Booking DCL through Expedia.. anyone done it?

[Angeliki19]

Hi! This is our first time doing a Disney Cruise (yay!) and we are currently trying to price out the best deal. Looks like Ebates offers 10% back on cruises booked on Expedia, which is pretty significant savings! But I wasn't sure if there were any drawbacks to booking it online like this. Specifically, whether or not we can still get a refund up to 75 days before in case we need to cancel.

Did anyone else book through Expedia?

 

[cruiser21]

Hi! This is our first time doing a Disney Cruise (yay!) and we are currently trying to price out the best deal. Looks like Ebates offers 10% back on cruises booked on Expedia, which is pretty significant savings! But I wasn't sure if there were any drawbacks to booking it online like this. Specifically, whether or not we can still get a refund up to 75 days before in case we need to cancel.

Did anyone else book through Expedia?

They might have a 100.00 cancellation fee. Just read the policy. Expedia is a reputable company I don't think you'll have any problems. I booked a cruise through them once. It was Norwegian though.

 

[JanMW]

Be careful booking anything through Expedia. I booked an airline/hotel package with them about a month ago. The wrong name was printed on the airline reservation. I spent about 3 to 4 hours over a 2 day period trying to get help for a name change. Their call center is in India. I talked with 5 different agents and had trouble understanding each one. When I got to the airport for my flight, American told me that Expedia had cancelled by reservation. Since I only had about an hour until the flight left, I was forced to buy another ticket. When I got home, I was on the phone with them again for 4 hours. They did acknowledge the problem and refunded me my new ticket. Expedia is fine if you have no problems, but their customer service was HORRIBLE.

 

[Angeliki19]

Be careful booking anything through Expedia. I booked an airline/hotel package with them about a month ago. The wrong name was printed on the airline reservation. I spent about 3 to 4 hours over a 2 day period trying to get help for a name change. Their call center is in India. I talked with 5 different agents and had trouble understanding each one. When I got to the airport for my flight, American told me that Expedia had cancelled by reservation. Since I only had about an hour until the flight left, I was forced to buy another ticket. When I got home, I was on the phone with them again for 4 hours. They did acknowledge the problem and refunded me my new ticket. Expedia is fine if you have no problems, but their customer service was HORRIBLE.

That's awful! I feel like something similar has happened to us before.. it can be a real pain to deal with them which is why I am nervous. But a 10% discount is hard to pass up!

 

[anricat]

I will never book anything with them ever again. Apparently they decided a month ago that they were going to rebook a cancelled hotel reservation from hotels.com without my permission. Yes, you read that right Expedia rebooked a cancelled Hotels.com reservation. I suddenly had $1200 worth of charges on my card. I was on the phone trying to get answers for HOURS with both hotels.com and Expedia. I literally couldn't get anyone on the phone to help me, despite being transferred to a "supervisor" that couldn't help me and was disconnected twice while they were trying to connect me to someone else. The whole thing was a giant nightmare. Finally, I posted on social media and had everything cleared up the next day. It's sad that it takes posting on their Facebook page for anyone to take anything seriously. Expedia owns all these brands and I will never book with any of them again: http://www.expediainc.com/expedia-brands/

I had a different booking nightmare with some airline reservations with Travelocity (also owned by Expedia - go figure) with our flights to Vancouver for our Alaskan cruise last year. Again, customer service was pretty much a total nightmare. Long wait times, reps that I could barely understand due to heavy heavy accents and nobody had any authority to help with anything. In the end, WestJet stepped in and cleared everything up, but not before Travelocity had cancelled our return flights without my knowledge. I only found out because I went to reprint our itineraries for my binder. Can you imagine if I hadn't? We wouldn't have had return flights after our cruise!

Bottom line: Those big travel companies are absolutely off my list from now on. They could offer me 10% plus a $500 onboard credit and I still wouldn't do it. Not worth it. Not after those two huge huge incidents.

 

[mmouse37]

Hi! This is our first time doing a Disney Cruise (yay!) and we are currently trying to price out the best deal. Looks like Ebates offers 10% back on cruises booked on Expedia, which is pretty significant savings! But I wasn't sure if there were any drawbacks to booking it online like this. Specifically, whether or not we can still get a refund up to 75 days before in case we need to cancel.

Did anyone else book through Expedia?

Do you happen to have a Costco membership? If so, you can book your Disney Cruise through them and get an 8% (I think that's the amount) cash card based on the price the cruise. Many on this board do that. No downside to booking your cruise with Costco that I know of and that cash card comes in very handy!!!

MJ

 

[timrousbeastie]

Hi! This is our first time doing a Disney Cruise (yay!) and we are currently trying to price out the best deal. Looks like Ebates offers 10% back on cruises booked on Expedia, which is pretty significant savings! But I wasn't sure if there were any drawbacks to booking it online like this. Specifically, whether or not we can still get a refund up to 75 days before in case we need to cancel.

Did anyone else book through Expedia?

I booked our first DCL cruise through Expedia in 2013. Their website allowed me to select available cabin numbers on a map, just like DCL, so it has to be very well integrated with DCL's system. I used to use Expedia for all my travel bookings and never had any problems.

I dug through my e-mail correspondence with Expedia and found this link to their terms with DCL. Keep in mind that this was mailed to me in 2013 so I'd call them and verify that the information still is accurate.

