Anyone onboard who can share the current cruise specials/discounts?

[markandjie]

We're leaning heavily towards booking on the November 17th Antarctica sailing and our big question is whether to go ahead and book to lock it in or should we wait until my wife is on Ovation in a few weeks for a girls trip. They do have >15 cabins over various levels still available, so I'm not too worried about it selling out, but would also like to just lock in the flights and all now if we can. If they're offering big discounts for onboard bookings that might make it worth it to wait...any insights would be much appreciated!

 

Thank you!

[lisa6191]

When we were on last week it was 5% off for ocean sailings and 20% off for expedition sailings. 

[markandjie]

3 hours ago, lisa6191 said:

When we were on last week it was 5% off for ocean sailings and 20% off for expedition sailings. 

 

Thank you! We're basically getting 20% off thru a new TA we found, so sounds like we should just pull the trigger. 

[Vineyard View]

5 hours ago, lisa6191 said:

When we were on last week it was 5% off for ocean sailings and 20% off for expedition sailings. 

We were given 5% when we booked on board using the purchased FCC. They would not also give 5% as a returning customer. If I understand correctly, the 5% returning customer discount is not offered on all cruises? Is the Purchased FCC ever combinable with the 5%……or am I just way off track here?  I admit to being confused around this! 

[lisa6191]

39 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

We were given 5% when we booked on board using the purchased FCC. They would not also give 5% as a returning customer. If I understand correctly, the 5% returning customer discount is not offered on all cruises? Is the Purchased FCC ever combinable with the 5%……or am I just way off track here?  I admit to being confused around this! 

Can’t promise this is accurate, but I was told that:

 

1) the booking onboard discount (meaning actually booking the cruise) was 5% ocean, 20% expedition. The deposit required would be transferable to a different cruise but not refundable.
2) There is a separate 5% discount given if you buy a future cruise deposit, which is combinable with the ocean discount (for 10% total) but not combinable with the expedition discount. Future cruise deposits are good for 4 years and then can be refunded. So I think you should have gotten both discounts (the book onboard and FCD).

 

I did not ask about the 5% for returning customers because I didn’t know about it. But she didn’t offer that info either and she was trying to get me to book, so I feel like she probably would have offered it? Not sure. Also, the itinerary we were looking at had no further perks like OBC or anything, but some of them did.

[Vineyard View]

5 minutes ago, lisa6191 said:

Can’t promise this is accurate, but I was told that:

 

1) the booking onboard discount (meaning actually booking the cruise) was 5% ocean, 20% expedition. The deposit required would be transferable to a different cruise but not refundable.
2) There is a separate 5% discount given if you buy a future cruise deposit, which is combinable with the ocean discount (for 10% total) but not combinable with the expedition discount. Future cruise deposits are good for 4 years and then can be refunded. So I think you should have gotten both discounts (the book onboard and FCD).

 

I did not ask about the 5% for returning customers because I didn’t know about it. But she didn’t offer that info either and she was trying to get me to book, so I feel like she probably would have offered it? Not sure. Also, the itinerary we were looking at had no further perks like OBC or anything, but some of them did.

Well that is what I thought would happen. But when I had my TA check, she was told that the additional 5% for returning customers was not applicable on all cruises. Out of curiosity, which ship were you on?  Thank you for responding to my questions

[skybluewaters]

5 minutes ago, lisa6191 said:

I did not ask about the 5% for returning customers because I didn’t know about it.

 

This discount is usually marketed as being for "select" voyages. 

Then there's the issue of whether the discounts are combinable.

[lisa6191]

10 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

Well that is what I thought would happen. But when I had my TA check, she was told that the additional 5% for returning customers was not applicable on all cruises. Out of curiosity, which ship were you on?  Thank you for responding to my questions

I was on Encore. As I understand it, the returning customer discount is completely separate from the FCD. You have to actively buy a FCD in order to get that discount. But the way it was explained to me, the FCD discount should definitely be combinable with the book on board discount. Did you book on board? 

