Adding an onboard discount after booking online.

[insureman]

Rather than waiting on hold does anyone know if I book online can I call at a later time to add an onboard credit ( have 2 in the bank right now). I think I know the answer but would like to confirm. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jetsetter42]

I believe you can book the reservation online and then add the OBB later, yes.

 

[Quellman]

The answer is KIND OF or MAYBE. I did this yesterday.
I booked a hold in the morning. I had an OBB (though it was already associated with another cruise. However it seemingly should be the same).
I called DCL later the day. I told them I wanted to move my OBB to the hold.
The OBB reservation is modified (since It has a reservation number). For me, they cancelled my hold and then modified my OBB to the new cruise.
The OBB reservation number is the one associated with my new cruise date.

If they cancel your room and modify your existing OBB, there is a POTENTIAL that you might lose your room. If volume is super high and agents are busy and you are looking at a prime time cruise (spring break, Hawaii, panama canal) your previously selected room might be scooped up.

There could be a price increase from when you booked this morning and to when you call them to adjust. It shouldn't be more than the discount you receive from the OBB, but it could.

I called last night about 45 minutes before DCL reservation center closed for the night. I spent more time going through the menu options than I did on hold. In fact, there was no hold. So that was great. I hope if your experience is diffferent you'll report back to help share the knowledge for future cruisers.

 

[Glenn3484]

I waited on hold for 3 hours this morning to book a cruise and use my OBB. I watched as TONS of rooms disappeared all morning, and was getting very discouraged. In the end, right before the agent picked up, a bunch of rooms opened back up, maybe people abandoned cart or something, and I was able to get a room I was looking for. I chatted while waiting on hold and the person said I had to book on the phone. I'm curious if I could have just booked it online, and later on called and applied my OBB.

 

[ajo]

@Glenn3484 What the PP did was book a cruise online and then call later that same day to cancel that cruise and book the same cruise with their OBB. You aren't "applying" your OBB to the cruise you booked online. You are cancelling the cruise and then booking the cruise with your OBB. This is the same thing people do when they "reshop" an already booked cruise onboard with a new OBB.

Anyone can do this, but there are risks. As outlined by the PP:
1-you could lose the room you wanted because it got booked by someone else in the time between when your cruise was cancelled and when the OBB was booked;
2-the price could have increased from when you booked online to when you booked with the OBB.

Depending on the cruise, these risks may or may not happen. Hawaii is a good example. Rooms were disappearing fast and prices were going up during the first day, so an online booking made first thing may be worth keeping over the OBB if the price went up by more than 10% or the room category was gone. Whether it is worth doing all depends on the demand for the particular cruise.

 

[Intr3pid]

A simple way to understand it is to think of your OBB placeholder as an actual reservation - except without a sailing or room attached to it. Let's call it Booking A.

When you book online on your own, you create a new reservation on a specific sailing and in a specific room. It's an entirely new booking, and let's call it Booking B.

To attach this sailing and room to 'Booking A' later, you need to release them from 'Booking B' first. And the only way to do it is to cancel 'Booking B' -- since you as an individual can be on a specific sailing only in one instance.

And, as highlighted by others, this process of cancelling 'Booking B' and modifying 'Booking A' runs the potential risk of your losing that room altogether if someone else snaps it in that split moment. And you will also be subject to the new pricing at the time 'Booking A' is modified.

I would say that, in 90-95% of the cases, the risk of losing the room is very low if the agent on the phone is experienced enough.

 

[insureman]

A simple way to understand it is to think of your OBB placeholder as an actual reservation - except without a sailing or room attached to it. Let's call it Booking A.

When you book online on your own, you create a new reservation on a specific sailing and in a specific room. It's an entirely new booking, and let's call it Booking B.

To attach this sailing and room to 'Booking A' later, you need to release them from 'Booking B' first. And the only way to do it is to cancel 'Booking B' -- since you as an individual can be on a specific sailing only in one instance.

And, as highlighted by others, this process of cancelling 'Booking B' and modifying 'Booking A' runs the potential risk of your losing that room altogether if someone else snaps it in that split moment. And you will also be subject to the new pricing at the time 'Booking A' is modified.

I would say that, in 90-95% of the cases, the risk of losing the room is very low if the agent on the phone is experienced enough.

I thought this was the case. Thanks

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

Anyone ever wonder why they don't make the OBB credit available to book online? They have been able to make the FCC credit available to use on online bookings so why not the OBB? It would save a lot of people a lot of time and hassle, including Disney because people wouldn't have to call in and waste phone capacity.

 

[Quellman]

Anyone ever wonder why they don't make the OBB credit available to book online? They have been able to make the FCC credit available to use on online bookings so why not the OBB? It would save a lot of people a lot of time and hassle, including Disney because people wouldn't have to call in and waste phone capacity.

Maybe because of blackout dates for some sailings. But even then, you'd think they could have a message pop up that says, this sailing is a black out for OBB.