Pre-paid gratuities and OBC

We are looking at booking a cruise on RCCL thru a popular online "cruise" broker. They are offering FREE prepaid gratuities and the same OBC that RCCL is promoting. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on whether this is legit or will we just be burned in the end? Thanks in advance...

As you said, RCCL also has the free gratuities with oceanview and above sale going on now, so I presume it's legitimate and you would get the same deal either way. I booked with RCCL directly, and they've been great with honoring price adjustments on new promotions. If your instinct is that you might be burned by the broker, might as well go with RCCL directly for peace of mind. Although I'm sure others would tell you that they always use brokers/agents without a problem and wouldn't book through the CL.

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I often book thru a TA because they offer me extra OBC that RCCL does not. Many times I will book directly with RCCL and after transfer my booking to my TA. Normally if you deal with a well known TA you should have no problems with them and many times TA can offer better deals because the do what's called group bookings. I remember my last transatlantic cruise the TA offered me a balcony for the same price RCCL was offering me an interior cabin. The only thing you need to understand is once the booking is moved over/booked with the TA you must always deal with them for any changes or price drops...for that booking you can no longer speak with RCCL.

Thank you both for the feedback! We have been assured that the complimentary gratuities are and will be paid directly to RCCL by the booking site, and our OBC can be used to our discretion on the cruise! We have always just booked thru the actual cruise line, and not thru a booking site or TA, so this is all new to us. We have decided to move forward with our booking...and trust the information that we have been given :)

You can always check out their reviews on Goggle. If you see a pattern of similar negative reviews about this TA, it's Buyers Beware.

Definitely legit. Your TA can offer what they want to offer. You just need to understand what it is they are offering. Are they offering OBC above what the cruise line offers. On my last cruise, the cruise line offered OBC as did the TA who offered additional OBC. The OBC offered by the TA was refundable. The OBC offered by the cruise line is never refundable. It is a use it or lose it perk.

Of course using up my OBC has never been difficult. On my 24 day Cape Town to Buenos Aires cruise I had a total of $1850 in OBC. Nothing left at the end of the trip even though my gratuities were prepaid. On cruises where gratuities are not prepaid like my next one, they will come out of my OBC. Getting the best deal is all about understand the math.

Read the small print and notice the registration fee and cancellation charges that many charge.