~~~~~~ 9/21/09 Booking Info Thread for 2011 Cruises ~~~~~~

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I'm curious, how many of you have DU handling your request for a 2011 booking tomorrow, but are still planning to call in yourselves to see if you get through first (and possibly for a better price)? I had given DU my request for the PC Repo and they faxed it in to IC awhile ago, and I have full confidence in my agent- I've been in touch with her often in the last couple of weeks about handling the booking tomorrow. I guess I'm just such a control freak that I feel weird not doing anything myself tomorrow when phones open at 8:00 AM...just curious for those of you using DU or another TA, are you just standing back and letting them do the work and waiting until you hear from them, or are you going to be calling and trying to book on your own too?

DU has our ressie, but I am calling in tomorrow, only because I am hoping to book it through Disney since we are on the Magic in 13 days from today, I am HOPING to rebook it and get the 10% discount and I know I have the best chance of that working with booking directly through Disney.
 
I've decided that's where we're at too. :upsidedow

Since ressie's open at lunchtime (UK time) and I'll be at work, I'll have to wait until I get home to see what (if anything) is still available. If the dates/$$$ are still reasonable, then I'll book online. :hippie:

Good luck the time difference and being in the UK is always an issue, thats one of the reasons I use a TA, With the Panama crossing being reported as half sold out now,it looks like being a sell out at some point tomorrow, but some people double instruct, or might bulk at the price or deposit, so you never know, openings might come back in a day or so.
 
I'm curious, how many of you have DU handling your request for a 2011 booking tomorrow, but are still planning to call in yourselves to see if you get through first (and possibly for a better price)? I had given DU my request for the PC Repo and they faxed it in to IC awhile ago, and I have full confidence in my agent- I've been in touch with her often in the last couple of weeks about handling the booking tomorrow. I guess I'm just such a control freak that I feel weird not doing anything myself tomorrow when phones open at 8:00 AM...just curious for those of you using DU or another TA, are you just standing back and letting them do the work and waiting until you hear from them, or are you going to be calling and trying to book on your own too?

When I used to use a TA I usually booked myself and turned it over to her (I did not have her call as well) That may partially be because I am on the West Coast and she wasn't going to call in until a full 4 hours after I was. Since I have been a TA, I of course book myself but as a TA. The clients that I booked for last week and will be booking for tomorrow are all having me book for them only. I will be getting up for the 5AM phone call so no matter when my clients live, I am calling at the earliest possible time for them.

I am sure that you can trust your TA to do the very best for you...it is just a personal choice what you choose to do.
 
I'm curious, how many of you have DU handling your request for a 2011 booking tomorrow, but are still planning to call in yourselves to see if you get through first (and possibly for a better price)? I had given DU my request for the PC Repo and they faxed it in to IC awhile ago, and I have full confidence in my agent- I've been in touch with her often in the last couple of weeks about handling the booking tomorrow. I guess I'm just such a control freak that I feel weird not doing anything myself tomorrow when phones open at 8:00 AM...just curious for those of you using DU or another TA, are you just standing back and letting them do the work and waiting until you hear from them, or are you going to be calling and trying to book on your own too?

First time for me letting a TA do the work! Actually, this is the first time we've ever tried to book ON DAY 1 like this....but we gave DU our ressie onboard last summer when we rebooked so they've had it all along... Yes, I'm nervous but I'm also glad I can just read all the action on the DIS w/o being on hold at the same time... My reg. TA is out sick & someone else is handling it for her...but she's been a dear so far and has emailed me several times already to make sure she understands me! Being SO anal, I of course have a Plan A, Plan B and a Plan C if our first choice is out!! :rotfl:

I am as anxious to find out about the 1/2 deposits as anything. The CM the other day told me they won't know until Monday - which seems pretty screwy to me. I swear they're letting the bus drivers take a shift at DCL now!! I was being stubborn & saying I WOULD NOT give them a full dep. NOW but DH is the calmer of us and he was like "but if you want to GO..."