[SLSD]

29 minutes ago, lisa6191 said:

Can’t promise this is accurate, but I was told that:

 

1) the booking onboard discount (meaning actually booking the cruise) was 5% ocean, 20% expedition. The deposit required would be transferable to a different cruise but not refundable.
2) There is a separate 5% discount given if you buy a future cruise deposit, which is combinable with the ocean discount (for 10% total) but not combinable with the expedition discount. Future cruise deposits are good for 4 years and then can be refunded. So I think you should have gotten both discounts (the book onboard and FCD).

 

I did not ask about the 5% for returning customers because I didn’t know about it. But she didn’t offer that info either and she was trying to get me to book, so I feel like she probably would have offered it? Not sure. Also, the itinerary we were looking at had no further perks like OBC or anything, but some of them did.

I've never heard of the 5% returning customer discount.  We always do the furture cruise deposit and get 5% there.  Are people thinking these are two different things when they are the same thing?  I am a bit confused about that.  

[lisa6191]

36 minutes ago, SLSD said:

I've never heard of the 5% returning customer discount.  We always do the furture cruise deposit and get 5% there.  Are people thinking these are two different things when they are the same thing?  I am a bit confused about that.  

I think there are 3 potential discounts:

1) 5% for booking onboard (or 20% if it’s an expedition)

2) 5% from a future cruise deposit

3) 5% “returning customer” discount, which I believe is actually referred to by Seabourn as a Seabourn club benefit (and you have to have sailed to be in the club, thus it becomes a benefit for returning customers). I actually just went on the website to check, and if you click on special offers it comes up there, and then if you click on “book now” it brings up a list of 31 sailings that it applies to. It is unclear whether this one is combinable, but I was told that 1 and 2 are combinable for the ocean voyages.

Edited October 19, 2023 by lisa6191
Mistake

[lisa6191]

It turns out that one of the sailings listed is one we are thinking about, so I just emailed my TA to see if the FCD and Seabourn club discounts can be combined (we didn’t book on board so that discount is out). I’ll let you know what she says.

[cruiseej]

@lisa6191 has it right. The Seabourn Club (e.g. returning guests) 5% discount is only available on "select voyages". (Read: cruises which are not selling as well as they'd like.) It's generally available only on a small percentage of all cruises. And that discount is also "capacity controlled", meaning it may be offered on a particular cruise for a while, but then removed at any point if/when they have reached a certain booking threshold.

 

The 5% discount for booking aboard is the same as the 5% discount from having purchased a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD). The FCD is simply a deferred onboard booking discount. In other words, you can book a future cruise while onboard for a 5% discount, or you can put down $500 (US) per person as a Future Cruise Deposit, which allows you to get the same discount you would have received had you booked a future cruise while onboard. (Seabourn's policies on FCD — four years to use it, and refundable if you don't — are light years superior to competitors like Silversea and Regent, which give you only a short time to choose your future cruise.) The 5% onboard booking discount or FCD discount is applicable to almost all sailings. But it can be excluded if there's a larger savings promotion being offered for a cruise. For instance, when we were on a Seabourn cruise earlier in the year, they had a promotion of 35% off 2023-24 expedition cruises — and it wasn't possible to combine that with a 5% FCD. (But 35% off was pretty unusual and a great price… so we jumped on it!) 

 

And yes, the 5% Seabourn Club discount can be combined with the 5% FCD discount — unless there is some other promotional price/discount applied. We were able to get both discounts on the cruise we took earlier this year. 

 

[lisa6191]

6 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

 

The 5% discount for booking aboard is the same as the 5% discount from having purchased a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD). The FCD is simply a deferred onboard booking discount. In other words, you can book a future cruise while onboard for a 5% discount, or you can put down $500 (US) per person as a Future Cruise Deposit, which allows you to get the same discount you would have received had you booked a future cruise while onboard.  

 

That is not what I was told. I was told they were two separate discounts and could be combined. So if I had booked onboard and also bought a FCD, I could have applied the FCD to that cruise and ended up with a 10% combined discount. I did not book on board, so I have no way of knowing if what she was telling me would actually happen. At no point did she mention the Seabourn club discount so I don’t know how that plays into it.

[lisa6191]

My TA says that FCD and Seabourn club can be combined. Maybe we will book the cruise we are looking at and find out!

[cruiseej]

19 minutes ago, lisa6191 said:

So if I had booked onboard and also bought a FCD, I could have applied the FCD to that cruise and ended up with a 10% combined discount.

