Don’t know what to do with Placeholder

[Jimmynguyen77]

Just came off the Disney Treasure on 1/10 and I did the placeholder. I didn’t have it go back to the original booker since I did not have a good experience with them.

Should I transfer to another booker within the 30 days like Costco or another third party booking. Or just manage it myself?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

DCL changed their rules several years ago that if a reservation booked without a TA is transferred to TA, their commission is reduced. Usually that means any perks that a TA offers (OBC, etc) is also reduced. Once it's paid in full, you cannot transfer.
If Costco offers a good deal for transferred reservations, I would consider it. Also any changes that you'd like to make such as dining time, adding ground transfers, prepaying gratuities, all has to go through the TA. If you try to call DCL, they won't help you. Some people find that frustrating.

If you have a good TA, it's convenient to have one. If you have a bad TA, it can be annoying.
Our first DCL cruise was through AAA and they were not very helpful. For example, they called me to say that my cruise documents had arrived and I could come pick them up. Their weekday hours had them closed before I got home from work so I had to wait until Saturday which were only morning hours. Our son had a sleepover planned and dh had to work so I had to pack up the kids on a Saturday morning, including the friend sleeping over, and trek to the next town over to get our documents. (Back then, 2007, it was a big packet.) Not a big deal but after working all week, our weekends are busy. I found a different TA for the next cruise and a few weeks before the cruise, she said I should be getting my packet from DCL soon. I asked if she had to mail it to me (thinking all TAs receive packets for their clients) and she said, "No, I just have DCL send the packet to your house." I was shocked they could do that. Then I realized that AAA didn't bother to do that for me or maybe they felt it was a more personalized service by having me go there. I don't know but I really don't need more to do and would have appreciated if they gave me a choice. I've been with the other TA ever since.

It's not hard to manage on your own. I find a TA convenient especially if I'm using my placeholder for booking a very high demand cruise on the day of release. I can just email her a few days ahead to tell her our 1st choice cabin, or the general area we want to be, and I have a confirmation email by later in the day. I never have to sit on hold for hours with DCL.
If the dates you want are already for sale, it would be easy to manage on your own.

 

[Disneypeach]

Yes, you can transfer to Costco before 30 days. I’ve done this many times. Easy to do.

They have a form online that you fill out.

https://costco-travel-us-mbr.custhe.../8307/~/transfer-your-cruise-to-costco-travel

As of Sept of 2025 they gave me a shop card for around 8% plus if you are an executive member, you get back 2% on that annual check.

 

[VGCgroupie]

New to cruising, my first cruise now coming up soon and I never would’ve thought I could transfer a cruise to someone else. Seems like Costco is a an easy one and saves money.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

New to cruising, my first cruise now coming up soon and I never would’ve thought I could transfer a cruise to someone else. Seems like Costco is a an easy one and saves money.

Are you already booked with a TA? or booked directly through DCL?
I wouldn't transfer from one TA to another unless he/she did something truly awful.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Are you already booked with a TA? or booked directly through DCL?
I wouldn't transfer from one TA to another unless he/she did something truly awful.

For this cruise yes. So I wouldnt do it. But interesting to know it’s an option. But was mainly saying I wouldn’t have realized if I booked a placeholder or on my own I could transfer to a TA or Costco

 

[Moonspinner]

Costco has same deal for transfers
Just make sure you do the transfer NOW and stay on it until DCL processes it. I have concluded DCL tries not to give you this transfer and does a lot of stalling and losing of docs. Then they tell you that it’s too late to transfer. Kind of nasty honestly. You either allow for travel agents or don’t.
Happened to us 2xs.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wow, that's never happened to us. It's been a long time since we've transferred, pre-Covid, but our TA would email me a form from DCL and on it has the email address to send it to. Usually by the next day it was all done.
We would only do this if I found a great cabin and put it on hold but wanted her to put it on our placeholder reservation, The safest way to do it would be to transfer the on hold cabin to my TA and she could cancel it, freeing up the cabin, then capture it for our placeholder.
Lately, when we want to do that, we coordinate a time in the evening and she'll tell me when to cancel the on hold cabin and she grabs it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

For this cruise yes. So I wouldnt do it. But interesting to know it’s an option. But was mainly saying I wouldn’t have realized if I booked a placeholder or on my own I could transfer to a TA or Costco

I've never actually done it and I think it would cause a ruckas to initiate it but I'd like to think it could be done if necessary. TAs get very posessive; that's their income. I don't know if DCL would be involved. I would think the first TA would have to be extremely neglectful/unavailable for someone to do that.

 

[Moonspinner]

Wow, that's never happened to us. It's been a long time since we've transferred, pre-Covid, but our TA would email me a form from DCL and on it has the email address to send it to. Usually by the next day it was all done.
We would only do this if I found a great cabin and put it on hold but wanted her to put it on our placeholder reservation, The safest way to do it would be to transfer the on hold cabin to my TA and she could cancel it, freeing up the cabin, then capture it for our placeholder.
Lately, when we want to do that, we coordinate a time in the evening and she'll tell me when to cancel the on hold cabin and she grabs it.

Another thing that has happened to us is on the ship when we buy the placeholder we say we want it to go to our travel agent and it doesn’t.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sounds like DCL is becoming more and more anti-TA. I'm sure they'd love to not have to pay them a single penny.
There's no way in hello I am going to take off work and sit on hold for hours so they need to adjust their thinking.

 

[lanejudy]

For this cruise yes. So I wouldnt do it. But interesting to know it’s an option. But was mainly saying I wouldn’t have realized if I booked a placeholder or on my own I could transfer to a TA or Costco

What you can do on this upcoming cruise is book the placeholder but tell DCL not to assign it to your current TA. Then you have 30 days to transfer it to another.

 

[VGCgroupie]

What you can do on this upcoming cruise is book the placeholder but tell DCL not to assign it to your current TA. Then you have 30 days to transfer it to another.

This is very helpful! Thanks! My cruise was booked as a DVC swap so it’s not a TA I am connected to emotionally by any means.

 

[justme0729]

Just want to say that I have loved my experience with Costco! I have tried 2 travel agents in the past and I didn't like that there was no phone number during business hours to reach to change anything when I wanted to (i.e. when a stateroom I wanted became available)... they only used email so you were stuck waiting 24 hours etc. for a reply. With Costco, you get a better credit (via Costco gift card) and 2% back for executive members and I can get ahold of them every day of the week to make any changes.

 

[JoeFromSeoul]

i can’t relate as we have always had great service from our TA. Was it the individual or the company? If it was the individual, you can always request a different TA to work with you. If it was the company, sorry, I’m out of ideas.