Boston Babe Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 HI All, I was reading about Royals Next Cruise program (I believe Matt posted the update) it seemed many many people were unhappy. But the way I read it, they are now offering both Non-refundable and Refundable onboard now but the OBC weren't as good. Can someone confirm for me? After reading all comments I think I can wait till back on land or try another cruise line. Quote
BrianAlt Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 The main problem was the elimination of the reduced deposit. coneyraven 1 Quote
tiny260 Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 Brian's correct, also On Board credit, people were booking multiple cruises and applying the OBC to the cruise they were on and then cancelling the cruises later. Mine is personal preference, I don't always use a TA, so sometimes I like to pick the brain of the Next Cruise person I'm dealing with. I also don't typically cancel a cruise either, I may move the dates to fit my schedule though. Quote
princevaliantus Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 As I suspected, this change in Royal's Next Cruise Program, as expressed by many, have left sales on-board on the downside. There has been a drop in future bookings on-board as many have noticed and stated. I wonder if the Next Cruise Staff can file for unemployment?!?! ? ? Boston Babe and hallyluhopper 2 Quote
Boston Babe Posted August 23, 2017 Author Report Posted August 23, 2017 1 hour ago, tiny260 said: Brian's correct, also On Board credit, people were booking multiple cruises and applying the OBC to the cruise they were on and then cancelling the cruises later. Mine is personal preference, I don't always use a TA, so sometimes I like to pick the brain of the Next Cruise person I'm dealing with. I also don't typically cancel a cruise either, I may move the dates to fit my schedule though. Oh so the OBC was available for their current cruise, then cancelled the cruise later? Well you really can't blame them. That was not a win/win situation. Thank you!! Quote
jce2 Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 They should keep the OBC but require that it be used on the cruise you are booking not the cruise you are on whitsmom 1 Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 I think another issue was the people were booking full suites for a higher OBC and then downgrading the suites to a lower category thus "gaming" the system that way. As Tiny suggested, we don't normally cancel but quite often must move a cruise around so the NRD is definitely a problem for us. Quote
DocLC Posted August 23, 2017 Report Posted August 23, 2017 1 hour ago, Boston Babe said: Oh so the OBC was available for their current cruise, then cancelled the cruise later? Well you really can't blame them. That was not a win/win situation. Thank you!! The OBC would be offset by the deposit. So if you cancelled, you would not received that amount back as part of your deposit. Quote
jticarruthers Posted August 24, 2017 Report Posted August 24, 2017 15 hours ago, Boston Babe said: Oh so the OBC was available for their current cruise, then cancelled the cruise later? Well you really can't blame them. That was not a win/win situation. Thank you!! Except you forfeited your deposit if you did that so you didn't really win anything ... put down $50 deposit, received $50 OBC, cancelled cruise, received no refund. Net result spent $50 to get $50. Quote
BrianAlt Posted August 24, 2017 Report Posted August 24, 2017 15 hours ago, jce2 said: They should keep the OBC but require that it be used on the cruise you are booking not the cruise you are on Agreed. I'm not sure why they didn't do this. I always used it on the forward cruise. We never need it on the current cruise. Quote
Guest toodle68 Posted August 24, 2017 Report Posted August 24, 2017 The one advantage we found with Next Cruise was sitting down with an agent. We had spent ages researching trying to get two rooms of different classes near each other and could not. We then went to Next Cruise and they found perfect rooms inside a couple of minutes. Quote
Boston Babe Posted August 24, 2017 Author Report Posted August 24, 2017 1 hour ago, BrianAlt said: Agreed. I'm not sure why they didn't do this. I always used it on the forward cruise. We never need it on the current cruise. That makes the most sense, it's also something to know that you have for your future cruise. BrianAlt 1 Quote
Hutcherl Posted August 24, 2017 Report Posted August 24, 2017 15 hours ago, DocLC said: The OBC would be offset by the deposit. So if you cancelled, you would not received that amount back as part of your deposit. 1 hour ago, jticarruthers said: Except you forfeited your deposit if you did that so you didn't really win anything ... put down $50 deposit, received $50 OBC, cancelled cruise, received no refund. Net result spent $50 to get $50. Agree with the above. I started to use next cruise primarily for the reduced deposit. I feel I burned the last time with the next cruise manager giving false info regarding all obc following your booking if you later change. So I wasn't going to use next cruise moving forward anyway. Quote
RoyalLaker Posted August 25, 2017 Report Posted August 25, 2017 On 8/23/2017 at 0:02 PM, Boston Babe said: HI All, I was reading about Royals Next Cruise program (I believe Matt posted the update) it seemed many many people were unhappy. But the way I read it, they are now offering both Non-refundable and Refundable onboard now but the OBC weren't as good. Can someone confirm for me? After reading all comments I think I can wait till back on land or try another cruise line. I don't like the new Next cruise program either. Just recently on the Explorer the Next Cruise team was giving away 6 free bingo cards if you booked a cruise, They had a desk setup in the RP half the time it looked busy the other half empty. Quote
Boston Babe Posted August 25, 2017 Author Report Posted August 25, 2017 13 hours ago, RoyalLaker said: I don't like the new Next cruise program either. Just recently on the Explorer the Next Cruise team was giving away 6 free bingo cards if you booked a cruise, They had a desk setup in the RP half the time it looked busy the other half empty. 6 Free Bingo cards????? Seriously?????? LMAO!!!! Quote
monctonguy Posted August 25, 2017 Report Posted August 25, 2017 Well with those bingo cards you could win a cruise or some cash/obc (based on the bingo I have played on Royal) but I am guessing booking onboard will be way down. I didn't find it that convenient the hours and it usually booked up fairly quickly. I liked though the chance to talk to someone and chat and could chose when you wanted to use the OBC so it was a win win.....imho Quote
FManke Posted August 26, 2017 Report Posted August 26, 2017 On 8/24/2017 at 9:21 PM, RoyalLaker said: Just recently on the Explorer the Next Cruise team was giving away 6 free bingo cards if you booked a cruise Reminds me of a TV ad for a car dealer when I was a kid that offered ladies a free pair of pantyhose if you took a test drive! RestingBird 1 Quote
BrianAlt Posted August 28, 2017 Report Posted August 28, 2017 On 8/24/2017 at 10:21 PM, RoyalLaker said: I don't like the new Next cruise program either. Just recently on the Explorer the Next Cruise team was giving away 6 free bingo cards if you booked a cruise, They had a desk setup in the RP half the time it looked busy the other half empty. Hey, can't blame them for trying SOMETHING! It's home office's decision that has tied their hands. Quote
tkltomp Posted August 28, 2017 Report Posted August 28, 2017 I was just on Oasis two weeks ago. We went to NextCruise and talked to a very nice man, who really gave us no compelling reason to book anything. One good thing about NextCruise is you can run through a lot of Itineraries and ships very quickly. This really helps narrow the scope of your search and proved booking early saves the most money. Ultimately the cruise we wanted wasn't available yet (Allure Summer 2019). Quote
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