 

I don't think that's correct. An FCD can be applied to a new booking to get the 5% discount. You can't create a booking onboard with the 5% discount, and then purchase and apply an FCD to the same booking. They're two sides of the same coin: a 5% discount for booking a new cruise. The FCD is a way of giving customers a way to get the 5% onboard booking discount by putting some money down, and choosing their specific cruise later.

 

15 minutes ago, lisa6191 said:

My TA says that FCD and Seabourn club can be combined. Maybe we will book the cruise we are looking at and find out!

 

Yes, that's what I said above. If there is a Seabourn Club discount available for the cruise you're looking at, you should be able to get both that 5% discount combined with a 5% discount from an onboard booking or applying a previously-purchased FCD. I did exactly that for a Med cruise we took this spring. 

[lisa6191]

17 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

I don't think that's correct. An FCD can be applied to a new booking to get the 5% discount. You can't create a booking onboard with the 5% discount, and then purchase and apply an FCD to the same booking.

I agree that it sounds like it shouldn’t be allowed, all I can tell you is that the rep onboard told me I could do it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Since I didn’t end up booking onboard I can’t confirm.

[SLSD]

2 hours ago, lisa6191 said:

I think there are 3 potential discounts:

1) 5% for booking onboard (or 20% if it’s an expedition)

2) 5% from a future cruise deposit

3) 5% “returning customer” discount, which I believe is actually referred to by Seabourn as a Seabourn club benefit (and you have to have sailed to be in the club, thus it becomes a benefit for returning customers). I actually just went on the website to check, and if you click on special offers it comes up there, and then if you click on “book now” it brings up a list of 31 sailings that it applies to. It is unclear whether this one is combinable, but I was told that 1 and 2 are combinable for the ocean voyages.

We have NEVER been offered the returning customer discount and we have cruised with SB quite a bit.  I guess we've never been interested in their less popular cruises that it applies to.  All of this is unclear.  I actually believe that "offers" are somewhat of a racket.  

[Sunprince]

I have seen the additional 5% returning customer discount as a special offer on the website. Yes it is combinable. Perhaps that "special" is not offered as much as it was several months ago. I'm not sure if it is cyclical or they just use it as an added incentive for certain sailings that are selling poorly.

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, SLSD said:

We have NEVER been offered the returning customer discount and we have cruised with SB quite a bit.  I guess we've never been interested in their less popular cruises that it applies to.  All of this is unclear.

 

It's not a matter of being "offered" a returning customer discount; it's just a matter of which cruises Seabourn has designated as eligible for Seabourn Club savings. And that's actually pretty clear… if you know what to look for on the website. 😉  Just click on "Special Offers" in the top menu bar…

 

 

 

 

Clicking that link takes you to the Offers page, which has the current main promotion at the top (currently, the "Set Sail" promotion), and includes Seabourn Club Savings below:

 

 

Click on "Book Now" and the resulting web page will show all the cruises which currently offer the Seabourn Club Savings 5% discount. It's usually not a large number of cruises; right now, it's 31:

 

 

Alternatively, if you're browsing cruises on the website without being logged into your account, when you click on pricing for a cruise, you can look for a "Log in to view special pricing", which tells you there is at least one promotion applying to the cruise you're looking at. 

 

 

Or… simply reach out to your travel agent with help finding/sorting through any available discounts on cruises you might be interested in.

 

– – –

 

Travel agents which regularly work with Seabourn also occasionally have access to unadvertised special prices offered to TAs which are not available via the website. (Example: we just booked a short 7-day Caribbean get-away for this winter which shows a price of $8,898 for a V3 suite on the website. We had a Future Cruise Deposit, so that was good for a 5% savings, or $8,453. But our price was $6,532, about a 22% additional discount. And this is not a cruise eligible for the 5% Seabourn Club discount. This doesn't happen all the time, of course, but we jumped because our TA had a pretty long list of Seabourn cruises eligible for unpublished discounts.)

 

 

 

 

[Vineyard View]

5 hours ago, lisa6191 said:

I agree that it sounds like it shouldn’t be allowed, all I can tell you is that the rep onboard told me I could do it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Since I didn’t end up booking onboard I can’t confirm.

