Booking onboard for friends. Some ??

[HallsofVA]

I did a search and saw where you can book while on board up to the number of people that you have in your sailing party (so if we have 4 of us, we can book 4 cabins.) Is that 4 cabins per sailing, or 4 cabins in total (e.g., 2 cabins on 2 cruises for example, or 4 cabins on 4 cruises)?

If we book a cabin for friends who are not on the ship with us, does their reservation have to be for the same sailing date as one we are rebooking for or one we have already have booked? Or could we just make them a reservation for a date that they want to sail as long as we have all of their information with us?

If the friend's reservation has to be for the same cruise that we have booked, what if one of us (either us or them) changes our mind and moves their reservation to another date? Is there any risk of them losing the rebooking incentive, or are they okay once the reservation was made initially?

We have friends who came to our House Party last weekend who are now considering booking their first Disney cruise. We're sailing in 3 weeks and I'd love to offer to book a room for them while we're sailing. We have a cruise booked for a date they may be interested, but it's 2 years away and a lot could change between now and then. I'd just like to understand the options better before I make the offer to help them.

[kcashner]

The number of RESERVATIONS you are allowed to make is equal to the number of people in your sailing party. One reservation = one cabin on one cruise.

SO, if there are 4 of you, you can book any combination of 4 reservations. You could book 3 cabins on one sailing date and one on another; you could book 2 cabins on each of 2 sailings, or you could book one cabin on each of 4 sailings or you could book 4 cabins on the same date.

Technically, if you book for a friend who is not on the cruise with you, you are supposed to book yourself in a cabin on the same sailing. However, they are then separate reservation; either of you can cancel or move the reservation without affecting the other. I have done this--I booked myself a "dummy" to be able to book my friend's sailing, knowing that I'd be moving mine. It all happened with no problems. Depending on who the booking agent is on board, she may not make you book the same cruise as your friend, but that's the way it's supposed to work.

The only downside to booking for your friend is that you need to pay their down payment at the time of the booking. What I did--I did the booking with my credit card, then contacted them with the reservation number. They phoned their credit card to our TA. The TA called DCL and changed the deposit from my card to theirs. This way, they didn't have to give me their credit card number. The other thing they could do is to give you a check made out to DCL...they could even leave the amount for you to fill in if you are unsure of what the deposit will be (whether the 1/2 off will still be in effect).

[HallsofVA]

Thanks for the info. So if I have three 2011 reservations that I want to rebook while on board in December, and there are 4 of us in our family on the cruise, then I could possibly rebook all my current reservations and still book a reservation for a friend. But since I would be maxed out on the number of reservations, they'd probably have to book for a date that we're already booking for, and then change their reservation afterwards, since we couldn't book a dummy date without changing one of our existing cruises.

We're also sailing on the Wonder in early January, so I guess I could do some rebooking while on that cruise if necessary, but I always worry about January 1 price increases (in general, not cruise specific) so I figure it's better to book earlier rather than later.

[HallsofVA]

I forgot! This gets even more complex. On our Dec cruise I was planning on trying to rebook my FIL's 2010 WBTA to get him the discount and OBC. (We transfered a previous rebooking to that cruise for our reservation but he didn't rebook on our last cruise so he doesn't have any discounts at the moment.) So that's a 5th reservation possibly! And unfortunately he'd come before our friend's reservation. I guess I will have to push one of my rebookings to the January cruise possibly if I try to rebook for both of them.

[kcashner]

Originally Posted by HallsofVA

Thanks for the info. So if I have three 2011 reservations that I want to rebook while on board in December, and there are 4 of us in our family on the cruise, then I could possibly rebook all my current reservations and still book a reservation for a friend. But since I would be maxed out on the number of reservations, they'd probably have to book for a date that we're already booking for, and then change their reservation afterwards, since we couldn't book a dummy date without changing one of our existing cruises.

We're also sailing on the Wonder in early January, so I guess I could do some rebooking while on that cruise if necessary, but I always worry about January 1 price increases (in general, not cruise specific) so I figure it's better to book earlier rather than later.

Just remember that you'll be pricing out your 2011 reservations and hoping the the prices haven't increased. If you have booked directly with DCL, they can just roll your already paid deposits into the new reservations. If you have used a TA, the onboard booking agent will have to e-mail the TA and have them "release the deposit" and then she'll be able to do as above. If you do plan to use a TA but the reservation is currently with DCL, name them at the time of the onboard rebooking, that way they'll get full commission. And, if we are lucky enough to have Leslie as the onboard agent, she makes everything really easy!