Suite Life promotion or book on board

[Vineyard View]

We are traveling in May this year. We are looking at an itinerary next Spring that we like. Having no history with Seabourn, I am not sure how to best guess on the pricing models. The Suite Life  promotion currently occurring looks fairly good. I do not know what onboard booking advantages are generally offered with Seabourn. In your experience, and knowing it’s somewhat a roll of the dice, is it best to book on board or not necessarily?
 Also, Does Seabourn honor a better promotional price after booking but before full payment should that occur?

thank you

[nancygp]

17 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

We are traveling in May this year. We are looking at an itinerary next Spring that we like. Having no history with Seabourn, I am not sure how to best guess on the pricing models. The Suite Life  promotion currently occurring looks fairly good. I do not know what onboard booking advantages are generally offered with Seabourn. In your experience, and knowing it’s somewhat a roll of the dice, is it best to book on board or not necessarily?
 Also, Does Seabourn honor a better promotional price after booking but before full payment should that occur?

thank you

When you book onboard, you get a 5% discount.  The Suite Life promo is currently a better deal

 

if there’s a price reduction after you book, Seabourn will honor it

 

Nancy

Edited February 20, 2023 by nancygp

[Vineyard View]

Thank you Nancy!

[wesport]

I have found that if I see a good price with Seabourn, I book it. Like Nancy said you can always refare if the price goes down. I booked several cruises during the Black Friday Sail, and one is now sold out and the other has no balconies left. You can purchase the FCD on board and keep it for 4 years I believe to book future sailings. 

[Vineyard View]

Thank you Wesport. I appreciate this additional info!

[florisdekort]

Always book on board and/or use FCDs. You get the promotion of the moment (like Suite Life) plus 5% off. 
 

 

[CalmSea]

7 hours ago, florisdekort said:

Always book on board and/or use FCDs. You get the promotion of the moment (like Suite Life) plus 5% off. 
 

 

In the case of the OP, after the first cruise, the extra 5% Seabourn Club discount may apply for some cruises.

[Vineyard View]

I am not sure how long the suite life promotion will be available. Likely not until we sail late May? That would be my guess, but I could be wrong. As a first time Seabourn cruise, is it correct the the only advantage is a 5% discount on future cruises of booked on board? Is that the ongoing advantage of booking on board?  Thank you 

[FlyingScotSailors]

7 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

 As a first time Seabourn cruise, is it correct the the only advantage is a 5% discount on future cruises of booked on board? Is that the ongoing advantage of booking on board?  Thank you 

The on-board future cruise consultant may have some earlier access to information about cruises.  Also, you may find value in an in-person face to face discussion about future cruises.  The main advantage is the 5% discount.

 

Just to emphasize a point made my wesport, instead of an on-board booking, you can make a future cruise deposit (FCD) that will give you a 5% discount when making a booking in the next 4 years.  The advantage of this over booking on-board is that you can use any travel agent to book, and avail yourself of further discounts, rebates, or perks offered.

 

The FCD is fully refundable.

[Vineyard View]

I was wondering what the FCD was. Thank you. So I can make any dollar amount FCD without making a selection of the itinerary, and that entitles me to 5% discount off a future cruise with a future promotion?  Is this correct? 

[FlyingScotSailors]

Almost! 😉

 

The FCD is $500 US per person (or similar amounts for those who book in other currencies).  There is no limit that we know of on the number of FCDs you can purchase at one time.

[fudge]

We got off the Ovation four days ago, we booked the FCD, we paid 250 sterling each, no where near 500US.

[nancygp]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

am not sure how long the suite life promotion will be available.

the current suite life promo ends today 

 

nancy

[SonomaMountain]

Vineyard View we could meet at Spring L and discuss sometime. What kind of dog do you have? I wish we could message members on this hoard! 
we just booked the 2024 Seabourn New Zealand cruise last night through the promotion.

[Vineyard View]

4 hours ago, nancygp said:

the current suite life promo ends today 

 

nancy

Well darn. I am not entirely sure on the itinerary. Thanks for this though. 
If I  remember correctly, Seabourn offered a suite life promo last summer as well?  Is this one that they run from time to time

[nancygp]

4 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

Well darn. I am not entirely sure on the itinerary. Thanks for this though. 
If I  remember correctly, Seabourn offered a suite life promo last summer as well?  Is this one that they run from time to time

 

they run it from time to time.

