Booking next cruise while on board

[Flatbush Flyer]

18 minutes ago, Harters said:

That's exactly what I did recently. I think O's booking system records it as a direct booking with them unless you reassign it within the 14 days.. We had booked the cruise we were on, using a TA, but wanted to shop around for a possible replacement. In the event our existing TA proved to be the best bet for us, so we then assigned it to them. All within the 14 days. 

Historically, the BoB policy requires you to sign a preprinted statement that you want to assign the BoB cruise to yourself if you do not want to have it automatically associated with your current cruise’s TA. At that point you are able to “shop it around” (or select the same TA) during the 14 day transfer window.

[Vallesan]

58 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Historically, the BoB policy requires you to sign a preprinted statement that you want to assign the BoB cruise to yourself if you do not want to have it automatically associated with your current cruise’s TA. At that point you are able to “shop it around” (or select the same TA) during the 14 day transfer window.

Yes we did exactly that several years ago. We weren’t happy with the TA we had so had 30 days, at that time, to assign it to another TA.

[Redtravel]

After my last 2 Oceania cruises, I received a mailing with an offer of a discount of $200 off a booking if you booked within 45 days after disembarking.  There are restrictions. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

12 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

After my last 2 Oceania cruises, I received a mailing with an offer of a discount of $200 off a booking if you booked within 45 days after disembarking.  There are restrictions. 

Not combinable with BoB deal.

[Redtravel]

On 5/19/2024 at 11:59 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Not combinable with BoB deal.

Not combinable with any promo sales prices.  Booked cruise shortly after returning home. We received a letter offering $200 discount if booked within 45 days. At same time, got a promo brochure in the mail with deals for past guests.  It was perfect getting them together. We booked. Thought we would get that $200 discount. Not happening. Found out later that discounts don’t apply to promos.  Kind of felt that we had been victims of the sales force.  
on Marina now.  Noticed that the offer to book a future cruise changed during the cruise. During the first half of the cruise, the offer was $250 obc plus discounts day length of cruise and cabin category.  Now that obc has dropped to $100 obc.  If you want to book a future cruise onboard, do it early in your cruise.   With higher fares on future cruises and smaller discounts, booking onboard isn’t as attractive as it used to be.  While we like Oceania, we also like other cruise lines.  Since we seldom drink and hate big group tours, we are looking at lines that don’t include drinks or excursions in the fare. We are now on Marina with Simply More .  We have taken 5 excursions. One was excellent. The rest were meh.  One was bad.  No listening devices and huge groups don’t work.  

[ORV]

7 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Not combinable with any promo sales prices.  Booked cruise shortly after returning home. We received a letter offering $200 discount if booked within 45 days. At same time, got a promo brochure in the mail with deals for past guests.  It was perfect getting them together. We booked. Thought we would get that $200 discount. Not happening. Found out later that discounts don’t apply to promos.  Kind of felt that we had been victims of the sales force.  
on Marina now.  Noticed that the offer to book a future cruise changed during the cruise. During the first half of the cruise, the offer was $250 obc plus discounts day length of cruise and cabin category.  Now that obc has dropped to $100 obc.  If you want to book a future cruise onboard, do it early in your cruise.   With higher fares on future cruises and smaller discounts, booking onboard isn’t as attractive as it used to be.  While we like Oceania, we also like other cruise lines.  Since we seldom drink and hate big group tours, we are looking at lines that don’t include drinks or excursions in the fare. We are now on Marina with Simply More .  We have taken 5 excursions. One was excellent. The rest were meh.  One was bad.  No listening devices and huge groups don’t work.  

SMH

[EJL2023]

8 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Not combinable with any promo sales prices.  Booked cruise shortly after returning home. We received a letter offering $200 discount if booked within 45 days. At same time, got a promo brochure in the mail with deals for past guests.  It was perfect getting them together. We booked. Thought we would get that $200 discount. Not happening. Found out later that discounts don’t apply to promos.  Kind of felt that we had been victims of the sales force.  
on Marina now.  Noticed that the offer to book a future cruise changed during the cruise. During the first half of the cruise, the offer was $250 obc plus discounts day length of cruise and cabin category.  Now that obc has dropped to $100 obc.  If you want to book a future cruise onboard, do it early in your cruise.   With higher fares on future cruises and smaller discounts, booking onboard isn’t as attractive as it used to be.  While we like Oceania, we also like other cruise lines.  Since we seldom drink and hate big group tours, we are looking at lines that don’t include drinks or excursions in the fare. We are now on Marina with Simply More .  We have taken 5 excursions. One was excellent. The rest were meh.  One was bad.  No listening devices and huge groups don’t work.  

