Booking another Cruise while onboard

[lbgraves]

How far out can you keep pushing your OBB? We are cruising in April 2014 and would love to plan a European cruise 2016... Can I book just one person in a family verandah stateroom and then keep pushing it out until Europe 2016 is released? Then, at that point, add my other 4 family members?

At this time, there isn't a limit to how many times you can move an OBB. You could book one person, but the single supplement is 200% so IMO just go ahead and book it for two people. Again, at this time you can add additional people as long as there is room in the muster station, which there should be in that case opening day. DCL could change it to be just for those booked in the room when the reservation is made get the discount in the future.

 

[lbgraves]

ArevOBBs better than travel discounts via BJs or similar?
Bonus to BJs is no deposit...

I honestly don't see not having to pay a deposit a benefit. It doesn't deduct that amount from your total cruise fare due, it simply puts off the date when you have to pay it. You aren't going to find a deal that discounts your cruise by 10% and gives you an OBB. Even the *GT rates listed by DCL often don't top that if you booked opening day with an OBB. TAs can't discount cruise pricing for DCL. They can only offer OBC, which is a cut of their commission from DCL. You can do an OBB and name a TA to get DCL's OBC as well as the TA's OBC.

 

[slzer0]

I honestly don't see not having to pay a deposit a benefit. It doesn't deduct that amount from your total cruise fare due, it simply puts off the date when you have to pay it. You aren't going to find a deal that discounts your cruise by 10% and gives you an OBB. Even the *GT rates listed by DCL often don't top that if you booked opening day with an OBB. TAs can't discount cruise pricing for DCL. They can only offer OBC, which is a cut of their commission from DCL. You can do an OBB and name a TA to get DCL's OBC as well as the TA's OBC.

VERY interesting. Not sure how steep bulk club discounts are. Planning to take a 7 or EU after this one. But as per this thread I will do a dummy book.

Where would I find a TA to list? Do I then make changes through them or on my own?
When I move, new deposit balance is imnediately due, right?

What is the benefit of confirming OBB dummy to actual trip on "opening day"? Lower opening rates + 10%, or just better availability.?

 

[lbgraves]

VERY interesting. Not sure how steep bulk club discounts are. Planning to take a 7 or EU after this one. But as per this thread I will do a dummy book.

Where would I find a TA to list? Do I then make changes through them or on my own?
When I move, new deposit balance is imnediately due, right?

What is the benefit of confirming OBB dummy to actual trip on "opening day"? Lower opening rates + 10%, or just better availability.?

Again, DCL doesn't allow any bulk/group discounts. Costco currently offers a GC that you can cash out. You can find more info here with a search for Costco in titles only.

Not all TAs can be posted here on the boards due to one sponsoring it. If you do a search online, be sure to find an agency that is a qualified Disney specialist. I use a TA who gives an OBC in addition to what DCL offers.

Booking a OBB dummy onboard currently locks in the 10% discount, 10% deposit, and OBC [$100 under 7 nights, $200 7+ nights]. That transfers to a new date. On opening day you can transfer that to get the discount on the lowest prices. Depending on when you want to cruise, that can make a big difference. Summer cruises and holidays such as spring break, Thanksgiving and Christmas/NYE book quickly so the prices go up quickly. During slow season it may not increase as much and you will see discounted *GT rates offered by DCL. HTH.

 

[bellaprincess98]

Please excuse my ignorance as it will be my first time booking onboard this November, but the people who book the least amount of people, and the lowest level cabin. Doesnt that defeat the purpose of the discount? If I'm going to book for 4 people anyway why only book for 1 or 2? Is it just so you can pay the least amount of deposit? But then wouldnt the 10% just be taken off for only that booking and not for the cabin upgrade and addition members of your family?

Did that make sense? I hope so!

Thanks!

 

[Illini_Fan]

Please excuse my ignorance as it will be my first time booking onboard this November, but the people who book the least amount of people, and the lowest level cabin. Doesnt that defeat the purpose of the discount? If I'm going to book for 4 people anyway why only book for 1 or 2? Is it just so you can pay the least amount of deposit? But then wouldnt the 10% just be taken off for only that booking and not for the cabin upgrade and addition members of your family?

Did that make sense? I hope so!

