booking future cruise on board? First timers on MSC

[chisoxfan]

Hello. We are first timers on MSC (Feb 2 Seaside) and are excited to experience the YC with a status matched black card.  Previously we have been X cruisers but have enjoyed HAL and written off Princess due to a poor cruise with them but primarily their miserable response. Are lukewarm towards RCL and NCL.

 

Anyway, we fully expect to be blown away by YC and it appears to me that the YC bookings are extremely popular.

 

Most cruise lines embrace making future bookings on board with various benefits and I am assuming (although do not know this) that MSC will be similar.

 

We would greatly appreciate any comments regarding making a future cruise booking on board and if there are advantages of this we should be aware of.

 

Many thanx in advance and pleasant cruising in 2019.

 

[deliver42]

We just did an on board booking, and got $200.00 OBC and reduced deposit in next cruise. Yiu can open book nd change ships one time without losing the OBC.

[Zephyr173]

You would get double Voyager’s Club points, but that is rather useless if you are already black,

 

You get 200USD OU EUR OBC. 

 

You can ask the concierge to set up an appointment with the future cruises attendant, and that person will come and meet you at the YC concierge area. Otherwise, get ready for lengthy wait times at the futures’ desk. 

 

I have booked on board twice and am. It impressed with what was offered. However, I am partly responsible for that, as I had not done any research before summoning the futures’ person.  For example, I booked a cruise 2 days before disembarking ; back on land, I found the same for 10% less. It the end of the world, but perhaps if I had researched while in the ship, I could have done better.

 

in any event, my TA (who is my sister) feels she would do a better job if I would just leave the future cruise people alone...

[Two Wheels Only]

 

I think that this is still accurate.

[sfaaa]

Be prepared to wait. Line up at FCC desk can be long and ship internet extremely slow to reserve a cabin at sea.

[Captain-John]

I'm convinced that even with the $200 OBC, I could find a better deal on my own on the internet. I think this only makes sense if you already have a sailing in mind, and you know what the best price available is. Only then can you decide if it's more worthwhile to book onboard and receive the OBC benefit.

 

NCL's future cruise scheme (Cruise Next) makes much more sense to me. Buy 2 vouchers for the price of 1, redeemable on any booking made either directly, or through a T/A - apply the voucher and the voucher value ($250) comes off the cost of the cruise (or is used in place of a deposit). They also often run a promo where you can apply 2 vouchers  - so you can get $500 off a cruise for a cost of $250.

 

 

 

 

[sfaaa]

Downside with NCL is that their vouchers are non refundable after 30 days. You are stuck with them and have to cruise with NCL. No choice. 

[Captain-John]

11 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

Downside with NCL is that their vouchers are non refundable after 30 days. You are stuck with them and have to cruise with NCL. No choice. 

 

You can transfer the vouchers to anyone else, if you have their Latitudes number. Unwanted vouchers are often sold or transferred in this way.

 

I don't understand your comment - surely if you book an MSC cruise onboard an MSC ship, you're stuck with MSC?

 

 

[Hlitner]

We just did a future cruise booking while on the Divina...last week.  Since we were in the Yacht Club, the future cruise folks gave me an appointment and actually came to the Yacht Club to meet with DW and myself.  We knew what we wanted to our future cruise was booked in less then 10 minutes.  Why did we do a future cruise booking?  Because we were booking the YC which is very popular and often sells out, and MSC gave us $200 of On Board Credit plus a free Internet Package.  We then had the booking immediately transferred to our favorite cruise agency who gave us an additional $600 of OBC.  In a sense, it was the best of both worlds (direct booking a cruise line and benefits of using a decent high volume cruise agency).

 

We are very frequent cruisers (sometimes over 100 days a year) and seldom book cruises directly with cruise lines because we can always get much better deals through various cruise agencies (usually saving 7-10%).  But in the case of MSC, the future cruise folks made it very easy and the booking made a lot of sense...financially.

 

Hank

[Captain-John]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We just did a future cruise booking while on the Divina...last week.  Since we were in the Yacht Club, the future cruise folks gave me an appointment and actually came to the Yacht Club to meet with DW and myself.  We knew what we wanted to our future cruise was booked in less then 10 minutes.  Why did we do a future cruise booking?  Because we were booking the YC which is very popular and often sells out, and MSC gave us $200 of On Board Credit plus a free Internet Package.  We then had the booking immediately transferred to our favorite cruise agency who gave us an additional $600 of OBC.  In a sense, it was the best of both worlds (direct booking a cruise line and benefits of using a decent high volume cruise agency).

