Booking On Board

[PGI GUY]

What has been your experience in booking a future cruise while on board within the last 3 months? What benefits and perks were offered if any? We will be on our second cruise in March and would like to book a third VO cruise but I do not want to pay a year in advance

 

 

[philw1776]

First apply your normal Explorer repeat customer discount of $200pp
Then apply any vouchers you purchased on Viking River.

Booking Onboard:
Get an OBC for future cruise of $200pp for a 1 week cruise, 8-13 NIGHTS aboard $400pp.  More if longer.

PLUS $100pp OBC for the cruise you're on.

AND $400pp discount for booking on board.

Deposit $500pp with final payment deferred until 6 months before sailing.

Finally, ability to switch cruises with ZERO penalty payment.

 

November 2018 experience.

Edited December 18, 2018 by philw1776

[Peregrina651]

I was just talking about this on another thread I follow (and don't remember which one). There were a couple of reports from people who have booked recently (since November when when they final payment plan was changed). While I don't want to quote discount amounts that they reported they were offered (because they depend on how many cruises you are booking and the length of the cruises), two of the features of the book on board benefit are 1) pay in full 6 months out (which may be slightly different for the longer voyages) and 2) that you can change date or itinerary with no penalty up to 4 months prior to sailing (normally that would be a $100pp penalty).

 

Just keep in mind that just because this is what is currently being offered does not mean that it will still be available when you cruise in March.

 

(LOL,  philw, who  just posted while I have been typing, is one of the people I was referring to).

 

 

[philw1776]

FYI:  The above deal is identical with last year's book onboard deal.  Greatly prefer our Viking onboard rep this last November.

[Little Monty]

For those who are reading this thread from locations other than US - be aware on-board bookings are done under 'US' rules. We booked on-board last year and received what philw described (in writing) from the consultant. I emailed our Australian based Viking consultant to ask her to take over the booking and to let her know what a sweet deal we had received - and she said the deal would not be honoured ... especially the last point about zero penalty.

 

I was told these booking conditions do not apply in Australia and they may not apply elsewhere (I don't know, I just assume).

 

After some back and forward the Viking Australia rep received approval from 'Head Office' to refund our deposit and cancel the booking. Her advice to me was .. don't book on-board, get the best deal you can (in writing) and then email an A-based consultant to see if they can match it / honour it.

 

Sounds crazy, but true. 

 

That is just my experience and of course others may have a different view - FYI for those not US based.

 

PS ... this is an add on / edit. I just remembered, the Australian based consultant also told me we would not get gratuities included if we booked on-board (if we book in Australia these are included - although no doubt built into the price). Again, just my experience and just another FYI

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Little Monty
error

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Little Monty said:

For those who are reading this thread from locations other than US - be aware on-board bookings are done under 'US' rules. We booked on-board last year and received what philw described (in writing) from the consultant. I emailed our Australian based Viking consultant to ask her to take over the booking and to let her know what a sweet deal we had received - and she said the deal would not be honoured ... especially the last point about zero penalty.

 

I was told these booking conditions do not apply in Australia and they may not apply elsewhere (I don't know, I just assume).

 

After some back and forward the Viking Australia rep received approval from 'Head Office' to refund our deposit and cancel the booking. Her advice to me was .. don't book on-board, get the best deal you can (in writing) and then email an A-based consultant to see if they can match it / honour it.

 

Sounds crazy, but true. 

 

That is just my experience and of course others may have a different view - FYI for those not US based.

 

PS ... this is an add on / edit. I just remembered, the Australian based consultant also told me we would not get gratuities included if we booked on-board (if we book in Australia these are included - although no doubt built into the price). Again, just my experience and just another FYI

 

 

Sorry, but the person doing the booking on board should have known better. Glad that Viking did the right thing and refunded your money.

 

Thanks for the heads up. This is really important information for non-USA guests.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Peregrina651

[Little Monty]

Thank you Peregrina651 ... you are right, he should have known. In fact your reply reminded me it was the on-board consultant who had to arrange the refund. I told him what our A-based agent said (in her email) and he disagreed at first. He claimed there was no issue with his offer being honoured in Australia. He said leave it with him to sort out. A couple of days later he advised us we would be getting a refund. I am getting old and my memory is fading ... but the rest is correct  

Edited December 18, 2018 by Little Monty
error

[Maxweller]

Does anyone have any experience of booking a future cruise on board and living in the UK?   We are doing a first Viking Ocean cruise in January 2019 and was thinking of booking a future cruise on board.    Presently in the UK we get gratuities and air fares included, and don't do a final payment until 10 weeks out.  

