New Placeholder Policy

[Ravenne]

I know DCL ships are cashless, so I'm guessing you can't pay the $200 deposit with cash? Does it have to be credit card or gift cards? Any other forms of payment accepted for OBB?

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I know DCL ships are cashless, so I'm guessing you can't pay the $200 deposit with cash? Does it have to be credit card or gift cards? Any other forms of payment accepted for OBB?

To your credit card held on file. I have had them debited to my stateroom ac before.

 

[NYIceQueen]

The deposit is $200 per stateroom

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2015/03/onboard-booking-offer-updated-to-offer-passengers-option-to-book-a-placeholder-date/

Holy smokes, talk about an incentive to do an OBB!

 

[shburks]

Since you're not making an actual booking, does this mean that you don't need to add a travel agent while on board, and can add them within 30 days of booking an actual cruise if you want to take advantage of both the OBB offer and a travel agency offer? This could work for us, because although I don't mind handing the reservation over to a travel agent for the freebies, I'd rather choose the stateroom, etc... for myself.

You'll still be assigned a reservation number--just won't have a specific ship or cabin--so the 30 day transfer still applies to the date you booked the placeholder.

Hopefully there will be less false rate increases so yes, while the rates will go up the closer you get to a sailing date, hopefully they won't be as falsely inflated with people putting deposits on dummy cruises they never intend to take.

 

[darwinsrule]

One step closer for DCL to what the industry standard is. We grabbed one on NCL Getaway last summer. Cost on NCL is $250, but you get an immediate $100 OBC so effectively the cost is $150. The bonus however is that it is good for 4 years. Given the number of new ships NCL has on order (and how much we enjoyed Getaway) is was an easy decision. As another post noted, it also took about 5 seconds.

On a side note, we were on the Wonder March 15th - 20th and I have never seen the future cruise desk that dead. Most of the time the poor guy behind it was alone. On past cruises there was pretty much always a line up.

We are actually at the point now where for the fist time since 2011 we don't have a Disney Cruise booked. Very strange feeling. With what we already have booked (NCL Getaway again this August and NCL Jewel to Alaska next August), the earliest we are thinking of doing something is August 2017 so the 24 month rule made it useless to us.

 

[ultimate_ed]

One step closer for DCL to what the industry standard is.

One can only wonder if loyalty tiers based on days sailed rather than just cruises can be far behind. It's clear Disney intends to stay with offering longer duration cruises.

 

[SuperDry]

To your credit card held on file. I have had them debited to my stateroom ac before.

My understanding is that OBBs cannot be charged to the credit card held on file for KTTW account. Rather, they can make a separate charge immediately to whatever card is on file. The differences being a) it's a separate transaction, b) it happens immediately regardless of what your KTTW balance is, and c) you can't use OBC. That's the quickest way to do it. If you want to use a different credit card (or you don't have one on file), then you can, but it takes a lot longer as they have to enter all of the details of the card, including name, billing address, etc., even if they are the same as the one on file.

 

[cashe]

Are OBB refundable if you decide not to sail at all?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Are OBB refundable if you decide not to sail at all?

Except for Concierge deposits, if you cancel prior to the Paid in Full date, you will get all your monies paid back.

 

[tinkerone]

Except for Concierge deposits, if you cancel prior to the Paid in Full date, you will get all your monies paid back.

i'm wondering if cashe was talking about refundable if you don't make a booking and just still have the certificate. in that case there would be no concierge deposit because nothing was ever booked.
I would think if you canceled the certificate you would get your refund back as long as it was within the booking window.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

i'm wondering if cashe was talking about refundable if you don't make a booking and just still have the certificate. in that case there would be no concierge deposit because nothing was ever booked.

Either way, if it's cancelled prior to the PIF = full refund.

 

[cashe]

thank you!!!

 

[dsnydaddy]

This...IS....AWESOME!!!

 

[wdrl]

One step closer for DCL to what the industry standard is.

I totally agree. For several years now Princess has offered Future Cruise Credits to passengers aboard a Princess ship. Each FCC costs $100, but you get all of that money back because it serves as your down payment when you book a future cruise. Even if the future cruise normally requires a deposit greater than $100 (and many of Princess' itineraries do), the FCC counts as the full down payment. The Princess FCC also comes with an onboard credit; the amount varies depending on length of cruise and type of cabin booked.

A couple more features about the Princess Future Cruise Credits: They are billed directly to your charge card, not to your stateroom account. They are good for two years and if not used in that time the full amount of the FCC is refunded to your charge card. That is one reason why Princess bills a charge card directly rather than an onboard account. Up until a couple years ago Princess' FCCs were good for four years. But Princess found that some people canceled credit cards in four years and it was having difficulty making automatic refunds to some passengers because their cards were no longer active.

I was always amazed DCL had a much more convoluted placeholder system. DCL's new system seems to bring it more in line with other cruise lines.

 

[Ravenne]

Do placeholder reservations all have to be under the same name or can you hold one for someone who's not sailing with you?

 

[Happy100]

They offered this on our Jan 3rd cruise. Lots of people booked this. We however didn't and booked April 2016 spring break cruise. So glad we did not it has gone up.

 

[Sunshine2U]

That makes sense. Currently I'm sitting on a Star Wars cruise I don't intend to use. That sailing is filling up and I don't plan to convert the ressie until this fall.

 

[cloud10]

If I don't book a cruise within 24 months, I lose all the benefits, right? 10% off total fare, $100/200 OBC, etc.?

 

[SillyInventor]

Yes, after the 24 months you loose all OBB benefits.

 

[lbgraves]

Just saw this posted by my TA from a DCL email today. Looks like if you have a dummy cruise booked they are going to convert it to the new placeholder.

For those Guests who are not yet ready to select their next cruise vacation date, we have a new placeholder process. This new process has a flat deposit rate of $200 per booking. Please contact us by April 17, 2015, if you wish to select a future sail date for your client. After this time, your client's booking will be moved to the new process and bookings with deposits over $200 will receive a refund of the difference in deposit amounts."