What's the least OBC you will go for?

I've been checking Carnival's website everyday to check for price drops. Today it looks like there is about a $90 difference in the rate. What is the minimum price you will go after? Would this be worth it to you?

Depends upon what you mean:

- If you mean, you've already booked a cruise and the price has dropped; how much money would have to be involved to motivate you to pick up the phone and call for a price drop . . . the answer is one dollar. If I've already committed myself to going on the cruise, I would call for ANY price drop, no matter how small.

- On the other hand, if you mean you're thinking about booking a cruise but haven't yet actually made reservations, haven't actually checked the calendar, coordinated with the spouse, made plans for the vacation . . . then the answer would be $100. $25 or $50 would not be enough to push me to make a decision to choose this ship over that ship or this itinerary over that itinerary. $100 would make me think, "Okay, this particular cruise is a good value. I'm going to go ahead and book."

Quick question regarding OBC, I booked through a very popular website for cruising and part of the promotion was $200 OBC. Now if I do not spend all of that $$, where does it go. I also got free gratuities so that will not go towards it. Thanks

Quick question regarding OBC, I booked through a very popular website for cruising and part of the promotion was $200 OBC. Now if I do not spend all of that $$, where does it go. I also got free gratuities so that will not go towards it. Thanks

Don't worry, you will use that $200 :D

Don't worry, you will use that $200 :D

but just being curious, what would happen if someone does not use it. I know I will probably easily triple it.

but just being curious, what would happen if someone does not use it. I know I will probably easily triple it.

Most OBC's are use it or lose it,

depends on where the OBC came from it may be an incentive from the cruise line or a credit from the TA

We had a few $ left & ask they donate it to the crew fund

How do you check to see if a cruise has dropped in price? As you can see I'm booked on Carnival and have not been able to check to see if the price has changed.

I am thinking of handing over my Carnival booking to a TA. Is this wise to do? The TA is a friend and I was told by Carnival that I can give my TA the booking, as long as I do it before the final payment.

Thanks for your input on my problems.

Not sure what OBC is, some sort of food/drink discount? but I noticed that cruises as well as flights get more expensive every time you check websites again. There is some way via cookies or what not that it memorizes your searches and adjusts accordingly, makes you think cruises are getting more expensive and that makes you buy faster. If you check the same webpages, same searches from a differernt computer/ different IP address the cruise costs less again.

but just being curious, what would happen if someone does not use it. I know I will probably easily triple it.

I'm a first time cruiser going on Royal Caribbean with both a "On board credit" and and "On board gift certificate". I asked the RCI rep what the difference was between the two and she said there really wasn't much, as they can be applied to the same types of charges. However, she said that if we did not use all of the On board credit, that would be refunded back to us. If we don't use the on board gift certificate, we will lose it.

I just received a $400 adjustment to my cruise price!! :D

All I did was check and saw the same cruise for less and called Carnival.

I just received a $400 adjustment to my cruise price!! :D

All I did was check and saw the same cruise for less and called Carnival.

Hi, can you please explain, where did you check? I'm not sure how to do this. Thanks so much for information.

I asked the same question and fiddled around, until I answered my own question. I hope this helps you!

I went to the Carnival web-site and did a mock cruise purchase for the exact cabins and exact cruise ship and date, and the total came up $400 less, than what I paid. Stop before you really buy the cruise and call Carnival. The Carnival person made an adjustment and emailed me the new figures. I am sooo HAPPY! :D

Has anyone transferred their cruise booking out from Carnival and given it to a TA? I was told I could hand over my booked cruise to a TA. (The TA is a friend.) I hope everything stays the same and it won't impact me in anyway.

I asked the same question and fiddled around, until I answered my own question. I hope this helps you!

I went to the Carnival web-site and did a mock cruise purchase for the exact cabins and exact cruise ship and date, and the total came up $400 less, than what I paid. Stop before you really buy the cruise and call Carnival. The Carnival person made an adjustment and emailed me the new figures. I am sooo HAPPY! :D

That's fascinating! Thank you so much for this information!

