Book now or wait until on board

[wellesleyprincess]

Hi all,

I'm looking at booking a second cruise for Oct. 2011. It will probably be about 3-night (may be a 4-night) on the dream. Should I go ahead and book now while prices are low or take my chances and rebook when I'm on board in March?

Thanks

 

[HallsofVA]

My recommendation is to book as soon as you have a date, category and price in mind, since you can always change or cancel. Then, when you sail in March, try to reshop your reservation to see if you can rebook it and get the onboard booking discount and OBC. Whether or not you can depends on whether prices have risen or availability has diminished to where you are no longer able or willing to rebook.

Worse case you don't get the OBC and 10% discount, but either way you are on the cruise you want in a room and category that you like and at a price you thought was a good value when you booked.

 

[insureman]

My recommendation is to book as soon as you have a date, category and price in mind, since you can always change or cancel. Then, when you sail in March, try to reshop your reservation to see if you can rebook it and get the onboard booking discount and OBC. Whether or not you can depends on whether prices have risen or availability has diminished to where you are no longer able or willing to rebook.

Worse case you don't get the OBC and 10% discount, but either way you are on the cruise you want in a room and category that you like and at a price you thought was a good value when you booked.

That's what we did last December for our Feb 2011 Dream cruise. We were able to transfer the res to DCL to rebook onboard. Got the discount and OBC.

 

[kcashner]

I agree totally with the above--book it now to lock in the price. Then, when you are on board you can check the prices and determine whether it is a good deal for you to rebook at that time.

I've done it a couple times, and had it work in different ways. In at least one instance they were able to roll my deposit to the new reservation and cancel the old one--I didn't have to do anything. A later time I was told that was impossible so I paid a new deposit and canceled the old cruise when I got back home.

No matter what, by booking now you have a cabin and price you are happy with. If it gets better, that's great....but it can get worse and you don't want to be out of luck!

 

[jeffl]

I agree totally with the above--book it now to lock in the price. Then, when you are on board you can check the prices and determine whether it is a good deal for you to rebook at that time.

I've done it a couple times, and had it work in different ways. In at least one instance they were able to roll my deposit to the new reservation and cancel the old one--I didn't have to do anything. A later time I was told that was impossible so I paid a new deposit and canceled the old cruise when I got back home.

No matter what, by booking now you have a cabin and price you are happy with. If it gets better, that's great....but it can get worse and you don't want to be out of luck!

Thanks for the insight! We were going to wait to book our next cruise until we get on the cruise, but sounds like a win-win to book it in advance and then rebook on the ship if you can get a lower price.

 

[hamm1207]

We were just thinking the same thing. My husband was able to get time off for the April west coast Repo cruise. We were worried about booking on board in Jan., so we called DCL. The DCL employee stated that it was not a problem to book now, pay the deposit, then "book" the cruise while onboard if the desired stateroom that we're looking for becomes available. The DCL employee informed us that the deposit we already paid will be applied to the total charges (transferred) of the cruise we booked onboard. In other words, it's okay to work the system..since we're looking for that discount or OBC from booking onboard.

<hopefully that made some sense!>

 

[AmandaRG]

We have a March 2012 booked, but will be reshopping on our March 2011 cruise. I believe I will have to pay a new deposit and cancel with my TA when I get home, but it will be less of a deposit required on board (so maybe I can add a dummy ressie!) and more OBC, so totally worth it to us!