Choose now cruise later voucher?

[earn]

Can someone tell me how this works please? I read in a thread that MSC sell these vouchers on deck on the last day of a cruise. I am familaiar with the RCI version of a Furture Cruise Credit, but are these the same? Do you have to choose your specific cruise that day, or can you keep them and decide at a later date. Are there any restrictions?

[Skipper Tim]

Hi Earn, I can do that for you.

 

They are misnamed 'Choose Today, Cruise Tomorrow' vouchers. On my recent MSC cruise they were on sale everyday during the duty hours of the future cruise consultant, right from the first evening of the cruise which is when I bought mine.

 

You pay €/$10 put on your onboard account and receive a voucher to be used for onboard credit on your next MSC cruise of at least 7 nights taken within 18 months of the last day of your current cruise. The obc values are for the cabin regardless of occupancy:

 

€/$ 150 inside

€/$ 200 outside or balcony

€/$ 300 suite

€/$ 400 Yacht Club suite

 

The big catch is that the T&C state that the cruise must be booked at the "current brochure price" and cannot be used with any other discount except the MSC Club (repeat guest) discount and the Early Booking discount as detailed in the brochure.

 

I was unable to use my voucher at the fare I paid on my forthcoming cruise despite that fare being splashed on the MSC homepage for many months. It makes you wonder what constitutes the "current brochure fare". I was told I could pay a fare of a little of £200 more and receive the $200 benefit. I didn't bite.

 

One final detail not advertised or mentioned anywhere, is that you can buy vouchers for other people providing they will be on the same future cruise.

 

Overall, I can imagine the way to maximise the benefit of this scheme is to take regular, 7 night European cruises - not repositionings at special prices as mine were.

 

That is all the information there is and more besides!

 

Tim.

[sidari]

Tim ... I have one here and no one at MSC appears to be able to tell me when they can be used ! you have to wonder if it is just a Con job. I would be interested to hear if anyone has actually managed to get their OBC using one of these vouchers.

[Skipper Tim]

Tim ... I have one here and no one at MSC appears to be able to tell me when they can be used ! you have to wonder if it is just a Con job. I would be interested to hear if anyone has actually managed to get their OBC using one of these vouchers.

 

I did read on a previous thread on the subject that someone was worried on the basis of 'who pays brochure price on a cruise?' but their voucher was accepted and showed as a credit when they boarded.

 

I got my answer (albeit negative) by asking mscdirect@msccruises.co.uk quoting the ship, itinerary, sail date, the cabin I wanted and the quoted web price. If it looks like a potential sale you get a fairly fast response!

 

Tim.

[Alex71]

I bought one of these last July and was able to use it for my cruise in October. In October I bought another one, but was not able to use it for my cruise over New Year's. It seems they were more generous at the beginning but are now strictly sticking to that Full Brochure Price rule.

[AmoMondo]

I bought one on my Musica cruise in September and had no issues using it on my 11 night Musica sailing this year to the Black Sea. The only issue was that online I get the pront (early booking price), my 20% club discount and 5% online booking discount. You can't do the OBC voucher online so have to phone. However the online discount was only about £50, so worth losing that to get €200 OBC. Didn't have any issues usingnit, just had to read out the info on the voucher to the sales agent and then scan and email it to her after the call.

 

Haven't tied tomuse it on a repositioning cruise but suspect them waiving the 100% single supplementbis counted as another discount and I definitely would not give that up for an OBC!

Edited January 24, 2013 by AmoMondo

[sidari]

What do i make of this E mail reply from MSC ? earlier this evening we booked a cruise on the Opera for June and asked the Travel agent to ask if we could redeem the voucher for this cruise.

 

Just checked my E mails and had this reply from MSC .... no idea where £25 comes from.... confused.com! Doe snayone actually pay Full brochure price ?

 

Dear Mr

This cruise is on a very special offer of £25 per night promotion and your voucher cannot be applied to this cruise.

You can only apply this to Early booking rate promotion or Brochure price.

