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How to handle On Board Credit


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Here’s a ‘Dear Abby’ type of question.  We’re going on a family cruise next month on Symphony OTS.  We have 2 daughters (both in their 30’s) booked into a cabin that comes with an On Board credit; not much, just $50.  The one daughter saw the offer to use the OBC when she purchased an internet package today, but didn’t use it because she didn’t understand what it was.  She & mom want to go Parasailing on Coco Cay (of curse, er, I mean course, my wife wants to use our cabin’s OBC towards Parasailing), and beloved daughter 1 wants advise on how to handle the OBC with beloved daughter 2.  Being married, we’ve always handled any charges/OBC through 1 person, me, just for convenience sake, so this is new territory for me.  I proffered 2 suggestions: 1) as each beloved daughter will have their own account, have Guest Service split the cabin’s OBC in half, $25 on each girl’s account, or 2) beloved daughter simply take all the OBC & give beloved daughter 2 $25.  Any thoughts or feedback on how you have handled this kind of situation on your cruises?  BTW, both daughters get along great, so I don’t  foresee any friction between them.

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7 minutes ago, Salt Water Buckeye said:

Here’s a ‘Dear Abby’ type of question.  We’re going on a family cruise next month on Symphony OTS.  We have 2 daughters (both in their 30’s) booked into a cabin that comes with an On Board credit; not much, just $50.  The one daughter saw the offer to use the OBC when she purchased an internet package today, but didn’t use it because she didn’t understand what it was.  She & mom want to go Parasailing on Coco Cay (of curse, er, I mean course, my wife wants to use our cabin’s OBC towards Parasailing), and beloved daughter 1 wants advise on how to handle the OBC with beloved daughter 2.  Being married, we’ve always handled any charges/OBC through 1 person, me, just for convenience sake, so this is new territory for me.  I proffered 2 suggestions: 1) as each beloved daughter will have their own account, have Guest Service split the cabin’s OBC in half, $25 on each girl’s account, or 2) beloved daughter simply take all the OBC & give beloved daughter 2 $25.  Any thoughts or feedback on how you have handled this kind of situation on your cruises?  BTW, both daughters get along great, so I don’t  foresee any friction between them.

If the OBC is split, then each daughter must use her sea pass to spend it down.  We had a case last month where some OBC wasn't used because that person rarely signed for anythiing. You should also consider how you set up the account payment process when you check-in online.  On my cruise, my credit card was used for both rooms we booked and everyone had authorization to charge.  So if the daughters are sharing the room, whose credit card is being used?  Or do they plan on putting down cash at Guest Services?

In the end, I don't think it is the OBC you need to square away, it is how you want to manage the total onboard spending for each stateroom.  When you decide that, the OBC will fall into place.

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If you wait until guest services split the OBC, then they need to use it onboard.  If they both want internet or a drink package, could you use the OBC towards it on the cruise planner.  The 2 daughters would split the rest of the cost as you can use multiple credit cards for payment or 1 pays the other back.  Either way using the OBC prior to the cruise is probably the easiest.  

As for check in, each daughter should check themselves in and can apply their own credit card for their onboard account. 

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You can actually scale how much OBC you use towards things during the checkout process in the Cruise Planner. So if daughter #1 wants to prepurchase the internet package, she can slide the scale to use $25 of the $50 when she goes to check out on the cruise planner (she can also cancel her current purchase, then repurchase using this option) That would leave $25 for daughter #2 to use the leftover $25 towards whatever she wants. On board doesn't mean you *have* to spend it on board. You can spend it in the cruise planner ahead of time, and split it how you want. 

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