CruiseNext Confusion

[schmoopie17]

Okay, I finally have it figured out, with special thanks to @ziggyuk for putting it clearly and simply.

 

But...to muddy what was just clarified...here's a scenario I may be facing in a couple of months.

 

I plan to buy two CN certs for $500 on our next cruise. I will see a bottom line price of $250. Got it.

However, my TA is offering $150 onboard credit. Assuming no other charges to my onboard account, I assume the onboard credit would effectively reduce my cost of the CN certs to $100. Or is there some provision that TA onboard credit can't be used for this purpose and I'd need to spend the credit on something else? 

[Russiamomm]

26 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Okay, I finally have it figured out, with special thanks to @ziggyuk for putting it clearly and simply.

 

But...to muddy what was just clarified...here's a scenario I may be facing in a couple of months.

 

I plan to buy two CN certs for $500 on our next cruise. I will see a bottom line price of $250. Got it.

However, my TA is offering $150 onboard credit. Assuming no other charges to my onboard account, I assume the onboard credit would effectively reduce my cost of the CN certs to $100. Or is there some provision that TA onboard credit can't be used for this purpose and I'd need to spend the credit on something else? 

I think it depends on if the OBC given by the TA is refundable or non-refundable.  It’s probably non-refundable.  In that case I don’t think it can be used to buy CNs.  The only kind of non-refundable OBC that can be used to buy CN is that received for buying the CN.  And as we’ve discussed, that really isn’t OBC.

 

Confusing enough?

[ziggyuk]

30 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Okay, I finally have it figured out, with special thanks to @ziggyuk for putting it clearly and simply.

 

But...to muddy what was just clarified...here's a scenario I may be facing in a couple of months.

 

I plan to buy two CN certs for $500 on our next cruise. I will see a bottom line price of $250. Got it.

However, my TA is offering $150 onboard credit. Assuming no other charges to my onboard account, I assume the onboard credit would effectively reduce my cost of the CN certs to $100. Or is there some provision that TA onboard credit can't be used for this purpose and I'd need to spend the credit on something else? 

 

It should do, I used to use my shareholder OBC to pay for Cruise Next but they no longer allow non-refundable credit to pay for Cruise Next and the shareholder OBC is non refundable.
So it all depends what that TA credit is, my understanding is they normally issue refundable credit, it which case, you are good to go, otherwise you will need to spend it elsewhere.

[schmoopie17]

4 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

So it all depends what that TA credit is, my understanding is they normally issue refundable credit, it which case, you are good to go, otherwise you will need to spend it elsewhere.

The TA said we could use the credit to apply it to the gratuities/service charge (whatever they're calling it nowadays). Does that mean it's refundable?

[ziggyuk]

4 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

The TA said we could use the credit to apply it to the gratuities/service charge (whatever they're calling it nowadays). Does that mean it's refundable?

 

Yes it does as you can't use non-refundable OBC for gratuities. 

[hallux]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

However, my TA is offering $150 onboard credit. Assuming no other charges to my onboard account, I assume the onboard credit would effectively reduce my cost of the CN certs to $100. Or is there some provision that TA onboard credit can't be used for this purpose and I'd need to spend the credit on something else?

Use of refundable/non-refundable OBC to purchase CN certificates is covered in the T&C's, I copied and pasted the relevant section earlier in the thread...

[cruiser2015]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

The only reason they don't sell CN as a half-off is their present sales pitch is an attempt to trick people into thinking they're getting something 'free'.  If they go to a it's a half-off promo, they lose the 'something for free' gimick.

But this one really is a "free" giveaway.

 

Take the BOGO air, for example. You must purchase TWO tickets. Effectively you get them at 50% off (of some amount). That's a nice discount - but it ain't free. NCL say it's "free air". Not quite.

 

Now the CN must be purchased as well. But there is not other requirement except booking another cruise. My assumption is that anyone buying a CN wanted to do another cruise. The CN represents a discount on that next cruise - except  half the value was free to you by effectively making an advanced deposit, which can be used for many options over a period of years. I call that "free money". It's not exactly comparable to a 35% off sale because the buyer controls when to use it and will further reduce whatever future sailing it is used for.

[carohs]

Except that if you only buy one CN (and why would you CF is a better value if you only get one) it's neither 50% or BOGO. NCL can't really use those sales terms to describe the entirety of what they're offering. It's up to the consumer to do simple math. OTOH if they could cut the BS and just tell you the OBC can be used to offset the cost and is on the current cruise only not a FCC that would clear things up for a lot of people.

 

 

[julig22]

Just now, cruiser2015 said:

But this one really is a "free" giveaway.

 

Take the BOGO air, for example. You must purchase TWO tickets. Effectively you get them at 50% off (of some amount). That's a nice discount - but it ain't free. NCL say it's "free air". Not quite.

You do not have to buy two tickets, a solo pays half price.

