Booking next Cruise while on Board? Worth it?

[FloatMe]

I am currently on board AOS and we have an appointment with the Next Cruise Desk & we have the ship and itinerary picked out. The current on board booking bonus may get us $150 OBC for booking a mini suite on Allure. Should I pull the trigger or see if our TA can do better? Any experience would be much appreciated.

[molly361]

You can still book onboard and get that OBC and then transfer your booking to a TA and get their perks, if any, as well.

[ryano]

I am currently on board AOS and we have an appointment with the Next Cruise Desk & we have the ship and itinerary picked out. The current on board booking bonus may get us $150 OBC for booking a mini suite on Allure. Should I pull the trigger or see if our TA can do better? Any experience would be much appreciated.

 

Is the reduced deposit an important factor to you? If not, I wouldnt waste a minute of my vacation and would just call and see what you can get through your TA after you get home. They can probably match the OBC Royal Caribbean was gonna give you and you wont have to waste even a minute of precious vacation time with a Loyalty Ambassador that acts like you are bothering them and taking up their time.

Edited April 9, 2015 by ryano

[marci22]

I would book now for the onboard booking bonus and then see what your TA can do for you in addition. You have 60 days to transfer the booking to your TA.

Edited April 9, 2015 by marci22

[jticarruthers]

The real benefit is the reduced deposit, if that isn't important to you then not a big deal.

 

$100 total deposit for 3 passengers on a 7 night cruise is a pretty good deposit reduction :)

[39august]

Has the on board booking deposit been reduced to $50 pp? If I decided to book several cruises, that might be beneficial.

[Robinhill]

The real benefit is the reduced deposit, if that isn't important to you then not a big deal.

 

$100 total deposit for 3 passengers on a 7 night cruise is a pretty good deposit reduction :)

 

Isn't the deposit $100 per passenger that you are booking onboard. How did you arrive at $100 total for all 3?

[FloatMe]

Has the on board booking deposit been reduced to $50 pp? If I decided to book several cruises, that might be beneficial.

Not quite that low, I beleive the total deposite is equal to the amount of OBC you get, which corresponds with the state room catagory. $150 total for the mini suite, I think.

[noodle]

There is a new program in place for 5 nights or longer deposit is per cabin not per person. Started early march. Deposit was $150 total for our family ocean view for 5 people. Nice to not lay out full deposits for the next year.

[molly361]

In the new age of RCL policies the onboard booking deposit depends on if you take the OBC on your current cruise, then I believe it is $50 per person, or if you take the OBC later it is the usual $100 per person.

 

Cruises of 5 nights or less RCL is running a 1/2 deposit so it would be $50 per person

[jticarruthers]

Isn't the deposit $100 per passenger that you are booking onboard. How did you arrive at $100 total for all 3?

 

Not sure what the mechanics of arriving at $100 were, the agent on board was messing around on her computer and came up with "Ok so that will be $100 OBC and a $100 deposit" and I decided not to ask any questions (similar to the website ... any changes might mess it all up so don't touch just get on the ship when the time comes)

 

As someone else said I think the new policy is OBC = Deposit but who knows.

[mchin]

We were on AOS last week and took advantage of the next cruise booking. Got the same offer as being offered (50% second and 50% off 3rd/4th) as well as $150 deposit. Got the OBC for booking on board then transferred the booking to our TA and got the additional OBC and perks.

[HiCSailor]

I've had that thought in recent days that a next cruise certificate might have been a good purchase on my last trip.

 

The thought of the deposit has probably prevented me from jumping on some potential deals. [emoji389]

[Brandywine_101]

There is a new program in place for 5 nights or longer deposit is per cabin not per person. Started early march. Deposit was $150 total for our family ocean view for 5 people. Nice to not lay out full deposits for the next year.

See, THIS is why I love CC! Thank you, I wanted to book another cruise for 2017 but that $250 deposit pp was holding me back. I'm going to go take a look at this now!

[griffy116]

We have booked while on board in the past because of the OBC. The deposit has never made a big difference since it really doesn't affect the bottom line on what you pay for the cruise. Unless you are booking multiple cruises, it's not worth it and unfortunately, we can't book multiple cruises. They've pretty much taken any incentive that benefited us, but maybe others might not feel that way. For what's it's worth to us, I wouldn't waste two minutes of my cruise with a LA for what they are now offering.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

The real benefit is the reduced deposit, if that isn't important to you then not a big deal.

