Questions about prepaying OBC and Gift Cards

[amalone1013]

Two questions here.

First: I have a credit card with a travel credit on it I need to use up before the end of the month, so I'd like to call in and put it towards our OBC ($100). Then I plan on putting a gift card on my account once on the ship to pay for the rest. If for some reason we wouldn't use the full amount, do you know if it would all go back to the gift card since it would be the last "credit" or payment method on the account? I just don't want it to go back to the credit card. I figured out something else I can do with this, but thanks everyone!

Second: in our other room are my inlaws and MILs sister. When we did their online checking we set aunts charging to go to her credit card, and ILs to go to MILs credit card. We have gift cards for each of them as a gift, that I was going to help them put on their account for OBC to go towards their port excursions, etc. Will guest services be able to apply them separately, like aunts goes towards her charges and ILs will go towards theirs? This just occurred to me

 

[Spartan86]

Only 1 cruise experience to draw from. We had two cabins, ours and DS. As his was a selected room and ours was a guarantee, his was primary and was the billed stateroom for us all. We put gift cards on the account before the cruise, and the remaining balance went back on the card the day of disembarkation. No billing issues at all. As to your “multi-payer” scenario I’m unsure, but would guess it doable. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[disneylove69]

Each person can have a credit card linked to their pass with no problem. Charge your tips to the room and that will easily eat up the $100.

 

[clten]

Only 1 cruise experience to draw from. We had two cabins, ours and DS. As his was a selected room and ours was a guarantee, his was primary and was the billed stateroom for us all. We put gift cards on the account before the cruise, and the remaining balance went back on the card the day of disembarkation. No billing issues at all. As to your “multi-payer” scenario I’m unsure, but would guess it doable. Good luck and enjoy!

How your charges worked had nothing to do with one cabin being "selected" and one being "guarantee". When you set up everyone's account, you gave one method of payment and allowed everyone's charges to go to that method of payment. (Maybe your son set it up.) Just clarifying in case someone has two rooms similar and thinks they can't set up different methods of payment - they can.

OP, you will be able to apply the gift cards to your Aunt's and IL's separately, that won't be a problem. When you go to guest services, just give the name of the person you want to apply the GC to and it should be applied properly. When I've put credit down for other people, it has been hit or miss is Guest Services would give me a copy of their room charges to see if the credit was applied properly (I never asked, it was just that some would automatically print it and hand it to me and others wouldn't). So double checking that all went where you intended may need to have them check for themselves.

For your credit, it should be used in the order it is applied. So if you put the travel credit down first, than the gift cards, the travel credit should be used first and then the gift cards. If you are booking excursions, they can be billed to your room on day one so you may check your balance even before applying the gift cards to be sure the travel credit is being used. If you have any remaining credit, it should then go back on the gift cards.

 

[lanejudy]

DCL uses a "hierarchy" system to determine which credits get used first from your onboard account, if there are multiple methods of payment. This is from another recent thread:

1st - Non-refundable onboard credits (OBC), normally from DCL for onboard booking benefits, delays, maintenance issues, etc.
2nd - Refundable OBCs, such as from travel agents
3rd - Gift cards applied to your account
4th - Cash applied to your account
5th - Credit or debit card securing payment of the account

I don't know how the "travel credit" from the credit card is applied or how it would be considered in the above scheme. I believe pre-paid amounts are considered "refundable OBC" (even though you indicate the travel credit expires this month), so hopefully it would be "spent" before the gift cards. I might hold off adding the gift cards until I know my charges have surpassed the value of the travel credit, to assure it gets completely used. Then on your second or third day, add the gift cards.

As for gift cards for the other staterooms, that shouldn't be any problem - assuming you have separate gift cards for each of those rooms and not trying to split the value of one large gift card across the rooms.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[amalone1013]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone! It seems everything will work out as I hope. We fly out tonight for a few days in the park before we leave!

 

[Spartan86]

How your charges worked had nothing to do with one cabin being "selected" and one being "guarantee". When you set up everyone's account, you gave one method of payment and allowed everyone's charges to go to that method of payment. (Maybe your son set it up.) Just clarifying in case someone has two rooms similar and thinks they can't set up different methods of payment - they can.

Thanks for that clarification. I thought our TA said something about that but I may have misinterpreted. Our son’s room appeared first on the reservation so I suppose it defaulted to be the “bill to” cabin, which was fine - we made no attempts to set it up otherwise. In any case, we found applying a gift card, reconciling our account charges and working with the front desk on all the above to be very easy.