 

We are very frequent cruisers (sometimes over 100 days a year) and seldom book cruises directly with cruise lines because we can always get much better deals through various cruise agencies (usually saving 7-10%).  But in the case of MSC, the future cruise folks made it very easy and the booking made a lot of sense...financially.

 

Hank

 

I definitely wasn't seeing the financial benefit based on the brochure and headlines. More often than not a 10% T/A fare reduction is worth more than $200 OBC (especially in the YC!) - BUT , as you transferred the booking and got extra OBC that could offset a higher initial fare - as well as secure your preferred dates and cabin type.

 

It's definitely not as straightforward a comparison as other cruise line schemes though.

[Hlitner]

7 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

 

I definitely wasn't seeing the financial benefit based on the brochure and headlines. More often than not a 10% T/A fare reduction is worth more than $200 OBC (especially in the YC!) - BUT , as you transferred the booking and got extra OBC that could offset a higher initial fare - as well as secure your preferred dates and cabin type.

 

It's definitely not as straightforward a comparison as other cruise line schemes though.

I would normally agree with you which is why we seldom book any cruise onboard.  However, this was an easy win-win.  There are many cruisers who do this stuff all the time...transferring their bookings back to a decent cruise agent who tacks on more benefits.  One other interesting facet of dealing with MSC onboard is that they actually promote a low price guarantee.  This is not much different as booking anywhere since one must constantly watch the cruise fares to spot a lower price. 

 

To be honest, we normally prefer to avoid the time and hassles of onboard bookings.  Most of my bookings are done online and only take a few short minutes.  Sometimes I might call one of our favored cruise agents and ask if they can further "enhance" a deal.  But even those phone calls only take a minute (not like being on hold with a cruise line).

 

Hank

[Captain-John]

1 minute ago, Hlitner said:

I would normally agree with you which is why we seldom book any cruise onboard.  However, this was an easy win-win.  There are many cruisers who do this stuff all the time...transferring their bookings back to a decent cruise agent who tacks on more benefits.  One other interesting facet of dealing with MSC onboard is that they actually promote a low price guarantee.  This is not much different as booking anywhere since one must constantly watch the cruise fares to spot a lower price. 

 

To be honest, we normally prefer to avoid the time and hassles of onboard bookings.  Most of my bookings are done online and only take a few short minutes.  Sometimes I might call one of our favored cruise agents and ask if they can further "enhance" a deal.  But even those phone calls only take a minute (not like being on hold with a cruise line).

 

Hank

 

Something you've said there just reminded me - in the UK at least, if you book directly with MSC, you CANNOT transfer the booking to your preferred travel agent - or you have to forfeit the £200 deposit and re-book.

I presume another feature of booking onboard is that this (draconian) requirement no longer applies - although that isn't a worry for US guests in the first place.

[Hlitner]

26 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

 

Something you've said there just reminded me - in the UK at least, if you book directly with MSC, you CANNOT transfer the booking to your preferred travel agent - or you have to forfeit the £200 deposit and re-book.

I presume another feature of booking onboard is that this (draconian) requirement no longer applies - although that isn't a worry for US guests in the first place.

I guess being in the EU (at least for the moment) gives you some extra consumer protections, but also has a downside when it comes to issues like refundable deposits.  On this side of the "pond" many savvy cruisers will book various cruises onboard a cruise line and either immediately or later (each cruise line has their own time limits) transfer the booking to a cruise or travel agency.  The advantage to this maneuver is that many cruise/travel agents will give the cruiser extra benefits.  While some of this is controlled by the cruise lines, there are some agencies that sometimes go above and beyond....if you get my meaning.  On our long cruises (we have done a few over 60 days) with other lines our savings have often amounted to thousands of dollars on a cruise (when compared to what it costs if booked directly with a cruise line).

 

Our friends in the EU have told us that many of the cruise deals, they get in the EU, includes air.  This makes any calculation of savings quite difficult since it can be hard to value air...especially if it is some kind of charter flight.

 

Hank

[Captain-John]

13 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I guess being in the EU (at least for the moment) gives you some extra consumer protections, but also has a downside when it comes to issues like refundable deposits.  On this side of the "pond" many savvy cruisers will book various cruises onboard a cruise line and either immediately or later (each cruise line has their own time limits) transfer the booking to a cruise or travel agency.  The advantage to this maneuver is that many cruise/travel agents will give the cruiser extra benefits.  While some of this is controlled by the cruise lines, there are some agencies that sometimes go above and beyond....if you get my meaning.  On our long cruises (we have done a few over 60 days) with other lines our savings have often amounted to thousands of dollars on a cruise (when compared to what it costs if booked directly with a cruise line).

