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Cruise On-Board Credit. 8 Ways To Get More, And What You Can Spend It On!
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Jan 28, 2025
On-Board credit is bonus or "free" money that you can get to spend on your cruise. it is a credit that you can allocate to different things on your cruising vacation. I explore what it is and, more importantly, the 8 best ways you can get more on-board credit on your next (and future) cruising vacations. I then also explore some key watch-outs and what you can and cannot spend it on. These are key to ensure you do not lose any of your on-board credit and spend it in the mist effective and beneficial way. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0 Things You Can’t Do On A Cruise Any More: https://youtu.be/zas6F4wMD0Q Should You Pay Cruise Gratuities: https://youtu.be/QBYzqxXjEXQ Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises. Follow Tips For Travellers on:
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0:00
on board credit how do you get it and
0:03
what can you spend it on and why I'm
0:06
Gary Bembridge this is another of my
0:08
cruise tips for travelers I actually see
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on a cruise and I was lucky enough to
0:11
have a lot of onboard credit that got me
0:14
thinking about how do you get loads of
0:16
onboard credit and importantly what you
0:17
can can't spend it on and what are the
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best things to spend onboard credit on
0:23
so let's take a look starting with
0:24
actually what is onboard credit the best
0:28
way to think about onboard credit is
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it's free money so it's a bit like
0:31
someone giving you a gift card or some
0:34
cash to go and spend on whatever you
0:37
likes it's a bit like a gift and it
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comes normally from the cruise line so
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it's basically free money for you to
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spend on board so how do you actually
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get onboard credit there are nine key
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ways that you can get onboard credit the
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first of these is from the cruise line
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when they do promotions you'll find when
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itineraries are launched especially
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there are lots of deals and incentives
1:00
to encourage you to book so the cruise
1:02
line will normally throw in some onboard
1:04
credit which will normally be per person
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or per cabin and this can mount up to
1:08
quite a lot depending on the grade that
1:09
you book the other way that you get
1:11
onboard credit link to that is if you
1:13
book your cruise on the ship so when
1:16
you're on another cruise they pretty
1:18
much always will throw in onboard credit
1:20
incentives again scaling up based on the
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length of the cruise or the grade of the
1:24
cabin that you're actually booking those
1:27
are the most common ways of getting
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onboard credit but there are seven other
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ways that you can get it one of those is
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if you book with a agent you'll often
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find that cruise agents will throw in
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other incentives to try and get you to
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book with them and often they are able
1:40
to offer extra onboard credit and
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certainly when you're booking with an
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agent ask them if there's any
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opportunities they'll often throw in
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some sometimes I guess they'll use some
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of their commission perhaps to put it on
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book credit to encourage you to book
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with them one of the ways that I have
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been very successful at getting onboard
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credit is by tracking the price of a
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cruise so once i've booked a cruise what
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I then do is I keep an eye on what the
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prices are for the grade that I've
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booked if you see the price falling
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dramatically the cruise line normally
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it's not going to tell you but what I
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then do is I either talk to my agent or
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if I booked direct with the cruise
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I say that the cruise line look I see
2:15
that my cabin is now being sold for so
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many hundred dollars less what are you
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going to do they'll only offer either an
2:22
upgrade or what they prefer to do is
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offer you humble credit so for example
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the cruise that I've just come off on
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there was a dramatic reduction in price
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because the itinerary was changed and I
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ended up getting $400 of onboard credit
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because that was the difference in price
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so it's really an important thing to do
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to keep tracking the price of your cabin
2:40
on a cruise it's a great way of getting
2:42
a lot of extra credit to spend onboard a
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lot of loyalty programs will also offer
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onboard credit so as you work your way
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up the different tiers you'll find that
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onboard credit often gets thrown in as
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one of the benefits so loyalty to a
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cruise line is another great way of
3:00
getting onboard credit some of the
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cruise lines nowadays have their own
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credit cards so if you're a member of
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their credit card and you spend and you
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build up points instead of being able to
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use those for other things you can
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convert those into humble credits so if
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you really love a particular cruise line
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check if they have a credit card you'll
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find that a lot of the really big
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well-known names increasing have a
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credit card so it's a great way of just
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doing your everyday spending and
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building up credits to your next cruise
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that you can spend on board if you have
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a problem on board that's another way of
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getting onboard credits through
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compensation so if you have a problem
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with service or your cabin or whatever
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and the cruise line is not able to
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resolve it be cheeky and ask if they're
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prepared to give you any onboard credit
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as compensation because that is an
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easier way of them keeping passengers
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happy and of course it doesn't
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necessarily come a lot of money so
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that's a great way of getting onboard
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credit so if you're a serving member of
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the military and sometimes if you're a
4:00
veteran through different ID programs
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you're often able to get honorable
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credit so if you are a serving member of
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the military check if your cruise line
4:08
offers extra benefits and onboard credit
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the last way to get onboard credit is if
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you're a shareholder in a particular
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cruise company and you'll find that you
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could apply for onboard credit so for
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example I hold shares in the Carnival
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Cruise Corporation and I use that
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whenever going on a cruise to apply for
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extra on
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credit again it varies based on the
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length and time of the clues and the
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cruise line it does involve a little bit
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of admin because you have to contact
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them you have to send them a copy of
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your booking a copy of your shareholding
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but you can get extra humble credit by
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owning shares in a particular cruise
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company so those are the nine key ways
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you can get onboard credit once you've
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got onboard credit what on earth can you
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spend it on and what are the best things
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to spend it once you're onboard before
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we look at what you can spend on both
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credit on there probably four key watch
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outs about omble clear that you should
4:59
know when you get it and before you
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think about what you're going to spend
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it on first of all really important is
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in most cases humble credit is
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non-refundable so if you don't spend it
