Use onboard credit for gratuities?

[Earthworm Jim]

Since gratuities just go on your SeaPass account, I assume they could be paid using any onboard credit you have?

 

In other words, with two of the current perk options being paid gratuities or $150 pp onboard credit, am I correct to think that unless your cruise is 12 days or longer, there is no reason to take the paid gratuities option over the OBC? (11 days times $13.50 a day is $148.50, so anything 11 days or under we'd still have extra OBC left over after paying our gratuities off using it)

 

Or is there some prohibition on using free OBC to pay off your gratuities?

 

(Of course, this calculation would vary if you are in a class with higher gratuities)

Edited December 30, 2016 by Earthworm Jim

[ghstudio]

you are correct....if the OBC $'s are more than the gratuities $'s, then take the OBC. OBC can be used to pay gratuities.

[Earthworm Jim]

Thanks ghstudio. I assumed that was the case, but thought I'd better check to make sure.

[ChucktownSteve]

Since gratuities just go on your SeaPass account, I assume they could be paid using any onboard credit you have?

 

In other words, with two of the current perk options being paid gratuities or $150 pp onboard credit, am I correct to think that unless your cruise is 12 days or longer, there is no reason to take the paid gratuities option over the OBC? (11 days times $13.50 a day is $148.50, so anything 11 days or under we'd still have extra OBC left over after paying our gratuities off using it)

 

Or is there some prohibition on using free OBC to pay off your gratuities?

 

(Of course, this calculation would vary if you are in a class with higher gratuities)

 

The perk OBC will be OBN (non refundable). So if you don't take the prepaid gratuities, the daily Gratuity will be debited on your account statement. They'll take from your OBN until it zero's out and then hit any OBR (refundable) OBC.

 

If you have any OBN left towards the end of your cruise, instead of just forfeiting it, you can go to Guest Relations and ask for a form where you can direct the OBN to any particular staff member such as a server, cabin attendant or just put it into the general gratuity pool. I did that with $7.75 OBN so it didn't go to waste. I gave it to my cabin attendant with an additional cash tip.

[riclop]

Since gratuities just go on your SeaPass account, I assume they could be paid using any onboard credit you have?

 

In other words, with two of the current perk options being paid gratuities or $150 pp onboard credit, am I correct to think that unless your cruise is 12 days or longer, there is no reason to take the paid gratuities option over the OBC? (11 days times $13.50 a day is $148.50, so anything 11 days or under we'd still have extra OBC left over after paying our gratuities off using it)

Yes you can.

[fleckle]

Since gratuities just go on your SeaPass account, I assume they could be paid using any onboard credit you have?

 

As others have stated, you can certainly do this. It is a convenient, easy way to give deserving crew members additional gratuities without needing to carry around a lot of cash.

 

AFAIK, onboard credit can be used to pay for just about anything on the ship with the exception of deposits on future cruises.

 

Also, when we have leftover foreign currency, if we know that a helpful crew member is going to be remaining on the ship for future cruises that go back to ports where that currency is used, we give our leftover foreign currency to him/her.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2016 by fleckle

[NantahalaCruiser]

Since gratuities just go on your SeaPass account, I assume they could be paid using any onboard credit you have?

 

In other words, with two of the current perk options being paid gratuities or $150 pp onboard credit, am I correct to think that unless your cruise is 12 days or longer, there is no reason to take the paid gratuities option over the OBC? (11 days times $13.50 a day is $148.50, so anything 11 days or under we'd still have extra OBC left over after paying our gratuities off using it)

 

Or is there some prohibition on using free OBC to pay off your gratuities?

 

(Of course, this calculation would vary if you are in a class with higher gratuities)

 

As others have said, YES

 

However, if you are in the process of making the decision on which perks to select for a booking made many months in advance, make your calculations using a slightly higher amount since Celebrity seems to be raising the gratuity fees every year. Prepaid gratuities are locked in and an annual increase in gratuities automatically increases the value of a booked prepaid gratuity perk.

 

Same thing is true of prepaid beverage package perks.

 

Larry