Not sure it is always a blanket statement that you have to book a future cruise early to get the higher SBC.  We booked a cruise on Sirena in February and got the $250 SBC and we booked it on the last day of the cruise.  

[Redtravel]

3 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Not sure it is always a blanket statement that you have to book a future cruise early to get the higher SBC.  We booked a cruise on Sirena in February and got the $250 SBC and we booked it on the last day of the cruise.  

That was February. This is May.  Who knows what will happen tomorrow.  No crowds at future cruise sales.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Not sure it is always a blanket statement that you have to book a future cruise early to get the higher SBC.  We booked a cruise on Sirena in February and got the $250 SBC and we booked it on the last day of the cruise.  

IMO (and experience) the varying SBC bonus may just be random. I’ve seen it change mid cruise - in either direction.

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

IMO (and experience) the varying SBC bonus may just be random. I’ve seen it change mid cruise - in either direction.

Which is why I said not to make a blanket statement. The poster just happened to say the same thing on January 24th in another thread on the same topic.  They were asked if not sure they were referring to the FCC and the reduced SBC for those.  As others said they have not experienced that and the poster never responded.  I guess this poster is just really unlucky and gets the diminishing SBC on their cruises. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[osandomir]

On our recent cruise in April we booked another cruise on board like we do most of the time. The OBC was the same $250 for the duration of the cruise. Though we also saw it changes on the some other occasions. The feature that we value most is the “Best price quarantine” for booking onboard that potentially can result in much more savings than just OBC.

 

What I actually found very unusual there was barely someone at the future cruises sales desk every time I was passing by. Nevertheless, the sales person stated that the sales were going very strong for the O cruises in the future.

Edited May 29 by osandomir

[EJL2023]

20 minutes ago, osandomir said:

On our recent cruise in April we booked another cruise on board like we do most of the time. The OBC was the same $250 for the duration of the cruise. Though we also saw it changes on the some other occasions. The feature that we value most is the “Best price quarantine” for booking onboard that potentially can result in much more savings than just OBC.

 

What I actually found very unusual there was barely someone at the future cruises sales desk every time I was passing by. Nevertheless, the sales person stated that the sales were going very strong for the O cruises in the future.

So if you get a better price, they make you sail but in quarantine!?! Is that so you won’t be able to take excursions and save money somewhere else?! They are just deviant!!! Gotta love autocorrect, huh!? 🙂

[osandomir]

29 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

So if you get a better price, they make you sail but in quarantine!?! Is that so you won’t be able to take excursions and save money somewhere else?! They are just deviant!!! Gotta love autocorrect, huh!? 🙂

Sorry for the autocorrection typo that made you think it was very funny. No, we normally get a sale price for the cabin that we booked originally. It might be some other type of compensation if one is past the final payment date. Most of the time we get to keep the promotions that we have already had. Though, some sales and promotions are not combinable with all booking onboard benefits, but the “Best buy guarantee” was always honored in our experience.

Edited May 29 by osandomir

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, osandomir said:

No, we normally get a sale price for the cabin that we booked originally. It might be some other type of competition if one is past the final payment date. Most of the time we get to keep the promotions that we have already had. Though, some sales and promotions are not combinable with all booking onboard benefits, but the “Best buy guarantee” was always honored in our experience.

Uhh….was just joking with you because it autocorrected the word “guarantee” to “quarantine” in your post above.  😉

[Harters]

1 hour ago, osandomir said:

What I actually found very unusual there was barely someone at the future cruises sales desk every time I was passing by.

That was also the case when we passed by on our Vista cruise a few weeks back. And certainly when  we went to book a cruise there was no-one else waiting. I've no recollection of how busy it was on our two previous cruises so don't know if that is unusual. 

[mauibabes]

Gee, short of the Dining Reservation Desk on Embakation Day, the Oceania Club Ambassador/Future Cruise Consultant or whatever we will call them, is the first people we sit down with on any cruise. We want to know what’s for sale and what are the offers available during our cruise. We have seen On Board Booking Discounts of $200-$1000 and SBC offers from $100 to $450 and we were not in Suites either.  It all goes back to how hungry the folks in Miami are 🤪👍💰🙏🤞 and what the sales goals are like.