Thanks!

I'm sure you'll get more articulate responses than mine.

Part of the goal of the lowest level cabin "dummy booking" is exactly as you said. It provides you with the lowest deposit.

However, the 10% discount carries forward to your actual booking and that is the real savings. Also the OBC will adjust to reflect your actual booking.

So, if you reserve a $1,500 dummy booking, you pay $150 in deposit. When you move that to a real booking (say $4000) you will still receive the 10% discount and thus your cost will be $3,600. You will have to increase your deposit from the $150 original amount to $360. I believe that Concierge rooms are not part of this program, but I don't book that level.

You could book the exact cruise you want when on-board if the dates have been released by Disney and I think most people would encourage you to do that. The Dummy booking is very handy when you will be cruising, but the schedule isn't available yet (i.e 2015 cruises).

I hope I got that right -- others will correct if my logic is flawed.

 

[bellaprincess98]

Thank you! You did a great job answering! It's exactly what I was looking for.

 

[mareed]

At this time, there isn't a limit to how many times you can move an OBB. You could book one person, but the single supplement is 200% so IMO just go ahead and book it for two people. Again, at this time you can add additional people as long as there is room in the muster station, which there should be in that case opening day. DCL could change it to be just for those booked in the room when the reservation is made get the discount in the future.

Based on my recent experience, I recommend booking for the maximum number of people who might actually go on the cruise. I had an on-board booking for 1 adult and 1 child for a Thanksgiving week cruise that had gone up in price since I booked it. I looked into adding a 3rd person (adult) to the cabin, and figured that at the most, it would be the current price to add a 3rd person to the room if they didn't get the 10% discount. It was more than that and the explanation from my TA who checked with Disney twice to be sure the price quoted was correct was "When you add a third guest as an adult that adult goes into the second guest position and pays the current price for the second adult."

It might be OK to add someone later if the cruise is one that hasn't increased in price, but if it's one that's likely to increase, then definitely include everyone on the original on-board reservation!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Very true! I have always wanted to visit the USVI, hhhmmm, lol. We'll see how this all goes. Now, just thought of something, if we book a short cruise on board and decide we would rather do a longer cruise, can we change the cruise length?

Sent from my Galaxy SII

Absolutely! I book a "cheap" 3nt cruise during off peak time of year just to keep the deposit low and change to a longer cruise when we see what we want.

How far out can you keep pushing your OBB? We are cruising in April 2014 and would love to plan a European cruise 2016... Can I book just one person in a family verandah stateroom and then keep pushing it out until Europe 2016 is released? Then, at that point, add my other 4 family members?

No limit to the timeframe or number of changes to your reservation. I've booked myself alone & add family when I have a definite sailing in mind many times. It was great when deposit amounts were a simple per person fixed amount and not dependent on cruise price. Now I have to search for the cheapest cruise before we board. Really though, the % of total price is most fair.



The important thing to remember with any OBB is to keep an eye on the final payment due date since dummy dates are still real cruises. If that date should pass and you haven't pushed the sail date further out, you will lose your deposit. This happened to my SIL. She's a sweetheart & a great mom but not very organized.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Based on my recent experience, I recommend booking for the maximum number of people who might actually go on the cruise. I had an on-board booking for 1 adult and 1 child for a Thanksgiving week cruise that had gone up in price since I booked it. I looked into adding a 3rd person (adult) to the cabin, and figured that at the most, it would be the current price to add a 3rd person to the room if they didn't get the 10% discount. It was more than that and the explanation from my TA who checked with Disney twice to be sure the price quoted was correct was "When you add a third guest as an adult that adult goes into the second guest position and pays the current price for the second adult."

It might be OK to add someone later if the cruise is one that hasn't increased in price, but if it's one that's likely to increase, then definitely include everyone on the original on-board reservation!

You're right! But this only applies if the sailing that you book onboard is one that you actually plan to cruise on. Any time one books a cruise that you intend to take, surely put everyone on immediately.
When we talk about only putting one person in a cabin, it's simply a dummy date, aka: place-holder cruise which you have no intention of actually cruising. It just a way to take home a discount/OBC for some future cruise yet known.
So on my recent cruise I rebooked onboard. None of the current dates available to book will work for us. Perhaps we'll cruise in 2015 but those dates aren't available to book yet. If I just put myself in a cabin, I still have a discounted future cruise and when they release 2015, maybe I'll want Thanksgiving week. If so, I change to that date & add all of my family.