I consider myself lucky tho in that we are trying to book a Med cruise and those are apparently NOT the hottest tickets in town this time around! Those chilly temps someone posted before are exactly why we're looking for the Med and not AK. I would LOVE to see it sometime but they need to warm it up for me first!! :rolleyes1 I am cold at anything below 80 degrees!!:goodvibes The PC would be stellar but cannot go in January. So Oh WELL. DH and I have a list of things that have to wait until DS is out of the house....the list includes Australia, Tahiti and the PC!!;)
 


I was just checking out weather info - thought this might be helpful . . .

Avg high Avg low Avg rainfall (inches)
Skagway May 57 40 2.3
Skagway June 64 47 1.6
Skagway July 66 48 1.6
Skagway Aug 65 47 2.6
Skagway Sept 58 42 5.5

The data for Juneau is similar - slightly cooler - rainier in general; Ketchikan even cooler - very rainy.

:cold:
 
I think there is about a zero chance that the 50% deposit will be in place tomorrow.
Everyone who booked Thurs on last week verfd they made them pay the full deposit so imagine how upset they would be if the silvers got half price deposit and they did not?
 
DU has our ressie, but I am calling in tomorrow, only because I am hoping to book it through Disney since we are on the Magic in 13 days from today, I am HOPING to rebook it and get the 10% discount and I know I have the best chance of that working with booking directly through Disney.

So, are you saying you plan to book a cruise tomorrow and then have DCL apply a 10% OBC when you cruise in 13 days? If so, I didn't know you can get the 10% after the fact.
 


So, are you saying you plan to book a cruise tomorrow and then have DCL apply a 10% OBC when you cruise in 13 days? If so, I didn't know you can get the 10% after the fact.
You can, but you have to in effect cancel the reservation you made and rebook onboard. Sometimes this is effective, sometimes it's not. If there is a lot of time between your original booking and being onboard, sometimes the price has risen enough for the 10% off prevailing rates to be more than what you already have.
 
I'm curious, how many of you have DU handling your request for a 2011 booking tomorrow, but are still planning to call in yourselves to see if you get through first (and possibly for a better price)? I had given DU my request for the PC Repo and they faxed it in to IC awhile ago, and I have full confidence in my agent- I've been in touch with her often in the last couple of weeks about handling the booking tomorrow. I guess I'm just such a control freak that I feel weird not doing anything myself tomorrow when phones open at 8:00 AM...just curious for those of you using DU or another TA, are you just standing back and letting them do the work and waiting until you hear from them, or are you going to be calling and trying to book on your own too?

I have a TA doing my booking but I am not using DU.
 
The cold of Alaska does not bother me. It's the bugs if you go in high season that would make me cringe! The advantage of May or late August is no mosquitos to eat you alive.
 
You can, but you have to in effect cancel the reservation you made and rebook onboard. Sometimes this is effective, sometimes it's not. If there is a lot of time between your original booking and being onboard, sometimes the price has risen enough for the 10% off prevailing rates to be more than what you already have.

I don't understand why you can't do this with a reservation made by DU for you tomorrow. We are cruising in December and I plan to check the rate then for the Alaskan cruise that I hope DU will book for me tomorrow. If I can get it at 10% off and that price makes sense compared to whatever price I get tomorrow, I can book while I'm on the Magic and cancel my reservation with DU. I should still then be able to transfer the new reservation to DU, right?
 
I don't understand why you can't do this with a reservation made by DU for you tomorrow. We are cruising in December and I plan to check the rate then for the Alaskan cruise that I hope DU will book for me tomorrow. If I can get it at 10% off and that price makes sense compared to whatever price I get tomorrow, I can book while I'm on the Magic and cancel my reservation with DU. I should still then be able to transfer the new reservation to DU, right?

You can do this. If you name DU as your TA at the time of rebooking onboard you won't need to transfer it to them. I'd just let your TA at DU know of your intentions, so they can look for the new ressie (If you make one, depending on pricing). The only issue with having a DU ressie that you want to change is that if you want to book the same stateroom, you'll have to wait until you've told DU to cancel it and release the room, then you'll have to have your TA try to regrab it for you. You also won't be able to have any deposit transfered between the ressies, you'll have to have two deposits down for a little bit until you can tell DU to cancel your original ressie.
