Royal Caribbean made two changes to the amount of onboard credit you get when you book another cruise while on their ship.
Every Royal Caribbean ship has a NextCruise office, where you can stop in and book a future sailing.
As of this week, the amount of onboard credit has changed by dropping the offer for longer sailings.
The base onboard credit offer no longer has specific amounts for sailings 10 nights or longer.
- 3-5 night and Repositioning cruises
- Interior/Ocean View: $25 per cabin
- Balcony/Junior Suite: $50 per cabin
- Grand Suite & Above: $150 per cabin
- 6+ nights
- Interior/Ocean View: $50 per cabin
- Balcony/Junior Suite: $100 per cabin
- Grand Suite & Above: $300 per cabin
New NextCruise offer
Old NextCruise offer
With the update, the extra onboard spend now maxes out after a sailing of 6 nights or longer.
Royal Caribbean also made a change to add a "Bonus Savings Offer", where passengers could add extra credits that combine with the core offer.
The bonus offer is a limited-time offer to incentivize new bookings, similar to how the cruise line offers bonus savings on new cruises booked generally as part of a sales promotion.
- 5-nights or Less
- Interior/Ocean View: $25 per cabin
- Balcony/Junior Suite: $50 per cabin
- Grand Suite & Above: $100 per cabin
- 6+ nights
- Interior/Ocean View: $50 per cabin
- Balcony/Junior Suite: $100 per cabin
- Grand Suite & Above: $200 per cabin
NextCruise Bonus Savings apply to Book Now reservations or Book Later reservations converted between January 6, 2025 to February 28, 2025 to Short Caribbean (5 nights or less), Long Caribbean (9+ nights), and 7 night or less Los Angeles sailings departing October 1, 2025 - March 31, 2026.
When you combine the bonus savings and the core offer, there's the potential to earn more onboard credit than would have been possible under the old program that had no bonus offer.
How Royal Caribbean's offer compares to other cruise lines
If you're wondering, here's what other major cruise lines offer when booking a new cruise onboard the ship.
Carnival Cruise Line offers less onboard credit than Royal Caribbean in most cases.
Their "Welcome Home" program offers price protection, upgrades, 50% off standard deposits, and up to $50 per cabin or up to $100 per suite in onboard credit.
Norwegian Cruise Line has "CruiseNext", where passengers can book a deposit worth $250 or $500.
The $250 CruiseNext deposit can be used as a full deposit for nonsuite categories or as partial payment of suite deposits. The $500 deposits are full deposits for bookings in suites or The Haven.
MSC Cruises' program is more similar to Royal Caribbean in that the amount of onboard credit depends on the length of sailing and what type of cabin you book.
The amount of onboard credit ranges between $20 to $200, and it comes with a $100 per cabin reduced deposit amount, plus double MSC Voyagers Club loyalty points.
Advantage of booking a new cruise onboard a ship
One of the easiest ways to get money off a cruise is to book while on a ship.
For many years, Royal Caribbean has incentivized guests to book another cruise while on their current sailing.
It's a straight forward offer: book while on the ship and you'll pay the same price as what's listed online, but with extra onboard credit on top of any other promotion the cruise line is running.
Another benefit of booking at NextCruise is a reduced deposit, which has not changed with this week's update.
Royal Caribbean allows guests to book a sailing with only $100 per person deposits on select fares.
Once again, the deposit amount depends on the type of cabin you select, but this takes the sting out of the initial reservation cost.
The beauty of NextCruise is you can combine it with other offers that Royal Caribbean is running.
This makes it easy to stack promotions and rack up the greatest savings. You could get a Kids Sail Free deal, a BOGO offer, and add on the NextCruise offer.
The reason not to take advantage of this bonus
If all this onboard credit from NextCruise sounds like the perfect icing on the cake for your next booking, you probably should not wait to book onboard the ship.
Because Royal Caribbean cruise fares change by the minute, waiting to book on the ship could actually cost you more in the long term.
As more cabins are booked up for a given sailing, the price of a sailing will generally rise.
By waiting to book on the ship, the money you'd get from NextCruise might be outweighed by the higher cruise fare, thus negating the benefit you intended.
My advice is to book a cruise is early as you can in order to lock in the price.
The time to book at NextCruise is when you're on your cruise and have the notion to book a new sailing. In that scenario, you should absolutely take advantage of the bonus credits.
