Spa treatment: advance booking/OBC

[JMB56]

My wife wants to book her spa treatments in advance for our forthcoming voyage on Venture to Antarctica.  Obviously, we have to pay for the treatments at the time of booking. However, our fare includes $2,000 in onboard credit.  Can I transfer the cost of treatments booked in advance to the OBC once I board the ship?
 

I really do not know how wevwill spend $2,000 in OBC on Venture in Antarctica (we do not plan on going on the sub, and the included wine is likely OK for us). I assume we can use the OBC in the gift shop to get presents for the grandchildren.

 

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[caviarforme]

We had $2k credit on Encore in July and based on advice here we were able to book excursions in advance and pay then, but once on board Guest Services at Seabourn Square converted a similar   part of our $2k credit (which is non-refundable) to refundable credit - which was duly refunded to our credit card at the end of the cruise. Actually made a couple of pounds profit due to changing exchange rates! See no reason why the same should not apply to spa bookings.

 

We are also are happy with included wines etc. so on the last 2 nights we "raided" the onboard shop and spent the non-refundable balance of the credit on presents, perfume, after shave etc. Shop staff are on commission so kept a running total for me. Just be careful of the weight for the flight home.

[lisa6191]

Ok, I have extensive personal experience with this, for better or worse. You are about to get more info about this than you ever wanted lol.

 

We are currently on Encore and had $1600 OBC to use. We had the same idea as you and prebooked excursions and some spa treatments, with the understanding that Seabourn Square would have everything switched to apply the OBC and refund our credit card when we got onboard. For the excursions, no problem whatsoever, it was adjusted immediately. The prepaid spa was another story. The first rep we spoke with said that prepaid spa cannot be refunded and then applied to OBC, so we would have to go to the spa, cancel and rebook our appointments, and then it would go against the OBC. Ok, no problem. Except the spa manager said that if we cancelled and rebooked, we would be charged the higher onboard prices for the treatments and would lose the benefit of having pre booked at a lower price (and some of the differences were significant). So, back to guest services we went. The next rep we spoke with, the lovely Anine, said that of course it was possible to convert prepaid spa to OBC and she would take care of it and let us know.

 

Next morning, no change in our account. Anine was not working but another rep again told us that he didn’t think it was possible to do, but he would talk to the night auditor who was responsible for making those adjustments, and the night auditor did not come on duty till 11 pm.

 

Next day, still no change. Anine was back and we found out that she had been working on this for us for the past couple days, sending long emails and talking to various people to try to sort it out. Apparently the issue is that the spa is an independent entity from Seabourn, so it can’t just be done automatically the way the excursions are. We decided to let it go and see what happened. 
 

Two days later, still no change. Now we were getting a bit concerned, and although we try to stay very positive, honestly a bit annoyed also. So we asked for the guest services supervisor who turned out to be the lovely Nicola. She spent a great deal of time with us trying to sort out what was going on. It seems that the real problem is the accounting system that Seabourn uses, which is incomprehensible to passengers (and also crew apparently). Rather than just start with an OBC amount and then just charge against it, there is an inexplicable mish mash of credits and debits that truly cannot be deciphered by anyone. We all knew what we wanted to do, but nobody could figure out how to do it! Fortunately, Nicola seemed to have the greatest understanding of anyone that we had talked to, and she assured us it would be handled. Later that day, we received a message from Nicola that it had been sorted and we would get an updated statement the next morning.
 

Next morning, you guessed it, no change. Our account still showed the same amount of nonrefundable credit, meaning that the spa treatments had not been applied to it. We tracked down Nicola later in the day and she was mystified, because as far as she could tell it had been fixed. She promised to get back to us, and later that day we finally had a printout of our account that showed the correct amounts. Phew! 
 

Oh, but we aren’t done yet. 😊 The next day, we got an another printout of a preliminary statement in our room (it was getting near the end of the cruise so I think it was just routine). Back to the same incorrect numbers. 😳 No change in charges or anything else, just wrong again. Back to Seabourn Square, where Anine was ready to tear every hair out of her head lol. I joked with her that we had broken her system. Turns out that for some reason the account was correct in the computer, but when they tried to print it out it kept showing the wrong numbers. But she showed me the right numbers in the computer, so I decided to trust her. And lo and behold, the account is finally showing the correct numbers today, on day 9 of our 10 day cruise.

