Is booking your next cruise while you're on board a bargain?

My wife and I will be taking our first cruise in September on the CP. I've read in the forums that alot of folks book their next cruise while on board. Do you save much by booking then? Can we book then for any princess ship and sailing at that time? Would appreciate any replies. Thanks :)

DB&JB,

 

You can book a future cruise onboard for a specific cruise or for any cruise within the next 4 years. So the deal is this on the "any cruise" option - you put down $100 per person now, and this shows up on your account until you use it. Then you get a shipboard credit on that next cruise. The amount depends on whether an inside or outside cabin is booked, and on the length of the cruise. For a 10-15 day cruise, outside cabin the onboard credit is $100 per person.

 

That's like prepayment of tips - not a bad situation, and it means a little less cash out at the end of your cruise. The future cruise was also a separate transaction on our credit card and not part of the onboard tab for the current cruise. It also reduces the required deposit you need make on a future cruise to $100 rather than some percentage of the total - if you book well in advance. (We tend to book at the last minute.)

 

We booked a future cruise last May then exercised it in December with no problems at all. It actually helped us decide on going on that next cruise - after all, we'd already pre-payed for part of the bill. And that's probably the reason Princess started the future booking deals. :) And guess what - we've now booked a future cruise again, which has me dreaming of where to go next...

 

Not bad marketing on their part.

Oh, if you plan on cruising again in the next four years you can't beat booking an open booking onboard. Your $100 pp deposit is for any cruise, any price, any length on any Princess ship. Plus you will get some or most of it back in shipboard credits when you do take your cruise. (this will all depend on the length of sailing and type of cabin you book as there are times the shipboard credit can be larger than the deposit amount).

Put $100 down and you get $50 or more than that back for longer cruises as a cabin credit. You can flag your deposit as only available for your T.A. or you can designate Princess as your T.A. which lets you book with any T.A. or with Princess. You can pick your actual cruise anytime in the next three or four years and pay whatever price you think is right. If you don't use your booked on board deposit you can always get your deposit back at the end of the waiting period. Putting down a booking on board deposit is all the deposit you will ever need for booking. For two in a cabin Princess needs $200 BUT the second hundred dollars doesn't have to be a booked on board $100. That $100 can be charged to your credit card when you actually book and both passengers get a cabin credit.

 

Many of us have two or more booking on board credits in the bank at any one time and I've heard that Princess doesn't enforce the $100 deposit for the second passenger and may still give that passenger the on board credit. That can be risky as Princess can cancel your cruise for lack of a sufficient deposit for your second passenger.

 

BTW: They recently quit passing out the Friends and Family offers at the future cruise desk.

Hi All, Thanks for the info. I'm sure I'll be tempted to sign up while we're on our cruise. DB

We've done it 3-4 times and I can't see any downside to it. One piece of advice: the farther you get into your cruise, the busier the future booking office gets -- so if you know you are going to do it, do it early.

I would like to echo what bjboothman just posted. Try to book early in the cruise. On our last cruise, we went by the Future Cruise Desk several times early in the cruise to pick up information. The attendant was usually alone or just had one customer. Later, on the last full day of the cruise I went to the desk to book our future cruise and it was a huge line. I tried several times during the day....always a line. I finally waited in the line and got to the booking agent after about an hour of waiting....and that was only because two couples in front of me finally gave up and left the line.

 

So my advice is book early in the cruise. If you haven't made up your mind about the exact cruise you want, just book 'any future cruise' and specify which cruise later.

Here is another tip if the desk is busy, you can pick up a form and fill it out with your info and drop it in the box at the future cruise desk, you will get a confirmation delivered to your cabin that evening.............................also, speaking of doing things early, get a copy of your cruise folio the next to last afternoon of your cruise and check it for any issues then, it seems everyone waits until the last day on that too.

Oh ya, a great reason to book on board, the deposit. We booked two open trips on board in Sept '03, have used one have one open, total deposit 400 bucks. We did not book anything while on our Celebrity cruise, deposits for future trips 1800 bucks!

