Cruise Next OBC

[RocketMan275]

35 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

Another bonus for using CN is that it serves as your full deposit for the entire cabin in Categories through Balcony.  So you do not need to lay out the usual deposit amount, which is more than the $125 you were charged for the certificates.

 

It still doesn't reduce the total cruise fare.  Pay me now, or Pay me later.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

8 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

It still doesn't reduce the total cruise fare.  Pay me now, or Pay me later.

No, it doesn’t, but it delays the outlay of funds.  If I’m booking a cruise almost two years out, as I typically do, then I want to hold on to my money as long as possible. No point in tying up my funds before I need to.

[Russiamomm]

I always have some CNs in the “bank”. At the end of the day, as long as you purchase at t least two, you are paying $125 for $250 of value.  They have saved me a lot of money over the years.

 

That being said, it is extremely confusing the way they sell these,  I wish they would just tell it like it is instead of confusing the matter with all this OBC nonsense.  The OBC is applied against the cost of the certificates themselves, reducing the cost, but not the face value of the certificates.  I do believe it’s a marketing ploy to try to get people to spend more onboard.  Also, I think they’ve fixed this problem, but last year on the Breakaway the CN staff claimed that the OBC could not be used to offset the cost of the certs.  Stupid me got off the ship without checking my statement closely and they had me forfeiting close to $200 in OBC.  Took hour upon hour on the phone with various departments, but ultimately they refunded this “forfeited” amount.

 

Bottom line is that CNs are a good deal, but you have to watch them like a hawk.  They want to fool you into spending money onboard that you wouldn’t otherwise do.  At the end of the day it will make no difference except if you fall for it you will spend more money than you otherwise would have.

[KeithJenner]

2 hours ago, PATRLR said:

This is where words matter.  @KeithJennershould have said "the net charge to your account is $250"

Correct.

@RocketMan275is correct, the charge was $1000.  Both posters failed to discuss the OBC portion of the transaction.

I didn’t mention the OBC part because that is what causes the confusion. I buy $500 of Cruise Next vouchers and it costs me $250. We can get into the wording as much as anyone wants but the important thing is that it costs $250.

 

Words may matter, but in this case the thing that matters most is the numbers and those are $250 for $500 of vouchers.

 

If that is too hard for people to understand then I really can’t help them any further.

Edited November 21, 2022 by KeithJenner

[KeithJenner]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I bought $1000 worth of Next Cruise and was charged $1000.

If you really bought $1000 of deposits and they cost you $1000 (after applying any OBC) then you need to contact NCL and get them to sort that out as they should have applied the OBC to your account.

[julig22]

2 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

It still doesn't reduce the total cruise fare.  Pay me now, or Pay me later.

On that you are absolutely correct. But you get $250 deposit credit by using a CN certificate that only cost you $125. Or whatever denomination of CN you bought for half face value. But I think you know that.

[KeithJenner]

5 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

So, let me see if I understand Cruise Next.

I buy $500 worth of Cruise Next.

Half that is applied to my on-board spending account.

The other half can be applied to a future cruise. It doesn't reduce the total cost of the cruise. It only pre-pays that cost.

I gain $500 in benefits but those benefits have cost me $500.

Why should I play this game?

Just reading this again and I will try once more to explain how this works.

 

You buy $500 of CruiseNext vouchers. That gives you $500 to put down on your future cruises. You walk off the ship with a credit of $500 on your account.

 

That $500 of vouchers cost you $250 because they charged your account $500 and then credited the $250 OBC.

 

Therefore the $500 of vouchers cost you $250, which I think we would all agree is a saving of $250.

 

That is why we play this game.

[PATRLR]

10 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

I didn’t mention the OBC part because that is what causes the confusion. I buy $500 of Cruise Next vouchers and it costs me $250. We can get into the wording as much as anyone wants but the important thing is that it costs $250.

Agreed 100%. But the genesis of the specific comments of mine that you quoted was a response to the subsequent quotes in my post.

[PATRLR]

12 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

It still doesn't reduce the total cruise fare.  Pay me now, or Pay me later.

Really?  

Here's my example from a couple days ago on the Encore.  I bought two CNs.  That purchase of 2 CNs caused my onboard account balance (the bottom line of what I owed NCL for onboard expenses) to increase by $250.  When I use those CNs, they will reduce the cruise cost to my by $500. 

 

I spent $250 to eventually save $500.   

[MagnoliaBlossom]

12 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

I always have some CNs in the “bank”. At the end of the day, as long as you purchase at t least two, you are paying $125 for $250 of value.  They have saved me a lot of money over the years.

 

That being said, it is extremely confusing the way they sell these,  I wish they would just tell it like it is instead of confusing the matter with all this OBC nonsense.  The OBC is applied against the cost of the certificates themselves, reducing the cost, but not the face value of the certificates.  I do believe it’s a marketing ploy to try to get people to spend more onboard.  Also, I think they’ve fixed this problem, but last year on the Breakaway the CN staff claimed that the OBC could not be used to offset the cost of the certs.  Stupid me got off the ship without checking my statement closely and they had me forfeiting close to $200 in OBC.  Took hour upon hour on the phone with various departments, but ultimately they refunded this “forfeited” amount.

