2010 news from the Magic

[Skallywag]

We transferred to a travel agent becuse they answer emails promptly unlike Disney who can take 2 days or more from experience and they have no toll free number for assistance in the UK either.

 

[ButterbearUK]

Originally, I had booked a cat 6 on the Med trip. For the 4 of us, including insurance, it was around $13K.

When the cat 12 sale fare came out, we switched, and our fare was $4,600 with the insurance.

I feel like the cat 9's cost around 10K, but I'm not positive about that.

Jodie

We booked on the first day for the med cruises, the costs were $11k for 3 adults in a cat 6 room and $5k for 2 of us in the cat 11. The prices went up after we booked, but not as considerably as I was expecting.

Regarding rebooking, we booked a dummy date on the Med cruise. We then switched it to a Land/Sea package for 2009. It is with a TA but unfortunately we are going to have to cancel this cruise because of work :-(
Can we book a 2010 cruise for ourselves when bookings open, then transfer the booking to the TA and switch the money that we have already paid for the 2009 one onto the 2010 booking? And crucially, will we still get the stateroom credit for the rebooking onboard?!

Or would it simply be easier to ask the TA to switch the booking again? (I already feel guilty for asking her to switch it once!)

Milia

 

[DindelsPA]

We booked on the first day for the med cruises, the costs were $11k for 3 adults in a cat 6 room and $5k for 2 of us in the cat 11. The prices went up after we booked, but not as considerably as I was expecting.

Regarding rebooking, we booked a dummy date on the Med cruise. We then switched it to a Land/Sea package for 2009. It is with a TA but unfortunately we are going to have to cancel this cruise because of work :-(
Can we book a 2010 cruise for ourselves when bookings open, then transfer the booking to the TA and switch the money that we have already paid for the 2009 one onto the 2010 booking? And crucially, will we still get the stateroom credit for the rebooking onboard?!

Or would it simply be easier to ask the TA to switch the booking again? (I already feel guilty for asking her to switch it once!)

Milia

I've done this before...if you cancel your 2009 trip, the discount and credit you received while onboard disappears. If you transfer your ressie from 2009 to a 2010 date, the discount and credit still apply. Don't feel guilty about bugging your TA...it's relatively simple.

Or, the other side of the coin is to request the ressie to be released back from your TA to DCL, make the changes yourself with DCL, then transfer back again to the TA. That to me sounds like a whole lot more work for all.

 

[ButterbearUK]

I've done this before...if you cancel your 2009 trip, the discount and credit you received while onboard disappears. If you transfer your ressie from 2009 to a 2010 date, the discount and credit still apply. Don't feel guilty about bugging your TA...it's relatively simple.

Or, the other side of the coin is to request the ressie to be released back from your TA to DCL, make the changes yourself with DCL, then transfer back again to the TA. That to me sounds like a whole lot more work for all.

Cool, thanks for that, I'll write to my TA and request a transfer then. I'm not sure if the discount will still apply since it is a special cruise... but at least we might get to keep the stateroom credit.

Milia

 

[DindelsPA]

Cool, thanks for that, I'll write to my TA and request a transfer then. I'm not sure if the discount will still apply since it is a special cruise... but at least we might get to keep the stateroom credit.

Milia

Regardless of the intinerary for the cruise the discount should still apply. Since the dates won't be available until the end of October, you've got time on your side. Good luck!

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

Wow that is a great rate! I was paying $5200 for a Cat 11 for two people - until I jumped on the Cat 12 GTY rate, and got half my money back. They put us back in a Cat 11.

I kept checking to see if the prices on the outside or balcony went down, but if I remember correctly the Cat 7s stayed at around $10,000 for 2 people.

How long after the original booking date did they have a sale on the Cat.12 rooms? Is this a normal thing they do for Med cruises or were the rooms not saleing? One last questions,did people book a Cat. 12 and then rebook the same Cat. 12 with the sale? Thanks!

