OBC tip - Virtuosa UK sailings

[ziggyuk]

Anyone with OBC from cancelled cruises, it's worth checking it very carefully, we unexpectedly did very well.

 

We had two UK Magnifica cruises cancelled, one short on offered £125 OBC and the other longer one offered £250 OBC. We naturally took the £250 for our Virtuosa sailing.

 

This is the wording on the Magnifica cancellation letter: "We are giving you an additional benefit of a non-refundable on-board credit of £250.00 per cabin"

 

Once onboard I noticed I had a £250 deposit but no non-refundable credit, I though at first the £250 was the credit card deposit as it was marked "deposit".

 

I went to customer services and it transpired the £250 was not a non-refundable credit but a refundable one, not only that but £250 had been applied to both our accounts. She asked if I would like both account combining so the full £500 was on my account, I was shocked but parted with her saying "Enjoy it!"

 

Sure enough on the last day I went to a machine to settle my account and it started pumping £50 notes out at me 🤪

 

I may have been lucky (very lucky) but do check your OBC for: both the type of OBC and also if a second one is hidden away on your partners onboard account.

 

 

[nyk24]

thats for the heads up, its not often msc screws up in a passengers favour lol. 

[step78]

MSC shows €200 per Person not Cabin in current booking :-)

[nyk24]

37 minutes ago, step78 said:

MSC shows €200 per Person not Cabin in current booking 🙂

@step78 where aee you seeing that information?

 

When you log into your msc account via the main site or if you login via the msc for me app?

 

The reason I ask is our accoint states the repo obc then below the name of all 4 passengers but on the app it looks completely different. The obc amount is in bold then repeated im normal font......all very confusing.

 

I guess we will find out when we get onboard.

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, step78 said:

MSC shows €200 per Person not Cabin in current booking 🙂

 

As I said my booking was based on the offer they made at the time, both offers were per cabin not per person, I did highlight that in the original post but here is the full text:

 

Option 1

For those of you that can’t wait to join MSC Virtuosa on her inaugural season, we are offering the opportunity to be amongst the very first to rebook on her special sailings around the British Isles when sales open on the 1^st April. Should you wish to rebook, we are giving you an additional benefit of a non-refundable on-board credit of £250.00 per cabin which will be applied to your new reservation.

 

Option 2

For those of you wishing to sail either further afield or at a later time with us on any other sailing, please be advised that we will be issuing new vouchers for you to rebook in early May, with an additional benefit of a non-refundable on board credit of €200 euros per cabin which will be applied to your new reservation once made. The new voucher can be applied to any new reservation you make for any of our sailings currently on sale. 

[ziggyuk]

 

This is how it appeared on our confirmation dated 01/04/21 and it did indeed appear twice under each of our names:

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by ziggyuk

[Connie Tact]

9 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

Sure enough on the last day I went to a machine to settle my account and it started pumping £50 notes out at me 🤪

Just brilliant! What an amazing goodbye gift! 💷💷💷💷💷

Makes you just want to book another cruise with MSC! 😊🥂

 

[step78]

Like Ziggytold, it appears in under each name. That make €200 per person.

[step78]

Code SBUP20NT

[ziggyuk]

3 hours ago, step78 said:

Like Ziggytold, it appears in under each name. That make €200 per person.

 

🤞

[nyk24]

Just to confirm for those worried about not being able to spend all their OBC you can 100% cash out like the OP whatever OBC you have left at the end of the cruise.

 

I found confirmation here on their site: 

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/itinerary-updates

 

I took a screenshot aswell just in case they change this policy.while I am onboard.

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by nyk24

[ziggyuk]

13 hours ago, nyk24 said:

Just to confirm for those worried about not being able to spend all their OBC you can 100% cash out like the OP whatever OBC you have left at the end of the cruise.

 

I found confirmation here on their site: 

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/itinerary-updates

 

I took a screenshot aswell just in case they change this policy.while I am onboard.

 

 

 

That is very interesting, it is clearly marked non-refundable in the letter but nothing surprises me with MSC and conflicting information.

If you end up with non-refundable you can always use the casino to convert it without playing:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2785485-can-you-use-obc-in-the-casino/

 

Good luck with yours, it sounds like mine and if you get 4x it will be a very nice withdrawal.