 
I think there is about a zero chance that the 50% deposit will be in place tomorrow.
Everyone who booked Thurs on last week verfd they made them pay the full deposit so imagine how upset they would be if the silvers got half price deposit and they did not?

Were they transferring OB ressies though?
 
You can do this. If you name DU as your TA at the time of rebooking onboard you won't need to transfer it to them. I'd just let your TA at DU know of your intentions, so they can look for the new ressie (If you make one, depending on pricing). The only issue with having a DU ressie that you want to change is that if you want to book the same stateroom, you'll have to wait until you've told DU to cancel it and release the room, then you'll have to have your TA try to regrab it for you. You also won't be able to have any deposit transfered between the ressies, you'll have to have two deposits down for a little bit until you can tell DU to cancel your original ressie.

All of that is okay with me. I just don;t want to have to hang on the phone tomorrow for hours for no reason. DU can do that for me!
 
You can, but you have to in effect cancel the reservation you made and rebook onboard. Sometimes this is effective, sometimes it's not. If there is a lot of time between your original booking and being onboard, sometimes the price has risen enough for the 10% off prevailing rates to be more than what you already have.

We did this once. I was able to snag a secret porthole room when I booked online (I knew it would be gone if I waited to book onboard the next month). When I was onboard, I was afraid the original res would have to be canceled - wasn't sure if I could keep my room or not. I was able to keep my SPR. They didn't really cancel the first res. They just recalculated my rate based on the current rates + the 10%. It was easier than I thought it would be.

Jodie
 
We did this once. I was able to snag a secret porthole room when I booked online (I knew it would be gone if I waited to book onboard the next month). When I was onboard, I was afraid the original res would have to be canceled - wasn't sure if I could keep my room or not. I was able to keep my SPR. They didn't really cancel the first res. They just recalculated my rate based on the current rates + the 10%. It was easier than I thought it would be.

Jodie

I knew I could do this with an online reservation that I had made but my question was about a reservation that a TA makes for me tomorrow. The reservation belongs to the TA as I understand it and I couldn't transfer it over on my cruise in December. I'll have to rebook and name DU as my TA and then cancel the first one (if there's any price savings to be had by then...)
 
We really wanted to book Alaska and love DCL but are going back and forth about the $600 deposit (looking to book 12 people in 5 cabins). Part of the reason is that apparently Silver CC members are not as valuable to DCL as Gold and Platinum.:confused3 I understand DCL giving more to those who have sailed more often and even the opportunity to book early but to not extend the 1/2 price deposit to all CC members really makes me stop and think!
And just putting it out there but I wonder how long it will take the parks and resorts to start rewarding those who frequent them.

I know, right? :confused3 We mean no more to them than the peeps who have never cruised before on DCL.

Send DCL an email at dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com and express your unhappiness regarding the issue. That's what I did...it's not that they'll be likely to change it but at least it made me feel better and the more complaints they hear the more they'll be aware of the impact of their mistake!!!
 
I hadn't thought about it before, but can DVC members book DCL through Member Services even if paying cash or only if booking on points? Just thinking MS may have a shorter wait time.

If you call DVC they then have to call DCL and wait on hold until someone answers. No one has a direct line so that is why someone has posted that after their experience on Monday it is better to book with DCL first then switch over to points with DVC.
 
I was just wondering if I was the only one too. Control freaks unite! :rotfl:

Ok, just read some of the negative effects of doing this. Given the wait times last Monday, I probably couldn't get through before I need to be at work any way.

The wait times on Monday were nothing! The wait times the past two years for opening day booking...which with 90% of CC members and first time cruisers calling on 9/28 that is what it will be like...were over 3 hours.
 
I made my switch today, so if I find out in a little while that I couldn't keep the 1/2 deposit, then we'll pretty much know that the Monday bookings won't. If I was able to keep it, then things are still up in the air for the Monday folks.

(Am I remembering right that people posted the 1/2 deposit went away mid-week this week?)

.

Yes, as of 9/24 the 50% deposit stopped. So if you were able to keep it, others will be able to as well.
 
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