But if there are two on the reservation, they invoice passenger #1 for the full amount, passenger #2 is free.

[cruiser2015]

5 minutes ago, julig22 said:

You do not have to buy two tickets, a solo pays half price.

But if there are two on the reservation, they invoice passenger #1 for the full amount, passenger #2 is free.

Thanks for the correction on the single buy.

I know the second one is "free" - I simply don't agree with the concept that it's free when you don't get it without buying the first.

You proved this by pointing out that a single ticket is sold for half during a BOGO sale.

Some cruise lines offer truly free air - the only requirement is that you buy the cruise.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, cruiser2015 said:

But this one really is a "free" giveaway.

 

Take the BOGO air, for example. You must purchase TWO tickets. Effectively you get them at 50% off (of some amount). That's a nice discount - but it ain't free. NCL say it's "free air". Not quite.

 

Now the CN must be purchased as well. But there is not other requirement except booking another cruise. My assumption is that anyone buying a CN wanted to do another cruise. The CN represents a discount on that next cruise - except  half the value was free to you by effectively making an advanced deposit, which can be used for many options over a period of years. I call that "free money". It's not exactly comparable to a 35% off sale because the buyer controls when to use it and will further reduce whatever future sailing it is used for.

I'm not debating that CN can save money. My point is this: why make it so complicated?  When they sell it the way they do, it makes it confusing and some consider it a scam.  Doesn't matter whether it is or isn't, it still sounds sketchy.  Does sell them as a straight forward, BOGO.  No need for all the talk of free money.

[Captain-John]

They want you to 'spend' the 'free' OBC you get rather than use it exclusively to offset the cost of the voucher.

[Asawi]

22 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

They want you to 'spend' the 'free' OBC you get rather than use it exclusively to offset the cost of the voucher.

I'm sure you are absolutely right!
However, I have to give it to them that in the CruiseNext presentations I've gone to they have been very clear about the OBC can be used to just offset the CN cost. At the CN desk though nothing has been said about that.

(The first time I bought a CN I thought I had to use the money onboard, but fortunately it wasn't a problem since I needed unlimited WiFi to be able to do some work. I later went to their presentation and realized how wrong I had been.)

[cruiser2015]

45 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I'm not debating that CN can save money. My point is this: why make it so complicated?  When they sell it the way they do, it makes it confusing and some consider it a scam.  Doesn't matter whether it is or isn't, it still sounds sketchy.  Does sell them as a straight forward, BOGO.  No need for all the talk of free money.

I was only addressing the usage of the term "free".

I agree that there are some suspicious activities afoot according to the posts on here.

NCL agents trying to lead customers to believe that the only way to use the credit is to spend it on board the current cruise is close to being fraudulent. It's fine to let folks know that they are free to spend the credit on other purchases or against the CN purchase. I would hope that stories we are seeing are more of misunderstanding the policy - but perhaps poorly explained.  

[cruiser2015]

1 minute ago, Asawi said:

I'm sure you are absolutely right!
However, I have to give it to them that in the CruiseNext presentations I've gone to they have been very clear about the OBC can be used to just offset the CN cost. At the CN desk though nothing has been said about that.

(The first time I bought a CN I thought I had to use the money onboard, but fortunately it wasn't a problem since I needed unlimited WiFi to be able to do some work. I later went to their presentation and realized how wrong I had been.)

As long as someone is going to spend the amount of the credit, or more,  on other purchases, it all comes at the same in the end. 

So, what did they tell you that first time that made you believe that you had to spend it on OTHER stuff? It is true that you have to use it; but clearly you already did by buying the CN cert.

[Captain-John]

3 minutes ago, Asawi said:

I'm sure you are absolutely right!
However, I have to give it to them that in the CruiseNext presentations I've gone to they have been very clear about the OBC can be used to just offset the CN cost. At the CN desk though nothing has been said about that.

(The first time I bought a CN I thought I had to use the money onboard, but fortunately it wasn't a problem since I needed unlimited WiFi to be able to do some work. I later went to their presentation and realized how wrong I had been.)

 

I too have had candid guidance from some of the CN staff - they may look at status and know we 'get the drill' - they have said 'of course you'll just use the OBC to reduce the cost' or words to that affect on some occasions.

 

Others have tried to bamboozle with the company line and I am sure this is 'accidentally on purpose' to lead people to spend more onboard than they otherwise would because they have all this 'free' money.

[Asawi]

2 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

So, what did they tell you that first time that made you believe that you had to spend it on OTHER stuff? It is true that you have to use it; but clearly you already did by buying the CN cert.

I don't remember them telling me anything one way or the other. I already knew I needed the Internet upgrade so it wasn't a big deal to me. But I can't recall them ever saying much about the OBC at the desk, then or at later cruises. Just their "amazing offer" to scrap the OBC and double up my certificates instead (which of course comes to the same 125/each price so not really that amazing...)