Kind regards

Edited January 24, 2013 by sidari

[earn]

Don't think they will be getting my $10. Seemed too good a deal to be true. We have used RCI future cruise credits on four cruises now with no issue. They can be used for life, and very few restrictions.

[sidari]

earn ... we have also done that with RCI but it seems to me that there is way too much wriggle room in this promotion with MSC, it seems from reading the other posts that it is applied for some and not for others on the whim of the person spoken to! i could be wrong but that is how it is looking just now.

 

I think the only way to be sure of getting it is to book 12 months in advance at their Pronto prices and even then it may be hit and miss.

[Skipper Tim]

What do i make of this E mail reply from MSC ? earlier this evening we booked a cruise on the Opera for June and asked the Travel agent to ask if we could redeem the voucher for this cruise.

 

Just checked my E mails and had this reply from MSC .... no idea where £25 comes from.... confused.com! Doe snayone actually pay Full brochure price ?

 

Dear Mr

This cruise is on a very special offer of £25 per night promotion and your voucher cannot be applied to this cruise.

You can only apply this to Early booking rate promotion or Brochure price.

Kind regards

 

The £25/night promotion is what MSC offer in the UK on repositionings when they first go on sale. The actual pricing is £25/night inside. £35/night outside and £45/night balcony all per person.

 

Your June cruise is not a repo and it sounds like the person who replied to you chose the wrong pre-written answer when replying. I would try again pointing out that you actually paid the "current brochure price".

 

BTW, is there an MSC printed brochure in English? I have requested one a few times without success and I also asked the future cruise consultant on board who had brochures in a multitude of languages but not in English. It may have a bearing as to what is "the current brochure price". I would have thought as far as the law is concerned, prices published on the web without any explicit promotion are the current brochure price.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Skipper Tim

[AmoMondo]

Think they only do virtual brochures in the UK. Certainly never seen a printed one.

 

I use the MSC website as guide of full and pronto price, but you have to watch if it has a special pricing structure such as £25 per night or the keep it simple ones they had last year.

 

Getting accurate information is always a bit of a challenge it would seem. Their admin skills could domwith an overhaul as well!

[MuddyPuddles]

Think they only do virtual brochures in the UK. Certainly never seen a printed one.

 

I use the MSC website as guide of full and pronto price, but you have to watch if it has a special pricing structure such as £25 per night or the keep it simple ones they had last year.

 

Getting accurate information is always a bit of a challenge it would seem. Their admin skills could domwith an overhaul as well!

 

I picked up a printed brochure in Ireland, so would be surprised if they weren't available in the UK. Open to correction though. I'm old fashioned enough to like hard copies of things to refer to - and the prices are certainly a lot higher in the brochure!

[sidari]

I managed to get a copy of the 2012/13 brochure from a place near me around November time.

 

When the travel agent rings me today i will be asking them to have another go at MSC about the voucher, i have replied to the E mail last night and will await their next attempt to wriggle free.

 

It would be interesting to know if anyone has actually paid the Full brochure price though i think i know the answer now.

[AmoMondo]

Good luck Sidari.

 

I mostly pay the pronto price less my MSC discount but occasionally get other promos like double my club point discount or return from my cruise extra discount. Twice had 20% extra for problems on a cruise. My favourite though is the forgetting the100% single supplement on the repositioning ones - real bargain those for us who travel solo. My all time best offer though was 100% discountnon the cruise fare! Got 3 weeks notice that if I wanted ro book 7 night in Jan Caribbean sailing out of Martinique, I could just pay port taxes and air fare. That was a gold and above offer. Think there were only a couple of cabins available. Unfortunately I could not "bite their hand off" on that one as I couldn't get the time off work!

Edited January 25, 2013 by AmoMondo

[sidari]

Well the brochure price is what we have paid for June on the Opera! so i will keep at them until they give in or i will stand by the MSC rep on the ship and tell people it is just a Big con!

 

The £25 per night is seems is for the TA cruise in November ... we have a Balcony so its not £25 a night ! where do they get these people from ?

