Can I use onboard credit to pay gratuities?

[JessLCH]

If so, how does that work on DCL?

 

[kcashner]

Yes. All you need to do is to charge your tips to your onboard account. You fill out a form and submit it to GS. If you are on the Magic, the suggested tips are being charged to your account automatically--you can change this by going to GS, but if you do nothing the standard amount will appear as a charge.

Onboard credit can be used for ANYTHING that can be charged to your KTTW account.

 

[pluto1979]

Yes, I have done it without any problems! Have a DREAMy cruise!

 

[IrishCowboy]

YES!!! We love OBC

 

[mammacaryn]

Just to clarify......unless you prepay gratuaties, the tips are the LAST thing to come off your account. So technically, if you get photos, buy drinks, trinkets etc...., those will all come off first. Now if after all that stuff you still have OBC left, then YES you will use your OBC for tips, otherwise whatever your payment choice is, that is where the tips will come from.


So short answer, yes.

 

[JessLCH]

Yes. All you need to do is to charge your tips to your onboard account. You fill out a form and submit it to GS. If you are on the Magic, the suggested tips are being charged to your account automatically--you can change this by going to GS, but if you do nothing the standard amount will appear as a charge.

Onboard credit can be used for ANYTHING that can be charged to your KTTW account.

So the gratuity is automatically added to your account on Magic but not the other Disney ships? Seems odd. Why no uniform policy? I guess I will have to fill out the form to have it added to my account. We are NCL regular cruisers. They always add the gratuity automatically which I prefer. One less thing to think about on vacation.

 

[sissy_ib]

So the gratuity is automatically added to your account on Magic but not the other Disney ships? Seems odd. Why no uniform policy? I guess I will have to fill out the form to have it added to my account. We are NCL regular cruisers. They always add the gratuity automatically which I prefer. One less thing to think about on vacation.

It is a pretty new policy. They are probably testing it on the Magic. If you don't pre-pay gratuities they are added at the end of the cruise. You can then go to Guest Services if you want to change the amount or how you pay them.

 

[kcashner]

The automatic gratuities started on the Magic this summer while the ship was in the Med. European tipping standards are very different than in the US, and the CMs were getting stiffed. What I don't understand is why the policy is continuing now that the ship is back at Port Canaveral; could be a "try it out" thing.

Tips are not necessarily the last thing to come off your account, whether you pre-pay or not. I can go to GS on day 1, complete the form, and have the tips come off at that time. The tips will be charged to your account at the time the tip coupons are printed; on the Magic, this was day 5 (on a 7 night cruise), on other ships it is whenever you choose to complete the tip form. The form is placed in your cabin on the second to last day, but is available to you at GS at any time during the cruise.

 

[mammacaryn]

Tips are not necessarily the last thing to come off your account, whether you pre-pay or not. I can go to GS on day 1, complete the form, and have the tips come off at that time.

I'm thinking most people, including us (after being on 3 DCL cruises are unaware of this)
Thanks for the info.

The tips will be charged to your account at the time the tip coupons are printed; on the Magic, this was day 5 (on a 7 night cruise), on other ships it is whenever you choose to complete the tip form. The form is placed in your cabin on the second to last day, but is available to you at GS at any time during the cruise.

Correct, and then most folks distribute them the last evening of the cruise. We always paid cash for our tips with the exception of one or two envelopes. Those tips that we charged were the VERY last thing to come off.

 

[twindaddy]

OK, random tip question. I am leaning towards prepaying gratuities, to get it out of the way and done, but I dont think I will use all of my OBC. Lets say I have $30 left of OBC, and I want to give that to my server because they rocked my world. Can I have that deducted or added to my prepaid tip ticket somehow?


Thanks!

 

[Bear3412]

I always heard/read/thought the general rule with the on board account, if linked to a credit card, was they would/will charge the card once charges reached around $250. Which in my case will result in many transactions.
Does that still hold true? And I assume with OBC the deductions will obviously come from that first then if you reach $250 then they will charge. Some report this behavior. (several cc posts) Others report being billed once for $2200 at the end.

 

[Daniellenbella]

We cruised on the Magic in Nov. They charged the tips to our account right away and once our balance got past $500, they charged our credit card linked to the account. This really messed up our budget. I didn't know they did this until I went down to add our Disney Rewards Dollars to our account and found out they had already charged my Visa for $500. If they had not charged the tips to our account, we wouldn't have hit that $500 mark when we did.

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

OK, random tip question. I am leaning towards prepaying gratuities, to get it out of the way and done, but I dont think I will use all of my OBC. Lets say I have $30 left of OBC, and I want to give that to my server because they rocked my world. Can I have that deducted or added to my prepaid tip ticket somehow?


Thanks!

You would just need to visit Guest Services and they will add that to the amount you are already giving your server.