Hello evelinanny,
Welcome to Cruise Addicts and welcome to cruising. Sorry to give bad news first thing, but you need to know that the days of cruising being all inclusive, are unfortunately over. I'm not sure it ever really was all inclusive, but paying for alcoholic and soda soft drinks has been the norm for at least a dozen years. There are some non-carbonated drinks like ice tea, regular coffee tea, and sometimes lemonade or punch.( Depends on the cruise line), that are free. Milk and Juice at breakfast too.
Lots of other things cost extra also. These are:
*Alcoholic and soft drinks and some specialty coffees
*Specialty restaurants
*Casino
*Laundry
*Photographs
*Shore excursion
*Spa treatments
*Ship to shore phone calls
*Internet
*Baby sitting
*Medical services
*Gift shop purchases
*Bingo
*Tips
*Some fitness center classes (ie: yoga, spinning)
The Fun Pass account is how you pay for those items, (All except for the gambling and the bingo, both of which use cash. And even for gambling you can get cash off your card at the casino teller window).
So what is the Fun Pass account. It's basically an onboard credit card. At embarkation they will electronically scan your credit card, and issue you a Fun Pass card, also called a " Sign and Sail card" (That's what I hear more people call it, so I will use that term here. )
The Sign and Sail card looks like a credit card and is used for any purchases onboard the ship . Those charges are then charged to your credit card in one lump sum, at the end of the cruise.
If you wish, you can open a sign and sail card with cash or traveler's checks (no personal checks) and you will have that amount as a pre-set spending limit. You can add more cash to that, during the cruise if you find yourself nearing the limit.
If you do set up a sign and sail card with your credit card, you can still choose to pay all or part of it off in cash or traveler’s check before the end of the cruise, if you wish. (Like the time hubby had some luck in the casino.)
The sign and sail card is only good onboard the ship - you must use cash or credit card in ports.
On most ships, your sign and sail card also serves as your room key and your boarding pass, and is required for you to get on and off the ship.
