New Placeholder Policy

[Bree]

Oh gosh....that seems like it could cause a huge mess. Hopefully nobody gets their cruise canceled!

 

[Dug720]

Oh gosh....that seems like it could cause a huge mess. Hopefully nobody gets their cruise canceled!

I suspect as word of this spreads, the call center will be very busy with those of us who didn't do the dummy booking thing verifying that yes, we do want those dates.

Assuming it's a general "If you booked on board..." thing and not a thing limited to those booked on "designated" dummy dates or coded in some way as a dummy booking, I do feel for people who aren't active on boards. I know there are times Disney things end up in my spam folder, so I don't notice them right away. Not cool when it's something like this.

This is one case where I don't think applying something retroactively is a good idea.

 

[disneycrazy2004]

It must have been noted on our reservation that is was a dummy booking because on the email was also saying that they have the summer itineraries out if I would like to go and check them out and switch our dates. And if I don't call them by the date they will make it a placeholder reservation and will only keep $200 of my deposit and refund the rest. I wish they would keep my full deposit as we are from Canada and will loose money on the exchange rate

 

[IWannaCruise]

Thank you for the info on this. We plan to put a future cruise deposit down when we cruise in October this year. Planning a Sept 2017 cruise. Glad we get the 10% deposit (7 night cruise) and the $200 OBC

 

[sweetpee_1993]

So what if your placeholders didn't have $200 deposit on them? What if you paid less? When/if they auto-convert to the new placeholder will they want the difference to meet the $200?

 

[lbgraves]

...


That email that lbgraves posted is only specific to that TA agency I believe. They know who has a dummy booking and it looks as though they are going to convert THEIR clients over to the new DCL process.

No, as I said that was an email they received from DCL about one of their client's reservations. She was simply sharing it with all of her clients to give more information about the new system. She also posted later today that if you don't use your placeholder $200 OBB by the 24 month mark DCL will automatically refund you the $200.

 

[GooniesAndy]

It must have been noted on our reservation that is was a dummy booking because on the email was also saying that they have the summer itineraries out if I would like to go and check them out and switch our dates. And if I don't call them by the date they will make it a placeholder reservation and will only keep $200 of my deposit and refund the rest. I wish they would keep my full deposit as we are from Canada and will loose money on the exchange rate

I'd call and tell them you want to keep the cruise. You can just change it later as you had planned to do.

 

[Flossbolna]

I contacted my travel agent after reading about the conversion. It seems that they are getting emails for specific clients. However, she said that they got the email regarding a few clients who did not book the cruise as a placeholder. At her agency they seem to have the impression that it might be clients who are booked on the cheaper cruises, but so far could not detect any real method behind it.

The good news is that it seems that they are only converting the booking after alerting you. But the bad news is that whatever they use to determine who booked a dummy cruise seems to not be working very well.

I could imagine that it was indeed some coding that was put in place by the onboard booking agents, but only as an internal note that helped Disney to know their real capacity without those dummy bookings. The different agents might have used that coding differently. For example someone might have said that they want to book a specific cruise, but are not sure yet if they are going to really go on this cruise or maybe change it afterwards. Agent A might have put this under "dummy booking", while Agent B did not.

I find it interesting that they are really converting existing bookings. It appears as if they really want to get that capacity back!

 

[lbgraves]

....

I find it interesting that they are really converting existing bookings. It appears as if they really want to get that capacity back!

If they can do it before the PIF date, they are hoping that's going to mean fewer rooms available for *GT rates.

 

[Flossbolna]

If they can do it before the PIF date, they are hoping that's going to mean fewer rooms available for *GT rates.

I would think most people would move their dummy booking before PIF anyway. But I just think from a planning perspective it will be better to see who has a placeholder and who has the intention to go on a certain cruise. They might also have found out that the fact that certain cruises were used for dummy bookings those cruises than went up in price and became less desirable for the real cruisers, leaving certain former dummy booking cruises rather empty.

 

[Dug720]

You know... The day before April 1 might not have been the best day to do this since some people may not see the email until today...

I am NOT saying it's a joke. I'm saying they could have timed it better because I guarantee you some people will think it is.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Personally, if DCL wants to cancel both of my dummies I'm fine with that. I can book a new placeholder on the WBPC. Honestly, without a *GT I'm not sure how many more Disney cruises we'll book. I'm not paying full price, I'll tell you that.

I have 2 dummies out there that I know have less than $200 deposit on each. I'm going to play guinea pig and do nothing with them. If Disney rolls them into new placeholders that's fine. If they ask me to up the deposits to $200 each I'll cancel 1 and up the other. Still brings $$ back to my Visa. If they cancel both because I said nothing, that's okay, too. I kinda doubt that, tho. I'm going to wait for them to make a move. I'll base my actions on theirs. So let's see what this 4/17 date is reeeeaally gonna do.

 

[lbgraves]

So has anyone asked DCL how this affects the 2 stateroom limit or booking B2B cruises with them? Wonder if you get two rooms per hold or if you need to pay two deposits to get that. If so, how are they going to keep you from originally booking two different dates?

 

[ptcbass]

I wonder how this effects travel insurance too. I don't use DCL and it must be booked within 14 days for it to cover pre existing conditions. You need to tell them your destination and dates. I guess you could do a dummy policy and then change it as you book the real cruise. Crazy games we have to play.....

 

[NYIceQueen]

I wonder how this effects travel insurance too. I don't use DCL and it must be booked within 14 days for it to cover pre existing conditions. You need to tell them your destination and dates. I guess you could do a dummy policy and then change it as you book the real cruise. Crazy games we have to play.....

Oh goodness I hadn't even thought about the travel insurance aspect of it!! If you only need trip insurance and not medical, though, would the 14-day window still apply, or is that if you only want a medical coverage for preexisting conditions?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Oh goodness I hadn't even thought about the travel insurance aspect of it!! If you only need trip insurance and not medical, though, would the 14-day window still apply, or is that if you only want a medical coverage for preexisting conditions?

Usually travel insurance doesn't apply unless you have a confirmed date of travel. Even though you've put the $200 deposit down, that's not really a payment toward a specific cruise/date. So, IMO, the "14-21 day" thing won't be applied until you actually select a date and the payment is applied to that date.

So what if your placeholders didn't have $200 deposit on them? What if you paid less? When/if they auto-convert to the new placeholder will they want the difference to meet the $200?

I believe so.

 

[ptcbass]

That would be great if you didn't have to go ahead and get the trip insurance too. We though about booking a dummy date (glad we don't have to now) and then getting insurance but we might have to cancel all together and then we wouldn't get the trip insurance money back. So complicated!

 

[IWannaCruise]

Another question. Can you still pay the deposit with gift cards?

 

[NYIceQueen]

Usually travel insurance doesn't apply unless you have a confirmed date of travel. Even though you've put the $200 deposit down, that's not really a payment toward a specific cruise/date. So, IMO, the "14-21 day" thing won't be applied until you actually select a date and the payment is applied to that date.

Thanks for clearing that up

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thanks for clearing that up

I would recommend, however, making sure about this by talking to the insurance people you may be doing business with. Different insurance companies may have different requirements. And I'm not sure how DCL will handle it.