bryresangel Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 I am SOOOO ready finally get on a cruise that isn't cancelled. We received our docs today, and there is a form for booking your next cruise onboard. Is this worth it? Is it more worth it if the cruise is farther out, or soon? Are there any tricks I should know about? Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 Two reasons to get a quote from Next. Reduced $100 deposits and OBC. Have an idea what you might be looking for before you go. Research pricing. Next doesn't usually offer the perks for refundable bookings or they are greatly reduced but it never hurts to shop them for pricing. KristiZ and bryresangel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJS2766 Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 We cruise Saturday on the Symphony. I was just thinking about booking my next cruise, but it would be 2023. I don't think any 2023 cruises are available though? Correct? What then?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FionaMG Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 It depends. Here's my experience. About a month before boarding my cruise on Harmony at the end of last month, I booked a cruise on Odyssey of the Seas. I saw what I felt was a really good price and a decent choice of cabins and I didn't want to wait until I got on board to book in case the price went up and the cabin I was interested in had gone by then. I thought this was very likely to happen, given that Odyssey is a brand new ship. And happen it did; the price went up by more than the OBC bonus I would have got for booking at Next Cruise and all of the cabins I had been looking at had gone. While there's always the possibility of getting a price drop later on, I think it's unlikely, again given the newness of the ship, so I believe I took the best course of action by booking when I did. Conversely, the other cruise I had my eye on at the time was a 12-nighter on an older ship (Anthem). Cruises of that length have a higher deposit: $450 pp as opposed to the $250 you pay on the shorter itineraries. Plus, the Next Cruise OBC for the longer cruise was going to be $200 and there were still plenty of acceptable cabins available. So I decided to take a chance and wait that one out. When I booked it at Next Cruise, it had gone up by $50 but with $200 OBC I still came out on top by waiting and I only had to shell out $100 pp for the deposit. And, as luck would have it, the cabin I wanted was still available. So in this case, it paid to wait and book at Next Cruise. bryresangel and WAAAYTOOO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FionaMG Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 13 minutes ago, CJS2766 said: We cruise Saturday on the Symphony. I was just thinking about booking my next cruise, but it would be 2023. I don't think any 2023 cruises are available though? Correct? What then?? There's something called an open booking that you can buy for $100 pp. I'm not 100% sure - maybe one of our MEI agents will chip in and correct me if I've got it wrong - but I think it works like this: if you convert it to a named sailing within 2 months of purchasing, you still get the OBC that you would have got if you'd booked a specific sailing on board. After that, you still have a further 10 months to convert it to a named sailing but you lose the OBC. And if you don't convert it to a named sailing within one year of purchase it expires and you lose the deposit. I think there's also something in the rules about if you convert it to a named sailing in a suite you have to pay the additional deposit at the time of conversion. So it's probably only worth considering if you don't normally sail in suites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK6404 Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 24 minutes ago, CJS2766 said: We cruise Saturday on the Symphony. I was just thinking about booking my next cruise, but it would be 2023. I don't think any 2023 cruises are available though? Correct? What then?? It looks like some cruises are available through April 2023. We booked Harmony for January 2023 in NextCruise last week on Oasis. Since we booked a balcony stateroom and it's just the two of us in the cabin, we got the $100 OBC and paid the reduced $200 deposit (non-refundable). They let you decide how you want the $100... you can choose OBC or you can apply it to the cruise fare. We chose OBC to keep future repricing simple. Each guest can make up to 3 bookings - you can make bookings for family or friends and they get the same benefits. We made a reservation for our friends while we were onboard (adjacent cabin). You also have the option of keeping the reservation with Royal or sending it to your travel agent (they will have your last travel agent on file if you booked your current cruise through an agency). We kept it with our current TA and our friends kept their booking with Royal for now since they were not happy with their TA. You have 60 days from the booking date to change your reservation (another ship, sail date, cabin type, etc.) without losing the NextCruise benefits and without any penalty. Any changes to cabin/ship/sail date after 60 days incurs a penalty. I believe the change penalty is $100/person after 60 days from booking. I'm sure more experienced folks will be able to confirm and elaborate on the penalties. PPPJJ-GCVAB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryresangel Posted October 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 1 hour ago, twangster said: Have an idea what you might be looking for before you go. Research pricing. Next doesn't usually offer the perks for refundable bookings or they are greatly reduced but it never hurts to shop them for pricing. Great idea! I will take a look and see. We already have our next one booked since we had to burn some FCC, but there is always the next next cruise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 It's definitely worth it. And you still have the freedom to transfer to your TA KristiZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.