 

Nancy

[Vineyard View]

Thank you Nancy

[MightyQuinn]

On 2/21/2023 at 8:48 AM, Vineyard View said:

I am not sure how long the suite life promotion will be available. Likely not until we sail late May? That would be my guess, but I could be wrong.

 

The Suite Life Event includes the following:

1) up to 15% discount on ocean ships and up to 25% discount on expedition ships if booked by Feb 28, 2023.  Promo NV

2) up to $2k shipboard credit which ended yesterday Feb 21, 2023.  Promo ZH

If you have FCD, there would be an additional 5% discount off the Suite Life reduced fares.  If not, as Nancy said, 15% Suite Life is better than 5% FCD alone. But you could always gamble and wait until you're onboard Seabourn, purchase FCD and see what offers are available then.  SB seems to have promos of some kind or another quite often.  If your planned cruise is way in the future, you may be able to grab another attractive offer and also apply FCD.
 

[Vineyard View]

Thank you for that suggestion and further clarification. I was a little confused as my TA said the promo was until 2/28. What we missed was the OBC. Darn. We are looking at Spring next year. 

[Vineyard View]

SomomaMountain - you will love New Zealand. We did a land trip there several years back. Spent 3 weeks between the two islands. I would go back again.  Incredible country and people. 
 

We have an Australian Shepherd. Maybe we can figure something out to meet sometime soon at S.L.  

[Laylam]

7 hours ago, MightyQuinn said:

 

The Suite Life Event includes the following:

1) up to 15% discount on ocean ships and up to 25% discount on expedition ships if booked by Feb 28, 2023.  Promo NV

2) up to $2k shipboard credit which ended yesterday Feb 21, 2023.  Promo ZH

If you have FCD, there would be an additional 5% discount off the Suite Life reduced fares.  If not, as Nancy said, 15% Suite Life is better than 5% FCD alone. But you could always gamble and wait until you're onboard Seabourn, purchase FCD and see what offers are available then.  SB seems to have promos of some kind or another quite often.  If your planned cruise is way in the future, you may be able to grab another attractive offer and also apply FCD.
 

We booked an expedition cruise while on Odyssey last month,  We have a FCD but we were told it wasn't combinable with the Promo fares.

[wesport]

Looks like OBC is disappearing with the Suite life sale. Business must be good. Glad I got it added to my bookings 

[nancygp]

10 minutes ago, wesport said:

Looks like OBC is disappearing with the Suite life sale. Business must be good. Glad I got it added to my bookings 

I believe the OBC was a 2week promo that ended yesterday.  The rest of the suite life promo ends on February 28th.

 

nancy

[MightyQuinn]

5 hours ago, Laylam said:

We booked an expedition cruise while on Odyssey last month,  We have a FCD but we were told it wasn't combinable with the Promo fares.

 

Wow Laylam, how disappointing. I wonder if that's unique to expedition cruises since our experience was different. We booked an ocean cruise during the Suite Life Event and got the 15% discounted promo fare.  We then applied our FCD and got a further 5% reduction.  There was no issue in combining both discounts. 

Your post made me curious, so I checked the T&C of our FCD to see if there were any restrictions on combinability.  The only reference was ... "the 5% savings discount may be combinable with any public fares that may be applicable to the cruise the guest selects".  If you booked on board, I assume (!!) you would have been quoted a public fare, so I'm surprised you weren't able to use your FCD.

[Laylam]

On 2/23/2023 at 4:59 PM, MightyQuinn said:

 

Wow Laylam, how disappointing. I wonder if that's unique to expedition cruises since our experience was different. We booked an ocean cruise during the Suite Life Event and got the 15% discounted promo fare.  We then applied our FCD and got a further 5% reduction.  There was no issue in combining both discounts. 

Your post made me curious, so I checked the T&C of our FCD to see if there were any restrictions on combinability.  The only reference was ... "the 5% savings discount may be combinable with any public fares that may be applicable to the cruise the guest selects".  If you booked on board, I assume (!!) you would have been quoted a public fare, so I'm surprised you weren't able to use your FCD.

Thanks MightyQuinn. I'll follow that up.