Pending Charge on card while aboard

[SewerUrchin43]

I’m on the Independence of the Sea currently (Sept. 19-23) and wondering if it is normal for Royal Caribbean to put a $99.00 holding charge on your card before you settle your account. The app is just showing the couple of drinks I’ve put on my SeaPass card still. 
 

another first timer question, I guess my last since I’m actually on the boat and not one anymore . Lol

[wordell1]

It does put some pending charges on your CC as the week goes on.  For me at least, I have received a single charge at the end for the total.

[twangster]

Yes but it's more like a test charge to make sure an actual charge that will be authorized.  Some credit card companies may not release it right away so it effectively becomes a hold or pending charge and banks can be particularly overly cautious with debit cards in case your intention was to charge something and immediately withdraw the money from the account while the actual charge was being processed. 

A lot of the behaviour you see with these types of account transactions are more a function how the credit card company or bank handles it and that can be influenced by the company or bank, type of account, your credit history and credit score. It's not always on the merchant (Royal in this case).  Credit card companies profile card holders and may or may not be more conservative in the way they handle one cardholder vs. another.  

Royal typically tries to post a $99 charge on night one and then they will post smaller amounts during the cruise if that $99 initial post to your seapass account is exceeded.  Once the cruise is over they'll post a final sum of the other charges as a single transaction.  Depending on your credit card company or bank and how quickly they release the original test or pending transactions it can tie up some of your available credit until the bank or credit card company drops the pending transactions.   

Gas stations can sometimes work the same way, less so in the US but certainly in other countries like Canada.  As soon as I swipe my card in a gas pump in Canada my Apple watch displays something like a $200 charge even though I haven't started pumping gas yet.   Once I'm done I'll see a transaction for the actual amount of gas that I pumped and the $200 test charge eventually falls off.  In the US I rarely see that initial test charge, I usually see something pop up on my watch as I am driving away.  

[SewerUrchin43]

34 minutes ago, twangster said:

Royal typically tries to post a $99 charge on night one and then they will post smaller amounts during the cruise if that $99 initial post to your seapass account is exceeded.  Once the cruise is over they'll post a final sum of the other charges as a single transaction.  Depending on your credit card company or bank and how quickly they release the original test or pending transactions it can tie up some of your available credit until the bank or credit card company drops the pending transactions.   

Gas stations can sometimes work the same way, less so in the US but certainly in other countries like Canada.  As soon as I swipe my card in a gas pump in Canada my Apple watch displays something like a $200 charge even though I haven't started pumping gas yet.   Once I'm done I'll see a transaction for the actual amount of gas that I pumped and the $200 test charge eventually falls off.  In the US I rarely see that initial test charge, I usually see something pop up on my watch as I am driving away.  

Thank you for the responses.
 I was assuming that this was the case like a Hotel or gas station like you stated. I just wanted to make sure this was the case. 

[smokeybandit]

I tend to get several of these charges during a cruise