UK cruisers - How do you get any OBC?

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

By way of background. Today paid final payment for 7 night Vancouver - Seward, Alaska cruise on Radiance of the Seas which will be our third cruise. This will be our second RCI cruise along with a seperate cruise on NCL in a two bedroom villa. Both our RC cruises were/are in GS and to date we have 28 nights accrued to date with RCI with another 14 on completion of our Alaska cruise.

 

My query relates to OBC and more specifically how do you get OBC in the UK. Our first RC and NCL cruise were with same travel agent, we got nothing despite spending over £20,000 (approx $30,000) in total. So decided that our third cruise which with flights and a total of 21 days in North America is a significant spend with another agent and again nothing. On all occassions we have paid full brochure price, booking at least 15 months in advance. On the first two cruises we paid our suite gratuties up front, but won't be doing that again as we got burnt on the first RCI cruise with a very rude steward (even after tipping her again but still did not seem enough she turned her back on us on the final evening but that is a whole other story)

 

I consider CC an essential pre-cruise encyclopedia of very useful tips and advice and read about the various levels of OBC that some passengers seem to enjoy. However I am increasingly becoming very disolution with how cruises are sold in the UK. So much so that I was planning a 14 night Russia - Northern Europe cruise in 2015 with Celebrity in either the Penthouse or Royal Suite for my 50th birthday, but think I am not going to bother. There just seems to be a high probability that the price may drop which tend not to be retro-activated for UK clients, or they offer drink packages or free tours which are again not honoured to existing bookings. When I confronted the current travel agent (won't name but highly regarded by Which) on why should I bother booking with them again, I got a whole War and Peace story which made absolutely no sense.

 

So what am I doing wrong? I like cruising but really am feeling mugged.

[nelblu]

By way of background. Today paid final payment for 7 night Vancouver - Seward, Alaska cruise on Radiance of the Seas which will be our third cruise. This will be our second RCI cruise along with a seperate cruise on NCL in a two bedroom villa. Both our RC cruises were/are in GS and to date we have 28 nights accrued to date with RCI with another 14 on completion of our Alaska cruise.

 

My query relates to OBC and more specifically how do you get OBC in the UK. Our first RC and NCL cruise were with same travel agent, we got nothing despite spending over £20,000 (approx $30,000) in total. So decided that our third cruise which with flights and a total of 21 days in North America is a significant spend with another agent and again nothing. On all occassions we have paid full brochure price, booking at least 15 months in advance. On the first two cruises we paid our suite gratuties up front, but won't be doing that again as we got burnt on the first RCI cruise with a very rude steward (even after tipping her again but still did not seem enough she turned her back on us on the final evening but that is a whole other story)

 

I consider CC an essential pre-cruise encyclopedia of very useful tips and advice and read about the various levels of OBC that some passengers seem to enjoy. However I am increasingly becoming very disolution with how cruises are sold in the UK. So much so that I was planning a 14 night Russia - Northern Europe cruise in 2015 with Celebrity in either the Penthouse or Royal Suite for my 50th birthday, but think I am not going to bother. There just seems to be a high probability that the price may drop which tend not to be retro-activated for UK clients, or they offer drink packages or free tours which are again not honoured to existing bookings. When I confronted the current travel agent (won't name but highly regarded by Which) on why should I bother booking with them again, I got a whole War and Peace story which made absolutely no sense.

 

So what am I doing wrong? I like cruising but really am feeling mugged.

 

 

I'm not sure about the UK, but I get an OBC with the purchase of a "Next Cruise Certificate" while on board. It only costs $100 per person and is open ended. On our Feb. '14 cruise on Allure, for the first time, I'm booking with an on-line TA and getting another $100 OBC and a dinner for 2 at a specialty restaurant.

[Beccafcr]

I've always booked directly with royal Caribbean and have gotten the best deals with the, inc on board credit :)

[hairymelon]

I booked some months in advance through a TA in the UK (where I live). RCI were doing an offer of OBC and also free parking at the port and a balcony upgrade and all those have been honoured. I have taken a copy of the confirmation and put in my holiday folder so I have it to prove the OBC and I already have the port parking permit so know that is ok. I am going to enquire about a next cruise certificate whilst on board as I know that will bring further discount/OBC/low deposit.

[Irish Cath]

I believe that that are no advantages to using a TA in Ireland or the UK ( in fact only disadvantages i.e having to get the TA to make the call to RCI if you need to change, want clarity on something etc). By checking the RCI website regularly we recently seen that they were offering a 10 day WOW sale for all European sailings. So we jumped on it and got €200 OBC for an inside cabin, the OBC was the same regardless of what cabin you booked which we were amazed by. We also used a C&A cert, so altogether got an incredible deal. My advise is to keep checking the UK site. :)

[ticktoneer]

Book with a US based travel agent

 

:-)

[Kamloops50]

Book with a US based travel agent

 

:-)

 

Some cruise lines don't allow you to book with an American TA unless you have a Canadian, American or Mexican address . US credit cards don't count.

[Yorkshire-Pudding]

Dear All,

 

Thank you so much for your responses. It does seem that using a travel agent is of no advantage whatsoever especially if sailing out of UK. The odd thing is that for land based holidays, I always book flights with British Airways direct but it did not occur to me to do so for cruise. Guess my expectation is that on a flight, booking 50 weeks ahead tends to get you the best price as fares increase almost on a daily basis but this is not the model for cruise holidays. Will re-evaluate my holiday decisions in light of your helpful comments.

 

Regards.

[ticktoneer]

Some cruise lines don't allow you to book with an American TA unless you have a Canadian, American or Mexican address . US credit cards don't count.

