New diamond member question about drink vouchers

[happy cruisers 2]

Our next cruise will be as Diamond members and we're looking forward to the 4 complimentary drink vouchers daily.  Could you more experienced members tell me if I'm thinking about this correctly? Could I choose to use 3 vouchers one day and 5 the following day?  (Or even 2 one day and 6 the following day?)

[Neesa]

No, you get 4 vouchers per day. If you don't use them you lose them. They are assigned to your sea pass card, so easy to use! Enjoy and congratulations on becoming Diamond!

[happy cruisers 2]

Ah.  Use them or lose them.  Thanks, Neesa, for setting me straight on that.

[Bob Burd]

Just remember to tell them when you want to use it.   You don't want to 'waste' one on a bottle of water, coffee or a soda unless that's what you want too. 

 

[steverk]

As mentioned earlier,  4 per day. Use or lose.

But you can go to a bar at the end of each day and get bottles or cans of your favorite beverage and bring them to your room. 

[Gilley]

Is there a way to keep,track.  Does it show up,on your account as one voucher used, 3 remaining?

[Crown&AnchorEsq]

It should show up on your account as a 0.00 charge at whatever bar you visited, it does not reflect how many vouchers remain.  Many of the bartenders are good about telling you how many you have left and they will certainly tell you if you ask.

[happy cruisers 2]

1 hour ago, steverk said:

But you can go to a bar at the end of each day and get bottles or cans of your favorite beverage and bring them to your room. 

Does anyone know if giving an unopened Truly or beer to your room steward is allowed or are there rules against stewards accepting this?

[WAAAYTOOO]

Just now, Gilley said:

Is there a way to keep,track.  Does it show up,on your account as one voucher used, 3 remaining?

This has proven to be the most difficult part of the voucher system, IMO.  Sometimes they use your voucher and sometimes they do not, even if you tell them you want to use a voucher.  Yes, they will EVENTUALLY show up on your account as a -0- purchase but that might take all day/night to happen.  There are MANY days when absolutely nothing shows up on my account so I assume that the voucher(s) were never used.

As others have mentioned, if you presume to have left-over vouchers at the end of the evening, drop by a bar and ask for some water/soft drinks/beers ??  to go.  It is a shame to waste vouchers but admittedly, I do it every single day.

It's a great perk but it isn't perfect.  Keeping track of how many you have used/remaining can be a challenge but I guess it's a good problem to have !

[baltodave]

We recently became "Diamond" and I always tell the bartender to use one of my "Diamond Vouchers".  I've heard you can't on the robotic bartenders on Odyssey.  Can anyone confirm or deny?

[OCSC Mike]

58 minutes ago, Gilley said:

Is there a way to keep,track.  Does it show up,on your account as one voucher used, 3 remaining?

Good info in the above post. Besides the receipts which seem to vary greatly by ship/sailing, *if* the app is working, these drinks will show up as $0.00 pretty quickly, so that's a possible way.

Another way, if you tip $1-2 per drink like many do, it to put X amount of singles in your packet/purse/whatever and keep track of how many you have left.

 

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, baltodave said:

We recently became "Diamond" and I always tell the bartender to use one of my "Diamond Vouchers".  I've heard you can't on the robotic bartenders on Odyssey.  Can anyone confirm or deny?

True. You cannot use vouchers at the Bionic Bar on any ship that has one.

[Jolly Ogre]

Also remember to tip them as those vouchers do not have an included gratuity.

I usually give a dollar when i order and one when it arrives.

[happy cruisers 2]

1 hour ago, Jolly Ogre said:

Also remember to tip them as those vouchers do not have an included gratuity.

 

Good point.  Thanks, Jolly Ogre.

[CrimsonCruiser]

2 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said:

Also remember to tip them as those vouchers do not have an included gratuity.

I usually give a dollar when i order and one when it arrives.

This would be so much easier if I got a reciept consistently...I don't make it a habit to carry cash on the ship since everything else is seapass only...

[CruisingSteve]

It's use them or lose them. Clock resets at 5am. What you can do is pay for a beer or coffee, then use the free vouchers on the more expensive mixed drinks. You have to tell them to not use the voucher for the drink you want to pay for

[RCIfan1912]

5 hours ago, Crown&AnchorEsq said:

It should show up on your account as a 0.00 charge at whatever bar you visited, it does not reflect how many vouchers remain.  Many of the bartenders are good about telling you how many you have left and they will certainly tell you if you ask.

They are really good at telling you what you have left. They would say to my wife that she used hers but your husband still has 2 left. So we don't drink much but those vouchers are AWESOME, 4 is perfect, some days too much so some days she would use one or even two of mine. Some days I used one of hers. The way we thought about it is we have 8 drinks a day. Absolutely perfect for us. 

[Gilley]

5 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Good info in the above post. Besides the receipts which seem to vary greatly by ship/sailing, *if* the app is working, these drinks will show up as $0.00 pretty quickly, so that's a possible way.

Another way, if you tip $1-2 per drink like many do, it to put X amount of singles in your packet/purse/whatever and keep track of how many you have left.

 

Good idea.  I will try that with the dollar bills.  I have a tendency to forgot after 2 drinks….

[F1guynz]

I must admit sailing here in Australia I have never considered tipping the bartender/server for our Diamond drinks.

[Mturk]

8 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Besides the receipts which seem to vary greatly by ship/sailing, *if* the app is working,

 

Our experience has been, when we first sailed as Diamond last January on Harmony, it seemed that most waiters weren't familiar with the system yet as it had just been implemented a little while prior. We never received a receipt and would always ask how many vouchers we had left. On our last cruise on Independence at the end of November, almost every time we ordered we did receive a receipt. When we didn't, it usually was because we ordered from a waiter on the pool deck instead of going to the bar. Getting the receipt definitely made it easier for leaving a tip since we may not always have cash on us. With each cruise after Harmony, we would get more receipts than we did on the previous cruise. 

[steverk]

9 hours ago, happy cruisers 2 said:

Does anyone know if giving an unopened Truly or beer to your room steward is allowed or are there rules against stewards accepting this?

I spoke to someone that did this on every cruise.  I'm not sure what the rules are, but she said she would ask the attendant what he/she would like and then she would leave it in a specified location in the stateroom.  She tells me it always disappears.

[Neesa]

@happy cruisers 2NOTE: check your account on the TV before bed, most times the places you utilized the vouchers will have the 0.00 charge. 

We did have an issue where for a few days someone used our vouchers & it wasn't us. We believe day 1 we said please use our voucher and responded with our cabin number when asked. The next few days we were " out of vouchers" when we never used them. 

We had to go to the concierge and leader of the dining services to get it taken care of. We were accused "softly" of trying to get more, but it was easy to prove as there are cameras everywhere, it was finally taken care of and our " charges" were removed. It was so frustrating, they must have caught the person because after happening 4 days in a row it finally stopped. 

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Neesa said:

@happy cruisers 2NOTE: check your account on the TV before bed, most times the places you utilized the vouchers will have the 0.00 charge

They'll show in the app too.

[happy cruisers 2]

3 hours ago, steverk said:

she would ask the attendant what he/she would like and then she would leave it in a specified location in the stateroom.  She tells me it always disappears.

This sounds like a good plan.  We're pretty much rule followers (most of the time!) and would hate to get someone fired.

[happy cruisers 2]

17 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

1 hour ago, Neesa said:

check your account on the TV before bed, most times the places you utilized the vouchers will have the 0.00 charge

They'll show in the app too.

We'll will make a mental note to keep good track of vouchers used.  Wife is better at that stuff than I am!