Advantage of booking your next cruise on board ship?

[whatevergoes]

Just received call from Celebrity cruise consultant giving me some basic info on booking our next cruise at the end of the cruise we are going on next week. Best I could figure out is the deposit is less. Any other advantages if you usually just book a veranda cabin? And don't you then miss any promotions that might come along if you are already booked? Thanks

[mcrcruiser]

We book many of our Celebrity cruises when we are aboard. Here are the reasons :

 

.We can book into the least expensive balcony category & then future cruise sales gives us a 3 category upgrade (only when booking on a ship)

 

.The total deposit is only $200 vs the standard $900

 

.Celebrity gives us a $300 on board credit for 14 nights or longer ,a $200 OBC 9 to 13 nights & a $100 OBC less thqan 8 nights.

 

Above are 3 great reasons to book while on board a new Celebrity cruise:D:p:D

[MicCanberra]

We book many of our Celebrity cruises when we are aboard. Here are the reasons :

 

.We can book into the least expensive balcony category & then future cruise sales gives us a 3 category upgrade (only when booking on a ship)

 

.The total deposit is only $200 vs the standard $900

 

.Celebrity gives us a $300 on board credit for 14 nights or longer ,a $200 OBC 9 to 13 nights & a $100 OBC less thqan 8 nights.

 

Above are 3 great reasons to book while on board a new Celebrity cruise:D:p:D

As stated above, it is a really good idea to do all your research (for the next cruise) prior to your current cruise. That way when you see the Future cruise desk you are prepared and if the offer is ok you can sign up there and then.:D

[benjoon]

We are doing our first celebrity cruise in 6 weeks. We have already decided on our next cruise for Dec 2014.

 

We plan to book 2 x CC cabins. I'm keen to book now but from what people have said I should be a little more patient and wait until we are onboard.

 

What would you do? Book now or book onboard?:confused:

[MicCanberra]

We are doing our first celebrity cruise in 6 weeks. We have already decided on our next cruise for Dec 2014.

 

We plan to book 2 x CC cabins. I'm keen to book now but from what people have said I should be a little more patient and wait until we are onboard.

 

What would you do? Book now or book onboard?:confused:

Only you can make that decision, for a cruise that far ahead (Dec2014), I would probably wait to book onboard. :D

[Northern Aurora]

We frequently book future cruises while onboard. Actually we left the Equinox approximately ten days ago, and while on board booked five future Celebrity cruises.

 

In addition to the reasons posted by mcrcruiser, a booking made onboard with a future cruise salesperson can be transferred to your preferred travel agent. You do need to understand that the cabin upgrades are limited to certain types of staterooms. You are not going to be given a Penthouse Suite at a Sky Suite price.

 

I've found that many times the future cruise salesperson has worked for Celebrity for several years, and so has spent several months at a time on Celebrity ships. Since they have actually lived on some of the ships they really do understand the pros and cons of certain stateroom locations.

[ghstudio]

We book many of our Celebrity cruises when we are aboard. Here are the reasons :

 

.We can book into the least expensive balcony category & then future cruise sales gives us a 3 category upgrade (only when booking on a ship)

 

.The total deposit is only $200 vs the standard $900

 

.Celebrity gives us a $300 on board credit for 14 nights or longer ,a $200 OBC 9 to 13 nights & a $100 OBC less thqan 8 nights.

 

Above are 3 great reasons to book while on board a new Celebrity cruise:D:p:D

 

Corrections:

 

Celebrity will give you up to a three level upgrade within category...inside, outside or veranda. If you book concierge, they will only give you two levels C3 to C2 and if you book a suite, there is no free upgrade.

 

The deposit is double for suites (and perhaps aqua...not sure)

 

Celebrity does give you the OBC's however they with the exception of getting $50 more for a 14 + night cruise, they are the same as the stockholder credit.

 

Celebrity will also give you the opportunity to book with whatever promotions they are offering, but it may be a choice between the "current promotion" or the on board offers....e.g. if you wanted 1-2-3 you did not get any of the other benefits from booking on board.

[gordylad]

Is it still worth booking on board considering some travel agents give free grats and obc?

[cruisestitch]

As Northern Aurora wrote, you can transfer your booking to a TA but there is a time limit to do so.

[ghstudio]

As Northern Aurora wrote, you can transfer your booking to a TA but there is a time limit to do so.

 

You have 60 days from the date of booking to transfer your booking to a TA.

[gordylad]

Are you saying that we book our future cruise on board secure x amount of obc and then give the booking to our t/a who will give free grats?

 

Is this the same as an open passage payment? If it is we did that last year and I have a reference number to give to a t/a which secures us obc

 

thanks

[cruisestitch]

Yes, you can book a specific cruise and stateroom on board and then transfer the booking to an agent. This is called a Reserved Passage.

 

Open Passage is just that, open and awaiting a specific cruise choice.

[RMSeadog]

We always book onboard and well in advance. This give us a wide choice of cabins and we are usually happy with the price anyway. We have also found that there is a 50/50 chance the cruise price will have gone up enough that our price beats the PORMO. Granted it's a crap shoot on the price, but for us getting "our cabin" outweighs the wee savings we may or may not get by taking what's left.

 

Just a wee note.

 

They have a great marketing tool, that is seldom advertised.

