Perks to booking a future cruise while onboard?

[kj_connections]

Are there any perks to wait until I'm onboard to book another future cruise?  

[Engineroom Snipe]

The only major perk is putting $200 deposit instead of $500 deposit. Yes, you can get a OBC from $25 to much more but that requires a balcony or suite reservation of seven days or more.

 

One way it can work in your favor. You are very interested in a specific cruise in a specific cabin for a special occasion.  Put $200 down for two and roll the dice. You have up to 90 days before the cruise to make the final decision. Should things change, you are only out $200 which would have been the penalty for changing your reservation for two persons!

 

You gambled $200 for a potential $2600 cruise which did not happen. I would call that very cheap insurance.

[Sweetsue5680]

I just used Next Cruise while sailing in January. We always book well in advance and Refundable which costs more. Unfortunately booking refundable on board does not give you a lower deposit. Instead of the offered $100 On Board Credit I only received $76 for my 12 night cruise. I booked and gave them $900 since the cruise is over 9 days.  As an aside…since then I have called Royal and had price adjustments 3 times which have reduced my cruise cost over $400.  Checking rates regularly is a valuable tool!  Just want you to be aware of these policies.

[neverbeenhere]

Make sure you know the travel agent to which they transferring your booking. It is hell to get it moved. 

[Engineroom Snipe]

2 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Make sure you know the travel agent to which they transferring your booking. It is hell to get it moved. 

I never tried to transfer my initial booking. Can it be done?

[Morecruisesplz]

32 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Make sure you know the travel agent to which they transferring your booking. It is hell to get it moved. 

It's supposed to always be TA with whom you booked your current cruise.

[Morecruisesplz]

30 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

I never tried to transfer my initial booking. Can it be done?

Yes, within 30 days. More OBC. Yea!

[SG65CB]

There are monetary perks including OBC for your next cruise. 6-9 night cruise gets $50 interior, $100 balcony or JS, $300 suite. 

 

Other perks - sometimes they give out bottles of champagne or have a raffle for people who book a cruise in the first couple of days - I was the big winner once and won a bunch of OBC for the current cruise. 

 

There are also conveniences because you are sitting down in front of a person who has direct access to RC booking systems. They can handle things that normally would require a phone call and waiting on hold. 

 

For example, booking a cabin for more than four people cannot be done online and requires a phone call. NextCruise handled it easily.  

 

They can also handle things like booking adults in a balcony cabin and kids in an interior across the hall. You can't do that online. 

 

Another convenience is they will take all the names, ages, etc. of your current passengers and assign it all to the new booking unless you don't want them to. 

 

They will assign the booking to the same travel agent as your current cruise, unless you don't want them to. 

 

I always go in knowing what cruise I want to book and what the price should be, but they will help you explore options and compare prices. 

 

Sometimes NextCruise gets crowded and you have to make an appointment. I have seen the NextCruise agents bring a laptop computer to the suite lounge during happy hour to meet with people there by pre-arrangement. Avoid the crowds.

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

It's supposed to always be TA with whom you booked your current cruise.

No...You can make a change to this when you book onboard. Actually tell them you want to own the booking then you can decide if you want to transfer it to the TA of your choice or keep it.

[Engineroom Snipe]

6 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Yes, within 30 days. More OBC. Yea!

 

You are correct and I did not word my question well. 

 

I was asking about changing my Next Cruise original booking designating TA "1" to TA "2".

 

Someone answered the question but thank you for a correct answer to my first poorly worded question. 

[Ourusualbeach]

6 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

It's supposed to always be TA with whom you booked your current cruise.

  By default it will go the the agent who booked that cruise however you can have them change that as long as you know the agents booking information or you can have it in your name.

[Morecruisesplz]

18 hours ago, Ashland said:

No...You can make a change to this when you book onboard. Actually tell them you want to own the booking then you can decide if you want to transfer it to the TA of your choice or keep it.

Sure, understood. Just stating the default. 

[Morecruisesplz]

14 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

  By default it will go the the agent who booked that cruise however you can have them change that as long as you know the agents booking information or you can have it in your name.

Of course.

[matj2000]

22 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

  Put $200 down for two and roll the dice. You have up to 90 days before the cruise to make the final decision. Should things change, you are only out $200 which would have been the penalty for changing your reservation for two persons! 

You gambled $200 for a potential $2600 cruise which did not happen. I would call that very cheap insurance.

 

Yes, Sounds like a great deal....

 

I am sure everyone wants to do this.

 

NOT

Edited February 9, 2023 by matj2000

[ajtaylor29]

We have never booked a future cruise while onboard, because in the past you either had to know and book a specific cruise while on board, or you could  pay the deposit then have a VERY short window to select your cruise (i think it was 7 days) after your current cruise ended. We didn't want to feel pressured to figure it out that quickly so we never did it. 

on our last cruise (2 weeks ago) we were told that RC has updated their policy to allow 30 days for you to decide instead of 7 days, which for us felt much better so we decided to do it!

The OBC you get depends on how long your cruise is. We've decided on a Greece/Croatia cruise in the fall (Yea!!!!!) and it's a 7 night cruise, so we get $300 OBC. That's "free money", when we knew we would be booking more cruises so why not!!!

