On board credit

[Tarheelblues]

Newbie here, my family and I are going on our 2nd cruise at the end of July on the breeze. Our first cruise was booked directly through carnival however this one was booked through one of those big dot com websites and in doing so we were offered paid gratuities and an on board credit. How does the on board credit work? Does it just show up on our account at the beginning of our cruise? Is there anyway to make sure that it is on our account before the cruise? I’m just a little concerned about something happening and it not being there and having to spend vacation time figuring it all out. 

[FTLCruiseGal]

Welcome!

 

It will show when you board the ship.  I have never had a problem with it showing when I have booked through a different site, but always take a print out of the confirmation showing the OBC.

[Sean_B]

Does the cruise show up in your Cruise Manager, even if you book through someone other than Carnival? Your OBC should be in there if it does.

Edited June 3, 2019 by Sean_B

[Tarheelblues]

Just now, Sean_B said:

Does the cruise show up in your Cruise Manager, even if you book somewhere else? Your OBC should be in there if it does.

The cruise shows up in my cruise manager but the OBC does not. When I log on to the other site that the cruise was booked through it shows. 

[Butterbean1000]

We booked with an online travel company.  They are giving us OBC. They said it will show up on the second day of the cruise.

[bnorris10]

I book thru an agent that gives me extra OBC besides what carnival gives and his OBC will show up the first day because he purchases it for me as cruise cash .... Only once did it not show up it was no big deal I messaged him and after a little digging it turned out their office forgot to purchase it so they just added a credit to another cruise I had booked 

What you could do is message your .com place you booked thru and ask them what happens if the OBC does not show up - I say this so that if it does not show up you don't have to fret over it you can just do what ever they say perhaps they will send it to you as a refund instead 

 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

1 hour ago, FTLCruiseGal said:

Welcome!

 

It will show when you board the ship.  I have never had a problem with it showing when I have booked through a different site, but always take a print out of the confirmation showing the OBC.

Excellent advise.

[maryred]

It's very rare for companies that offer OBC above and beyond the sale any cruise line is offering, do so without it coming out of its own coffers. This is usually achieved in 2 ways, 1) they take some of their commission for the sale of the booking and buy the perk (in the case of OBC buying Cruise Cash) or give a small price break back to their customer over the price they initially negotiated, and 2) they have made an open group booking, and in return for selling a "block" of a certain amount of base level cabins they in return get group points incentives (available to anyone that meets the # of cabins booked) that can be translated in to things like free bottles of wine in the cabin to private cocktail hours, to OBC or a free group excursion. 

Here a link to the pdf of Carnival group amenities that anyone that will have 8 or more cabins linked to a master contract could get when booking through Carnivals group sales department 

 http://static2.traveltek.net/images/carnivalmeetings.site.traveltek.net/pdfs/Group_Fun_Points_and_Flexi_Pricing_Directs_02-2013.pdf

In addition to these choices for every 8 cabins with 16 adults booked the group coordinator (or the TA or website owners) get a free berth equal to the average price of each berth purchased by members of the group. Other cruise lines work similarly.

[rufflesmom]

Something you might want to be aware of, if the OBC doesn't show up on your account you might not be able to argue with Carnival about it since Carnival didn't offer it.  You might have to wait until you get back and go thru the big dotcom website that you booked thru that offered the OBC as part of their booking. 

[coevan]

6 hours ago, rufflesmom said:

Something you might want to be aware of, if the OBC doesn't show up on your account you might not be able to argue with Carnival about it since Carnival didn't offer it.  You might have to wait until you get back and go thru the big dotcom website that you booked thru that offered the OBC as part of their booking. 

 

 

You can also call them from the port if you don't see the OBC as you will have local service and get it straightened out before sailing