 

[willoughbyclan]

Once your ressie is in the hands of a TA, all changes must be made thru your TA. DCL will not even discuss/confirm your ressie. I know this from past experience. We booked our 1st cruise thru AAA and just wanted to call (on a Sunday) to confirm that our cabin was linked to my parent's and that we'd be seated together at dinner. I was told to call my TA. Only after I told them that my parents booked their cabin directly thru DCL, the agent was willing to speak to my mom.
If it's a dummy date, why did you transfer to a TA so soon?

We transferred this mth to take advantage of the double OBC that DU is offering. It is set to expire at the end of Sept. With the economy the way it is I wasn't willing to gamble on what the next OBC would be with DU.

Back to the original question, did anyone have a dummy date ressie with DU, in January of 2007 and then had DU transfer that ressie to either of the PC cruises? If so, would you be willing to share with me how that went?

 

[DindelsPA]

We transferred this mth to take advantage of the double OBC that DU is offering. It is set to expire at the end of Sept. With the economy the way it is I wasn't willing to gamble on what the next OBC would be with DU.

Back to the original question, did anyone have a dummy date ressie with DU, in January of 2007 and then had DU transfer that ressie to either of the PC cruises? If so, would you be willing to share with me how that went?

I had a dummy date ressie with DU that I had DU transfer in Jan 2007 to a repo on opening day. It was a ressie booked onboard and the 10% carried forward as well as the OBD. By the time I was able to get an online quote it was $1000+ than what DU was able to get me. So I was able to get a Cat6, 2A + 1C for the EB with transfers and insurance for $8100. Sadly, life had other plans for me and I had to cancel, but that's how things worked for my transfer.

 

[willoughbyclan]

I had a dummy date ressie with DU that I had DU transfer in Jan 2007 to a repo on opening day. It was a ressie booked onboard and the 10% carried forward as well as the OBD. By the time I was able to get an online quote it was $1000+ than what DU was able to get me. So I was able to get a Cat6, 2A + 1C for the EB with transfers and insurance for $8100. Sadly, life had other plans for me and I had to cancel, but that's how things worked for my transfer.

Do you mind me asking how you initiated the request with DU? They have my ressie, so do I just email them and ask that they transfer on the date that 2010 opens up?

 

[pillow]

How long after the original booking date did they have a sale on the Cat.12 rooms? Is this a normal thing they do for Med cruises or were the rooms not saleing? One last questions,did people book a Cat. 12 and then rebook the same Cat. 12 with the sale? Thanks!

There we no cat 12s available for booking originally. The cat 12s showed up about 8 weeks prior to cruise. I think the cat 12s were offered at a large discount so that Disney could fill up the ship. I've noticed that now, some cruises have cat 12 pricing initially, but not at a substantial discount - just regular pricing, but a little cheaper than the cat 11. On other cruises, they do what they did with the Med and offer bigger discount for the cat 12s. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Jodie

 

[cruisin'Mike]

For those of you that plan on booking immediately upon opening, do you have a dummy date with DCL or DU that you are going to be moving? I have a 2009 dummy date with DU that I might switch to a 2010 itinerary but wondered how that would be handled by DU? Do I ask them to make the change for me or should I be up bright and early to snag one of the first reservations on my own?

If anyone did this for the PC cruises in January 2007, how did it work out for you? Was DU able to get you the best deal, or would you have been better off being online yourself?

We too have a dummy date with DU and also would be interested in this.

We transferred this mth to take advantage of the double OBC that DU is offering. It is set to expire at the end of Sept. With the economy the way it is I wasn't willing to gamble on what the next OBC would be with DU.

Back to the original question, did anyone have a dummy date ressie with DU, in January of 2007 and then had DU transfer that ressie to either of the PC cruises? If so, would you be willing to share with me how that went?

We had a dummy date that we wanted to move to the EB PC Repo. My wife was working and I had classes (including an exam) that I couldn't miss on booking day. So we transferred to DU and had them handle everything for us.

They were able to get us in on first tier pricing, but they only got a room assignment for one cabin at booking time, and the other 2 went to GTY status. As an aside note, the agents at DU kept after DCl to make sure that they assigned our rooms near each other. When cabin assignments were made, we were directly across the hall from each other, so that all worked out.

