A friend of mine, a regular HAL cruiser, told me he booked a HAL cruise while onboard expecting to get a better deal.
When he boarded the subsequent cruise and on chatting with a friend who had the same cabin type he found his friend had paid considerably less. He has decided never to do that again.
So the question is "Is it worthwhile to book on board or not " ?

I don't think it's a matter of booking on board or not booking on board it's a matter of watching the prices. We keep an eye on our cruises and so does our TA and if the prices go down she makes sure we get the discount, if possible.

d

But It does matter then becasue when you book on board you cannot take advantage of the subsequent price deals that may be offered. Therefore surely the conclusion is do not book onboard because there is no obvious benefit ?

i don't understand why you can't take advantage of any future discounts? whenever i have booked royal caribbean if it goes down in price before final payment i just call up and they make the discount. in fact, my cruise coming up i had paid it off a few weeks early and i saw on the website it went down another couple hundred dollars and i just called and they refunded by card the $540. also, on rcl you can buy a future cruise credit for $100. then when you eventually decide to book (i think you have 4 years or something like that) you book and they deduct the 100 from your cruise and you get an o.b.c. depending upon how many days the cruise that you book is.

Perhaps that only applies to RCCL. Certainly on HAL he was not able to do it till after the fact and he only crusies HAL and probably has more than 20 crusies to his name. And maybe it only applies on prices direct to the Cruise Line and not to deals through other organizations ?
The only possible benefit I see is if Cruise prices went up after he booked it. Is that likely ?

On most cruises, when you book onboard, they ask if you have a travel agent. Wouldn't that travel agent then be able to work to get you the best price if the price went down? I really don't know, for I haven't done that before!

It seems there is not a lot of interest in this subject. It would be good if people who had actually done it and had good or bad experience came along to share. My story is only second hand, I have not done it myself either. But that is probably because I leave everything till the last minute anyway. I booked my first ever cruise on an impulse only a few weeks before it sailed.

Do you think if we introduced it into General Questions and Answers it might attract more interest ? I think Only Admin can move things. Or we could ask the question and start afresh there.

i didn't book a specific cruise - i just bought the future cruise credit. they did ask if i had a travel agent and i said no because i wasn't sure i was going to use the same one. when i did book she just had it transferred over to her. i had no problem using rcl future cruise credit. i don't know about hal. maybe some here does.

i just called hal to ask. the agent i spoke with said if you book on your present cruise - if before final payment the price goes down they will discount it. if it goes up - no increase.

sometimes prices go down if the ship isn't booked after all final payments are due. maybe your friend didn't check the price before he paid final payment or the other person purchased within the last 72 days of sailing and the price was lower then.

Thanks for the information on HAL. I will pass it on to my friend. I am guessing he just assumed that he was getting the best deal. In 72 days lots can happen.

We went on NCL Spirit in Nov. and they offered $100 credit taken off immediately if you give a deposit and you can book the cruise at a later date. I think you have 18 months to take the cruise. Would have to check paperwork to be sure. Worked out good for us because we didn't know exactly when and where we wanted to go next. You don't even have to book it through them directly, you can find it on the internet with any agent if you choose. When we checked our statement the day we left, it had been credited with the $100.

Doesnt Carnival own HAL? Up until recently if the price went down before sailing you could call up and get the refund or OBC after final payment, but Carnival, as of 12/1/09 changed and will no longer give OBCs after final payment. I'm assuming this would apply as well to HAL but havent called to ask as Pat has.

It's been on your friend's shoulders to check for price drops and contact someone if he sees a lower price.

When you book onboard, that just locks in the OBC, but the price can go up and down until the cruise sails, and usually does vary. When the date is still really far out, I don't check as often, but if its right before final payment time, about a month or so before is when you want to really start watching those prices. Prices can drop for as little as a few hours and if you dont capture the price or get someone (either your TA or cruiseline agent) to do the reduction, after the price is back up its too late. I actually take a screen print of the price if I have trouble contacting someone so I can prove the price in case it jumps back up.

absolutely it is up to the passenger to check for price decreases. i once caught a decrease on princess that was only up for a few hours and once caught a price decrease that was only good on july 4 and was able to call and get it.