UK/ European cruisers new onboard booking offer.

[harz99]

The newly introduced Global onboard booking offer at last allows us to book under North American conditions with freedom to amend/cancel bookings without penalty subject to being before the 60/75/90 day cutoffs.

Briefly, you book on board at a reduced deposit then get that same amount back on your CURRENT cruise as OBC to offset your shipboard account. Deposit is then non refundable as you've already had it back. So nothing to stop you cancelling at no penalty (but remember the 60/75/90 day deadlines), or amending the booked stateroom or cruise as many times as you want. Best of all you can still use a UK travel agent and pay in GBP. We just did this on Radiance, booking a Junior Suite on Allure for 7 nights in October 2016 for $100 deposit which we got straight back as OBC.

[Jeannie333333]

wow, thats interesting....but as yet I have never managed to book on board because the cruise I have been waiting for comes out when we are not cruising !!

 

Might have to re-assess! Thanks for the info

 

:)

[harz99]

wow, thats interesting....but as yet I have never managed to book on board because the cruise I have been waiting for comes out when we are not cruising !!

 

Might have to re-assess! Thanks for the info

 

:)

 

Simply make a booking for as far out on ANY cruise as you can and change it later when the new itineraries are out!

[heatherb1958]

That is very interesting info., in fact I'll say WOW!

Do you possibly have a link to anything official?

[Clarea]

Simply make a booking for as far out on ANY cruise as you can and change it later when the new itineraries are out!

Do you get to keep any promotional OBC from booking on board when you change the ship or sail date?

[Elizanessie]

That is very interesting info., in fact I'll say WOW!

Do you possibly have a link to anything official?

 

I was just checking the RCCL UK website for further info but cannot as yet find anything about it. :confused:

[heatherb1958]

Do you get to keep any promotional OBC from booking on board when you change the ship or sail date?

 

Hi Bob, reading the OP's post my understanding is you are in effect getting the OBC in advance on your current cruise. I doubt it would be given twice.

Seems to me that with the changes RCI made with NCC take up dropped off big style .

This new system would work for me.

Next question - if you have Shareholder OBC on your current cruise is it combinable with the additional OBC for the new open booking ? ;):D:D

[Clarea]

Hi Bob, reading the OP's post my understanding is you are in effect getting the OBC in advance on your current cruise. I doubt it would be given twice.

Seems to me that with the changes RCI made with NCC take up dropped off big style .

This new system would work for me.

Next question - if you have Shareholder OBC on your current cruise is it combinable with the additional OBC for the new open booking ? ;):D:D

We (US/Canadian rules) are not allowed to combine shareholder OBC with any other Royal OBC or discount.

Edited March 13, 2015 by clarea

[little britain]

The newly introduced Global onboard booking offer at last allows us to book under North American conditions with freedom to amend/cancel bookings without penalty subject to being before the 60/75/90 day cutoffs.

Briefly, you book on board at a reduced deposit then get that same amount back on your CURRENT cruise as OBC to offset your shipboard account. Deposit is then non refundable as you've already had it back. So nothing to stop you cancelling at no penalty (but remember the 60/75/90 day deadlines), or amending the booked stateroom or cruise as many times as you want. Best of all you can still use a UK travel agent and pay in GBP. We just did this on Radiance, booking a Junior Suite on Allure for 7 nights in October 2016 for $100 deposit which we got straight back as OBC.

 

Thumbs up from me - but would like to see this in official on a website before I get too excited!

Questions like is the OBC combinable with the balcony discount for example?

And how is the booking flagged as being one with these special T&Cs so you don't have to get into a fight every time you want to swap cabin # with out penalty?

[BARNET]

Early today I was able to log on to the USA RCCL web site and go through a mock booking, where in the pass it has always directed me back to the UK site,

so wondering if booking on line will be the same as booking on-board.

[heatherb1958]

We (US/Canadian rules) are not allowed to combine shareholder OBC with any other Royal OBC or discount.

 

Sorry Bob, The smiley faces and wink obviously did not translate. I do know Shareholders doesn't combine unless you book through Guatamala , that is a different story;)

 

Scenario - I am sailing happily on the ship spending my Shareholders OBC , visit the Future cruise person and book something under this new programme. Would I get the Open cruise converted OBC added to my current sailing?

Edited March 13, 2015 by heatherb1958

[Gingerbint]

Sounds similar to what we did on Celebrity last summer.

 

Whilst on board we booked another cruise for 2016 and we received a credit to our on board account on the current cruise we were on. Not sure if it was the full deposit amount. I think it varied dependant on type/length of cruise booked.

Still it was kinda money for nothing as we booked a cruise we wanted to do, got a drinks package deal included and some money back to spend on our current cruise. :D

 

Once home we then had to change the dates of the cruise and we're able to do that. We did have an onboard upgrade offer to the next available cabin grade so we booked an A2 and got an A1 but on changing the dates we seemed to loose that as you could hear the person on the phone scratching their head, but not too much an issue for us as we preferred the locations of the A1's cabins anyway!:rolleyes:

Good to hear they may be bringing it over to Royal too.

[Clarea]

...Scenario - I am sailing happily on the ship spending my Shareholders OBC , visit the Future cruise person and book something under this new programme. Would I get the Open cruise converted OBC added to my current sailing?

Not sure how the UK programs work, but here the OBC for booking on board is only for the future cruise, not for the current cruise.

[Bobal]

Hi Bob, reading the OP's post my understanding is you are in effect getting the OBC in advance on your current cruise. I doubt it would be given twice.