 

Our friends in the EU have told us that many of the cruise deals, they get in the EU, includes air.  This makes any calculation of savings quite difficult since it can be hard to value air...especially if it is some kind of charter flight.

 

Hank

 

Yes, it's all quite interesting - as the cruise lines (counter-intuitively?) allow/encourage bookings to be transferred to agents. Yet, to my simple mind, the cruise line would be better off taking more direct bookings, as then they do not need to pay an agent any commission. But, it's been made quite clear, by the lack of competitive pricing direct from the cruise line (and/or the absence of any perks when booking direct) that they WANT business to come to the via the agent channel.

 

I think a lot of my UK contemporaries do book deals that include airfare, but, although this is anecdotal, the relatives I know that do this are vastly overpaying compared to making the arrangements independently.  Low cost airlines are so prevalent here (Ryanair, Easyjet etc. ) that you can go from anywhere in the UK to say Barcelona for $100 or less. The 'package' bookers cite the security of making all the arrangements through the cruise line (what if there is a delay etc.) - but I worked it out once using a crude rule of thumb and the experience of my relatives - for every cruise we've booked independently, the fifth cruise is 'free' compared to what they are, in my estimation, overpaying, by taking a 'packaged' proposition from the cruise line

 

Let's say there's a problem every fifth cruise (unlikely) that incurs you extra expense to sort out because you haven't booked a package from the cruise line - you're still cheaper paying out of pocket to catch the ship up than to have overpaid on all your previous bookings. In effect, this is 'self insuring' - but the savings more than cover any possible outlay.

 

There are some notable exceptions to this - especially further afield cruises targeting UK guests (Caribbean say) where I've seen a package, including airfare, going for $1K per person (the airfare element alone would be at least $600) - so heavy subsidies in play there to get the ship filled. But that's definitely an exception, not a rule, and I am reasonably sure that most people are paying over the odds for packaged airfare deals - at least, that's been my experience on any packaged deal I've looked into personally.

Edited December 29, 2018 by Captain-John

[Hlitner]

About a year ago we were having a discussion with a Future Cruise Consultant on a major cruise line (not MSC) who told me that about 80% of cruise bookings come through cruise/travel agencies.  A Princess rep once told me that the cruise lines do not think it is in their own best interest to undercut travel and cruise agencies since they rely on their business and marketing.  Once upon a time we did have a cruise line (Renaissance) that refused to deal with cruise/travel agencies and did not pay commissions.  They handled all their bookings "in house."  That line went bankrupt shortly after 9/11 and some say the cause was partially because of their anti travel/cruise agency stance.  Around the time of the 9/11 attack, the entire travel industry had a major downturn and not having all those travel and cruise agencies to help market their product certainly cost Renaissance a lot of business.   You can be sure all the cruise lines noticed what happened to Renaissance.

 

Hank

[chisoxfan]

Thanks everyone for their comments.  We will definitely look at booking options while on board.

As a sidebar we always booked our cruises with X, Princess, RCl, HAL, etc. with the big C warehouse store.

We were always satisfied with them but they do not represent MSC.  

When we booked our MSC cruise directly (the agent was helpful finding discounts status match, etc)

we did look earnestly at transferring the cruise. I was dismayed that I was unable to find a cooperative agent along these lines. I mean I looked at the MSC site and contacted recommended agents they showed. Several of these told me candidly it was not worth making a transfer or if so it would be a very minimal credit.

When I posted on this on CC a helpful poster gave me the name and contact of a major agency.

An individual there had contacted me previously so I contacted him again and he said they would offer a 200 approx credit.

Not a big deal but OK. This character claimed MSC was stalling the transfer and was very non communicative (I was withing time limits etc. for this).  We had a back and forth for over two months- again he always claimed it was MSC causing the issue but his follow up was so poor I was not really buying this.

In frustration I finally told him to forget it (telling in that he never responded to me). I probably should have contacted management at this agency but was not up for additional aggravation over a relatively small amount.

 

Is it really that hard to find decent agents who handle MSC?

[sfaaa]

Big box online TA X..... deals with MSC and will entertain MSC transfer. In fact I just did one last week and received its current OBC promo in addition to the onboard booking OBC I got from MSC.