 

Confused and concerned after reading the experience from non-US booking experience above.

 

Thanks for any info.

[PGI GUY]

Thank you to all who replied to my question.🙂

[old biddy]

We have just come off 'Sun'. We were considering booking another cruise whilst on board, the fact that we didn't is irrelevant. I asked the Future Cruises person if we would lose our UK perks (for want of a better description) and he assured me no, but we would get the various extras discounts; double Explorer discount and an additional discount of £400 on a cruise. Also the calculations would be done in pounds not dollars - quite important. 

As I said we didn't actually test it out so the reality may be slightly different.

[Maxweller]

Thanks for that info.

 

[travelingman]

Question n booking onboard.  I understand I will get the various perks if I book onboard.  What about my booking onboard for a friend who s not on the cruise but who is a past Viking cruiser?  Will they also get the perks?  Thanks.

 

[harbourside]

On 12/20/2018 at 4:29 AM, old biddy said:

We have just come off 'Sun'. We were considering booking another cruise whilst on board, the fact that we didn't is irrelevant. I asked the Future Cruises person if we would lose our UK perks (for want of a better description) and he assured me no, but we would get the various extras discounts; double Explorer discount and an additional discount of £400 on a cruise. Also the calculations would be done in pounds not dollars - quite important. 

As I said we didn't actually test it out so the reality may be slightly different.

I live in New Zealand and our bookings are in Australian dollars.  I also was assuming that if I booked another cruise on board, it would be based on the Australian pricing and currents perks, plus whatever discount for booking on board????>

[azdrydock]

On 12/18/2018 at 1:17 PM, philw1776 said:

First apply your normal Explorer repeat customer discount of $200pp
Then apply any vouchers you purchased on Viking River.

Booking Onboard:
Get an OBC for future cruise of $200pp for a 1 week cruise, 8-13 NIGHTS aboard $400pp.  More if longer.

PLUS $100pp OBC for the cruise you're on.

AND $400pp discount for booking on board.

Deposit $500pp with final payment deferred until 6 months before sailing.

Finally, ability to switch cruises with ZERO penalty payment.

 

November 2018 experience.

Are you sure of this?

On October 10th I booked a 18 Day VO and 10 Day River and the management adjustment was only $300pp and $200pp. I had the onboard agent check because I was expecting more based on previous cruises. They confirmed that the credits had changed  and it was effective at sailing on October 7, 2018. It was a major reduction from June 2018.   The deposit was $1000 per cruise. They did reduce the final payment time to 6 months instead of 1 year.  The immediate OBC was $400 total.

To add insult to injury, I found out yesterday that the base price on the Ocean cruise had dropped by $500 and there is currently $1000 OBC  plus free Silver Spirits promo.  TA called and VO said it would have to cancel and rebook and would be liable for the cancellation fee etc. TA will call tomorrow and instead of cancelling we will switch to another cruise.

 

[philw1776]

Good catch.  Thank you for your correction.  Can't edit my post but we got $200 per person for our booking on board NOT $400pp as I stated.

 

THE SAME THING happened to me the 1st time I booked onboard in June 2017.  My cruise was not yet posted, so the onboard salesperson onboard called LA who said it would post next week and yes we could book onboard.  He got us the price and applied the onboard booking discount.  Got home 10 days later to find that the posted price per person was $500 less.  Viking refused to adjust.

[Eloise4Ever]

On 1/1/2019 at 12:47 AM, travelingman said:

Question n booking onboard.  I understand I will get the various perks if I book onboard.  What about my booking onboard for a friend who s not on the cruise but who is a past Viking cruiser?  Will they also get the perks?  Thanks.

 

 

The Future Cruise consultant on our recent Viking Sun cruise stated several times that it is possible to make an onboard booking for family/friends who are not on your current cruise. He said the perks would go to you as the person making the booking and it was up to you whether to pass them on to your family/friends!

[Eloise4Ever]

On 12/18/2018 at 8:17 PM, philw1776 said:

First apply your normal Explorer repeat customer discount of $200pp
Then apply any vouchers you purchased on Viking River.

Booking Onboard:
Get an OBC for future cruise of $200pp for a 1 week cruise, 8-13 NIGHTS aboard $400pp.  More if longer.

PLUS $100pp OBC for the cruise you're on.

