booking a future cruise while on a cruise

[pcann]

What are the advantages to booking a future cruise while on a cruise? Do you need to have all the information in order to book the cruise - exact dates, place etc? Can you change to a TA if you find a cheaper price after you get back home?

[awatt]

Advantages include shipboard credit for the upcoming cruise,and sometimes stateroom upgrades.

 

You need to know the date and ship you want as well as who will be travelling,and pick your cabin.

 

This can then be transferred to your TA when you get home,as your TA may have a better price(ours did).

 

I have read that you can change the ship.date etc acterward and still retain the shipboard credit,but cannot verify this from personal experience.

[fkwok]

What are the advantages to booking a future cruise while on a cruise? Do you need to have all the information in order to book the cruise - exact dates, place etc? Can you change to a TA if you find a cheaper price after you get back home?

 

We sailed on the Dawn last August and we learned from the onboard sales person that if booked for the same week in the same cabin (which loved) we would pay $2500 for the 3 of us and receive a ship board credit. Not bad, but we usually don't plan a year in advance so we passed. Good thing b/c it would've been for this week and w/ Frances about to clobber South Florida this w/e......

 

We decided to book the same cruise for 9/5/04 and we got a price of $2400, but no credit. We actually tried to book for this week, but no triple cabins available. Our 7 yo school start date was pushed back a week and what a difference a week makes!

 

Overall, we lost $100 in credit, but we would've paid $100 more. Our cabin is way aft on deck 9. We liked our deck 8 forward cabin a lot better. Hopefully, this cruise won't be full of kids, but who knows. At least we might avoid the worst of Frances.

 

I would wait. It seems very tempting to book right there, but you can usually get a cabin about 90 days out at a better price.

 

Good luck.