Another thing is that we transferred our ressies and requested our repo booking a while before the actual booking date. From what I remember, some TA's stopped taking requests in the week before booking, because they knew they would have too many clients and not be able to get rooms for all of them.

So for us, everything worked out fantastically! If not for our TA, we would never have gotten onboard for our trip. The only nerve-wracking thing was waiting to hear how much our cost was going to be! The agents were working hard to get rooms secured for everyone, so they didn't have time to send e-mails until later that evening. Of course, this is completely understandable, and trust me, I'm not complaining about it.

One other thing, and I may be wrong about this, but the double onboard credit offered by Dreams is for 2009 sailings. If they decide to offer it again for 2010 sailings, then we'll get the double credit. If not, it's just going to be whatever the current offer is. Someone else may have more complete info about this though.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

There we no cat 12s available for booking originally. The cat 12s showed up about 8 weeks prior to cruise. I think the cat 12s were offered at a large discount so that Disney could fill up the ship. I've noticed that now, some cruises have cat 12 pricing initially, but not at a substantial discount - just regular pricing, but a little cheaper than the cat 11. On other cruises, they do what they did with the Med and offer bigger discount for the cat 12s. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Jodie

The Cat 12's being the cheapest rate room on the ship sells out very quickly, if DCL has some rooms spare near the cruise after say cancelations at PIF date, they reopen Cat 12 as a back door route for a discount. The rooms might not be actually 'vacant' but they will upgrade people instead.

However be content to use a Cat 12, as the chances of upgrade are still small and might be just up one level.

 

[pillow]

However be content to use a Cat 12, as the chances of upgrade are still small and might be just up one level.

I don't know about that. EVERYONE on our Med cruise thread that booked a cat 12 on the Med cruise was upgraded. Most were upgraded to just a 10 or 11, but a few got cat 9 rooms.

J

 

[pillow]

I'm having fun looking at airfare prices. I read an article that said Aer Lingus has good one way rates. I checked the website and found a one way fare from Dulles to London (via Dublin) for $540 pp (incl tax). Pretty good for one way!

Oh, and that fare was for next June.

Jodie

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I don't know about that. EVERYONE on our Med cruise thread that booked a cat 12 on the Med cruise was upgraded. Most were upgraded to just a 10 or 11, but a few got cat 9 rooms.

J

There were dissapointed people on our cruise who were not upgraded &/or not pleased with what they were offered.

 

[pillow]

There were dissapointed people on our cruise who were not upgraded &/or not pleased with what they were offered.

I think there is definitely the possibility of not being upgraded, but when there are only such a small number of cat 12 rooms (13 I think - not sure?), I think that there is a greater chance of being upgraded than not. However, I think that you must be prepared for an inside stateroom. We got lucky and were put in a category 9, but I certainly did not expect it!

Jodie

 

[wdhinn89]

Surprisingly, my husband is VERY interested in this cruise. Me, I just love traveling so I don't care were we go as long as we get on a plane to do it We are considering transferring our 2009 booking to 2010. Airfare from NY to Heathrow seems to be running in the $1000-$1200 rt pp area. Is this a good price?

 

[xangav]

I'm having fun looking at airfare prices. I read an article that said Aer Lingus has good one way rates. I checked the website and found a one way fare from Dulles to London (via Dublin) for $540 pp (incl tax). Pretty good for one way!

Oh, and that fare was for next June.

I think that fare is pretty good. Last year for the Med I kept an eye out everyday for Aer Lingus because we have family in Ireland. I got very lucky and got air fare for 4 to Dublin for $3000.

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

There were dissapointed people on our cruise who were not upgraded &/or not pleased with what they were offered.

The way I view Cat. 12's is that if that is what what we booked and paid for that's what I'm expecting. If we get upgraded, then great. If not, well.... we'll just spend more time on deck!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi - I'm afraid I haven't been able to read every post !! so sorry if this has already been asked!!

What stops did the transatlantic cruise make last time?? And if it IS to be Baltic cruises in 2010, what do you anticipate will be the itinerary for those transatlantic crossings??

thanks for any info/ideas!!