Book next cruise aboard or with TA??

[Bee]

How much do you have to put down if you book on the cruise? The 1000 ? Just wondering? Going on 1st cruise in October on the Wonder... Dont know how it all works?

 

[brack]

How much do you have to put down if you book on the cruise? The 1000 ? Just wondering? Going on 1st cruise in October on the Wonder... Dont know how it all works?

$500.00 and it is worth it. We have done it four times now.

 

[jel0511]

It's $250 pp, so for a family of 4 it would be $1000. You have to put the $1000 down prior to debarking the ship. Danielle (the on-board booking manager) told me that any on-board booking that doesn't have a deposit applied by the last morning of the cruise she cancels.

 

[26555]

Will they allow you to cancel your current reservation onship if the onship deal is better than the early booking discount? I'm thinking that might be a reason to go through DCL directly, they could cancel you out and then make a "new" reservation to get the 10% +200 deal. I know you can't apply it to existing reservation but, would this be possible? Book Cat 10 porthole room early to guaranttee it. If onboard deal better (likely), cancel reservations onboard to free up the secret porthole room and then book it new onboard with discounts.

Also, can you book 2 cruises? Say you sail Sept 2005 and decide you want to go again Sept 2006 and Sept 2007. Can you book for Sept 2006 and DEC 2006 and then move the Dec reservation to Sept 2007 when rates released? The deposit is hefty but it seems like you'd be locking in the best prices.

 

[jel0511]

No, you can't cancel the room on-board and THEN take the room there. You have to wit until the cruise is over to cancel, paying two deposits. Now, once you're home, you can then cancel the first reservation and try to pick up the SPH at that time. You can always ammend a reservation made on board and retain all the goodies and can book a Dec 2006 reservation and change it once 2007 dates/rates are released. You can also book as many cruises as you want on-board and each and everyone will have the 10% off and $200 onboard room credit. I booked two different cruises once, and I got the incenstives for both. Also, if you happen to book two rooms for the same cruise you also get a $200 credit for each room.

 

[26555]

Thanks, good information to know!

 

[ivanova]

It's $250 pp, so for a family of 4 it would be $1000. You have to put the $1000 down prior to debarking the ship. Danielle (the on-board booking manager) told me that any on-board booking that doesn't have a deposit applied by the last morning of the cruise she cancels.

When we were on the Wonder last November, we rebooked while onboard. At that time the CM told us we had 5 days to pay the $250 per person deposit. I wanted to put it on a different credit card that we didn't have with us on the trip. The day after we got home (still within the 5 day window) I called DCL with my confirmation number and had no problem applying the deposit.

You might need to advise the CM that you want the 5 day window (assuming that takes you past your disembarkation day) so she won't cancel your ressie at the end of your cruise.

 

[lbgraves]

Actually I was in that exact situation on board our last cruise. In October I was pricing to have an idea of what to expect when we cruised in December. When I put in a cat 10 for 12/17/05 5024 showed up. I was SHOCKED! LOL! Right then I decided to book it so that we could get the SPH room & surprise DH on the ship. I asked Danielle for a quote to find out if the price had gone up, which it had. If we had cancelled the resie onboard & rebooked it would have been within $2.00 of the price that I got in October. She assured me that I would keep the same stateroom if this was done. However, she didn't want to do that because we would lose our early seating and wind up with late seating. She then told me that she would manually add the $200 booking credit to our reservation, which I never expected. We ended up changing our resie to the week before because we wanted to do an Eastern instead of another Western and lost the SPH but ended up in an 8 for the same price the 10 was the next week.

I think that alot has to do with your attitude. I had heard of this being done sometimes but didn't expect...or demand...anything and told her that I understood if she couldn't do it but figured that it didn't hurt to ask.

 

[Regina]

They can adjust an existing reservation if it's to your advantage to rebook it at the current rate with the 10% discount.

I've had the 12/9/06 cruise booked for awhile. When we cruised in May, I asked the onboard agent to see if we were better off keeping what we had or rebooking it for the 10% discount and SBC. The price had increased substantially so we left it as is.

Had the onboard offer been better, she would have made the adjustment right then and there.

 

[starwood]

OK - another what if...

I got a price from a TA for 2600, Disney quotes $2400 and the onboard discount. Can I transfer to TA and get the $2400 or will the price be $2600? Not that I expect Disney to be cheaper than the TA.

Also, if TA is $2600 and Disney is $3200 and I transfer to TA does the price drop to $2600 and keep the onboard credit. (They could make this a little easier ).

 

[jel0511]

OK - another what if...

I got a price from a TA for 2600, Disney quotes $2400 and the onboard discount. Can I transfer to TA and get the $2400 or will the price be $2600? Not that I expect Disney to be cheaper than the TA.

Also, if TA is $2600 and Disney is $3200 and I transfer to TA does the price drop to $2600 and keep the onboard credit. (They could make this a little easier ).

The TA should give you the lower rate from DCL, in your first scenario. I've never had a place where I haven't gotten the rate. If your TA tries to charge the higher rate, then change TA's. In the second scenario, maybe. If the lower rate the TA has is from group status, then you won't be able to take advantage of the lower TA price without giving up your onboard credit. If it's just the TA giving some of their commission back, then you might but usually in that situation it's group bookings and you can't get the on-board goodies with that type of booking.

 

[hbg4]

I just booked a Sept 2006 cruise at the magical rate and got the secret veranda cabin 7120 which is cat 5 priced at cat 7 rate. I compared it to the other TAs, but booking directly with DCL worked out to be the same rate.
I spoke to a CM asking if there was anyway the onboard rebooking discount could be applied to this booking and she said it would not be a problem, the manager on board would just have to make a few phone calls.
Anyway I just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the prices don't change drastically in the next 2 and 1/2 weeks when we board the Disney Magic for the repo cruise.

 

[Chris Herbert]

Is the 250 per person deposit refundable if you need to cancel at a later date?

 

[26555]

I spoke to a CM asking if there was anyway the onboard rebooking discount could be applied to this booking and she said it would not be a problem, the manager on board would just have to make a few phone calls.

I had the impression you had to make a new reservation and then cancel the old one. If the onboard credit can be applied to existing reservation onboard, would this be a reason to book directly with DCL instead of a TA? Better chance of getting it applied to existing reservation if no TA involved? Of course could transfer to TA later to get the return commission type of discount.

 

[hbg4]

I have no idea if it has to be cancelled. I've been told conflicting things by different CMs. But I'm willing to cancel the reservation made on land if the ship's rates with the discount is better. I'll soon find out.

 

[hbg4]

Is the 250 per person deposit refundable if you need to cancel at a later date?

Deposits are fully refundable as long as you cancel within the time frame as quoted by the CL.

 

[lbgraves]

DCL can only adjust your resie on the ship if you have NOT transferred it to a TA. Wait to do that after you sail & check on a better rate.

 

[Carrie25]

To make it less expensive on the cruise, could I book our future cruise for just hubby and me ($500 deposit) and then add the kids later in the year and pay all the additional fees? And still get the onboard rebook deal? That way we aren't dropping a grand in addition to the onboard tab.

 

[deefranco]

I would like to know the asnwer to that one as well...we have four kids, so it would give me some time to save up for the deposits for the kids??