I have a question about pre-booking a future cruise while you are onboard. Many times I find last minute special cruise prices that are greatly discounted but are for "new bookings only". If I pre-book a cruise while on board and do not designate a TA, when I transfer it to a travel agent, will that count as a pre-booked cruise or a new booking? Thanks for any help you can give.

If you place an 'open booking' while onboard in which you will choose the ship and sailing date at a later time, then if you find a good deal it would be considered a new booking at that time.

So the answer to your question is that the booking only actually begins when you assign it to a specific ship on a specific date!

I guess I'm still alittle confused on this. We will be cruising on FOS Dec 2006 and plan on taking an Alaska cruise the following year Aug 2007. So when on board FOS, we should sign up for the Alaska cruise and place our deposit down (which should be around $100pp or $200pp (verses the normal $250pp)? Then when we decide which ship we want, just call them and they will make the reservation for us and we don't need any more money down until final payment? Plus we'll get on board credit of $100.00?

 

Sorry just trying to understant this alittle better to explain it to my DH. What is the real benefit of signing up on board the ship? The smaller deposit and ship credit for the next cruise?

 

Thank you for being so patient and helpful to me:)

It certainly is a bargain.

 

It's a win/win situation, for everyone.

 

I always buy at least 1 or 2 Future Cruise Credits while onboard.

 

 

Minette

I guess I'm still alittle confused on this. We will be cruising on FOS Dec 2006 and plan on taking an Alaska cruise the following year Aug 2007.

 

This is a Princess program. For RCI, you'll want to ask your question on that message board.

One downside to booking on board is that Princess will promise the best rate but excludes certain "new booking only" and last minute pricing from that guarantee. So you will not get the best pricing always. As an example - I booked the upcoming 4/3 Golden sailing on board back in Sept 04. The price is now $200 PP cheeper on a "New booking only" special that Princess will not honor for us, even though we were "guaranteed" the best pricing when we booked onboard.

Princess almost never allows passengers with existing bookings to take advantage of any special pricing they might issue after final payments have been made.

My wife and I will be taking our first cruise in September on the CP. I've read in the forums that alot of folks book their next cruise while on board. Do you save much by booking then? Can we book then for any princess ship and sailing at that time? Would appreciate any replies. Thanks :)

 

I don't know about others, but I have found that booking on board ship is more expensive. We tried 2 weeks ago on the Golden Princess booking for next year - but on board was higher than Expedia. They would give us a credit - but it's not enough to off-set the figures. Got the same story from friends booking on Royal Caribbean ... higher. We get better deals from travel agents. What you want to do is pick out your next cruise before hand - run it and take it with you. See how they match up. That's how you'll really know. Good luck.:)

I don't know about others, but I have found that booking on board ship is more expensive. We tried 2 weeks ago on the Golden Princess booking for next year - but on board was higher than Expedia. They would give us a credit - but it's not enough to off-set the figures. Got the same story from friends booking on Royal Caribbean ... higher. We get better deals from travel agents. What you want to do is pick out your next cruise before hand - run it and take it with you. See how they match up. That's how you'll really know. Good luck.:)

I'm confused by this statement... you can book a future cruise on a specific ship and day while onboard. Then, when you get home, you give the booking # to your TA and THEY give you the best price. You're not locked into the Princess pricing. I've done this several times.

 

Something else to note about the Future Cruise Booking is that if you decide not to use it, it's 100% refundable. A real win-win.

Further to what Pam said above, it sounds to me as though some folks are still confused. Does everyone understand that you can book a future cruise for $100 per person and take advantage of the future onboard credit without specifying any particular cruise. Essentially you are just making a deposit "for future consideration" and can make the actual reservation anytime in the next 4 years with an TA you like (or Princess) and it will still be a new booking when the specific is chosen. You can then still take advantage of the future booking onboard credit which is above and beyond any other specials that happen to be offered. You are never tied to buying the cruise itself thru Princess, you simply call your TA and give them the onboard booking number and they take it from there.

