Booking next cruise!

[DeAnna from Oregon]

Hi everyone, as a first time cruiser this has been a great resource for us, so thanks I’m advance for your comments and replies...My question is when booking our next cruise I’ve heard different things, for example, I’ve heard you get the best deals when booking your next cruise prior to disembarking, in contrast I’ve heard it’s always best to book with a knowledgeable travel agent to attain your best deals...Does anyone have any feedback or thoughts on this? Originally I was intending on booking prior to disembarking, we want to bring the kids for our next cruise!

[marco]

Maybe it depends on the line, but twice now (and on two different lines) the "deal" they were offering on board for a future cruise, which we did not book,  was matched by our TA a few months later.  IF you want to bring your kids next time, look for offerings from some lines that are "kids sail free". 

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, marco said:

Maybe it depends on the line, but twice now (and on two different lines) the "deal" they were offering on board for a future cruise, which we did not book,  was matched by our TA a few months later.  IF you want to bring your kids next time, look for offerings from some lines that are "kids sail free". 

 

Agree..it depends on cruise line, and somewhat on your availability. Sometimes deals on cruises a short distance in the future, but can you swing vacation time again in  3 or 6 months? Only once have we seen a great deal we could do, while on board (in 21 cruises). We don't expect to see great deals on board.

[leaveitallbehind]

This may vary by cruise line, but typically the only advantage to booking on board is with a reduced deposit required and some amount of OBC.  The promotions and resulting stateroom rates are the same as those offered to anyone at anytime, whether booked directly or through a travel agent.  And any booking made on board can be transferred later to a travel agent who may have additional perks available, typically originating from their commission.

Edited March 21, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[LHT28]

book onboard  then have the booking go to the TA 

[NantahalaCruiser]

20 hours ago, DeAnna from Oregon said:

Hi everyone, as a first time cruiser this has been a great resource for us, so thanks I’m advance for your comments and replies...My question is when booking our next cruise I’ve heard different things, for example, I’ve heard you get the best deals when booking your next cruise prior to disembarking, in contrast I’ve heard it’s always best to book with a knowledgeable travel agent to attain your best deals...Does anyone have any feedback or thoughts on this? Originally I was intending on booking prior to disembarking, we want to bring the kids for our next cruise!

Hi DeAnna - glad you are enjoying CruiseCritic. Let me comment on three questions that are often asked about bookings:

 

1 - When is the best time to make a booking?

When making a booking in the US with any mainstream cruise line, if you book prior to the final payment date (often about 90 days prior to the departure date) then your reservation price will not be increased if the offer price goes up. Yet if the offer price goes down you can have your reservation repriced at the lower price. So when you book prior to final payment date you are guaranteed that you will receive the lowest available price between then and final payment date (assuming that you continue to track the cruise offer price.) Thus to get the lowest price it is best to book as soon as you have identified a cruise that you are interested in - unless you wish to book after final payment date hoping that prices will drop after final payment date.

 

2 - Is booking on-board beneficial?

Many cruise lines offer some additional benefit for booking on-board. Celebrity, for example, offers additional bonus OBC for booking on-board and occasionally an extra perk such as free gratuities while pricing the cruise at the same exact fare that is available on-shore. My wife and I usually make an on-board booking - either for a cruise that we know we are interested in or for a placeholder cruise far in advance that we can later change to another cruise of actual interest at sometime in the future. In either case our on-board booking is at least 18 months in advance of the scheduled departure to garnish the lowest available price prior to final payment date. And Celebrity allows us to transfer the reservation to a TA within about 60 days after the on-board booking - which gives us time to shop around for the best available TA benefits.

 

An associated question is "Does it pay to wait to book until on-board?" The upside to waiting is obtaining the on-board booking benefit; the downside to waiting is that prices may go up during the waiting period. So you might wish to hedge your bets by booking now with your TA of choice. If prices go up, keep the reservation and forget about booking on-board. If prices stay even or go down, cancel the reservation right before boarding or even after boarding. (If you wait to cancel it on-board, you will probably have to cancel it yourself using the on-board internet since most on-board future cruise sales agents are not authorized to do so.)

 

3 - Which is better - booking directly with a cruise line or booking through a TA (including transferring an on-board booking to a TA)?

There seem to be two schools of thought here on CruiseCritic. Those like myself enjoy receiving a TA benefit equal to anywhere from 7% to 11% of the cruise fare (not including fees and taxes). Others say that they wish to "keep control of their reservation" by booking directly with the cruise line and choose to forgo the TA benefit. My personal opinion is that I have sufficient control booking through a reputable TA that has no extra fees for making changes to reservations or cancelling a reservation and is available 7 days/week and at least 12 hours per day. If I see a price drop online at say 1:00 am, with most cruise lines I can lock in the price drop by placing an on-line 24-hour hold and call my TA the following morning to have my reservation re-priced.

 

Hope this has been helpful. Enjoy your cruise.

Edited March 22, 2019 by NantahalaCruiser

[KmomChicago]

In my experience I have done better booking online than onboard ship. With Carnival I just use their website but for other lines I have found better deals with 3rd party online cruise travel agents. I have the patience to plug in a lot of different dates, embarkation ports and other details to price out many different options and find the best deals before choosing and we are not really loyal to one cruise brand.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We do sometimes by future cruise credits while on board because of the perks--mostly OBC-- associated with that.  So far have not found any great prices for actually booking a cruise while on board.  We shop around and usually find much better prices on our own at a later date.

[leaveitallbehind]

2 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

We do sometimes by future cruise credits while on board because of the perks--mostly OBC-- associated with that.  So far have not found any great prices for actually booking a cruise while on board.  We shop around and usually find much better prices on our own at a later date.

As I mentioned previously, the stateroom rates offered on board would typically be the same as could be found with non on-board bookings as the promotions offered on board are the same as those available to anyone at that time. I'm not aware of special stateroom rates available only to on board bookings.   The typical benefit is with reduced deposits and OBC as you mention.

[MicCanberra]

We do our research on a few possible cruises and as such we have booked on board but only when they can match or better a deal we have off the ship. If the cannot, we book once we are off.

[lenquixote66]

 We almost always book on board. We had a great TA who was also a friend and he was our TA until he retired. Since then,I believe it was 2002,we have used about 15 different TA's.

Roy if you are reading this ,you are not too old to still be a TA,we miss you.