In addition, when we went to the future cruise desk we reminded them that we use a travel agent and they said no problem. They automatically transfer the cruise info to them and they get credit for booking for us, as usual.

We got everything confirmed this week so we're good to go. Another great cruise to look forward to!!!

Edited February 9, 2023 by ajtaylor29

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, ajtaylor29 said:

We have never booked a future cruise while onboard, because in the past you either had to know and book a specific cruise while on board, or you could  pay the deposit then have a VERY short window to select your cruise (i think it was 7 days) after your current cruise ended. We didn't want to feel pressured to figure it out that quickly so we never did it. 

on our last cruise (2 weeks ago) we were told that RC has updated their policy to allow 30 days for you to decide instead of 7 days, which for us felt much better so we decided to do it!

The OBC you get depends on how long your cruise is. We've decided on a Greece/Croatia cruise in the fall (Yea!!!!!) and it's a 7 night cruise, so we get $300 OBC. That's "free money", when we knew we would be booking more cruises so why not!!!

In addition, when we went to the future cruise desk we reminded them that we use a travel agent and they said no problem. They automatically transfer the cruise info to them and they get credit for booking for us, as usual.

We got everything confirmed this week so we're good to go. Another great cruise to look forward to!!!

It was never 7 days.  It recently was shortened to 60 days to choose and get the OBC.  You have 30 days to transfer oit to a travel agent.

[Donsyb]

Also you can just put the deposit down whilst onboard, and book later and still get the perks.  We did that last year as we were on just before thanksgiving.  The prices we were quoted onboard were really high, so we just paid the deposit and then booked in the Black Friday sale when we got home.

 

Also if you decide to just put the deposit down and book later, you can just do that on the app, you don’t have to deal with the queues at the Next Cruise office.

[ajtaylor29]

13 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It was never 7 days.  It recently was shortened to 60 days to choose and get the OBC.  You have 30 days to transfer oit to a travel agent.

Hmmmm, well that's not my understanding but oh well it worked out fine for us. Maybe more to the story for me is that we had "free" cruise offers from the casino. We were using those to book future cruises, and were told we had 30 days. Maybe it is 60 days if you're booking a regular cruise (without another offer).

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, ajtaylor29 said:

Hmmmm, well that's not my understanding but oh well it worked out fine for us. Maybe more to the story for me is that we had "free" cruise offers from the casino. We were using those to book future cruises, and were told we had 30 days. Maybe it is 60 days if you're booking a regular cruise (without another offer).

There never used to be a time limit.  It was then turned into 60 days.

 

Casino offers up until very recently had to be selected within 7 days and that was just changed to 30...two entirely different things.

[moposh]

Can you choose a cabin for free with Next Cruise or do you still have to pay extra?

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, moposh said:

Can you choose a cabin for free with Next Cruise or do you still have to pay extra?

It depends on what you book.  There is no difference in what is available to book you just get some additional OBC and a reduced deposit

[PashaPoo]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:56 PM, matj2000 said:

 

Yes, Sounds like a great deal....

 

I am sure everyone wants to do this.

 

NOT

Not everyone wants to do this.  BUT last March we made out like a scalded dog.  Not only was the $100 each deposit easy, but we also got a $600 credit for booking a suite which we booked for our upcoming Feb 27 cruise.  $600 off an Owner's Suite on a smaller ship was too good to pass up.  Opposite of not - WHY NOT.

[PashaPoo]

On 2/9/2023 at 10:42 AM, Donsyb said:

Also you can just put the deposit down whilst onboard, and book later and still get the perks.  We did that last year as we were on just before thanksgiving.  The prices we were quoted onboard were really high, so we just paid the deposit and then booked in the Black Friday sale when we got home.

 

Also if you decide to just put the deposit down and book later, you can just do that on the app, you don’t have to deal with the queues at the Next Cruise office.

This is also what we did last March.  Paid the deposit in very comfy cushioned chair, then booked later in the year when we got home during one of RCL's specials - and we used two of our future cruise credits (for cancelled covid cruises) of $900.  So we made out.  A sale, $600 booking on board credit and $900 future cruise credits - which were about to expire.  

[Donsyb]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:11 PM, moposh said:

Can you choose a cabin for free with Next Cruise or do you still have to pay extra?

You’re not paying extra to choose your cabin, you’re getting a discount if you don’t choose it 😉 but yes, it will still

cost more to choose your cabin

[jencruzin]

The biggest perk (for us, at least) it gave DH lots of time to do his price checks. The cruise came down a considerable amount.

 

WIth Next Cruise, I (don't think, not 100%) if you spot a price drop, some agents will try and jeapordize any OBC they initially gave you - but (again, I think) with NextCruise, that OBC is left alone.

Our last booking on the previous cruise, we were fortunate enough to have a very experienced agent, who not only got us good prices on a regular balcony - she pointed out that because of our location, we got a larger balcony. 

NextCruise agent onboard is definitely a good thing to do. Plus, you have more time to pay it off. But hold back on that last payment you may have, because it gives you more negotiating power to do the price checks - where they'll lock you in on current rates if they're lower, and take it off from your existing balance.