On-Board Credit

[anthonyshine]

Hello,
I am in the process of booking my cruise through a travel agent. I keep hearing things about a possible on-board ship credit. Can any of you provide info on this? This would be great.
Thanks!

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by anthonyshine
Hello,
I am in the process of booking my cruise through a travel agent. I keep hearing things about a possible on-board ship credit. Can any of you provide info on this? This would be great.
Thanks!

Donate any amount of money to your ship-board account either directly with DCL (1-800-951-3532) or do it on line at the DCL website, or through your TA. Pre-paying your tips is not a bad idea as it can add up to a sizeable chunk depending on the number of people in your party...

 

[anthonyshine]

Thats a terrific idea!! Thanks!!

What I do mean by on-board credit though, is that I hear that if you are first time cruiser you can be eligible for a $50 on board credit (or something to that fact). I'm not sure if this was a one ime promotional thing or not.

Going on the Magic Jan 22nd!! Can't wait!!

 

[pvangordon]

OBCs are given by DCL as an incentive to book a new cruise while you're on a current cruise. For example, you can get a credit of $100 pp (up to $200 per stateroom) for booking a new 7-day cruise while onboard.

You can also give OBCs as gifts. So if you're going on a cruise and a really good friend of yours wants to give you a nice present, they can send in money to DCL to give you OBCs.

Occasionally TAs will offer OBCs as well. They may do it as a favor to special customers of theirs (ones who book a lot of travel through them). The TA simply makes an OBC gift like I mentioned above. Another scenario is a TA who specializes in a particular cruise line or belongs to a travel consortium and gets group deals that include OBCs.

Finally OBCs may be given as special incentives, such as for new passengers. I received a $250 OBC to try another line as part of a referral program.

 

[daisy112878]

I don't know if you mean pre-paying an account or getting shipboard credit through DCL. The DCL shipboard credits are when you book another cruise while on a cruise. If you are on a 7 night Magic cruise and you book another 7 night curise then you get 10% off and $200 stateroom credit. Some people have gotten stateroom credits lately b/c of the hurricanes messing up their trips too.

 

[jgalecpa]

AAA has our reservation.

One of the perks was that we would get a "soda" card entitling us to free sodas.

But when DCL made the sodas free, AAA came through (Big-time, IMHO) and gave us $150 on board credit on our account in lieu thereof.

Since we had two rooms, it worked out to $300 total. That is a heck of a lot of soda!

Jim

PS I heard (hearsay only, mind you) that the $50 1st time credit (Promotion code REF) was discontinued.

 

[invaderzim]

I've gotten onboard credits ($150) booking through AAA, and this year I got one ($125) for booking with MouseEars Vacations. For next year's cruise,we booked with AAA again and not only got the $150 onboard credit for the discontinued soda package, but are also getting a $100 credit from AAA directly. So that's $250 for next year! On a 2-week cruise, that will come in handy!

 

[cristit14]

This past July we got a $50 credit because we used our new Disney Visa card to pay for our cruise. I don't know if that is still going on, but I will continue to make payments for our 2005 cruise with the card in case they offer it again next year. It is a great way to rack up the Disney dollars too.

 

[pvangordon]

Oh yeah that's another way to get credits. Amex Platinum offers like $350-400 OBCs. If you cruise a lot, it can easily pay for itself.

 

[MrsMork]

They were giving a $50 OBC for first cruise if you gave them the name of a previous cruiser who referred you. Don't know if that is still happening.