Onboard booking bonus offer

[bluesplayer]

I have only taken a river cruise prior to my Ocean cruise last week.  I was unaware that Viking offered an Onboard Booking bonus on booking another cruise (Ocean or river).  I booked an additional river cruise for 2026 a few weeks prior to departure.  You cannot take advantage of the program, nor can you cancel and rebook. I was told they would take the Onboard booking credits away from your reservation.  Wish I would have known this program was available, as it was not on the river cruise.   Major disappointment.   Wait until you are onboard to book.  Seems the credits were quite nice.

[Mike07]

Just now, bluesplayer said:

  Seems the credits were quite nice.

 

 

How nice?

[bluesplayer]

It depended on the length of the cruise and the amount you spend. Up to $2,000.    Since I was deemed "ineligible"  he did not get into specifics other than I could not cancel and rebook.  Just an FYI if you are thinking of booking another cruise and have an upcoming one.  May wait to book onboard.   WHO KNEW???

[WanderingBrit]

On our most recent cruise the savings for 2 on a future 10 day Ocean cruise would have amounted to $300 I think, and we had the option of canceling an existing booking and making a new one - though we were told we might have to wait a couple of days for the cancelation to be processed once sent to the email address they would have provided. In practice the itinerary we were interested in had increased in price since we'd booked during a sale, and there wouldn't have been any real savings.

 

Booking while onboard does get you 6 month final payment, but you can also get that by having any future booking - which when deposits are only $25 is pretty easy.

 

"Who knew"? It's very regularly discussed here and pretty common practice for just about all Ocean cruise lines.

[Squawkman]

There’s no agent on board river cruises. You can purchase $200 vouchers for $100 on river which can be used on ANY NEW booking (river, ocean and/or expedition), If you book directly with a Viking agent within 2 weeks after disembarking ANY cruise, you will get $200pp OBC for that cruise. I personally have done all of this (except I never booked an expedition).

[CDNPolar]

16 hours ago, bluesplayer said:

It depended on the length of the cruise and the amount you spend. Up to $2,000.    Since I was deemed "ineligible"  he did not get into specifics other than I could not cancel and rebook.  Just an FYI if you are thinking of booking another cruise and have an upcoming one.  May wait to book onboard.   WHO KNEW???

 

You are suggesting that the onboard booking bonus or credit was up to $2,000.00?  We have booked a number of future cruises while onboard but never, never have we seen a credit that is this big.  Generally it is a $400 pp past guest discount, 6 months payment (which we always get anyway) and an OBC of a couple hundred for the cruise we are on.  This may add closer to $600 in savings over booking off the ship.

 

Do you have more intel on this?

 

Unless you are counting in Free Air but that is available to anyone booking on or off a ship?

 

Like @Squawkman indicated, you can only do this on an Ocean Ship and not on River.

[bluesplayer]

Since my future cruise was booked prior embarking specific information on another booking was not provided.  Perhaps the very large amounts offered were for world cruises or expeditions.  Since I was unaware of onboard booking my intent was to inform others that it is offered.  May be worth waiting to book onboard. 
Thanks @Squawkman for the information about booking directly post cruise. This is only my second Viking cruise.

[Mike07]

6 minutes ago, bluesplayer said:

Since my future cruise was booked prior embarking specific information on another booking was not provided.  Perhaps the very large amounts offered were for world cruises or expeditions.  Since I was unaware of onboard booking my intent was to inform others that it is offered.  May be worth waiting to book onboard. 
Thanks @Squawkman for the information about booking directly post cruise. This is only my second Viking cruise.

 

 

There is usually a tiered structure that is printed somewhere based upon the length of the cruise. Also, I think it's usually defined as nights onboard the ship.

 

The discount is not a state secret, and I honestly wouldn't feel remiss for not getting it, then again, I don't make travel plans years out.

Edited April 23 by Mike07

[Moonlion]

On our last VOC (February 2024), we booked Viking's North Pacific Passage (22 nights) while onboard.  We received the following onboard booking discounts: $400 pp past guest discount, $400 pp onboard booking discount, $100 pp onboard credit for the cruise we were on.  Total discount came to $1800 per couple plus the 6-month final payment. 

 

Of note, we had booked this same cruise (different dates) in December 2023 using Viking's future cruise discount promotion.  The onboard discounts were significantly better than the previous discounts we had received plus there was a price drop between Dec '23 and Feb '24.  Once onboard, we could not cancel and then rebook the same dates and get the onboard booking discounts. We had to book different dates (which ended up working out better for us) to get the onboard discounts, and then cancel the original dates through out TA. 

