Can someone explain to me the benefits of booking onboard?

[tjcamtc]

I sailed 4 days in 2009, am booked on a 7 day in March 2011 and am considering booking a future cruise on board.

Can someone tell me what the advantages are and what my deposit will be?

Thanks, Dis family!

 

[maria-fan-22]

The main purpose is that you get 10%off and the deposit is cut in half. Other reasons include knowing you are going on another Disney Cruise and making a reservation knowing you will change when future itineraries come out.

 

[tjcamtc]

What about on board credits? I thought you would get shipboard credit also?

What time and where is the future cruise consultant?

Thanks!

 

[over50visits]

We always book on board. 10% off of the fare (not quite 10% of the total because it doesn't include government fees, but close), and generally half the deposit. You are dealing with a real Disney person, one on one, in a comfortable setting where you can see your choices, get your stateroom on the spot chosen from a ship layout, and have time to interact with questions, thoughts, and opinions. If you don't wait until late in the cruise, there will be little or no line, and you can take your time. It's the next best thing to having a live person on the phone who can talk to you, answer questions, give options, react to your thoughts, etc.

You also can book "dummy" reservations to keep your discount and change to other cruises later. That always seemed a little dishonest to me to purposely book a reservation you know you aren't going to use, but the agent on board has genuinely assured me that it is okay, honestly admitting DCL would rather have me commit to a cruise and change it later (the psychology of sales).

It's a great experience doing it on board; if you have your favorite travel agent for whatever reason, they will transfer your reservation to them on the spot for you, giving you the best of both worlds - the onboard discount and your TA for future phone calls and service.

 

[lmhall2000]

I don't think we could ever book onboad unless they had a fire sale one day! We're going on our second cruise in March...both times we've received amazing deals..(Kids sail free and adult paying almost 50% off!) We could not do a cruise with the number in our family at just 10% off....we actually thought we'd never afford a cruise, but the past two years (bad economy) and I predict the next 3-4 years, many good deals will be out there...so many new ships that hold so many more people means they have to fill lots of itineraries...we can travel any time of the year so we have that advantage..I think for those limited by school year...the on board deal is attractive.

Tara

 

[disneylandkids]

You also can book "dummy" reservations to keep your discount and change to other cruises later. That always seemed a little dishonest to me to purposely book a reservation you know you aren't going to use, but the agent on board has genuinely assured me that it is okay, honestly admitting DCL would rather have me commit to a cruise and change it later (the psychology of sales).

It's a great experience doing it on board; if you have your favorite travel agent for whatever reason, they will transfer your reservation to them on the spot for you, giving you the best of both worlds - the onboard discount and your TA for future phone calls and service.

I always suggest to my clients that they book their next cruise onboard because of the great rates, and Disney Cruise Line is great about handing off the reservation when my clients specify me as their agent. Depending on when my clients book while they're onboard, I find out about their next cruise before they've even returned!

I want to speak a little bit about the 'placeholder' reservation. I know what you mean: it seems a little deceptive to book a cruise and know you've removed a stateroom from available inventory for someone who might actually want to go on that sailing. However, if you have your eye on an itinerary that hasn't yet been released (for example, Alaska 2012), simply pick a cruise and sailing pretty far into the future and you won't impact inventory too much. Inventory often changes about the time of final payment when people drop out and get their deposits back.

Some other cruise lines offer guests the ability to simply make a deposit toward a future cruise without picking a specific cruise. That makes it easy, but that's not how Disney works it, so you play the game with their rules.

Hope this helps!

 

[kcashner]

The benefits are much as above--at least 10% off the cruise fare portion of the ticket plus an onboard credit that is the biggest you'll ever be able to get. The exact amount depends on the length of the cruise and the number of times you've sailed on DCL. Some cruises will carry a larger discount; for instance, the some of the Med dates in 2011 got a 20% discount; I booked a special cruise several years ago that had a $500 OBC. (10 night Wonder sailing)

If you tell the onboard booking agent that you are booking a "dummy" date, she knows which cruise date to place you on. DCL knows that people do this, and they try to bunch these for the early December cruises knowing that people will move them. My TA does the same thing--ALL their "dummy" dates are booked for the same cruise or two so that there is no way they lose track of them. You are really not taking a cabin that someone else could have booked.

As above, it's nice to have a dummy in your back pocket if you know that you will cruise DCL again in the next few years. All you have to lose is whatever interest you could have accrued on your deposit (not much!) If you decide not to cruise, you can get a refund of your deposit. If you do cruise, you'll get the discount and OBC.

 

[irishdadx4]

We just got back from our 4 night Dec 12 cruise. We rebooked two dummy cruises onboard. I selected a 3 day cruise on march 2012, in the lowest cat11, for one person. The deposit was only $60 per booking. We intend to move these to the two other PODcast cruises, the 5 day on June 24, 2012, and the Dec one in 2012 when it is announced. We got 10% each booking fare, half deposit, and $100 OBC for each cruise. If I had been thinking right I would have booked three.

Mike

 

[silence]

We just got back from our 4 night Dec 12 cruise. We rebooked two dummy cruises onboard. I selected a 3 day cruise on march 2012, in the lowest cat11, for one person. The deposit was only $60 per booking. We intend to move these to the two other PODcast cruises, the 5 day on June 24, 2012, and the Dec one in 2012 when it is announced. We got 10% each booking fare, half deposit, and $100 OBC for each cruise. If I had been thinking right I would have booked three.

Mike

OK.....so there are 5 of us. So, I can book a cruise for 1 person vs. the 5 and add the others later? I'm such a beginner, planning our first cruise but knowing when I am onbaord in Feb. I am going to want to rebook another date in the future.

 

[kcashner]

OK.....so there are 5 of us. So, I can book a cruise for 1 person vs. the 5 and add the others later? I'm such a beginner, planning our first cruise but knowing when I am onbaord in Feb. I am going to want to rebook another date in the future.

You can, but....there are some problems with adding people later, especially if you are picking a real date and not a dummy. The ship fills in 3 ways--the number of cabins, the number of people at each lifeboat station, and the number of kids in each age group. This is why you can sometimes find cabins on line for 3 adults, but not for 2 adults and one child (kid age full).

So, if you book a room for one person, you know you have a room. You cannot be sure that you will be allowed to add more people when you decide to do so. In addition, you are supposed to get the discount on only the number of people you booked while on board (the added later people are not supposed to be discounted.) Others have reported getting the discount when they added people later, so I suspect that it depends on how DCL codes it.

The other consideration is that with 5 people, it is sometimes cheaper to get 2 connecting cabins of a lower category rather than one cat 4. If you do this, you must pay adult rates for the first 2 people in the cabin (you book husband and oldest child in one, wife and next oldest child in the second, and it doesn't matter where the youngest child goes. You can SLEEP with the adults in one room and the kids in the other, but you must BOOK one adult in each room. You would have an interior door connecting the two cabins. If you book on board this way, you would get 2 onboard credits as well as the discount.

 

[NancyIL]

We just got back from our 4 night Dec 12 cruise. We rebooked two dummy cruises onboard. I selected a 3 day cruise on march 2012, in the lowest cat11, for one person. The deposit was only $60 per booking. We intend to move these to the two other PODcast cruises, the 5 day on June 24, 2012, and the Dec one in 2012 when it is announced. We got 10% each booking fare, half deposit, and $100 OBC for each cruise. If I had been thinking right I would have booked three.

Mike

Why didn't you book the June 2012 Podcast cruise while on the Dec. Podcast cruise? There are a limited number of cabins available to be part of that group cruise.