Booking a future cruise on board

[PhillyTravelBug]

We have a cruise in September and have seen you can put a deposit on a future cruise while on your current vacation. I've been thinking about doing this, but am not sure if there are any perks. Anybody have input on this?

[snownow]

I have never been on NCL, but if our up coming trip is nice we will be booking another. Only thing i have found is an on-board credit.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

 

$1000 (4 Deposits) FREE $500 Onboard Credit

$750 (3 Deposits) FREE $375 Onboard Credit

$500 (2 Deposits) FREE $250 Onboard Credit

$250 (1 Deposit**) FREE $100 Onboard Credit

What's more: Guests can now purchase a $500 reduced deposit Haven and Suites certificate and decide later under CruiseNext.

 

CRUISENEXT HAVEN AND SUITES:

$2000 (4 Deposits) FREE $500 Onboard Credit

$1500 (3 Deposits) FREE $375 Onboard Credit

$1000 (2 Deposits) FREE $250 Onboard Credit

$500 (1 Deposit**) FREE $100 Onboard Credit

Select Your Ship And Sail Date

[dporter]

I have never been on NCL, but if our up coming trip is nice we will be booking another. Only thing i have found is an on-board credit.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

 

$1000 (4 Deposits) FREE $500 Onboard Credit

$750 (3 Deposits) FREE $375 Onboard Credit

$500 (2 Deposits) FREE $250 Onboard Credit

$250 (1 Deposit**) FREE $100 Onboard Credit

What's more: Guests can now purchase a $500 reduced deposit Haven and Suites certificate and decide later under CruiseNext.

 

CRUISENEXT HAVEN AND SUITES:

$2000 (4 Deposits) FREE $500 Onboard Credit

$1500 (3 Deposits) FREE $375 Onboard Credit

$1000 (2 Deposits) FREE $250 Onboard Credit

$500 (1 Deposit**) FREE $100 Onboard Credit

Select Your Ship And Sail Date

 

 

This was the promotion on board in January 2016. I do believe that if you booked on board using your cruise next deposit you would get onboard credit based on number of nights and category booked. We found it challenging to book the cruise on board even though we knew which one we wanted because it is done via internet and connection was bad even for the cruise next employees. So we just waited until we got home and for the new dates to come out to make sure we didn't want to change our mind.

 

Keep in mind that you can only use 1 deposit per new reservation, although they will occasionally run a promotion to use more than 1 deposit it is rare. They do give you 4 years to use any deposits.

[atomax]

The current CruiseNext promo is using two deposits towards the same reservation and lasts until August 31: https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

 

As for a perk, using your CruiseNext deposit while on board counts as your entire deposit. So, we booked our next cruise while on board in April, and we don't have to pay another cent to NCL until September, 3 months before our cruise.

Edited May 24, 2016 by atomax

[Demonyte]

As for a perk, using your CruiseNext deposit while on board counts as your entire deposit. So, we booked our next cruise while on board in April, and we don't have to pay another cent to NCL until September, 3 months before our cruise.

 

 

That is not a perk and not related to booking onboard, that is how the certificates have always worked (even before booking while onboard became possible).

 

What the actual perk is, is not published by NCL anymore. When they revamped the program last year, at first the extra perk for booking onboard was an extra drink/dining package on top of the regular promo but nowadays they have cut back and based on the reports here now they only offer some extra OBC. (Not to be confused with the OBC from the purchase that is actually a direct discount, not extra spending money.)

[insidecabin]

There is no OBC you just pay less for the future value.

 

ie. you pay $500 and get 4 future credits worth $1000

 

The value comes when you use the credit for the cost of having some money tied up.

[PhillyTravelBug]

That's decent, but not exactly enticing.

[AndyCapn]

https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

 

$1000 (4 Deposits) FREE $500 Onboard Credit

$750 (3 Deposits) FREE $375 Onboard Credit

$500 (2 Deposits) FREE $250 Onboard Credit

$250 (1 Deposit**) FREE $100 Onboard Credit

 

On our recent cruise earlier this month, they were advertising it in the daily as "Buy two future cruise deposits, get two free." It wasn't a special, it was just a different way of wording the above: You pay $500 to get $1000 worth of deposits.

 

The CruiseNext Director explained that some people were interpreting the original deal as meaning they had to spend $500 on the ship to make sure they got their credit.

[insidecabin]

That's decent, but not exactly enticing.

 

Double your money, fairly decent investment.

[daniTS]

I'm not sure if this was only for booking onboard, but they said that if we booked it locked in the promos at that time, but that you could rebook later on to a totally different itinerary/ship/whatever and you wouldn't lose any of the perks from the time of booking. We were able to do that, so it worked out well for us, but I can't remember there being a reason to book onboard beyond that if you didn't happen to like the promos they were running at the time.