I believe you. We were given a good bit of misinformation when we booked onboard. It has been addressed with Seabourn. 

cruiseej, you are sharing what our TA explained to us on one of the particulars so thank you. 
 

My takeaway is always get in writing what was verbally promised. This is not just a Seabourn issue by any means, but it  can be one. 

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, cruiseej said:

 

It's not a matter of being "offered" a returning customer discount; it's just a matter of which cruises Seabourn has designated as eligible for Seabourn Club savings. And that's actually pretty clear… if you know what to look for on the website. 😉  Just click on "Special Offers" in the top menu bar…

 

 

 

 

Clicking that link takes you to the Offers page, which has the current main promotion at the top (currently, the "Set Sail" promotion), and includes Seabourn Club Savings below:

 

 

Click on "Book Now" and the resulting web page will show all the cruises which currently offer the Seabourn Club Savings 5% discount. It's usually not a large number of cruises; right now, it's 31:

 

 

Alternatively, if you're browsing cruises on the website without being logged into your account, when you click on pricing for a cruise, you can look for a "Log in to view special pricing", which tells you there is at least one promotion applying to the cruise you're looking at. 

 

 

Or… simply reach out to your travel agent with help finding/sorting through any available discounts on cruises you might be interested in.

 

– – –

 

Travel agents which regularly work with Seabourn also occasionally have access to unadvertised special prices offered to TAs which are not available via the website. (Example: we just booked a short 7-day Caribbean get-away for this winter which shows a price of $8,898 for a V3 suite on the website. We had a Future Cruise Deposit, so that was good for a 5% savings, or $8,453. But our price was $6,532, about a 22% additional discount. And this is not a cruise eligible for the 5% Seabourn Club discount. This doesn't happen all the time, of course, but we jumped because our TA had a pretty long list of Seabourn cruises eligible for unpublished discounts.)

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this.  I think the issue is that we seldom look at the website since it has been difficult to navigate.  

[Sunprince]

12 hours ago, cruiseej said:

we just booked a short 7-day Caribbean get-away for this winter which shows a price of $8,898 for a V3 suite on the website. We had a Future Cruise Deposit, so that was good for a 5% savings, or $8,453. But our price was $6,532, about a 22% additional discount.

Wow, $8898 for a 7 day Caribbean cruise? Is that per person? Even $6532  seems rich to me! 

[margbem]

We booked a 2025 cruise on the Ovation whilst recently on board the Encore. We paid our future cruise deposit to receive 5% discount but because the cruise we booked had $1000 onboard credit we were not able to use the 5% Club discount as well. On transferring the booking to our TA once home we then got a further discount from them.

[cruiseej]

On 10/20/2023 at 9:07 AM, Sunprince said:

Wow, $8898 for a 7 day Caribbean cruise? Is that per person? Even $6532  seems rich to me! 

 

No, that's the total cost for the suite — 2 people.

 

And I thought $466 per person per day seemed like a pretty good price; I thought the days of sub-$500 per diem were basically gone forever.

 

Are you saying the price sounds high to you because you don't value Caribbean cruises, or because you think there are much better deals available?

 

For what it's worth, when my wife and I decided to book a short winter warm-weather trip, we originally thought we'd fly somewhere and spend a week at an adults-only all-inclusive resort. Then I started looking at hotel prices for January and February and was pretty shocked. Due to price increases as well as limited room availability during high season only three months out, some of the prices ranged from $8,000 to $16,000+ for 7 days. While I'm sure with more hunting I could have found something for us for less than $6,500, finding that we could do a short Seabourn cruise for a price comparable to or better than a land resort won us over. I also looked at Regent cruises, since they have their newest ship in the Caribbean this winter, and I felt they had some more interesting itineraries. But even after adjusting for Regent's included airfare, the price was close to double what we got on Seabourn.  

[PhD-iva]

On 10/19/2023 at 9:43 PM, SLSD said:

Thanks for this.  I think the issue is that we seldom look at the website since it has been difficult to navigate.  

Thank you! I’m considering other cruiselines, but I guess Seabourn won’t be one of them. Can’t figure out their website for nothing!