 

The purpose of this thread was to get people to look, as the spend normally goes on one card it would be far to easy to leave without cashing out other cards and leave all that money behind.

 

I was also not aware they could divert all funds and spends onto just one card, in our case (2 cards) no matter who spent all the charges accumulated on my card, this also meant all the OBC was diverted to my card too.

The only downside is the other card holders spend is a daily total without a breakdown.

 

Good luck with yours 🤞

 

Edited July 14, 2021 by ziggyuk

[nyk24]

@ziggyuk Thank you for staring this thread and all the tips ypu have given us all, it is much appreciated!

 

I don't expect a nice obc surprise although I will check all the accounts now just in case.

 

If we are lucky, what I will do is try and use the casino to cash out the secondary accounts (if that is possible still) and keep the obc that is on the main cruise card to buy a few bits before cashing  out anything left over at the end of the sailing. That might avoid the daily charge breakdown being removed from the other cruise card accounts?

 

As a side note we have extra obc (only a small amount) from.when msc dropped their prices and that obc is unevenly distrubuted between the two adult passengers, so we will definitely have to see what happens with that.

[hamrag]

On 7/12/2021 at 2:34 PM, ziggyuk said:

.....Sure enough on the last day I went to a machine to settle my account and it started pumping £50 notes out at me 🤪

 

 

Might I suggest a use for these £50 notes....I spotted an incredibly priced, for Yacht Club insides, cruise on Seaview 9th October 13 nights Kiel, Germany to Genoa, Italy. There will doubtless be NHS Heroes discount available also! Unfortunately, due to my sons wedding it is a non-starter for us on this occasion but you may recall we are booked on this ship November for 17 nights.

 

I highly recommend you browse this one, you will not believe the pricing....it certainly caused me to look and look again. If you decide to consider it and deliberate, don't but just book it as the YC will be gone in record time!

 

 

[ziggyuk]

3 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

Might I suggest a use for these £50 notes....I spotted an incredibly priced, for Yacht Club insides, cruise on Seaview 9th October 13 nights Kiel, Germany to Genoa, Italy. There will doubtless be NHS Heroes discount available also! Unfortunately, due to my sons wedding it is a non-starter for us on this occasion but you may recall we are booked on this ship November for 17 nights.

 

I highly recommend you browse this one, you will not believe the pricing....it certainly caused me to look and look again. If you decide to consider it and deliberate, don't but just book it as the YC will be gone in record time!

 

 

 

That would have been a good choice but I am on the NCL Encore in October.
I had to look though and those prices are just incredible! WOW, I would book in a heartbeat if it did not clash and the times are perfect, I think I said before we need to be at home at the end of each month so the dates are ideal.

[hamrag]

10 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

....WOW, I would book in a heartbeat if it did not clash and the times are perfect, I think I said before we need to be at home at the end of each month so the dates are ideal.

Yes, I recalled you'd previously mentioned the end month thing  which I fully recognise being an accountant in Healthcare! As you say the timings are perfect, but for other commitments.

[nyk24]

On 7/12/2021 at 2:34 PM, ziggyuk said:

Anyone with OBC from cancelled cruises, it's worth checking it very carefully, we unexpectedly did very well.

 

We had two UK Magnifica cruises cancelled, one short on offered £125 OBC and the other longer one offered £250 OBC. We naturally took the £250 for our Virtuosa sailing.

 

This is the wording on the Magnifica cancellation letter: "We are giving you an additional benefit of a non-refundable on-board credit of £250.00 per cabin"

 

Once onboard I noticed I had a £250 deposit but no non-refundable credit, I though at first the £250 was the credit card deposit as it was marked "deposit".

 

I went to customer services and it transpired the £250 was not a non-refundable credit but a refundable one, not only that but £250 had been applied to both our accounts. She asked if I would like both account combining so the full £500 was on my account, I was shocked but parted with her saying "Enjoy it!"

 

Sure enough on the last day I went to a machine to settle my account and it started pumping £50 notes out at me 🤪

 

I may have been lucky (very lucky) but do check your OBC for: both the type of OBC and also if a second one is hidden away on your partners onboard account.

 

 

Just to update this thread, we were  recently on the Virtuosa and instead of the £250 per cabin obc we too got £250 each (including both kids)!