[cruiser2015]

11 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

 

I too have had candid guidance from some of the CN staff - they may look at status and know we 'get the drill' - they have said 'of course you'll just use the OBC to reduce the cost' or words to that affect on some occasions.

 

Others have tried to bamboozle with the company line and I am sure this is 'accidentally on purpose' to lead people to spend more onboard than they otherwise would because they have all this 'free' money.

I understand their motive.

Shameful nonetheless.

[RocketMan275]

54 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

I was only addressing the usage of the term "free".

I agree that there are some suspicious activities afoot according to the posts on here.

NCL agents trying to lead customers to believe that the only way to use the credit is to spend it on board the current cruise is close to being fraudulent. It's fine to let folks know that they are free to spend the credit on other purchases or against the CN purchase. I would hope that stories we are seeing are more of misunderstanding the policy - but perhaps poorly explained.  

Agreed.  But the unneccessarily complicated CN makes those kinds of misrepresentations and misunderstandings possible.  Sell as a straight forward BOGO and those issues go away.

[cruiser2015]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Agreed.  But the unneccessarily complicated CN makes those kinds of misrepresentations and misunderstandings possible.  Sell as a straight forward BOGO and those issues go away.

That sure does make sense!

[Smitheroo]

On 10/31/2023 at 6:09 PM, Smitheroo said:

I'm hoping to take advantage of the double up promo  if I can make up my mind where and when I want to go.   Why not just buy CruiseFirst?  Its a bigger expense up front but it works out the same   Spend $250 get $500.  They seem to offer the promo them often enough. 

one advantage to the CruiseNEXT is that you can use them for less than a 6 day cruise

[Smitheroo]

23 hours ago, Asawi said:

I'm sure you are absolutely right!
However, I have to give it to them that in the CruiseNext presentations I've gone to they have been very clear about the OBC can be used to just offset the CN cost. At the CN desk though nothing has been said about that.

(The first time I bought a CN I thought I had to use the money onboard, but fortunately it wasn't a problem since I needed unlimited WiFi to be able to do some work. I later went to their presentation and realized how wrong I had been.)

That was the impression I was given on my last cruise in Feb.  That if you dont use the obc that comes along with CruiseNEXT  on that cruise, you lose it.  However, THIS time when the rep said what obc you dont spend on this cruise comes off the certiicates.  Then I said "I thought that if you didnt use it on this cruise it was gone" and he said "that's the way we used to do it but our frequent cruisers almost always come on board with prepaid charges and have litte incentive to buy CruiseNext certificates for obc that they wont use". This led me to believe they have changed policies.

[PartyPlannerLady]

On 10/31/2023 at 3:42 PM, Smitheroo said:

The 8 CruiseNEXT Certificates ($2,000) I purchased onboard my recent cruise came with $1000 OBC. (they advertised it as Free Money)  In the past I understood this was OBC you lost if you didnt use it on the cruise you bought the certificates on.   This was not the case on this particular cruise. I dont know if its a permanent change or not but as it was explained to me by the CruiseNEXT rep was  "Many of our most frequent NCL cruisers come on board with their expenses all prepaid so this offer didnt benefit them much"  It seems that now if you dont use the Free Money it comes off the price of the CruiseNEXT certificates.  I had to crunch the numbers for a long time in my account for it all to make sense but  it finally did. I did have some shipboard expenses but if I hadnt, the $1,000 would have come off the total cost of the 8 CruiseNEXT certiicates making them $125 each.    My travel partner bought 2 CruiseNext certificates at $500 (2 x 250) and got $250 back, making them $125  each.  Was this just another marketing game?  I think I may have actually lost money because the $1,000 Free Money enticed me to try some spa options that I would never have done otherwise. Thinking about it, I probably would have been better off doing as my partner did (buying two CruiseNEXT certicates and applying the $250 rebate to my $140 service charges  Maybe in that case the remainder would have been lost if not used.   Please tell me I am wrong.

 

 

You do not "lose it" at all.  It is basically applied to the CN purchase.  Technically no OBC is directly appiied to any specific purchase, but when you buy CN and get OBC, in the end it is a wash.  In you case you were charged 2000 for the CN and the 1000 OBC was they applied to your account.  The net purcha was 1000.

[hallux]

1 hour ago, Smitheroo said:

This led me to believe they have changed policies.

No changed policy, it's been the same since I bought my first CruiseNEXT in 2019.  OK, maybe one changed policy in that now non-refundable OBC can't be used against the CND purchase, except that which was received as a result of the CND purchase.

[smokeykat]

I have a different scenario to throw out there 🤪

I have the NCL credit card and I have enough points to use to get $500 OBC. Can I use the OBC to purchase my two cruise next certs for $500 and then would I get credited back $250 to my account that ends up going back on my credit card?