 

Bottom line is that CNs are a good deal, but you have to watch them like a hawk.  They want to fool you into spending money onboard that you wouldn’t otherwise do.  At the end of the day it will make no difference except if you fall for it you will spend more money than you otherwise would have.

This is the type of situation that led to my original question about refunding of unused OBC.  I had always believed it was use it if lose it,n but at that time it could be used for DSC so not much additional onboard spending was necessary.  The the rules change and people post that they received a refund of their unspent OBC.  Very confusing.

[Russiamomm]

21 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

This is the type of situation that led to my original question about refunding of unused OBC.  I had always believed it was use it if lose it,n but at that time it could be used for DSC so not much additional onboard spending was necessary.  The the rules change and people post that they received a refund of their unspent OBC.  Very confusing.

There should never be a situation where you lose any OBC that you got by purchasing the CNs.  That OBC is (or at least should be) always used to offset the cost of the credits.  They didn’t do that for me, which is what led to me having unused credit.  They ultimately fixed it, but it was a pain to get it done.

 

Other forms of non refundable OBC (that didn’t come from buying the CNs) will be lost if not spent.  And it can’t be used to pay the daily service charge.  It’s apples and oranges.

 

NCL could fix all this confusion by simply stopping this game with the OBC for CNs by simply changing what they cost - $125 for each certificate as long as you buy two.  

[KeithJenner]

There was a change to CruiseNext a while ago which caused some confusion.

 

You can’t now use non refundable OBC to purchase the vouchers. At the time of the change some people got caught out with a charge they weren’t expecting and assumed that the ONC that came with the vouchers wasn’t being applied to the cost, but it was actually their existing non refundable OBC that was a problem.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Yes, if they would go to the same straightforward approach that Cruise First uses that would be helpful.

[RocketMan275]

14 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

Just reading this again and I will try once more to explain how this works.

 

You buy $500 of CruiseNext vouchers. That gives you $500 to put down on your future cruises. You walk off the ship with a credit of $500 on your account.

 

That $500 of vouchers cost you $250 because they charged your account $500 and then credited the $250 OBC.

 

Therefore the $500 of vouchers cost you $250, which I think we would all agree is a saving of $250.

 

That is why we play this game.

I just pulled my statement from the cruise where I purchased the CN.  Now, I purchased Haven NC which were $500 each.  For each voucher purchased, I received a credit of non-refundable OBC of $125.  I also received a voucher for $500 on a future cruise.  Cost $500.  Savings $375.  Net $125 to me.  

[KeithJenner]

52 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I just pulled my statement from the cruise where I purchased the CN.  Now, I purchased Haven NC which were $500 each.  For each voucher purchased, I received a credit of non-refundable OBC of $125.  I also received a voucher for $500 on a future cruise.  Cost $500.  Savings $375.  Net $125 to me.  

I’ve never purchased Haven vouchers, so someone else would have to confirm the discounts.

 

I have just done a quick Google though, and it does seem that the discount is lower for Haven vouchers. Basically, if you buy two standard cruisenext vouchers then you get $500 value for $250 but one Haven voucher for $500 will cost $375 or $400 (the website says $400 but you say you were charged $375).

 

The actual saving is the same, as it depends on the number of vouchers, not the amounts, but you are spending more on vouchers to get them. However, Haven CruiseNext are a full deposit whereas you would have to make up the difference if you used standard vouchers to book a Haven room, so there is definitely an advantage to getting Haven ones, especially if you will be using them soon after purchasing.

[schmoopie17]

18 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

I didn’t mention the OBC part because that is what causes the confusion. I buy $500 of Cruise Next vouchers and it costs me $250. We can get into the wording as much as anyone wants but the important thing is that it costs $250.

 

Words may matter, but in this case the thing that matters most is the numbers and those are $250 for $500 of vouchers.

The problem is NCL's insistence to refer to the $250 credit as "Non-Refundable OBC".

 

Typically, non-refundable means use it or lose it. Not in this case.

 

On our cruise last week, we bought a $250 CN and I told the salesperson I didn't want $100 OBC for the current cruise. She said, in that case, she can give us an extra $250 CN certificate at no charge. At first I didn't believe her. Sounded too good to be true. But sure enough, our account showed two CN certificates at $250 each...a $250 charge to our account...and $250 listed as "Non-Refundable OBC. 

 

I began to worry about the "use it or lose it" aspect of Non-Refundable OBC...but sure enough, our account balanced out at the end and we got the $250 "extra" certificate ($500 total) at no cost..

Edited November 21, 2022 by schmoopie17

[KeithJenner]

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

The problem is NCL's insistence to refer to the $250 credit as "Non-Refundable OBC".

 

Typically, non-refundable means use it or lose it. Not in this case.