 

If you book two seven night cruises as a back to back (while onboard) they count it as a 14 night cruise for OBC purposes. IOW you make $100 over booking the cruises separately. ~ Rick

 

 

[gordylad]

do you know if you can combine open passages so can we give the t/a our ref number for OBC in addition to a new booking which may have obc?

[helen haywood]

In my opinion, you are best off reserving a specific cruise on board, even if you have to pick a cruise out of thin air. You can always transfer that booking number to another cruise without losing the OBC (although it may go up or down depending on what length cruise you transfer it to) and keeping the reduced deposit. And this deposit is refundable.

 

An Open Passage certificate where you receive a booking number but the cruise has not yet been decided upon by you is transferable as many times as you wish, but it is NOT refundable. I've never seen any benefit of the Open Passage over the other.

[RMSeadog]

In my opinion, you are best off reserving a specific cruise on board, even if you have to pick a cruise out of thin air. You can always transfer that booking number to another cruise without losing the OBC (although it may go up or down depending on what length cruise you transfer it to) and keeping the reduced deposit. And this deposit is refundable.

 

An Open Passage certificate where you receive a booking number but the cruise has not yet been decided upon by you is transferable as many times as you wish, but it is NOT refundable. I've never seen any benefit of the Open Passage over the other.

 

That if you transfer a booking number to another cruise you will loose your upgrade but as stated, keep your OBC appropriate to the new cruise. ~ Rick

 

[ghstudio]

Although we have never used it, I think there is also a provision that if you book on board, then when you return home, your friends and/or family can join you on the cruise you booked and get the same price, etc that you got on board.

 

Would someone confirm this (or tell me I'm dreaming).

[cruisestitch]

Not sure about the "returning home" part, but I have booked two additional staterooms while on board and was able to have the on-board offers extended to them at that time. Must be same cruise (i.e. you can't just book other cruises on behalf of friends or family -- you must book the same cruise at the same time and if you should cancel, their special on-board booking benefits disappear)

[MicCanberra]

Not sure about the "returning home" part, but I have booked two additional staterooms while on board and was able to have the on-board offers extended to them at that time. Must be same cruise (i.e. you can't just book other cruises on behalf of friends or family -- you must book the same cruise at the same time and if you should cancel, their special on-board booking benefits disappear)

That is interesting. We have a family cruise planned for Dec 2014 and we were planning to book while onboard this September. That may come in handy for several cabins.:D

[Milhouse]

We haven't found booking onboard that advantageous for us at this time. Part of it is that we don't cruise frequently enough yet. We try to cruise once every 2 years and we generally don't know where or when that far in advance as land trips generally take priority right now. As such we have to book the the Passages open booking.

 

Because of the open booking, we don't get to take advantage of the free upgrades. However, we haven't been hurt by this because we've been able to take advantage of other upgrade opportunities. And generally speaking we're not too picky with our rooms.

 

We don't find the reduced deposit of much value.

 

The main perk that attracts us is the OBC. However, we haven't been able to combine it with some other (better) booking perks so, so far it's been a bit of a waste for us. There seems to be so many great but non-combinable perks nowadays.

We also got our friends to join us on our upcoming cruise and it wasn't worth using open booking w/ OBC extension to our friends because the new booking perks were better.

 

Anyhow, the deposit never expires so it will likely just sit in our back pocket until we find a cruise that we want to go on that doesn't have any added perks. The $100x2 deposit is losing interest but it's pretty negligible nowadays.

[Going Coastal]

The advantage to us is get to get the exact cabin we want and we often can book very far ahead. For instance, on our recent 65 days on Solstice we were able to book three 2014 cruises plus two in 2015.

[MAHA]

Can you book a Celebrity cruise onboard a Royal Caribbean one and get the obc and upgrades? We are diamond on Royal and want to try Celebrity again.

Also, can you combine the obc with stockholder benefits?

 

Thanks!

Mary Anne

[New Hampshire]

I recently sailed Summit to Bermuda and while onboard booked a European cruise. I received the reduced deposit, an upgrade from C3 to C2, $200 OBC and Celebrity's current Loyalty Promo which was $250 off the price of the cabin. I was able to book an additional cabin for friends who normally sail with us with but weren't on this cruise. They received all the same perks. I had their Captain's Club numbers and Credit card info., so the booking was put in their name and charged to them. When I returned home, I transferred my booking to my TA and received another $150 OBC and pre-paid gratuities.

[iancal]

We don't-and Celebrity is one of our favourite cruise lines.

 

We don't because we were told that when we book on a Tuesday special, or on some other deal inside the cancellation period, we would NOT be eligible for the OBC's. So we don't bother with it.

[RMSeadog]

Can you book a Celebrity cruise onboard a Royal Caribbean one and get the obc and upgrades? We are diamond on Royal and want to try Celebrity again.

Also, can you combine the obc with stockholder benefits?

 

Thanks!

Mary Anne

 

You can not combine OBC and stock with either X to RCL. You can combine the booking on board OBC with the Diamond discount for balcony and above. We have not booked X while cruising with RCL. I know you can book X while onboard and get the OBC, not sure about the upgrade, but I would assume so. My only fear would be that the personnel with RCL would not know everything available with X. ~ Rick