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on board they're not going to give you
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the cash so you need to make sure that
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you spend all of your onboard credit
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onboard and the way you can do that of
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course is track it either by getting a
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printout from guest services or nowadays
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on the app or the interactive television
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on most cruise lines but really
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important you're not going to get the
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cash back so make sure that you're
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planning and spending all of your
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onboard credit when you're on the ship
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most cruise lines won't let you use on
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book credit for things you book in
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advance so there are a couple that will
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so the cruise I was just on Oceania for
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example they did let you pre book things
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and allocate it against your onboard
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credit but many other cruise lines have
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been on if you pre booked things online
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excursions drinks packages internet
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whatever it is it doesn't come off your
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onboard credit so you have to wait until
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you're on the ship before doing that so
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check very carefully if your Cruise Line
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lets you allocate pre-booking stuff to
5:59
your onboard credit the third key watch
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out is what you can spend on will credit
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does differ slightly by a cruise line so
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I'm going to talk about the things you
6:07
can spend it on
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but do listen very carefully because
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there are some cruise lines that won't
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let you spend on booking on certain
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things the big and easiest guideline
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though when it comes to Humble credit is
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pretty much anything that you can use
6:20
your cruise card for on the ship
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normally you can allocate to onboard
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credit so that's kind of an easy
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guideline so let's take a look first of
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all of what you can and then at what you
6:30
can't spend on both credit on there are
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ten key things that you can normally
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spend onboard credit on the first of
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those is excursions and this is often
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what I use a lot of
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my onboard credit for you can find all
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sorts of range of excursions that also
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surprises and you can allocate your
6:47
onboard credit it's a great way of
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spending on book credit because
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excursions can be one of the biggest on
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costs to your cruise fare so excursions
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a really good idea to allocate onboard
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credit to the second thing that I like
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to use onboard credit for is gratuities
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you'll find pretty much on every single
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cruise line you can use onboard credit
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to offset gratuities now there are one
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or two exceptions so double check and if
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you're not sure ask at guest services
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when you get onboard if your onboard
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credit is gonna be allocated against
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gratuities but most of cruise lines have
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been on will allow you to offset that
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and of course that's a cost that you
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often haven't budget for you or you
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forget and that can mount up you can
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spend $200 or more per person on
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gratuities on a week on cruise so humble
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credit is a great way of kind of
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negating that impact the third thing
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that I like to use omble code because I
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see it as sort of free money is spa
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treatments bar treatments on cruise
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ships can be quite costly
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so using onboard credit is a great way
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of making that more of a justifiable
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expense so I like to use onboard credit
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for spa treatments if I have any left
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over after gratuities and excursions
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another great use of bumble credit is
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for Wi-Fi Wi-Fi can be pretty expensive
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onboard and you can use omble credit to
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buy it
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drinks is also something you could
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charge against onboard credit so either
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buying a drinks package or drinks ad hoc
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I tend to buy drinks ad-hoc using my
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onboard credit rather than drinks
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packages I don't drink a lot so I find
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that ends up being a better use of
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humble credit of buying a drink package
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but you can use humble credit to buy
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drinks ad-hoc or drinks packages the
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other key things that you can use it for
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is if they have a cabana area or sort of
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a retreat area you can use onboard
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credit for that you can use it for
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specialty dining so if you want to go
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and easy one of the restaurants you can
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use onboard credit for that you can use
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it for shopping in the armboard
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shops so that's a great thing if you
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have gifts to buy if you have onboard
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credit left the photographs onboard the
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ship and the other thing that you can do
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which is great for many people is you
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can use it for treats so if you like
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speciality coffees gelato those kind of
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things in those shops you normally use
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onboard credit to buy those things so
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those are the 10 things that you can buy
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so what can't you use humble credit for
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now pretty much every single ship there
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are three key things you can't use
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onboard credit for first of all the
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medical center so if you need any
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treatment in the medical center you
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can't use onboard credit secondly most
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cruise lines will not let you use it for
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gambling or bingo there are a couple of
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exceptions and that does change over
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time so you particularly with carnival
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and Royal Caribbean you can often use
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omble credits so just double check if
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you're going on those mostly other lines
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I've come across don't let you so do
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double check but assume that you can't
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use it for gaming and gambling and the
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third thing you can't use it is to book
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your next cruise tell anyone your cruise
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lots and lots of people book the next
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cruise but unfortunately you can't use
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onboard credit as your deposit onboard
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credit it's free money work at those
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nine things to try and get as much on
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book as you can I had loads of humble
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crude on my last cruise it was fantastic
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because I could do things that I
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probably wouldn't normally do on a
9:50
cruise and it felt like it wasn't
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costing you any money I have loads more
9:54
cruise tips or traveler's videos so why
9:57
don't you watch another one of those
9:58
right now
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