Onboard booking

[Billyg]

We are taking a cruise Feb 2021 and are looking to do an onboard booking or place holder for Jan 2022. I know Jan 2022 cruise will be released before our Cruise next February, so how does the credit work? I know we will book our Jan 2022 cruise as soon as they are released, but do they go back and revise that with any discounts on the onboard booking?

 

[SamFaniam]

We are taking a cruise Feb 2021 and are looking to do an onboard booking or place holder for Jan 2022. I know Jan 2022 cruise will be released before our Cruise next February, so how does the credit work? I know we will book our Jan 2022 cruise as soon as they are released, but do they go back and revise that with any discounts on the onboard booking?

You'll want to visit the onboard booking desk and explain that you want to re-shop your cruise. If it does save you money to change at that time, they can help you with that.

 

[Billyg]

You'll want to visit the onboard booking desk and explain that you want to re-shop your cruise. If it does save you money to change at that time, they can help you with that.

Thanks Makes sense. Thanks Sam

 

[cvjw]

We‘ve done this. We had a prior booking for 2 cabins on a cruise, and rebooked while onboard. We did not get the same price that we had previously booked the cabins for, but with the 10% off the current cruise fares, we still saved money. And this was when you still got the extra $200 OBC, so we really came out ahead.

Since we book with Costco, we had to make a whole new booking while onboard with new cabins and then cancel our previous booking when we got home. Costco transferred over all the $ we had paid for the original booking to the new booking.

 

[Mommb]

Whether you book through a travel agent or on your own, you need to make a new reservation in order to get the discount for booking onboard -- it can't be applied to an existing reservation. As cvjw mentioned, the new booking will be at the current price, which may be higher than the price when you made the initial booking. If the price has gone up by less than 10%, it would still be worth booking onboard.

If you don't care about the specific cabin, you can just make a new reservation and cancel (or ask your travel agent to cancel) your previous reservation when you get home.

If you do want to keep the cabin, it's trickier, because your reservation must be cancelled before it can be rebooked. If you booked on your own, the Vacation Planning castmember may be able to do this. If you used a travel agent, then you may need to purchase a placeholder and then have your travel agent convert the placeholder to an actual cruise, cancelling the first cruise and booking the new cruise at nearly the same time. I have not done this, so I'm not sure if the castmember can just take care of it onboard.

 

[mom4fun]

Didn’t the 10% discount permanently end?

 

[kendall]

Didn’t the 10% discount permanently end?

No, the 10% discount is in place. The OBC ended.

 

[Rob1872]

If you do want to keep the cabin, it's trickier, because your reservation must be cancelled before it can be rebooked.

Not exactly. I've done it before. On the ship, they can't move the room from the original reservation to the new onboard reservation. They make a new reservation and then when you get back you call DCL and they can move the room from the first reservation to the second reservation. Then they will either refund you the original deposit or apply the deposit to your balance due on the second reservation.

 

[Dug720]

Not exactly. I've done it before. On the ship, they can't move the room from the original reservation to the new onboard reservation. They make a new reservation and then when you get back you call DCL and they can move the room from the first reservation to the second reservation. Then they will either refund you the original deposit or apply the deposit to your balance due on the second reservation.

When did this change? I've done it before where they were able to move me into my previously booked cabin with a reshop. Now that I use a TA, yes, I'd have to contact her (which I could do by email, so pretty much as soon as I booked) to get my cabin back assuming it was available. But they've always been able to move the cabin on board prior to using a TA.

 

[Rob1872]

When did this change? I've done it before where they were able to move me into my previously booked cabin with a reshop. Now that I use a TA, yes, I'd have to contact her (which I could do by email, so pretty much as soon as I booked) to get my cabin back assuming it was available. But they've always been able to move the cabin on board prior to using a TA.

I booked a 7 night on Fantasy when it opened, and then rebooked it a few weeks later (March 2016) when on Magic. The CM on the Magic said that he couldn't move us into the cabin we had booked without cancelling the reservation, waiting for the cancellation to be processed and having the room put back into available inventory and potentially having someone take the cabin before we could rebook it. He told us that we could only be guaranteed the same cabin if we contacted DCL when we returned and that they could move staterooms between reservations without the cabin ever being released into inventory. So that is what we did. Have no idea if things have changed; I have only one data point.