 

On our cruise last week, we bought a $250 CN and I told the salesperson I didn't want $100 OBC for the current cruise. She said, in that case, she can give us an extra $250 CN certificate at no charge. At first I didn't believe her. Sounded too good to be true. But sure enough, our account showed two CN certificates at $250 each...a $250 charge to our account...and $250 listed as "Non-Refundable OBC. 

 

I began to worry about the "use it or lose it" aspect of Non-Refundable OBC...but sure enough, our account balanced out at the end and we got the $250 "extra" certificate ($500 total) at no cost..

The problem is that you discussed it with the CruiseNext staff. If you don';t talk to them about it then there is a lot less confusion. I'm not defending NCL here, just saying that the actual reality is extremely easy if you just use what is on their website and the experience of those of us who have been using these vouchers for years.

 

NCL CruiseNext staff make it complicated, but it really is simple.

 

The OBC is non refundable. However, this is from the T&C's of the NCL website:

 

"Only refundable Onboard Credits and the Non-Refundable Onboard Credit given for purchasing CruieNext deposits may be used towards your CruiseNext purchase."

Edited November 21, 2022 by KeithJenner

[luv2kroooz]

Lots of ways to slice and dice this....I think NCL has one of the best programs going. I realize they recently made some changes as to which OBC can be used to pay for the CN certificates. At the end of the day, worst case scenario is everyone is getting at least $250 of future cruise value for a $150 investment today.

[rtkenmore]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:10 PM, schmoopie17 said:

The problem is NCL's insistence to refer to the $250 credit as "Non-Refundable OBC".

 

Typically, non-refundable means use it or lose it. Not in this case.

 

On our cruise last week, we bought a $250 CN and I told the salesperson I didn't want $100 OBC for the current cruise. She said, in that case, she can give us an extra $250 CN certificate at no charge. At first I didn't believe her. Sounded too good to be true. But sure enough, our account showed two CN certificates at $250 each...a $250 charge to our account...and $250 listed as "Non-Refundable OBC. 

 

I began to worry about the "use it or lose it" aspect of Non-Refundable OBC...but sure enough, our account balanced out at the end and we got the $250 "extra" certificate ($500 total) at no cost..

And you’re exactly who they prey on…

 

If you had just taken the one CN and OBC, you would have paid $150 for your one CN valued at $250.

 

Instead, they talked you into taking two CN and you paid an extra $100 more than you would have paid to start with. But you did get two CN now for $250 instead of just one for $150.

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, rtkenmore said:

And you’re exactly who they prey on…

 

If you had just taken the one CN and OBC, you would have paid $150 for your one CN valued at $250.

 

Instead, they talked you into taking two CN and you paid an extra $100 more than you would have paid to start with. But you did get two CN now for $250 instead of just one for $150.

So, I got "preyed on" for getting $500 worth of certificates for $250?? I'll take getting "preyed on" like that every day of the week.

 

Tell you what...you give me $500 and I'll give you $250. Now who got "preyed on"?

[rtkenmore]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

So, I got "preyed on" for getting $500 worth of certificates for $250?? I'll take getting "preyed on" like that every day of the week.

 

Tell you what...you give me $500 and I'll give you $250. Now who got "preyed on"?

Yes, because you only wanted to buy one cruise next which would have cost you $150….  But by saying you didn’t want the OBC, they talked you into spending another $100 that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.  
 

They call it OBC but it’s not really, it just offsets the price of the CN.

 

1 CN for total of $150 (value of $250)

2 CN for total of $250 (value of $500)

3 CN for total of $375 (value of $750)

4 CN for total of $500 (value of $1000)

[dbrown84]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

So, I got "preyed on" for getting $500 worth of certificates for $250?? I'll take getting "preyed on" like that every day of the week.

 

Tell you what...you give me $500 and I'll give you $250. Now who got "preyed on"?

Yes, preyed on is a little harsh.  But what you got is the standard deal.  They shouldn't have made it seem like they were giving you an extra certificate for free.  The cost for two certificates is $250 and the cost for 4 is $500.

[dbrown84]

It is a better value buying at least two, though.  When you only buy one, you spend $150 for $250 in credit.  Buy more than one, and you spend half of the credit value 

[schmoopie17]

17 hours ago, rtkenmore said:

Yes, because you only wanted to buy one cruise next which would have cost you $150….  But by saying you didn’t want the OBC, they talked you into spending another $100 that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.  

When did I say we only wanted to buy one? We were considering two future cruises (one that we knew we would be booking soon and another we had some interest in for later.) Until she told me I could get two for one, didn't know that deal was even possible. The way I see it, we're $250 ahead. Case closed.

Edited November 24, 2022 by schmoopie17

[rtkenmore]

16 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

When did I say we only wanted to buy one? We were considering two future cruises (already booked one with the first certificate and will be booking another one next week, now that we have a "free" deposit). Until she told me I could get two for one, didn't know that deal was even possible. The way I see it, we're $250 ahead. Case closed.

When you said, “On our cruise last week, we bought a $250 CN and I told the salesperson I didn't want $100 OBC for the current cruise.”

 

You started your post by saying you were only buying one.