[Mike07]

It might not be a bad idea for us to start tracking promos in the Viking Promo thread from member emeritus Clay. Though I can see what HQ offer being based upon the sailing and dates, and the info might be bad. Like say an itinerary runs from June 16 thru June 30 and another is from June 20 thru July 4... Maybe since it goes into July it gets categorized differently based upon July's planned ads.

[anaky1229]

We just completed our first Viking cruise (Ocean). We booked two cruises while onboard. Along with the past guest and onboard booking discount, we got $200.00 ship board credit for the current cruise for EACH booking. People in the know (we weren't two of them) did not pay their gratuities in advance and used the money to pay them.

[Squawkman]

4 hours ago, anaky1229 said:

We just completed our first Viking cruise (Ocean). We booked two cruises while onboard. Along with the past guest and onboard booking discount, we got $200.00 ship board credit for the current cruise for EACH booking. People in the know (we weren't two of them) did not pay their gratuities in advance and used the money to pay them.

Yup, that’s the best way to use that credit. You’ll know for next time 😊

[CDNPolar]

15 hours ago, anaky1229 said:

We just completed our first Viking cruise (Ocean). We booked two cruises while onboard. Along with the past guest and onboard booking discount, we got $200.00 ship board credit for the current cruise for EACH booking. People in the know (we weren't two of them) did not pay their gratuities in advance and used the money to pay them.

 

Or make a bunch of bookings at the Spa for massage or whatever and spend it that way.

We never pay our gratuities in advance because we never know if we will end up booking onboard or if we have other OBC still available.

 

We also do our ship board bookings near the beginning of the cruise so that we have time to use those OBC's.  I have seen some people that book 1 or 2 days before the end of the cruise and then they are in the shop buying stuff they probably don't want or need.

[island lady]

On 4/22/2024 at 3:48 PM, Squawkman said:

There’s no agent on board river cruises. You can purchase $200 vouchers for $100 on river which can be used on ANY NEW booking (river, ocean and/or expedition), If you book directly with a Viking agent within 2 weeks after disembarking ANY cruise, you will get $200pp OBC for that cruise. I personally have done all of this (except I never booked an expedition).

 

I enjoyed my two for one coupons I bought on river cruise Vidar...used for Venus.    Wish I had purchased more!   

[Mike07]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

We never pay our gratuities in advance because we never know if we will end up booking onboard or if we have other OBC still available.

 

 

 

 

Same -- the reason being is that you don't know OBCs will be added mid-cruise for missed ports or calamities that happen on the ship.

 

There is only one time I think a reader here might consider pre-paying gratuities, and that is on a Viking river ship since pre-payment is charged in USD and onboard, it's charged in Euros. So, there are a few dollars savings there.

[CDNPolar]

4 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

Same -- the reason being is that you don't know OBCs will be added mid-cruise for missed ports or calamities that happen on the ship.

 

There is only one time I think a reader here might consider pre-paying gratuities, and that is on a Viking river ship since pre-payment is charged in USD and onboard, it's charged in Euros. So, there are a few dollars savings there.

 

Good advice.

 

I do know that some pre-pay their gratuities for the echeck option of saving 3.3%.  Personally that is not enough of a savings for me to consider, and we put everything on our credit cards for the airline points.

[OneSixtyToOne]

3 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

Same -- the reason being is that you don't know OBCs will be added mid-cruise for missed ports or calamities that happen on the ship.

 

There is only one time I think a reader here might consider pre-paying gratuities, and that is on a Viking river ship since pre-payment is charged in USD and onboard, it's charged in Euros. So, there are a few dollars savings there.

For some reason I decided to prepay in December ‘22 for a January ‘23 cruise. Viking increased the gratuities and SSP price in January’23 so we actually saved money by accident. Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn.

[Mike07]

5 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Good advice.

 

I do know that some pre-pay their gratuities for the echeck option of saving 3.3%.  Personally that is not enough of a savings for me to consider, and we put everything on our credit cards for the airline points.

 

 

Agreed... Big box offers 3% back in travel on their Citi branded card. While I normally do e-check, I had a last-minute trip pop up and paid for it via my card. Can confirm that the Viking merchant code Viking used activated the 3% travel bonus.

 

 

[anaky1229]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Or make a bunch of bookings at the Spa for massage or whatever and spend it that way.

We never pay our gratuities in advance because we never know if we will end up booking onboard or if we have other OBC still available.

 

We also do our ship board bookings near the beginning of the cruise so that we have time to use those OBC's.  I have seen some people that book 1 or 2 days before the end of the cruise and then they are in the shop buying stuff they probably don't want or need.

Yes, fortunately my husband had several massages which it paid for and the left over we just added to our tips.