Al Horner Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 I have never booked a cruise while on-board the ship. We will be on the Symphony in May and I thought about booking our next cruise while on the ship. What (if any) are the benefits to booking on the ship? Thanks! Shawnemact 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 Check out this blog post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/08/11/royal-caribbean-next-cruise-program-details-info-and-tips Al Horner and rjac 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Horner Posted March 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 12 minutes ago, twangster said: Check out this blog post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/08/11/royal-caribbean-next-cruise-program-details-info-and-tips Thanks! I did check it out and it was from 2016. There were a number of other blogs that followed from 2017. Given how often RCL changes their programs, I wondered if anyone had any recent personal experience. Right now, it doesn't sound like a lot of benefit and it appears that there is some confusion over how it interacts with the refundable vs non-refundable deposits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 In the interest of full disclosure I'm not a big fan of Next. On more than one ship I've visited Next with my normal land travel agent on the phone and ended up booking with my agent over the phone as I walked away from Next. I still check with Next from time to time just to validate or see if I can get anything, even $50 in OBC better through Next. Time and again I leave Next without booking anything. Never hurts to check. A lot depends on the category of cabin, how far out it is and if the stars align for you. Now being Diamond Plus and receiving the reduced single supplement it seems so often I can do the same or better through a normal travel agent. I tend to book refundable which is possible at Next but their refundable prices are not attractive in most cases. They are all about NRDB. I've got three 2020 cruises I'm kicking the tires on and will check with Next again in April when I sail again but I'm not expecting much. WAAAYTOOO, Al Horner, Sweety and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 I am doing the same thing next month. I am looking at two cruises. I must strike now while I have hubby's card. SpeedNoodles and twangster 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 42 minutes ago, Sweety said: I am doing the same thing next month. I am looking at two cruises. I must strike now while I have hubby's card. Book it! Sweety, Fuzzywuzzy and Shawnemact 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 I will add one benefit of Next is a smaller deposit on some cruises. The deposit on a typical 7 night cruise is $250 but lately Next has been offering $100 deposits. That can be a game changer for some people. If you have to walk away from a $100 NRDB you only lose $100. The savings of NRDB compared to refundable can be hundreds. No one likes losing $100 but if you stand to save $400 or more with a NRDB then the math and logic may work out for you. Sweety and Al Horner 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ1231 Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 23 hours ago, twangster said: I will add one benefit of Next is a smaller deposit on some cruises. +1 We visited NextCruise on each of our 3 cruises. We didn't do anything on the first two (booked #2, #3 and #4 with MEI from home) but on this last cruise we decided to book #5 (another 3-night Bahamas trip next February). We got the smaller deposits ($100) AND $75 of OBC for a junior suite. I checked the day we got home and would not have gotten the OBC. Otherwise, even today the price is still the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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