I guess I should go find my statement. The only expenses I incurred (other than the DSC) were one dinner at a specialty restaurant, an entry in the slot tournament at the casino, and two or three soft drinks. Obviously all of these were covered by the OBC, but I don't remember if they offset them as they were billed or at the end.