 

Unfortunately, we were not so lucky when it came to.cashing out. Reception said it was non refundable and also the msc app confirmed so too.

 

So here is what we did........

 

We did a bit of window shopping a couple of days before the end of the cruise. At the same time we kept checking the cruise activation temrinals right up to the last night tp see if we could cash out.

 

When it became clear we could not do this we bought some some gifts from one of the shops.

 

My advice is either get yourself something nice you never would normally buy or get something popular to sell online like electronic goods or jewellery.

 

It is worth also noting that even if you are lucky enough to ever be able to cash out obc of any kind that you may be tempted instead to use the obc to buy goods or services as you get points for purchases made on board. In our case those purchases have lifted us from classic to silver voyager club members. Not amazing extra benefits I grant you but a  gold to diamond uplift might tempt some to have a big shopping spree.

 

As a side note if you are tempted tp sell your purchases when ypu get home check online prices before you buy anything on board as some bits the shops sold on board were cheaper than at home but many were more money - even different products from the same brand differed from being cheaper to more money.

 

Or you could just blow the lot on black at the casino! 

 

[ziggyuk]

8 minutes ago, nyk24 said:

Just to update this thread, we were  recently on the Virtuosa and instead of the £250 per cabin obc we too got £250 each (including both kids)!

 

Unfortunately, we were not so lucky when it came to.cashing out. Reception said it was non refundable and also the msc app confirmed so too.

 

So here is what we did........

 

We did a bit of window shopping a couple of days before the end of the cruise. At the same time we kept checking the cruise activation temrinals right up to the last night tp see if we could cash out.

 

When it became clear we could not do this we bought some some gifts from one of the shops.

 

My advice is either get yourself something nice you never would normally buy or get something popular to sell online like electronic goods or jewellery.

 

It is worth also noting that even if you are lucky enough to ever be able to cash out obc of any kind that you may be tempted instead to use the obc to buy goods or services as you get points for purchases made on board. In our case those purchases have lifted us from classic to silver voyager club members. Not amazing extra benefits I grant you but a  gold to diamond uplift might tempt some to have a big shopping spree.

 

As a side note if you are tempted tp sell your purchases when ypu get home check online prices before you buy anything on board as some bits the shops sold on board were cheaper than at home but many were more money - even different products from the same brand differed from being cheaper to more money.

 

Or you could just blow the lot on black at the casino! 

 

 

 

Fantastic, that was a nice windfall I bet you enjoyed spending it, well done.

Did you try the Casino method to convert the pot, I linked in post #12? 

Before we realised our OBC was refundable, I stuck my card in a casino machine but could not work out what to do next.... except pull the handle 😂

 

...... unless I somehow inadvertently converted it to refundable by putting my card in the machine 🤷‍♀️

[nyk24]

4 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

Fantastic, that was a nice windfall I bet you enjoyed spending it, well done.

Did you try the Casino method to convert the pot, I linked in post #12? 

Before we realised our OBC was refundable, I stuck my card in a casino machine but could not work out what to do next.... except pull the handle 😂

 

...... unless I somehow inadvertently converted it to refundable by putting my card in the machine 🤷‍♀️

Yes we certainly enjoyed spending it hehe, the staff in the shop were very pleased too lol. I asked for a discount on our large purchases but they said they could not do that but offeted us some freebies instead. We gpt two beach bat and ball sets, 3 big sample perfume boxes including lady 1 million. Then we got our guarantee stamp on our receipt in another shop. The shop we bought from rung ahead to make sure we got more freebies which included 2 hats and 2 glass pouch cases.

 

We tried the casino method with the slot machines but either it wasn't working or we just could not get it to work. On a side note I asked two staff members how to register cruise cards with the casino and they did not know either 

 

But Im sure there must be a way to cash out through the casino by buying chips as the obc could be used at the casino slot mqxhines, but the cash out element does not seem to work at the slots. 

 

Hopefully we will get another chamce to try again one day lol.

 

We just need to find another bargain cruise with msc now to replace the magnifica one we had from southampton to genoa at the end of october.

 

Are there any similar itenaries around? If there are will they get cancelled due to covid? Thats the big questiion isn't it?

Edited July 27, 2021 by nyk24