Benefits of booking future cruise onboard?

[cruising Baje]

Hi

 

We booked a cruise rewards certificate while on the Jade to the Mediterranean last year. While having the $100 OBC was great we would most likely not do this again since we find it too confining. Cruise must be booked within a certain time frame with a particular cruiseline.

 

A popular TA took an additional $250 to book our cabin for our upcoming Alaska cruise. We also note that another cruiseline has cheaper rates at that time than NCL, so without the cruise rewards certificate we would have gone with that.

 

So this is just a suggestion based on our experience to look at both sides of the coin.

[garycarla]

yes, part of the deal is you MUST travel on NCL. And you do have the timeline issue. If you may not travel again with them in the next year or so, it is not a good deal.

 

Not if I read your last post right, but you can book with any travel agent and still use the certificate. You do not have to book directly with NCL.

[Cruz-On]

I bought my reward certificate on my first NCL cruise on the Pearl. I did feel a bit rushed to book but then I found out I could change the sailing date and I could still use my reward certificate. I loved the Pearl but mostly DH and I love freestyling it fits us on vacation as we just like to relax and do things as the day flows.

[Arwenmark]

Hi

 

We booked a cruise rewards certificate while on the Jade to the Mediterranean last year. While having the $100 OBC was great we would most likely not do this again since we find it too confining. Cruise must be booked within a certain time frame with a particular cruiseline.

 

A popular TA took an additional $250 to book our cabin for our upcoming Alaska cruise. We also note that another cruiseline has cheaper rates at that time than NCL, so without the cruise rewards certificate we would have gone with that.

 

So this is just a suggestion based on our experience to look at both sides of the coin.

 

Unless you were booking a top level suite your TA was in grave error by requiring you to fork over an additional 250 and obviously they don't have a clue how this works.

That $250 covers the FULL deposit no matter how many in the cabin for all cabins except the courtyard and garden villas.

[JUSRN]

I find that in order to get the cheapest rates you have to book on-line. But in order to use the cruise rewards you need to talk to someone. The value of the cruise reward is going down. Rather frustrating! I can't utilize the cruise reward booking directly on-line.

[cruising Baje]

Hi Arwenmark

 

We have booked a balcony cabin and thought that we had misunderstood the way the cruise reward works since we are dealing with a very popular online agency which we believed had experience in handling cruise rewards. I guess we should have questioned it.

 

Thanks so much for clarifying this.

[peg013]

I find that in order to get the cheapest rates you have to book on-line. But in order to use the cruise rewards you need to talk to someone. The value of the cruise reward is going down. Rather frustrating! I can't utilize the cruise reward booking directly on-line.

 

 

Wish I could tell you who we book through but they always have the Best Price and I called them to find out how to do it. I just booked online, put the Future Cruise Credit # in the Remarks section and used a ficticious VISA number so the normal deposit would not go though. Then I called him back with the real VISA number for the final payment and he had the Future Cruise Credit applied. I did this for three different cabins on our next cruise. So it can be done! I'm trying to decide whether we're buying one or two more in May.

[garycarla]

I find that in order to get the cheapest rates you have to book on-line. But in order to use the cruise rewards you need to talk to someone. The value of the cruise reward is going down. Rather frustrating! I can't utilize the cruise reward booking directly on-line.

 

Lots of folks have come here and said they booked online and used them. I guess it depends where online. There are some online agencies that do not talk to people and barely do email.

 

hmmmm.....