 

In the “Old Days” before Covid and the $150 Admin Fee for a Cancellation, we always booked a cruise on board and then moved it if Life’s issues got in the way. Even with the Fee in play, we know we are allowed one “Swap” so we are sticking to our booking discount plan. Besides, my DW loves to view the calendar months or years down the road and know we are back traveling/cruising with our Oceania family. Happy Wife, Happy Life.  
Planning ahead 😇🤞🙏,

Mauibabes

[osandomir]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

That was also the case when we passed by on our Vista cruise a few weeks back. And certainly when  we went to book a cruise there was no-one else waiting. I've no recollection of how busy it was on our two previous cruises so don't know if that is unusual. 

We’ve previously cruised with Oceania not two but almost twenty times and I can tell that it was really unusual based on our experience.

[Tranquility Base]

3 hours ago, osandomir said:

What I actually found very unusual there was barely someone at the future cruises sales desk every time I was passing by. Nevertheless, the sales person stated that the sales were going very strong for the O cruises in the future.

 

2 hours ago, Harters said:

That was also the case when we passed by on our Vista cruise a few weeks back. And certainly when  we went to book a cruise there was no-one else waiting. I've no recollection of how busy it was on our two previous cruises so don't know if that is unusual. 

 

22 minutes ago, osandomir said:

We’ve previously cruised with Oceania not two but almost twenty times and I can tell that it was really unusual based on our experience.

I guess one factor would be cruise length.

Guessing a 7 day segment would be busier than a 32 day segment.

[FetaCheese]

3 hours ago, osandomir said:

Sorry for the autocorrection typo that made you think it was very funny. No, we normally get a sale price for the cabin that we booked originally. It might be some other type of compensation if one is past the final payment date. Most of the time we get to keep the promotions that we have already had. Though, some sales and promotions are not combinable with all booking onboard benefits, but the “Best buy guarantee” was always honored in our experience.

Good to know you always received satisfaction of the BPG.  If you have read the topic "Watching Deals and Sales", you can see not all pax receive the BPG.  @jonthomas has reported an unsatisfactory result.

[osandomir]

22 minutes ago, FetaCheese said:

Good to know you always received satisfaction of the BPG.  If you have read the topic "Watching Deals and Sales", you can see not all pax receive the BPG.  @jonthomas has reported an unsatisfactory result.

I’ve been following that thread and noticed that you advocated for another person. Sorry he wasn’t successful. I’d suggest that he needs a new TA. We have an excellent one who is always persistent with O and gets us the best possible results.

[Tranquility Base]

55 minutes ago, osandomir said:

gets us the best possible results.

Can you give examples of savings you have received under the BPG inside the period of about 3 months prior to departure.

Thanks.

[osandomir]

25 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Can you give examples of savings you have received under the BPG inside the period of about 3 months prior to departure.

Thanks.

Well, this is my best answer to your question. By “best results” I didn’t mean after the final payment savings in particular. That being said, if I remember correctly one time we got a cabin upgrade after the final payment date. Our cruises normally don’t go on any sales because of the strong demand for that sailings. But the one we have booked now for some reason have already been through three sales and every time we had our price adjusted correctly. And occasionally there were some other issues that our TA got resolved to our complete satisfaction.

 

 

[osandomir]

3 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

 

I guess one factor would be cruise length.

Guessing a 7 day segment would be busier than a 32 day segment.

We were seeing long lines at the future cruises sale desks even on the longer cruises in the past.

[Redtravel]

Changing things during a cruise doesn’t encourage people to book.  It really has a negative feel.  When the onboard offer is generous, you might have booked. If you see prices go up and booking incentives diminish, why book.  Wait and see. I am more inclined to book late if I see a good deal.  Recently I saved $11k by booking a cruise a month before it sailed.  Being flexible has advantages.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

Changing things during a cruise doesn’t encourage people to book.  It really has a negative feel.  When the onboard offer is generous, you might have booked. If you see prices go up and booking incentives diminish, why book.  Wait and see. I am more inclined to book late if I see a good deal.  Recently I saved $11k by booking a cruise a month before it sailed.  Being flexible has advantages.  

But, that’s why Book Onboard (which might be done a year or two prior to embarkation) has so much added value. Just yesterday, I used the price drop match guarantee (due to the O “flash sale”) for a cruise booked many months ago.