 

I'm a bit confused as the way I'm reading it you get the deposit back as OBC on the ship where you make the booking, which means if you change in the future you won't lose your deposit as you'll have already spent it :)

 

However I think what Heather is saying above is that you get the OBC, which is applicable for booking onboard, applied to the current sailing. This would be in line with what Celebrity are now doing, as we booked a future cruise onboard a Celebrity ship a couple of weeks ago and had the OBC applied to the sailing we were on when we booked it.

 

So which is it? The deposit or the OBC which comes for booking a future cruise? If it's the OBC then presumably any changes would mean we could still lose our deposit :confused:

 

Wow, hope that makes sense :rolleyes:

[heatherb1958]

I'm a bit confused as the way I'm reading it you get the deposit back as OBC on the ship where you make the booking, which means if you change in the future you won't lose your deposit as you'll have already spent it :)

 

However I think what Heather is saying above is that you get the OBC, which is applicable for booking onboard, applied to the current sailing. This would be in line with what Celebrity are now doing, as we booked a future cruise onboard a Celebrity ship a couple of weeks ago and had the OBC applied to the sailing we were on when we booked it.

 

So which is it? The deposit or the OBC which comes for booking a future cruise? If it's the OBC then presumably any changes would mean we could still lose our deposit :confused:

 

Wow, hope that makes sense :rolleyes:

 

Thanks Ann.

All very confusing .

We are on a ship in 14 days time, no doubt we will be bombarded with flyers onboard .:)

[Missus Makkem]

Must be in the pipeline as yesterday we cancelled and booked another but we lost our deposit all together.

And the small amount of OBC that we had.

All done through RCI

[Bobal]

Thanks Ann.

All very confusing .

We are on a ship in 14 days time, no doubt we will be bombarded with flyers onboard .:)

 

Hello Heather (and John)

 

Be sure to come back and let us know :)

[icsys]

The newly introduced Global onboard booking offer at last allows us to book under North American conditions with freedom to amend/cancel bookings without penalty subject to being before the 60/75/90 day cutoffs.

Briefly, you book on board at a reduced deposit then get that same amount back on your CURRENT cruise as OBC to offset your shipboard account. Deposit is then non refundable as you've already had it back. So nothing to stop you cancelling at no penalty (but remember the 60/75/90 day deadlines), or amending the booked stateroom or cruise as many times as you want. Best of all you can still use a UK travel agent and pay in GBP. We just did this on Radiance, booking a Junior Suite on Allure for 7 nights in October 2016 for $100 deposit which we got straight back as OBC.

 

Sounds good.

 

If I am understanding correctly, you make a future cruise booking onboard, you now get the deposit you have just paid back as OBC to your SeaPass account on the current cruise?

 

Of course this can only work if booking your next cruise onboard.

 

Do you still get the Bonus OBC applied to your future booking? ($25 for 3-5n, $100 for 6-9n, $150 for 10-14n and $200 for 15n+)

 

As you have already taken advantage of this offer, it is obviously correct.

But, unfortunately, this is RCI, I will believe it when I see something official in writing.

[little britain]

Must be in the pipeline as yesterday we cancelled and booked another but we lost our deposit all together.

And the small amount of OBC that we had.

All done through RCI

 

But Pineapples can change ship/date without penalty. Or have they changed that???

[harz99]

Sounds good.

 

If I am understanding correctly, you make a future cruise booking onboard, you now get the deposit you have just paid back as OBC to your SeaPass account on the current cruise?

 

Of course this can only work if booking your next cruise onboard.

 

Do you still get the Bonus OBC applied to your future booking? ($25 for 3-5n, $100 for 6-9n, $150 for 10-14n and $200 for 15n+)

 

As you have already taken advantage of this offer, it is obviously correct.

But, unfortunately, this is RCI, I will believe it when I see something official in writing.

 

No future OBC as you've had it already. I think it was March 10th the New Global onboard booking offer started. The future cruise managers had a telephone conference about it and then received the full details via email. On Radiance Diana Junea showed me all the info and went through it all with me.

The future cruise people on every ship should all have the same info, but as far as I am aware there are no flyers yet. When Celebrity introduced something similar a year or so ago there was also little info except that the ships personnel put out, and yes I have been able to change bookings already made with them under that offer as well.

[harz99]

Thanks Ann.

All very confusing .

We are on a ship in 14 days time, no doubt we will be bombarded with flyers onboard .:)

 

You may find you need to ask rather than be bombarded regarding this particular offer.

[harz99]

Must be in the pipeline as yesterday we cancelled and booked another but we lost our deposit all together.

And the small amount of OBC that we had.

All done through RCI

 

Yep, been there and done that earlier this year. That's why I posted this heads up, because it's a big deal for us in Europe!

[heatherb1958]

You may find you need to ask rather than be bombarded regarding this particular offer.

 

Thank you for the updates.

Diana is one of our favourite LAs , we met her on Brilliance several times .

I will check it out when we board in less than 2 weeks:)

[noodle]

Was this offer only for UK/European residents. We are on Indy on the 21st and we are considering booking for 2016. Curious if this will be available to US residents.

[harz99]

Was this offer only for UK/European residents. We are on Indy on the 21st and we are considering booking for 2016. Curious if this will be available to US residents.

 

Well it's called "Global" and the info did talk about all nationalities now being treated under the North American T&Cs so I would guess so - ask onboard I guess.