Is there any advantage to book future cruise while onboard?

[GrannyGail]

I’ve sailed 38 RC cruises, but never booked while on board. Is there any  $$ advantage to do this?

[Ken at the beach]

3 minutes ago, GrannyGail said:

I’ve sailed 38 RC cruises, but never booked while on board. Is there any  $$ advantage to do this?

You will get some OBC based on the length of cruise and accommodation type  for booking on board.  The below is based on a non refundable deposit booking.  Balconies and below also get a reduced deposit of $100 per person

 

 

Edited Saturday at 12:59 PM by Ken at the beach

[orville99]

The only other advantages to booking on board besides what Ken stated are that prices for the booking may be lower the earlier you book (depending on how far out you are booking from the future cruise date); you can usually find the exact cabin you want; if you are working with a TA, the booking is automatically transferred to them, or if you don't have a TA, you can move the booking to one after you get home.

 

And if you're lucky, the Next Cruise person may give you a cheap bottle of champagne. 

[smokeybandit]

3 minutes ago, orville99 said:

And if you're lucky, the Next Cruise person may give you a cheap bottle of champagne. 

Book on the first day of the cruise, yes.

[Ken at the beach]

29 minutes ago, orville99 said:

The only other advantages to booking on board besides what Ken stated are that prices for the booking may be lower the earlier you book

For most people waiting to book on board that would be a disadvantage since prices could rise by the time of your sailing negating andy OBC that you get for booking on board.

 

With Royal allowing you to reprice North American generated bookings (for my UK friends who like to point out that they can't reprice theirs) bookings there is no advantage to waiting to book once you know that you are going to book a cruise.

[orville99]

33 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Book on the first day of the cruise, yes.

We have even been known to move booked 😇cruises to new dates when the new itineraries come out when the same itinerary on a later date costs less (even with the change fees) than the existing booking. 

[Ken at the beach]

38 minutes ago, orville99 said:

We have even been known to move booked 😇cruises to new dates when the new itineraries come out when the same itinerary on a later date costs less (even with the change fees) than the existing booking. 

And if that happens within 60 days you can move the booking and they waive the change fees

[orville99]

1 hour ago, Ken at the beach said:

For most people waiting to book on board that would be a disadvantage since prices could rise by the time of your sailing negating any OBC that you get for booking on board.

So true. Every one of the cruises we booked on board have more than doubled in price since we originally booked them (we always book the entire 18 month schedule on our first cruise after the new itineraries are released). A few of them have more than tripled in price.😱

[Another_Critic]

Updated chart.

 

 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/NextCruise/19068801_NextCruise_BookNowBookLater

 

Edited Saturday at 03:41 PM by Another_Critic

[TripsYouMustDo]

One of the advantages of NextCruise/reduced $200 deposit is that the remainder can be paid with RCCL AARP gift certificates which can be purchased at 10% discount. Anybody (any age) can get AARP membership at $10-15/year. You can now get up to 25 gift cards per month. Anybody that cruises (most cruise lines) can and should buy discounted gift cards on AARP.

 

The RCCL AARP gift cards are pain to use. They can be used only if you book direct with RCCL (at least initially, can be transferred to a TA later) and can be applied only to the remainder of the balance after the required initial deposit is paid. Often initial deposit is large, leaving less balance that can be paid with those discounted gift certificates. Using the NextCruise deposit you have to pay only $200 at booking, and the rest of the balance can be covered with gift certificates.

 

We mostly cruise inside and often transatlantic. Unfortunately transatlantic are now considered "repositioning", and repositioning cruises get reduced OBC. So $25 OBC is kind of a moot point for us, but 10% discount (via AARP gift certificates) are significant savings. 

 

Funnily enough, RCCL booking person I spoke to yesterday when booking my NextCruise cruise said the same exact thing - "you are only getting $25 OBC, so I mostly look at this as a way to pay reduced deposit". So there you go.

 

That's for cheapskates such as myself of course. If you are cruising in suite on a 10+ night cruise, $600 OBC seems nice and significant. 

 

FWIW, I never actually book onboard. I always just purchase the $200 CruiseNext open-ended certificate while on the cruise and book within 60 days once I get home. Be careful though, they allow you to transfer to your TA only within 30 days of initial booking, and they consider the date you purchased your $200 NextCruise thing on board as the starting date of that 30-day transfer period, not the date on which you actually select your cruise. I got burnt by it earlier this year. Booked about 57 days after I purchased CruiseNext, and they told me I couldn't transfer because it was after 30 days since I purchased the NextCruise thing.

[soremekun]

Booking onboard (future cruise credit or a cruise) helps lessen end of cruise blues.

 

Instead of a future cruise count of x - 1, the number will stay the same or increase.