 

All of this is to say, proceed with caution lol. And if you have a problem the first day, ask immediately for the guest services supervisor, because it is unlikely anyone else will be able to fix it for you. But the answer to your question is yes, it can be done. The thing that really confused me was that it seemed like we were the first people to ever try to do this, which can’t be possible. But there was clearly no standard procedure for handling it.

 

I will say that everyone we dealt with was incredibly pleasant and professional (and we were also very pleasant the whole time, which I’m sure helped). This was our first Seabourn cruise and we have loved it, and we are already planning our next one. I know it sounds like we spent hours dealing with this, but it did not interfere with our cruise enjoyment in any way.

 

Sorry for the long book but I figured it would be useful info for future guests trying to do this. 

[frantic36]

Unfortunately the Spa is a law unto themselves because they are a seperate entity from Seabourn. I think you were very lucky to have Anine who has done so much work on this. I would be very cautious that this will happen in every case.

 

On our cruise on Sojourn in September I was stunned to find the Spa had applied an automatic either 18 or 22% tip to my nail treatment. After a couple of days I did manage to get it removed because I had given the manicurist a large cash tip. I questioned this because this has never been done before on Seabourn. I was told the Spa management had decided they were trialling an automatic tip application. I can tell you now for the prices they charge this is not going to go down well especially those of us from a non-tipping culture. I tip but don't like being forced too.

 

I did get my nails redone later as it was a longer cruise but just didn't tip the nail therapist and let them apply the automatic tip. I did wonder how much actually goes to the therapist?

[JMB56]

Thanks for your very kind reply! Based on your experience, it maybe easier to buy a lot of penguin toys for the grandchildren than to try to apply the existing spa charges to the OBC.

[lisa6191]

9 minutes ago, JMB56 said:

Thanks for your very kind reply! Based on your experience, it maybe easier to buy a lot of penguin toys for the grandchildren than to try to apply the existing spa charges to the OBC.

Well, it certainly will be easier! But I highly doubt you will find $2000 worth of gifts in the shop, unless you buy jewelry. The safest thing to do is probably to plan to use at least some of the OBC for the spa but just wait to book till you’re onboard. You’ll pay higher prices but you’ll be assured that it will come out of OBC. 
 

We have also used some OBC this trip on laundry and the Retreat, but there is no retreat on Venture, right? 

[Steve007NY]

We too have had trouble spending all our on board credits. After the Retreat, and in the old days pay for Internet, we usually have enough to buy some gifts (including a $400 watch which I wear to this day.  

[Covepointcruiser]

On the Venture, if you take a submarine excursion that will take care of your OBC.

[westmount]

I was on a wonderful cruise last April from Dubai to Athens, and happened to book three massages in advance for the 18 day trip. When I got on board, I noticed they had a special, with a declining price for each treatment, and asked for the special rate for the three treatments. 

   The first day, the girl at the desk said ok, and thus, after finishing a wonderful treatment, I tipped my masseuse nicely, since I getting a decent deal and figured better it goes to her etc. 

  When I saw her before the next treatment, she thanked me for the tip, not knowing that in fact, the manager refused to credit me, and thus my tip was on top of the pre paid full price including 18
% . 

  We got into a whole discussion, as they said I was able to get better times etc, and the special was to "fill" the non pre booked times etc. 

  I'm a simple guy, and figure when one is paying a pretty high price for a no hassle Seabourn cruise, the last thing that should occur is a nickel/dime Spa story that cost a client a couple hundred dollars for no good reason. 

I now understand that the Spa is separate, and I will not be pre booking spa treatments in the future, but of all the great things I love about Seabourn is the fact that you pay the price and then enjoy the trip, and I must say,  the Spa almost ruined it for me, and Seabourn should know the client is always right when its policy vs doing the right thing. 

Good luck to us all 

Westmount 

  

[lisa6191]

Just an update, we have returned home from the cruise and I did indeed get all of the money from my prebooked spa appointments refunded to me. Still, I’m not sure I would do it again based on how much time it took to sort out. Definitely a buyer beware situation.