OBC Purchase

[Bizzie07]

Firstly I live in the the UK and currently the rate Princess are giving when purchasing OBC is very good for us.

I have paid Gratuities but am wondering if I have OBC would I be able to get cash from guest services to give extra to crew. 

[wowzz]

41 minutes ago, Bizzie07 said:

Firstly I live in the the UK and currently the rate Princess are giving when purchasing OBC is very good for us.

I have paid Gratuities but am wondering if I have OBC would I be able to get cash from guest services to give extra to crew. 

No, you cannot swop OBC for cash. However,  you can, I believe,  "launder" obc through the casino - never done it, perhaps others will explain how it is done.

 

[Bizzie07]

41 minutes ago, wowzz said:

No, you cannot swop OBC for cash. However,  you can, I believe,  "launder" obc through the casino - never done it, perhaps others will explain how it is done.

 

Does this still apply if I have actually purchased the OBC?

[wowzz]

14 minutes ago, Bizzie07 said:

Does this still apply if I have actually purchased the OBC?

I believe so.

You can, I think, cancel the purchase prior to the cruise if you wish.

[Martha1974]

We bought some OBC (paid in sterling) for our recent cruise on Sky Princess and only used about half of it. When we received the information about disembarkation it said that anyone with less than $250 refundable OBC could get it refunded from Guest Services in cash, so we did that the afternoon of our last full day on board. We had already given our cabin steward an additional tip (in Euros) so didn't use the cash for that but it would certainly have been possible. 

[wowzz]

32 minutes ago, Martha1974 said:

We bought some OBC (paid in sterling) for our recent cruise on Sky Princess and only used about half of it. When we received the information about disembarkation it said that anyone with less than $250 refundable OBC could get it refunded from Guest Services in cash, so we did that the afternoon of our last full day on board. We had already given our cabin steward an additional tip (in Euros) so didn't use the cash for that but it would certainly have been possible. 

As a matter of interest, if you have non-refundable obc ( shareholder obc for example) I assume Prencess use the refundable obc first, so as to limit the amount that they might need to repay ?

[Bizzie07]

59 minutes ago, Martha1974 said:

We bought some OBC (paid in sterling) for our recent cruise on Sky Princess and only used about half of it. When we received the information about disembarkation it said that anyone with less than $250 refundable OBC could get it refunded from Guest Services in cash, so we did that the afternoon of our last full day on board. We had already given our cabin steward an additional tip (in Euros) so didn't use the cash for that but it would certainly have been possible. 

That is very good to know as it is Sky Princess we will be going on.  Thank you.

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, Martha1974 said:

We bought some OBC (paid in sterling) for our recent cruise on Sky Princess and only used about half of it. When we received the information about disembarkation it said that anyone with less than $250 refundable OBC could get it refunded from Guest Services in cash, so we did that the afternoon of our last full day on board. We had already given our cabin steward an additional tip (in Euros) so didn't use the cash for that but it would certainly have been possible. 

Did you mean $25? It was always $25 in the past.

The GS would quickly run out of $$$, if it was $250.

[Martha1974]

47 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, if you have non-refundable obc ( shareholder obc for example) I assume Prencess use the refundable obc first, so as to limit the amount that they might need to repay ?

I don’t know the answer to that one I’m afraid - this was our first Princess cruise so we’ve never had any non-refundable credit. I was very surprised though (based on messages I’d read on CC about fighting to get OBC refunded.)

[Martha1974]

24 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Did you mean $25? It was always $25 in the past.

The GS would quickly run out of $$$, if it was $250.

I was very surprised to see it too, but it was definitely $250… considering we walked away from GS with 4x$50 bills. We actually had slightly more than that and were offered the full amount in cash but didn’t fancy the prospect of taking any of it in small change! 

[Martha1974]

Just now, Martha1974 said:

I was very surprised to see it too, but it was definitely $250… considering we walked away from GS with 4x$50 bills. We actually had slightly more than that and were offered the full amount in cash but didn’t fancy the prospect of taking any of it in small change! 

[capriccio]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:19 PM, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, if you have non-refundable obc ( shareholder obc for example) I assume Prencess use the refundable obc first, so as to limit the amount that they might need to repay ?

In my experience (as recently as last March) non-refundable OBC is liquidated first and they are clearly marked on your folio.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

In my experience (as recently as last March) non-refundable OBC is liquidated first and they are clearly marked on your folio.

Thank you.  That is the opposite of what I expected,  so pleased to be proven wrong. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, capriccio said:

In my experience (as recently as last March) non-refundable OBC is liquidated first and they are clearly marked on your folio.

 

In fact, in the past, if you had pre-purchased shore excursions with refundable OBC pre-cruise, when the cruise started effectively (not actually) the excursions were automatically cancelled and then immediately rebooked using any available non-refundable OBC first.

[travelin.sisters]

On 10/3/2022 at 9:19 AM, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, if you have non-refundable obc ( shareholder obc for example) I assume Prencess use the refundable obc first, so as to limit the amount that they might need to repay ?

no Princess will use the non-refundable OBC first & then the refundable--this has always happened for us & most recently on the Sapphire which ended last week

Edited October 9, 2022 by travelin.sisters

[dreaminofcruisin]

Interesting. Just off the Ruby and they told me it was $25. If I had known it was $250, I'd have spent less onboard. 😒 It was enough work convincing them that the port charge credit should be "Refundable". They had it marked "Non-Refundable". I had to politely get a supervisor involved.

 

Also, be careful if you and a spouse have different amounts of OBC available. They used DH for one thing we bought and he had already used up his non-refundable credits, so it was taken from his refundable credits even though I still had non-refundable available.

[dreaminofcruisin]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:16 PM, Martha1974 said:

 

Very interesting.

I assume this is on the "Disembarkation Information" page they gave you? I just checked mine (off the Ruby yesterday) and under "Account Settlement" it doesn't even mention the ability to get cash at all (so no dollar amount available), though Customer Service told me it was $25.