RCCL do :-)

[dmackay46]

I booked with UK online TA, and because there was a deal with RCI at that particular time, I received $500 OBC for our E1 balcony cabin. Two weeks later that deal was gone. :)

[DrSeuss]

I've always booked directly with royal Caribbean and have gotten the best deals with the, inc on board credit :)

 

This seems to have stopped now. I usuallybhave recieved obc booking direct but have now been told this has stopped ( i have booked on allure for next year)

[Missus Makkem]

This seems to have stopped now. I usuallybhave recieved obc booking direct but have now been told this has stopped ( i have booked on allure for next year)

 

Booked a cruise directly with them yesterday and got obc and more with future cruise cert.

[charmay]

I booked with rccl direct uk.

As I always like to deal direct.

Also I feel they hold all the cards and can be more flexible.

I said after going through what we wanted etc .

I have my card ready for deposits but need to know about obc and free parking first.

I was very polite and sweet as usual.

And secured $1000 per cabin.

This was because ,I couldnt book what I wanted online but still wanted the 5% discount,as it wasn't my fault.

Also I mentioned I was looking at a similar p and o cruise lol!ahem.

And got free parking.

I then saw the price drop,got very very sweet on the phone and got a further $400 per cabin.

I do like my cruise specialist she's great.

[YoungGuns]

Booked a cruise directly with them yesterday and got obc and more with future cruise cert.

 

Anywhere nice?? :) :) Tony has got me looking for Oct :) will book direct and use our future cruise cert to get obc

[Paulxyz2004]

Some cruise lines don't allow you to book with an American TA unless you have a Canadian, American or Mexican address . US credit cards don't count.

 

While I´ve heard so, I´ve yet to come across one that didn´t.

RCI, X, Princess, Cunard, NCL, Crystal belong to the bunch that I had no Problem with booking them via US TA.

[sam49]

Ok i'm confused. I always look at thr RC site online and compare to a uk TA but the TA has always been cheaper, although a lot more than our American fellow travellers pay! I have never had obc or seen any deals on the RC site. Are you saying I should ring RC and barter?

 

I have tried getting quotes through the RC US site but it always directs you back to the UK site.

 

How do you contact Us TA's?

Any advice gratefully received.

[Missus Makkem]

Anywhere nice?? :) :) Tony has got me looking for Oct :) will book direct and use our future cruise cert to get obc

Just sent you an e mail, worried about playing Trivia specially if Becky is still there :rolleyes:

[ticktoneer]

Ok i'm confused. I always look at thr RC site online and compare to a uk TA but the TA has always been cheaper, although a lot more than our American fellow travellers pay! I have never had obc or seen any deals on the RC site. Are you saying I should ring RC and barter?

 

I have tried getting quotes through the RC US site but it always directs you back to the UK site.

 

How do you contact Us TA's?

Any advice gratefully received.

Hi we're not allowed to name travel agents on here. You can do some research online and usually contact them by telephone or e mail.

 

You can also download a programme called tunnelbear which creates a VPN on your device when you turn it on and it will stop your default going back to co.uk

 

Hope that helps.

[villauk]

Have never paid brochure price booking with UK TA. Usually book onboard or purchase NCC and then transfer to TA to obtain their discount/incentive as well as OBC for booking onboard. In the past, I've asked RCI UK to quote and even though they have offered lots of OBC, I've got a cheaper base price from my TA - so do compare all aspects of the quote. Personally, I'd rather have the money in my pocket than in OBC.

 

I compare prices on both sides of the pond to seek the best deal at the time. It's unbelievable when you see some cruises with the same amount, however ours is in £ and theirs is in $ :eek:. The cruise comparison (price drop) sites really highlight this as the costings are detailed per cabin category.

 

We have also booked with a US TA for the Tuesday specials and have had some great bargains (together with balcony discount, OBC and speciality dinner for 2).

 

Whilst on Oasis in August, I'm going to try and book onboard for our next cruise, and then transfer the booking to a US TA (something I've not done previously, only having booked direct with US TAs, not through RCI. Hopefully, RCI will allow this transfer.......Ticktoneer assures me it's possible..lol :D).

 

So, it's worth shopping around and keeping an eye on those sites to see if, historically, the prices fall at a certain time on certain itineraries. Our Oasis cruise prices have only risen since we booked ;).

[YoungGuns]

Just sent you an e mail, worried about playing Trivia specially if Becky is still there :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for the email :) our reply keeps bouncing back though :(

Sunglasses may help :)

[trojan3000]

UK TA`s are not allowed to give discounts any more RCL has stopped this. If you find a particular cruise that you want every TA quotes the exact same price, no discounts no OBC. They only offers that you see are what RCL allow.

[woldig120]

Booked a cruise on the Adventure of the Seas sailing from San Juan on 21st April to Southampton direct with Royal Caribbean. Got $200 OBC and the free drinks package. We are D+ so we would get free drinks in the D+ lounge in the evening anyway.

Phoned our travel agent who said they would take over the booking and give us $70 OBC as well.

So there are some lucky UK cruisers.

[Froggitt]

RCCL UK seem to have OBC deals for European cruises only, but nothing for US cruises.

[HAPPY WANDERERS]

RCI stockholders benefit from OBC, can't be doubled up with other OBC credits though. we have just received 100 dollars for our Splendour cruise tomorrow:)

[oceancreek]

Some UK TAs do not allow you to use OBC and future cruise deposit even when you clearly tell them that is what you want to do. They make a separate booking as part of their group booking. The only way you get it sorted is through ABTA so make sure you know in advance that you are dealing with a TA who deals with a transfer from RCI properly.