OBB Placeholder

[brandyleeann]

Hi everyone,

When we did our first cruise in 2015, we did our OBB on board for an actual date.

This time around, we did the placeholder booking (deposit paid, no actual date reserved). When opening day for 2018 finally happens (sorry for impatience), do I have to phone in to apply my OBB placeholder to a booking and do the reservation over the phone? OR, do I book online and when things are less crazy (correct me if opening day isn't super busy for bookings via phone) and ask them to apply my OBB to my online reservation?

Thanks for your insight into this

Brandy

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi everyone,

When we did our first cruise in 2015, we did our OBB on board for an actual date.

This time around, we did the placeholder booking (deposit paid, no actual date reserved). When opening day for 2018 finally happens (sorry for impatience), do I have to phone in to apply my OBB placeholder to a booking and do the reservation over the phone? OR, do I book online and when things are less crazy (correct me if opening day isn't super busy for bookings via phone) and ask them to apply my OBB to my online reservation?

Thanks for your insight into this

Brandy

I believe to convert a placeholder to an actual reservation, you have to call.

 

[RedSox68]

And if I remember what my TA told me last time correctly, I think it has to be booked same time. In other words, not sure if you can book the cruise first and then call back later to have it converted to the OBB with discount, etc.

 

[Jennifer777]

Yes, we just finally used ours and had to call. There was no way to do it online. I hope that will change some day!

 

[ILovePixieDust]

Hi everyone,

When we did our first cruise in 2015, we did our OBB on board for an actual date.

This time around, we did the placeholder booking (deposit paid, no actual date reserved). When opening day for 2018 finally happens (sorry for impatience), do I have to phone in to apply my OBB placeholder to a booking and do the reservation over the phone? OR, do I book online and when things are less crazy (correct me if opening day isn't super busy for bookings via phone) and ask them to apply my OBB to my online reservation?

Thanks for your insight into this

Brandy

They won't apply your OBB booking to a reservation that has already been made. When you make a reservation you generate a new reservation number but the OBB already has one. What they would do is cancel your reservation and make a new one with the OBB discount and reservation number.

In my experience, I had to call in when I booked a placeholder.

 

[Flossbolna]

I think one way to be able to do a change over online from placeholder to 2018 booking would be to transfer the placeholder into a traditional dummy booking a few days before the new itineraries are going to be released. You should then be able to change the dummy booking, which is a real reservation into a different cruise. Of course this kind of defeats the purpose of the placeholder...

And it can only work if you are going to book on general release day. Platinum and Gold Castaway Club members who want to book one day early will need to call regardless.

 

[CM Dad]

I think one way to be able to do a change over online from placeholder to 2018 booking would be to transfer the placeholder into a traditional dummy booking a few days before the new itineraries are going to be released. You should then be able to change the dummy booking, which is a real reservation into a different cruise. Of course this kind of defeats the purpose of the placeholder...

And it can only work if you are going to book on general release day. Platinum and Gold Castaway Club members who want to book one day early will need to call regardless.

Yes, this is what our TA did for us. We wanted to convert some placeholders into real cruises on opening day for our upcoming 40th anniversary cruise that we will be celebrating with our kids and grandkids. The TA converted the placeholders for the non-Gold/Platinum staterooms to a cheap 3 day cruise shortly before opening day prices were announced so that should would be able to change to the real cruise online on open day, rather than have to spend time on the phone. Since my wife and I are Platinum, she left that as a placeholder since it needed to be done on the phone anyway.