Booking onboard questions

[magnumcoog]

Try again, I have not had any luck posting this thread, but it worked on the Test Board.

 

 

1. Is the deposit still $100 per person?

 

2. If 1 is yes, what are the other perks?

 

3. Is the deposit good for 2 years, if not how long?

 

4. How long before you actually must book the next cruise, and do the perks still last for the entire time?

 

5. I assume you can just book an open booking not applicable to any particular ship or sailing?

 

6. Anything else I have missed?

 

Thanks

[Toto2Kansas]

Yes to almost all of your questions. The booking fee is still $100 pp. The perks are that you will receive shipboard credit for the sailing, and the $100 pp is the deposit no matter which cruise or what the actual deposit is, the shipboard credit depends on the length of cruise and the category cabin you book. Princess has changed the time that the open/onboard booking has to be used to 4 years. You do not loose any of the shipboard credit perk in that time frame. One thing you didn't mention is that this booking, is fully refundable as long as you cancel within the alloted timeframe. If you book a ghost booking (no specific cruise or date) then it is totally refundable within the 4 years that you have to use it.

Hope that helps.

[deubank]

The above post is completely correct. To give the details on the shipboard credit you get...

7 - 9 Days $25pp Inside/$50pp Outside

10-15 Days $75pp Inside/$100pp Outside

16+ Days $125pp Inside/$150pp Outside

[magnumcoog]

Is it possible to book a 4th passenger and not give a name? Or if I give a name, can it be changed later?

 

I ask this just in case we take a friend of my daughter.

[Baxter]

The only thing I will add is that the $100 deposit assumes you are living in the US and have booked through a US travel agaent. As Canadians we got in to quite a battle because the deposit was $141 (we were battling principle, not the actual money). We were informed (rather rudely) that Princess sets different deposit amounts based on country, so the Canadians paid $141, those from England another amount, etc. She insisted that it wasn't related to currency differences but just "a policy". I was trying to explain that it had to be related to the currency difference because when we did a previous future booking, the amount was higher (and our dollar weaker). She said they didn't operated that way.

 

 

When we indicated that we would be booking through a US travel agent for the next cruise, she said that because we used a Canadian travel agent and paid in Canadian funds, we had to pay the $141. Regardless of the amount, we think the shipboard credit is worth it.

[bobg]

I sadly report that you can no longer combine the Carnival Corporation stockholder shipboard credits with the credits for onboard booking. Until recently you could "double dip". Now you just get the larger of the two. Unfortunately there are only a few situations where the stockholder credit is slightly higher (< 6 days and 7 to 9 days inside cabin).

 

However, you can combine the credits for onboard booking with any credits that your agent gives you.

 

Stockholder credits are not combinable with agent credits, so this is not an incentive to be a stockholder.

 

Bob

[magnumcoog]

Can you book a 4th passenger without giving a name, or can you book a 4th passenger give a name and change later? 4th passenger would not be on the cruise when I do the onboard booking.

[merela]

This was on the Diamond last August. I had such a difficult time with the woman in charge of the Future Cruise desk. She was the one who said I needed $200 to book a future cabin. My sister is Canadian and she should have been charged $137 CDN (cdn $ was weaker then), but instead, the woman charged her US$137. My sister didn't realize this until she tried to book the next cruise. So watch your receipts when you do open booking.

 

We were able to call the Princess' Yield Management desk and have them take away the onboard credit ($50 for the 2 of us) from open booking and change it to shareholder's credit ($100) for our last cruise. They only changed this un-combinable rule last October.

 

HTH.

[Lynda90]

Can you book a 4th passenger without giving a name, or can you book a 4th passenger give a name and change later? 4th passenger would not be on the cruise when I do the onboard booking.

You Must have the name of the passenger when you book. You may change it later for a $50 fee.

[jerseygirl3]

Some people have give you erroneous information. Hopefully I can clarify some things for you.

 

First, the deposit is $100 pp. However, you can just put down $100 per cabin with the second passenger to be named later. In other words, a couple can put down $100 each and do two onboard bookings and still be out only $200. When the second passenger is later named, they too only have to put down a $100 deposit when they eventually book.

 

Secondly, you don't have to name the ship/date/itinerary, etc. You can do an open booking. You don't have to actually take the cruise within the next 4 years, you just have to book within 4 years.

 

You can cancel your open booking at any time within those 4 years and get a complete refund.

 

The shipboard credits, as posted by Deubank, are correct.

 

Hope this helps.

[Crazsea]

Don't forget to get the SHARE THE WEALTH coupons that you are entitled to.

[merela]

Lots of good thread on this board, just do a search on "open booking" or "future booking" or "srphnx", you'll get in depth discussions of booking on board.

 

As I understand it, you only need the booking number from one future booking, i.e. $100 to book a cabin. You'll get on board credit for one person, but when you add the name of the second person, that person will also get the on-board credit. You don't need an open booking number for that second person to get the on board credit for the second person. I've done this 5 times now for myself and my relatives.

 

 

HTH.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Did the future booking on the Diamond Princess 1/14/05. Princess price for the cruise we wanted seemed kind of high so we did an "open booking". When I got home I did my research and went with XYZ travel agency. No problem getting the deposit credit and cruise credit applied to the cruise.

[Lynda90]

Some people have give you erroneous information. Hopefully I can clarify some things for you.

I hope you are not referring to my answer. The answer I gave was absolutely correct. Once you actually book the cruise, you need to give all names of those on the booking. You cannot book a specific cruise and name one or more of the people at a later date. I was not referring to an open future booking.

[GrammaZ]

We booked for a future cruise while on the Grand in December. We are Canadians and only had to pay the $100 US each (which for us added the conversion to approximately $125 CDN each). We told the representative that we planned to use an US online agent or Princess direct and she told us that was no problem. So for us it wasn't any different that for US cruisers.

[magnumcoog]

Thanks all, great information.

[DoreenD]

We paid $200 for 2 onboard bookings for a future cruise. I had already done the research on the Coral Princess Christmas in Panama for 2005 and saw that the rates I had found were much better than Princess's price. When we got home we transferred both future cruise bookings to the 12/24 Coral Princess. We added my DD as the third person and did not have to put forward anymore deposit. We received $150 onboard credit ($75 X 2 insided cabin 10 night cruise) and $50 onboard credit from my TA. We'll probably do it again on the next cruise as it all worked out so well.

[dbeckett]

What are they and how do you get them?

[DoreenD]

They are coupons that are given to you when you book a cruise or future cruise onboard. It allows for you to extend your "onboard booking deal" to someone else to cruise with you!