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Next Cruise book onboard? Pros/Cons?


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Hi, I searched the pages and could not find anything in the first few hundred search returns for "next cruise" so figured I would ask here.


I am, fingers crossed, boarding Adventure of the Seas this weekend and I have some cruises I would like to book.

I've NEVER used next cruise....and i have a couple of cruises I've priced out and am considering to book.  I see there is a sale currently, with some pretty decent pricing and I'm not sure if I should hold off on booking....if I book when onboard can I still take advantage of repricing if the price drops? 

Can anyone tell me the pros/cons -advantages/disadvantages-of utilizing next cruise?  I understand the booking can be transferred to your travel agent (I think I'll be looking for a new one of those too as I've had quite a few issues this go around with response-or lack thereof).  Thank you in advance!

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We book onboard to take advantage of lower (non-refundable) deposits and a small amount of on board credit. 
 

They have our travel agent on file and the cruise is transferred when we book. 
 

We have never found pricing to be any better at Next Cruise than anywhere else. We have always booked far enough out that there has only been one time we were able to reprice and save some money.  There was no issues with repricing that time, although as I remember, our travel agent did it for us. 
 

As far as finding a travel agent, we have been super thankful to have the wonderful Michelle from MEI Travel as our travel agent.   MEI is a sponsor of this site, and I’ve never read anything bad about any of their agents.  
 

 

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It helps if you know what you are looking for before you go.  Reduced deposits and some OBC can be benefits but it really depends on your qualifiers.  Age, military service, police/fire, Crown and Anchor, home state, etc. all play a role on your cruise pricing and some of those may or may not be combinable with NextCruise OBC.  

They tend to slant heavily towards NRD pricing but refundable is available for non-suites upon request.  Not always very attractive though once you switch to refundable.  The perks mostly align with NRD bookings.

 

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I don't actually book my next cruise with the Next Cruise staff, I purchase the Next Cruise certificate, take it home and then either book with Royal or the online travel agency I sometimes use. All the benefits (reduced deposit, OBC) are still available. And you don't have to schedule an appointment, just fill out the paperwork they provide and drop it in the dropbox at the Next Cruise office area.

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I seem to remember that if you book with Next Cruise they automatically assign your booking to the travel agent who handled the booking for the cruise you are on, so if you're looking to change to a different then you need to tell them not to. As long as you own the booking you can subsequently transfer it to a new agent of your choosing within 60 days of booking, if you wish.

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31 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I seem to remember that if you book with Next Cruise they automatically assign your booking to the travel agent who handled the booking for the cruise you are on, so if you're looking to change to a different then you need to tell them not to. As long as you own the booking you can subsequently transfer it to a new agent of your choosing within 60 days of booking, if you wish.

That 60 days is being reduced to 30 days soon.

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I usually book my cruise as soon as available.   But one cruise I had been waiting to open, happened to open to bookings while on another cruise. I had asked Next Cruise agent to notify me if it became available and she did 2 days later.  I got a fantastic deal, but may have been that I booked right away and/or the Next Cruise agent contributed.  I even got a $600 OBC.    Unfortunately the cruise got cancelled last year.   But was great experience and would do it again.   I would not hesitate to book onboard again.

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On 8/2/2021 at 5:16 PM, smokeybandit said:

That 60 days is being reduced to 30 days soon.

Apparently this happened already . . . I just heard last weekend about the 60 day thing, and attempted to transfer my self-done booking* to a travel agent, and they were unable to because it had been over 30 days (by like two to three days, unfortunately).   

*It's my first cruise, and I didn't know what I didn't know (which was to use a travel agent from the get-go)

 

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