Originally Posted by
DCFlyer0306
What's the catch? Who wouldn't pay $25 for that? Are the reservations somehow not guaranteed or treated as lower priority by Norwegian?
I've booked 10+ cruises through United Cruises (although none with Norwegian). They act as a Travel Agent to each cruise line, no different than any other TA you might use to book a cruise. Much like an airline booking, this means that you must deal with the TA for most pre-departure issues, such as payment, cabin selection, changes/cancellations, etc. as the cruise line itself won't touch a TA-booked reservation if you call them directly. This generally isn't an issue, as you don't have the kind of same-day delays, cancellations, or changes that you do with flights. Also, with most cruise lines, you can do many of those things yourself online at the cruise line's website, even for TA bookings.
As someone else mentioned, on top of the booking fee, there's also a cancellation fee - both payable directly to United Cruises. Other than those things, it's a great deal.
As to "What's the catch?" - another way to ask this is "It sounds too good to be true." Here's the deal: As a TA, United Cruises gets a commission from the cruise line for the booking, which might be 10-15% of the fare. Their business model is that they take a portion of that commission and rebate it back to you, in the form of MileagePlus miles. Also, since it's a United-sponsored program, their "cost" of the miles might be much less than what they sell them for to third parties or to passengers directly, thus making the apparent benefit be more valuable. What you may be forsaking is what another TA might be doing with part of their commission, which might be offering a discount on the fare (although not all cruise lines allow this), or a rebate in terms of extra on-board spending credit that they might give you, or some form of cash back after the cruise (such as Costo gift cards from Costo Cruises).
I have found that if you value MileagePlus miles on the high side, this is an excellent deal. Like many things related to miles, it all depends what your personal value of them is. Someone that values premium-cabin international travel is going to view miles differently than someone that only flies domestically and always buys the cheapest economy seat well in advance.