This is an oldie but even after final payment, keep checking prices online. My price for an oceanview dropped $50 per person. Not much I know and can't get a price adjustment but did call TA I booked with and he got us an upgraded room on a better deck at no charge. It's worth asking nicely for this and if we didn't get an upgrade we would still be happy to be going on a cruise!

Not sure what OBC is, some sort of food/drink discount? but I noticed that cruises as well as flights get more expensive every time you check websites again. There is some way via cookies or what not that it memorizes your searches and adjusts accordingly, makes you think cruises are getting more expensive and that makes you buy faster.

I have never had this experience. I don't think there is any cookie tracking that makes the prices go up as you look at the cruise over and over again. I have seen prices fluctuate several times within a day, up and down. But nothing with it going up, up, up depending on how many times I look at the site.

I checked the price over and over for several weeks and it kept going down. Never up.

You will spend more than that in gratuities, don't worry about having leftover OBC. This next part comes from another thread: "That being said, you can always go to the casino and get chips charged to your on board account and then trade them back for cash (just avoid the flashing lights and other lures trying to get you to use the chips). There is a 3% charge (some report the charge is now 5% for 2012) if you choose this method.

I asked the same question and fiddled around, until I answered my own question. I hope this helps you!

I went to the Carnival web-site and did a mock cruise purchase for the exact cabins and exact cruise ship and date, and the total came up $400 less, than what I paid. Stop before you really buy the cruise and call Carnival. The Carnival person made an adjustment and emailed me the new figures. I am sooo HAPPY! :D

Has anyone transferred their cruise booking out from Carnival and given it to a TA? I was told I could hand over my booked cruise to a TA. (The TA is a friend.) I hope everything stays the same and it won't impact me in anyway.

You should have no problem transferring your booking to a TA. Your TA will need your booking # and will do the rest.

As far as whether it is an advantage over keeping your booking with the cruise line - I personally think so based on some personal experiences. I prefer to work with a TA as they can be the go-between when there are difficulties with the cruise line or price drops after final payment (can get you OBC, maybe).

The amount varies based on the total cruise fare.

Keith

Quick question regarding OBC, I booked through a very popular website for cruising and part of the promotion was $200 OBC. Now if I do not spend all of that $$, where does it go. I also got free gratuities so that will not go towards it. Thanks

Sounds like you got a great deal! It must not have been a short or inexpensive cruise.

50$ and up I would call...

For those of you on Carnival who had significant OBC from price drops, how the heck does that happen?? :confused: I've signed up under Early Saver for my past two cruises. The first one was a 7 day cruise, and we ended up with around $70 OBC once all was said and done during the year and a half we booked and paid in full in advance, which I thought was wonderful! This cruise I'll be taking in October has hardly dropped, we have gotten an entire $9 between the four of us in my room over the past year and a half or so that we've been booked and fully paid :eek:. This one is a 5 day cruise.

Are the ones that people are ending up with $400+ longer cruises or something? As it stands right now, for a balcony room on our 5 day cruise it's $299/person. We paid $304/person... which is strange because I think we should have actually gotten $20, but I guess they factor in that two guests pay more than the other two guests in their heads? I dunno how that really works other than they just decided to give us $9 lol.

Anyway- I feel like for a 5 day cruise, that price won't really get much cheaper, $299 for a balcony is pretty darn good. But am I wrong in thinking that? Do these cruises ever go so low that we could potentially end up with a couple hundred dollars in OBC?

Try using a TA...

At best, OBC is the same as an up-front price deduction.

At worse, I prefer the outright price reduction (no strings attached).

Hence, I typically don't get OBC when I book, but I do get really good prices (I think)

We've never gotten a price drop obc, but an obc from the TA. Last cruise was $100.

Next one, we should have (if they didn't screw up) $200 from Disney for booking on board, and $100 from TA plus a $25 gc from TA. PLUS a $100 gc from Disney Visa for signing up for the Visa. I'll use the actual points from the visa towards the cruise.

So, $100 obc is the least I'll do on a 7 day cruise.

(does Disney ever price drop?)