There always seems to be a lot of questions around what are and what can you do with on-board credits on a Royal Caribbean ship. My hope with this post is to demystify what they are and what are some of the best ways to use them.
To understand what on-board credits are you would first need to understand the on-board account for your sailing. This is really the money that you spend on the cruise. Think of this as all the “swipes” that you would normally make on land with a credit/debit card but on the ship, but you use your sea pass card instead. The most common use of this account would be for a la carte drinks and food, but really any purchase you make onboard goes onto this account, from last minute excursions to merchandise purchases. Most people just attach a credit card to the account and if you are like me, check each day what you are spending during the cruise. However, you would be able to pre-load cash onto the account and can even add cash on the account during the cruise if you wanted.
So, when you get “on-board” credits from Royal, that is just them giving you money upfront to use in the same way. You can get these onboard credits either from a promotion, credit card redemption or of a way Royal compensates you for some issue. Now here is where the credits differ slightly from the on-board account. Once you get the credits you don’t have to wait to use them until your sailing, the only stipulation is that you have to use them for purchases for your sailing. So, you can use them for anything you would buy for or on your cruise. You could use them for excursions or for dining / drink packages and a myriad of things you can buy pre-cruise.
Now here are what I think are the two best uses for the onboard credits. These will really fall into two buckets. First, to use them on other deals. I usually book a cruise very far in advance, so when I get the on-board credits, I usually sit on them and wait for other Royal deals to come thought. Periodically, you will see deals for all the offerings that Royal provides. Deals on excursion, dining and drink packages. It is then where I utilize the onboard credits. I love the idea of “double dipping” on promotions. Getting a deal on something and paying for it with the onboard credits.
By all means, if you want something specific on your cruise that you just have to have and want to use the onboard credits instantly, there is no knocking that. There is no harm in “locking it in” and remember you can always cancel and rebook any item that reduces, but it gets a little tricky when you use onboard credits that way. If you want to cancel something and rebook it with the same onboard credits, you need to call customer service for that.
The second bucket is, and this requires some gambling, to use the credits in the casinos. There is an option on the slot machines to use your credits there, and this attempting to use a perk in the onboard credits as “free money” in hopes to get another perk; a free cruise from the casino program. If you are like me, I always bring some money that I expect to blow in the casino so this really can serve two purposes in that aspect, not spending the addition cash and increases the chances to get a better status in the casino program.
I hope this helps you with your onboard credit questions, let me know if the comments if there is something I didn’t answer or miss.
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