AND $400pp discount for booking on board.

Deposit $500pp with final payment deferred until 6 months before sailing.

Finally, ability to switch cruises with ZERO penalty payment.

 

November 2018 experience.

2

 

Hi Phil, I know you corrected one of the figures above in a later post. Not sure if you were talking about the $400 pp OBC or the $400 pp discount for booking on board when you said it was actually $200 per person. Either way, we were on Viking Sun over Christmas and there was no future OBC on offer at all. See below extract from the flyer we received onboard from the Future Cruise consultant. We made a future booking while we were onboard and received the Onboard and Explorer Society discounts along with $100pp OBC on the current cruise. There was no mention whatsover of any OBC applying to the future booking. I am hoping to get that from the travel agent I transfer the booking to but I presume that would be on top of any Viking OBC, if there were any.

 

 

[philw1776]

First thank folks here for those pointing out my errors & ambiguities.
Secondly, apologies for my inaccuracies.  
Since I can't edit my original post I'll correct it here...
 

First apply your normal Explorer repeat customer discount of $200pp. Reads as Past Guest Level 1 Discount on your invoice.
Then apply one voucher per person you purchased on Viking River. (We had none left this time)

Booking Onboard:

Get a $200pp discount for booking on board cruises under 15 nights. Reads as Management Adjustment on your invoice.

PLUS $100pp OBC for the cruise you're currently on

Deposit $500pp with final payment deferred until 6 months before sailing.

Finally, ability to switch cruises with ZERO penalty payment.  There's a deadline.(I already did this, so I know it's true)

You can then transfer your booking to a TA.  We got OBC from our TA for the brooked on board cruise.

 

Bottom line:

Get a small % discount on your onboard booked cruise + $100pp OBC for your current cruise + deferred final payment until 6 months before your purchased cruise + the ability to change your decision on which cruise you finally take without paying the cancel before 120 days pre cruise $100pp cancellation fee

Edited January 4, 2019 by philw1776

[travelingman]

Follow up question.  If you are not able to use all of your OBC on your current cruise will it carry over to a future cruise or do you just loose it?

Thanks.

 

[Eloise4Ever]

Thanks for clarifying Phil 👍

[cruisesport]

Can you still use ( in some way ) the lost 100 pp for a cancelled cruise?

[azdrydock]

In the process of changing my second  out of 5 VO on board bookings so a few comments and clarifications are in order. 

 

1) The OBC credit you are issued for the current cruise must be used prior to the last day. Anything not used will not be refunded or carried over. Book early and have a plan on how to spend it, The policy on using it for gratuities has varied. Odds are you will spend it in the gift shop for something  you would never have bought otherwise. You cannot use it for another onboard booking since it does not appear on your ships invoice.

 

2) Understand your discounts. The "Booking Discount" is the difference between the brochure price and the discounted price at the time of booking. It is the same as if it was a normal booking. If you decide to change cruises, the amount will be the discount, for the new itinerary at the time you are making the change. The "Past Guest Discount" is $200pp if you have completed a Viking Ocean river cruise in the past year; if not it will be $100pp. This is the same as a normal booking except you will not get the $100 if you have not sailed on Viking in the past two years. The "Management Adjustment" is one of the few things unique. It is currently based strictly on the length of the future cruise with a few exceptions. Viking bases this on the number of nights not the number of days. They advertise the number of days which may be more than the number of nights.

 

3) You cannot change your original cruise to the same cruise because the current  promos and rates are better. This is considered a cancellation and rebooking. I didn't try to change it to the next sailing on the same itinerary.

 

4) You may not get the final payment date reduced from one year to 6 months unless you ask for it.

 

5) Don't expect to find out what the "Management Adjustment" is until you speak to the onboard consultant. I have never been able to get a heads up  even through TellUs. 

 

It was suggested in this thread to use credits and vouchers for the down payment. Never do this! If you have to cancel the cruise you may permanently lose some vouchers such as referrals. Same thing may happen with certain credits and certificates. Learned this from experience. We were advised on our last cruise to go as far as paying off the cruise less the credits and vouchers and when this payment clears apply them. 

 

One last reason for booking onboard. Some cabins have conventional doors, others have sliders to the Veranda. The merits of one or other is a subject for another thread. To my knowledge there is no online source  to identify  what doors are in which cabins. Our onboard consultant had a hand written list but wouldn't let me copy it.  While on the ship you can check this plus which way the bed faces.