Understand the difference?

 

[mareed]

You're right! But this only applies if the sailing that you book onboard is one that you actually plan to cruise on. Any time one books a cruise that you intend to take, surely put everyone on immediately.
When we talk about only putting one person in a cabin, it's simply a dummy date, aka: place-holder cruise which you have no intention of actually cruising. It just a way to take home a discount/OBC for some future cruise yet known.
So on my recent cruise I rebooked onboard. None of the current dates available to book will work for us. Perhaps we'll cruise in 2015 but those dates aren't available to book yet. If I just put myself in a cabin, I still have a discounted future cruise and when they release 2015, maybe I'll want Thanksgiving week. If so, I change to that date & add all of my family.

Understand the difference?

Really trying to understand this! I think the key point you're making is that the cruise you move it to would still be at initial prices and hasn't had any increases because you'd move it right away when your "real" date is available, right?

I believe that's what burned us - that the price had gone up by $300/person in addition to adding our 3rd person as the 2nd person and bumping the original child 2nd person to the 3rd person. I still don't get that move, but clearly it makes more money for DCL! Rather than charging the 3rd person rate of $1155 and discounting that, they would have charged us the 2nd person rate of $1519. We booked an 11b on the Wonder, and the original price for 1st & 2nd person was almost the same for that category as the 3rd person. Which made it a very easy decision to get a 2nd cabin for our 2 teenagers!

The price to add a 3rd person later after our cruise went up in price would have been a much larger difference if we'd been in a verandah cabin! For example, adding them later to a 6a cabin would have been $2257 compared to $1039 if we'd added them at the time of booking on-board! That's a huge difference and is why I recommended to book the max possible # of people who might take the cruise. You can easily change the names later (I've done this), but I personally will book for the max # of people even if booking a dummy cruise.

Hopefully what I wrote makes sense! I do appreciate your explanation and I think it helped me finally understand how DCL calculated what they were going to charge us to add a 3rd person. We were considering dropping our 3rd cabin booked on-board for Grandma because her room-mate was no longer going & adding her to our boys' cabin, but instead we kept her cabin and switched the room-mate to my nephew.

 

[jennileigh]

I dont know if this question has been asked/answer - I have searched for it and from everything I read didnt see it answered, but I'm a skimmer when reading sometimes so I could have totally overlooked it.
The OBC that you receive for booking a cruise - is that applied to the cruise that you are on or the cruise you booked for.. (ie I will be on the dream in 16 days - we are booking the Magic for Christmas next year - the OBC that I get for booking - is it applied to the cruise I will be on (The Dream) or the cruise I'm Booking (The Magic).
Thanks!!!!!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I dont know if this question has been asked/answer - I have searched for it and from everything I read didnt see it answered, but I'm a skimmer when reading sometimes so I could have totally overlooked it.
The OBC that you receive for booking a cruise - is that applied to the cruise that you are on or the cruise you booked for.. (ie I will be on the dream in 16 days - we are booking the Magic for Christmas next year - the OBC that I get for booking - is it applied to the cruise I will be on (The Dream) or the cruise I'm Booking (The Magic).
Thanks!!!!!!

For the new (future) cruise.

 

[Dug720]

It applies to the cruise you book. Not the one you are on.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

We booked another cruise while on board, yay!!!! We booked the 4 night but have decided to change it to the 7 night. We loved the cruise!!

Sent from my Galaxy SII

 

[DznyCrzy11]

Sure, you say that now....
Our first DCL cruise was 7 nights and it nearly broke my heart to walk through MCO knowing we weren't going to WDW. That is, until we got on the ship.

Now we cruise as long as we can & a day or 2 of WDW pre cruise (or a long weekend) is good enough.

Ok, you were right, lol. We absolutely loved the cruise!!! Now that we are at WDW, we're really missing the cruise and the more personalized service you get. We booked a 4 night on the cruise but once we get home we're going to change it to a 7 night. I'm ready to cruise the world now, lol. I would love to take the European cruise!!

Sent from my Galaxy SII