Can Free onboard credit be used to pay for gratuities?

[Akizoo]

I am going on the FOTS in March, 2018 and have not cruised in years with RCI. I am wondering if the free onboard credit given by RCI can be used to pay for the gratuities. I was not given a lot of OBC, and am willing to pay for the difference, of course. Any advice/knowledge would be truly appreciated. Thank you.

[L454S]

Yes they can, done this several times recently. Just don't "prepay" your grats, let them charge the tips daily to your folio account.

[Akizoo]

L454S, thank you for the info.  I dont want to waste the OBC on unimportant things (for me) like photo packages, or spa treatments.

 

[RestingBird]

I was thinking about using some OBC for grats in March, but I'm always paranoid about rates going up, so I pre-paid.  Sure enough, they just went up.

[Akizoo]

Thanks, but I o not know how this relates to the topic

[L454S]

What resting birds is saying is that he prepaid his grats recently(on a booked cruise) because the tip price has just gone up $1.00 per day/per person. He had a chance to get grandfathered in at the existing price on a booked cruise, so he prepaid.

I thought about it for a while(have a couple on the books), decided that because we generally have OBC from RCI and T/A(as opposed to free grats), it would be in my best interest to use OBC for grats. On longer sailings, grats can well exceed the $400 mark.

I think this "grandfather" window is past now though.

[JLMoran]

@Akizoo, what sailing are you on? I’ll be on Freedom March 31 for an 8-night Eastern Caribbean sailing, and another couple of people here will be on her the prior week for the 6-night Western Caribbean itinerary.

No obligation to reply, just informal roll call. 

[Akizoo]

L454S thanks for the info from resting bird

[Akizoo]

JLMoran, my family will be in the Mar 17th FOTS cruise. Looking forward to it.