OBC: What do you use it for?

[skiergirl4]

We will be booking three staterooms on the Fantasy for June 2018 and are deciding if we should go through an agent like DU that offers on board credit, or an agent like Costco Travel which gives a Costco cash card as a booking incentive.

If we use DU, we will have $1000 in OBC. First, will that be split across the three staterooms, or just applied the the "lead" stateroom (not sure if that is a real term...we have one family member who will book and pay for the cruise fare)?

Second (my main question): $1000 seems like a lot. We've never sailed with DCL so I'm not sure what all we can use OBC for. I assume we will book any excursions in advance to be sure we can do the excursions we want, so I'm guessing we would pay for those in advance as well, thus not using OBC to pay for them.

Our group will be six adults and four children. We drink an "average" amount (each adult will probably have two to three drinks per day), so perhaps some of the credit could be used for that. We do not typically use spa services, so I don't think we would spend much of the OBC on spa services.

We are Costco members, so we would use the Costco card. I'm leaning toward DU because we would work with one agent and they specialize in Disney, but I don't want to be "trying to use up" the OBC.

Any insight or help that you could provide would be wonderful. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[party-of-five]

We book two staterooms, our DU OBC has been divided evenly between the two rooms. We use the credit to pay the gratuities (for the stateroom host and servers), purchases in the gift shops, and drinks. It goes quickly!

 

[KristiMc]

Excursions are not paid for beforehand so the OBC could go towards that. Just as a reference, our family of 4 on a 7-night cruise usually spends around $1500-2000 onboard between excursions, drinks, BINGO, shopping, gratutites, spa treatments, pictures, laundry, wine/liquor tastings. The money would be given to each stateroom.

 

[Dug720]

Unlike other crusielines, Disney does not charge upfront for excursions. So your OBC can most definitely be used for that.

Additionally:
You could use it for gratuities.
You could use it for drinks.
You could use it for things bought in the stores on board.
You could use it for paid snacks.
You could use it for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique/Pirate's League.
You could use it for pictures.
You could use it for bike or float or snorkel equipment on CC.

Lot of stuff you can use it on.

 

[tigerchic89]

you also can use it if you book Remy or Palo. But tips and excursions would be your big ones. I'd book which ever amount was highest (Costco or OBC)

 

[jtkboston]

For DU credit, your agent can divide it up between staterooms per your request. It doesn't need to be equal among staterooms or equal by passenger.

 

[skiergirl4]

This information has been SO helpful! Thank you so much. We have only cruised with Royal Caribbean, so this DCL info is great!

Thank you again!

 

[DIS_Ag]

1500-2000 as a final bill is pretty accurate.

 

[disneyholic family]

ours paid for our excursions, which was really nice!!!!

 

[MickeyEarrings]

Be aware of this: on our 2015 cruise I wanted to share my DCL OBB credit and DU credit equally with my roommates but guest services couldn't do it. The OBB was $200, and the DU credit was $150, so they could give one person &200, one person $100 and one person $50. That may affect your decision.