Booking a 2nd cruise BEFORE setting sail on our 1st?!

[MickeyMinnieMom]

ok... So Disney got me with the release of dates for the Star Wars at sea cruises for 2017!

Here's our situation:

• We set sail 3/26/16 for our first DCL cruise
• I put a stateroom for 4/17/17 on hold for 3 days today
• We won't have a Castaway Club membership / number until we sail this month, I presume

My questions:

1. Any way to ADD our Castaway Club number to this Apr 2017 reservation after we sail in March? If so, would this get us any little booking advantage there might be for excursions, etc. on the Apr 2017 cruise?
2. I've heard that you can book another cruise while on board -- any way for us to reap whatever savings those might be during our cruise this month on an Apr 2017 booking made AHEAD of the cruise? Could I cancel/rebook right there on the cruise this month?
3. What is the cancellation fee? I see time periods listed online beginning as far as 104 days before sailing for some holiday cruises. What about before that? Do we still lose the whole deposit? I ask just in case we HATE our cruise this month... Cruising at all (not just DCL) is a first for three of us.

What am I missing here?? I'm sure there are a million considerations that I haven't even thought of that people on here will know!!

 

[bethy]

We did this ourselves - 5 months before our first cruise ever (Disney or otherwise). It worked out great. For non-concierge bookings there are no cancellation fees until the Paid in full date.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We did this ourselves - 5 months before our first cruise ever (Disney or otherwise). It worked out great. For non-concierge bookings there are no cancellation fees until the Paid in full date.

Oh, excellent!! THANKS SO MUCH!!

So did you hang onto an existing booking and just make any adjustments needed while onboard your first cruise? Or did you just chance that one and rebook onboard? I'd kinda' like to hang onto the particular stateroom that I booked...

 

[ayz75]

I did something similar. We booked our second cruise before going on our first simply because DCL had just released the new sailing dates for the following year. I spoke to my TA and he suggested to book first and then shop onboard, because there is no cancellation fee anyway (not until about 3 months prior when full payment is due, so plenty of time). And that's exactly what we did - once we were onboard, we realized the price for our second cruise did not increase at that time, so it made sense to do an onboard booking to get the 10% off and OBC.

After the cruise, I contacted the TA who gave me the option of either cancelling and getting a full refund, OR transferring the deposit to the new booking we made onboard. Either way, you get 100% of your deposit back.

 

[ayz75]

Oh, excellent!! THANKS SO MUCH!!

So did you hang onto an existing booking and just make any adjustments needed while onboard your first cruise? Or did you just chance that one and rebook onboard? I'd kinda' like to hang onto the particular stateroom that I booked...

If I remember correctly, I don't think you can do that actually.. they would need to cancel your original booking (but if you booked with a TA, I'm not sure if DCL can cancel for you onboard) in order to release the rooms.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I did something similar. We booked our second cruise before going on our first simply because DCL had just released the new sailing dates for the following year. I spoke to my TA and he suggested to book first and then shop onboard, because there is no cancellation fee anyway (not until about 3 months prior when full payment is due, so plenty of time). And that's exactly what we did - once we were onboard, we realized the price for our second cruise did not increase at that time, so it made sense to do an onboard booking to get the 10% off and OBC.

After the cruise, I contacted the TA who gave me the option of either cancelling and getting a full refund, OR transferring the deposit to the new booking we made onboard. Either way, you get 100% of your deposit back.

Ah, cool!! THANKS for the info!!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

If I remember correctly, I don't think you can do that actually.. they would need to cancel your original booking (but if you booked with a TA, I'm not sure if DCL can cancel for you onboard) in order to release the rooms.

I booked it myself online, directly with Disney. Guess we'll see...

But the main thing is that it sounds like no penalty either way!! Just maybe the risk of not getting the same stateroom.

THANKS!

 

[bethy]

We rebooked onboard at a slight savings. We did use a TA and she was able to reconcile the bookings in a way that saved the specific staterooms we had carefully selected.

 

[CM Dad]

(but if you booked with a TA, I'm not sure if DCL can cancel for you onboard)

They do not cancel the original reservation. You need to have your TA do that afterwards. When I re-shopped a cruise, the TA was able to cancel the original and not that our original stateroom was available, have the new reservation switched to that room.