[AmoMondo]

Well the brochure price is what we have paid for June on the Opera! so i will keep at them until they give in or i will stand by the MSC rep on the ship and tell people it is just a Big con!

 

The £25 per night is seems is for the TA cruise in November ... we have a Balcony so its not £25 a night ! where do they get these people from ?

 

I noticed on the 2014 cruises I was looking for each cabin category was headed up £25 per night, even although the balconies were £45 per night...so technically "starting from £25 per night price"

[sidari]

The 2012/13 Brochure just shows the price of an Inside for June at £599! on the website that has been reduced to £493 so surely that is now the Brochure price!

[Skipper Tim]

The 2012/13 Brochure just shows the price of an Inside for June at £599! on the website that has been reduced to £493 so surely that is now the Brochure price!

 

Having had a look, the MSC website lists the fare like this. "Brochure price £1039, STAR BUY £519". (The £519 becomes £493.05 after 5% discount).

 

They can argue that "STAR BUY" is a special promotion. It appears the fare is always on promotion and that the only promotion the voucher may be used with is the early booking promotion, 'Pronto'. At least this is the intention of MSC the best as we can interpret it but it not explained as clearly as that when you buy the voucher.

 

Then, it is not the cost of the voucher, it is the disappointment one feels when it cannot be used. MSC are shooting themselves in the foot with a self-inflicted negative customer relation exercise. They would be better just give away one voucher per guest on board with the clear instruction that it can only be used on a booking at the early-booking Pronto fare.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Skipper Tim

[sidari]

Tim ... I agree with you that the voucher should only say to be used with Pronto Price, but that said surely the Pronto price is a "Promotion offer price" and therefore not the Brochure price ?

 

So in effect the Voucher can never be used! making MSC Free money.

[sidari]

Tim ... Here are the last two lines from the latest E mail i have had from MSC regarding the voucher ... why they cannot change the voucher to actually say this is beyond me! so unless you book early there is no chance of getting the OBC because no one is going to pay the Full brochure price just to get the OBC on the voucher.

 

With regret, the on-board credit voucher cannot be used on this occasion. As advised by *****, the on-board credit voucher this can only be used if the cruise was to be booked on the early booking fare, or full brochure price.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Edited January 26, 2013 by sidari

[Skipper Tim]

Tim ... I agree with you that the voucher should only say to be used with Pronto Price, but that said surely the Pronto price is a "Promotion offer price" and therefore not the Brochure price ?

 

So in effect the Voucher can never be used! making MSC Free money.

 

On the back it says, "It cannot be combined with other promotion, with the exception of the MSC Club discount and the Early Booking discount, as detailed in the brochure." I assume the "Early Booking discount" has now been renamed "Pronto", or at least Pronto counts as Early Booking, as AmoMondo has had success using the vouchers on those fares.

 

We will have just about figured it out between us when they change to a new system.

[Alex71]

I was just able to use my last remaining one of these vouchers for our upcoming Easter cruise. I bought the voucher in October 2012 and was not able use it for our New Year's cruise later that year, which we had admittedly booked at a super low last minute rate.

 

After using the second voucher, my conclusion is positive. We had a success rate of 67% and it definitely helps alleviate to pain of booking a trip at a slightly higher rate.

 

Does anyone know if the vouchers are still being sold?

[sidari]

Well done Alex, one of the few people i have heard of who has managed to use a voucher apart from ourselves, and ours was only accepted because MSC booked the wrong cabin originally for the Divina cruise!

[Norwegian Cruiser 73]

We bought a "choose today cruise tomorrow" voucher for EUR 10 onboard the MSC Divina last March and MSC credited our onboard account with EUR 400 on our last cruise on the MSC Preziosa ( YC ). We booked a early booker rate. Great deal and no problems at all.

 

Last summer MSC had a campaign in Norway with promo rates for a Baltic itinerary on the MSC Poesia that we booked but the voucher could not be applied to that cruise.

 

Of course we got our MSC Club discounts on both cruises.