Edit: This part stuck out to me: "[...] Passage money and charges prepaid shall be deemed fully earned when paid and shall not be refunded in whole or in part under any circumstances whatsoever except in compliance with that section of the Carrier's brochure entitled "Cancellations/Refunds" applicable to the voyage for which passage is arranged under this Cruise Contract. [...]".

On the other hand, that brochure probably contains DCL's standard terms for refunds, but I would call them to make sure.

 

[disney789]

Do you happen to have a Costco membership? If so, you can book your Disney Cruise through them and get an 8% (I think that's the amount) cash card based on the price the cruise. Many on this board do that. No downside to booking your cruise with Costco that I know of and that cash card comes in very handy!!!

MJ

I also recommend Costco. I book all my DCL cruises with them and have never had a problem. I did however have a problem booking air tickets through Orbitz, I got transferred to who knows how many people that I had a hard time understanding. Never again will I use them. For now on I book air directly through the carrier.

 

[kittyklawz]

I used to work at a hotel and I would not recommend using expedia or any of those third party reservation sites for anything! There are a lot of other ways to get discounts and deals on cruises like costco, target etc.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Do you happen to have a Costco membership? If so, you can book your Disney Cruise through them and get an 8% (I think that's the amount) cash card based on the price the cruise. Many on this board do that. No downside to booking your cruise with Costco that I know of and that cash card comes in very handy!!!

MJ

Do you have to be a member of Costco to book a cruise?

 

[KarriTigger]

I'd suggest a Disney - centric travel agent. I've used one and I know that they were awesome...I'd be afraid to book a cruise with anyone else. I realize you may not get a massive OBC, but their knowledge was invaluable. I didn't have to worry about a thing. I booked my air either directly with the airline, or through a travel agent. They don't cost a thing...
I've had nightmare experiences with hotels.com and Expedia...and I will never use a mass market on line agency again. I prefer the personal touch.

 

[RedSox68]

I used to work at a hotel and I would not recommend using expedia or any of those third party reservation sites for anything! There are a lot of other ways to get discounts and deals on cruises like costco, target etc.

Anyone I know who has used Expedia, hotels.com or any of those sites have had nothing but problems with their reservations -- some upon arrival finding out the booking dates had been changed or their reservation cancelled by the website!

 

[cruiser21]

I travel a lot. I use Orbitz, LMT Expedia and booking.com. I've never had a problem. I'm guessing the majority of people don't either or these company's wouldn't exist. Orbitz is great for WDW you get 15% off disneys room discount so on a deluxe that could be 40%. You can link to mde without any problem.
Expedia has cruise specialist they seem no different then the ones at Costco. I have booked with them and cancelled. I got my deposit refunded in two days. I don't know how it would be cancelling last minute. You need trip insurance for that. Even Disney won't refund your money in that situation. I prefer to book directly with the cruise company, but for 10% off I'd do it.

 

[moremouse]

Granted, this was a LONG time ago, but we booked our first two DLC cruises through Expedia in 2003 and 2004. We had no issues. We were treated the same way through Expedia as through DCL itself. We even had our second cruise cut short due to a hurricane and DCL refunded a portion directly to the credit card we used on board. I like to use travel sites and do so often. We used CheapTickets for our WDW stay last year at WL and got 19% off AND we had to call and change our dates TWICE with no problems or fees.

Good luck! Have a great cruise no matter what.

 

[mmouse37]

Do you have to be a member of Costco to book a cruise?

I think so, but not 100% sure.

MJ

 

[jrabbit]

Do you have to be a member of Costco to book a cruise?

the short answer is YES, because they give you a Costco cash card - only works there, nowhere else.

 

[disney789]

Do you have to be a member of Costco to book a cruise?

Yes, the first thing they ask for is your Costco membership number. You might be able to book under someone you know that has a Costco membership. But keep in mind after completion of the trip the Costco cash card will be mailed with their name and address. But then again, how would you spend the cash card without the membership ID unless you went shopping with the person who has the membership.

 

[Donathius]

I usually only use expedia as a search engine to figure out options. I find their filtering and sorting much easier to look through when I'm trying to book a cruise. But (especially with Disney) I book either direct through DCL or use Costco. DCL controls their prices so tightly that the only differentiation is the benefit offered by whomever you book through - OBC, cash card (Costco) or what have you. I do the same thing with airlines - there's rarely any real benefit to using a large booking site like Expedia any more for anything other than seeing what your options are.

 

[lbus42]

I would also like to point out that no travel company can discount a DISNEY cruise. The original post says that Expedia offers 10% through Ebates. Posts after this start calling this a 10% discount. They are not the same thing. Anyone who calls Expedia expecting to get 10% off the price of their cruise fare is going to be disappointed.

 

[reimero]

Personally, I wouldn't go through a wholesaler like Expedia. 95% of the time, things are going to be fine. It's that 5% that worries me. I currently go through a Disney specialized TA because I know that the TA will be able to manage things if that 5% arises. Expedia's track record with that 5% is not good: if you follow travel sites, you'll know that problems tend to get compounded when the Expedias and Orbitzs and Kayaks and Pricelines get involved.
Chances are, if you book through Expedia, you'll be fine. But if you're not, you're inheriting a much, much bigger headache than you need to. One of the key things to understand about DCL is that any itinerary changes can only be made by the TA of record (or by you, if you book directly through DCL.) So if anything comes up, you need to know you've got a responsive TA who will act on your behalf.