We did this last month on the CP. 5 families. Today I just finish booking for next Feb on Golden for 12 cabins. We were able to use our share the wealth coupons. That made it so they only had to put down the 200.00 now and the rest of us did back when we were on the ship and also now we all get ship board credits. We used our TA, got better prices then with Princess.

It is a win win situation.

To add another twist to the onboard booking, we booked an inside cabin for the Star Princess to Alaska while on the Golden. A few weeks before the final payment date, I noticed that obstructed view cabins were the same price as our inside on some of the major travel websites. I called my TA and had her switch us over to an outside cabin. Princess doubled our onboard booking credit. Since the prices were the same, we essentially ended up getting paid by Princess to switch.

A couple of other pieces of information:

 

If you buy a future cruise booking without specifying or booking a particular cruise, it's not strictly speaking a "booking", i.e., you don't get a booking number. You get an "ID" number that is in the Princess database to be applied towards a booking. The confirmation you receive in your cabin after "booking" a future cruise will have this ID #. When you actually book the cruise with your TA, give them the ID #.

 

Something else that perhaps might not be clear is that if there are two of you and you've paid for two future cruise bookings, you only need to use one for your next booking and can save the other for another cruise. The other person in the cabin, whether family or friend, only has to pay a $100 deposit when the cruise is booked. As long as the person with the future cruise booking is actually booked in the cabin, any other person in the cabin only has to pay the $100 deposit. This means that you can save the other future cruise booking for another cruise, if you want to. :)

A couple of other pieces of information:

 

Something else that perhaps might not be clear is that if there are two of you and you've paid for two future cruise bookings, you only need to use one for your next booking and can save the other for another cruise. The other person in the cabin, whether family or friend, only has to pay a $100 deposit when the cruise is booked. As long as the person with the future cruise booking is actually booked in the cabin, any other person in the cabin only has to pay the $100 deposit. This means that you can save the other future cruise booking for another cruise, if you want to. :)

 

Pam, can you clarify something for me? In the scenario described above, where you buy two future bookings and only use one to book the next cruise - I understand the second person must only pay the $100 deposit, but is it a certainty that BOTH will get the onboard credit for the cruise, or only the individual who held the future booking in the first place? I have heard that you both get it and heard that you don't both get it - no doubt I've read some misinformation, but it seems you have done this enough times that you can verify.

Pam, can you clarify something for me? In the scenario described above, where you buy two future bookings and only use one to book the next cruise - I understand the second person must only pay the $100 deposit, but is it a certainty that BOTH will get the onboard credit for the cruise, or only the individual who held the future booking in the first place? I have heard that you both get it and heard that you don't both get it - no doubt I've read some misinformation, but it seems you have done this enough times that you can verify.

When I booked my Royal Princess cruise coming up, a friend was going to join me. She would have paid the $100 deposit but the onboard credit would have been divided between the two of us. It would have been worth it to share the onboard credit in comparison to how much less I would have paid not to sail as a single. It turned out that she couldn't go so the booking was never changed (and I'm paying the single rate but getting the full onboard credit). That's my only experience with using the one booking in a cabin and the onboard credit.

While aboard the Diamond in Sept. 04 I did an open booking. I put down

$100 because my husband was not on that cruise with me. So I had concerns as well about our next cruise together, and I was wondering if

only I would get the $100 deposit and also wondering if that meant he'd

have to pay the $250 deposit. Well, it doesn't work that way.

 

I put $100 out there, got a Confirmation number and when booking our trip,

the deposit was simply $100 pp AND we got $50 PER PERSON shipboard credit

too. I had originally been under the impression that if only one of us did

an open booking, that only one of us would get the shipboard credit.

 

Also, there was a thread along these lines a few months ago where it was

stated that if you BOTH do an open booking while onboard, i.e., $200 down

($100 per person) that you could combine those open bookings and double

the shipboard credit. Therefore, it's my understanding that when my husband and I do book our next sailing, if we book an outside cabin which

is $50 pp shipbaord credit, in fact, we will get $100 PER PERSON shipboard

credit if we remit both of our open booking at the time of booking the cruise.