 

$100 total deposit for 3 passengers on a 7 night cruise is a pretty good deposit reduction :)[/quote

 

Reduced deposit does not apply if you transfer to a TA. My TA gives great adders of 2 gratuities specialty dinning and additional onboard credit, but they also require a full deposit up front. Their final payment date is also about 30 days ahead of RCCL's. They don't hold the money so they are not making money on the float, so I am not sure why they require full deposit and early payment. I assume they get commission when final payment is made so that may be why they want full deposit and early final payment. All that being said we book on board to get the RCCL benefit for C&A and automatically have it transferred to our TA.

Edited April 10, 2015 by LeesSummitCruiser1
spelling

[BobbyD]

I believe it depends on the TA. We have booked while on board on numerous occasions, most recently our March cruise on the Adventure. We booked two inside cabins for an August sailing on the Grandeur to Bermuda. Deposit was $50/cabin. The Loyalty Ambassador noticed the TA we booked the Adventure cruise on and asked if we wanted it transferred to that TA and she did it on the spot. When I got home I called the TA to make sure it was all set and it was. My TA said that if we wanted to pay the additional funds to complete the deposit, they would put us with a group booking and give us an additional $50 OBC for a total of $200 per cabin! I would have to pay the money some time so it was an easy decision. My point is that we didn't have to pay the additional deposit money to keep the booking with my TA.

[Clarea]

 

Reduced deposit does not apply if you transfer to a TA. My TA gives great adders of 2 gratuities specialty dinning and additional onboard credit, but they also require a full deposit up front. Their final payment date is also about 30 days ahead of RCCL's. They don't hold the money so they are not making money on the float, so I am not sure why they require full deposit and early payment. I assume they get commission when final payment is made so that may be why they want full deposit and early final payment. All that being said we book on board to get the RCCL benefit for C&A and automatically have it transferred to our TA.

Reduced deposit may not apply if you transfer to a TA. We transfer to a TA all the time and get reduced deposit. However, if the TA wants to put us in a group booking, then we have to pay full deposit.

Edited April 10, 2015 by clarea

[jticarruthers]

The real benefit is the reduced deposit, if that isn't important to you then not a big deal.

 

$100 total deposit for 3 passengers on a 7 night cruise is a pretty good deposit reduction :)[/quote

 

Reduced deposit does not apply if you transfer to a TA. My TA gives great adders of 2 gratuities specialty dinning and additional onboard credit, but they also require a full deposit up front. Their final payment date is also about 30 days ahead of RCCL's. They don't hold the money so they are not making money on the float, so I am not sure why they require full deposit and early payment. I assume they get commission when final payment is made so that may be why they want full deposit and early final payment. All that being said we book on board to get the RCCL benefit for C&A and automatically have it transferred to our TA.

 

Depends on the TA, mine has never asked for additional deposit (and has already accepted the transfer of this $100 deposit in question) and gives me additional OBC for the reservation. Also has never asked for payment of the reservation ahead of the RCI final payment deadline.

[marci22]

Thank you, I wanted to book another cruise for 2017 but that $250 deposit pp was holding me back. I'm going to go take a look at this now!

 

This would be for an onboard booking, not a booking you do at home.

[whitshel]

We just got off navigator, booked 3 rooms, 9 people total, paid $300 total and got a $300 obc for the cruise we were on which paid our sea pass account so basically we paid nothing upfront for a cruise in 2017. I like the $100 deposit per room, beats $500 x 3 =$1500 tied up til 2017.

[steveru621]

We were on AOS last week and took advantage of the next cruise booking. Got the same offer as being offered (50% second and 50% off 3rd/4th) as well as $150 deposit. Got the OBC for booking on board then transferred the booking to our TA and got the additional OBC and perks.

 

Exactly the reason. I can't think of any reason not to book on-board.

[OzKruser]

We were on board Voyager and booked a med cruise. The price was $22.000 for three of us in a GS on Brilliance on the RCI website. On board with the special offers and discounts we got it for $15,000 plus reduced deposit which equalled our OBC which was $400. We transferred the booking to our travel agent and got a further $400 off as part of their discounts.

 

We checked the price with our TA first and they could not offer much better than the RCI website price.

Definitely worth it for us.

Edited April 11, 2015 by OzKruser

[scorpluvsdolphins]

If you are happy with the price, the cruise will be awesome.

I would have found a different TA, $400 on $15,000, no way. I guess I am blessed as my TA would have given me closer to $900 maybe $1000 OBC.

I can't wait to do a med cruise one day.

 

 

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[FloatMe]

Thanks everyone, booked Allure October, 2016[emoji13]