Edited Saturday at 05:19 PM by soremekun

[Ken at the beach]

7 minutes ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

The RCCL AARP gift cards are pain to use. They can be used only if you book direct with RCCL (at least initially, can be transferred to a TA later) and can be applied only to the remainder of the balance after the required initial deposit is paid. Often initial deposit is large, leaving less balance that can be paid with those discounted gift certificates. Using the NextCruise deposit you have to pay only $200 at booking, and the rest of the balance can be covered with gift certificates.

One other major restriction is that they cannot be combined with group rates which more often than not are more than 10% less than the posted rates

[TripsYouMustDo]

Just now, Ken at the beach said:

One other major restriction is that they cannot be combined with group rates which more often than not are more than 10% less than the posted rates

Thanks! Also can't be combined with casino bookings as well, I guess I should mention that. Basically definitely read all the fine print on AARP site before buying those 🙂 

[nelblu]

Big advantage of booking onboard besides the obc is the $100 pp deposit

[artvlay]

8 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

One of the advantages of NextCruise/reduced $200 deposit is that the remainder can be paid with RCCL AARP gift certificates which can be purchased at 10% discount. Anybody (any age) can get AARP membership at $10-15/year. You can now get up to 25 gift cards per month. Anybody that cruises (most cruise lines) can and should buy discounted gift cards on AARP.

 

The RCCL AARP gift cards are pain to use. They can be used only if you book direct with RCCL (at least initially, can be transferred to a TA later) and can be applied only to the remainder of the balance after the required initial deposit is paid. Often initial deposit is large, leaving less balance that can be paid with those discounted gift certificates. Using the NextCruise deposit you have to pay only $200 at booking, and the rest of the balance can be covered with gift certificates.

 

We mostly cruise inside and often transatlantic. Unfortunately transatlantic are now considered "repositioning", and repositioning cruises get reduced OBC. So $25 OBC is kind of a moot point for us, but 10% discount (via AARP gift certificates) are significant savings. 

 

Funnily enough, RCCL booking person I spoke to yesterday when booking my NextCruise cruise said the same exact thing - "you are only getting $25 OBC, so I mostly look at this as a way to pay reduced deposit". So there you go.

 

That's for cheapskates such as myself of course. If you are cruising in suite on a 10+ night cruise, $600 OBC seems nice and significant. 

 

FWIW, I never actually book onboard. I always just purchase the $200 CruiseNext open-ended certificate while on the cruise and book within 60 days once I get home. Be careful though, they allow you to transfer to your TA only within 30 days of initial booking, and they consider the date you purchased your $200 NextCruise thing on board as the starting date of that 30-day transfer period, not the date on which you actually select your cruise. I got burnt by it earlier this year. Booked about 57 days after I purchased CruiseNext, and they told me I couldn't transfer because it was after 30 days since I purchased the NextCruise thing.

Can you please explain how the AARP discount works.

[TripsYouMustDo]

13 hours ago, artvlay said:

Can you please explain how the AARP discount works.

Sure, it's simple 🙂 If you have AARP membership, you can purchase RCCL gift certificates at 10% discount. They have $100 and $500 certificates, priced at $90 and $450 respectively. So you are saving 10%.

 

For a list of all limitations (besides the ones already mentioned in this thread), please see find print (Terms & Conditions) on AARP web site (https://www.aarp.org/rewards/). You do need to have AARP membership (available to all for $10-15 annually, depending on their current promo). 

[ChittyChittyBangBang]

9 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

Sure, it's simple 🙂 If you have AARP membership, you can purchase RCCL gift certificates at 10% discount. They have $100 and $500 certificates, priced at $90 and $450 respectively. So you are saving 10%.

 

For a list of all limitations (besides the ones already mentioned in this thread), please see find print (Terms & Conditions) on AARP web site (https://www.aarp.org/rewards/). You do need to have AARP membership (available to all for $10-15 annually, depending on their current promo). 

Wow!  So how do you apply the gift cards to cruise balance.  Call RCCL and provide each gift card number and code?  Also how long does it take to receive gift cards from AARP?  Thank you!

[neverbeenhere]

Generally a few minutes. 

[ajtaylor29]

On 9/14/2024 at 12:25 PM, TripsYouMustDo said:

Thanks! Also can't be combined with casino bookings as well, I guess I should mention that. Basically definitely read all the fine print on AARP site before buying those 🙂 

I don't think this is correct...? We've just recently started using future cruise desk and pay the deposit to "reserve" a future cruise. Then, after our cruise when we get our casino offer we book our future cruise using the casino offer. 

We've been able to book our "free" cruise from the casino, including freeplay, and get the OBC from the future cruise booking.

Maybe i'm confused but i'm pretty sure that's how it's been working for us!!