Placeholder question

[CM Dad]

My experience is a little different than what is recommended here. I use a TA that specializes in Disney cruises and I had the 2020 Transatlantic I booked without a placeholder. We went on a recent 4 Day and I wanted to reshop the 2020 cruise since the price was holding steady. My TA said to book a placeholder and when I returned they would reshop with the 10% discount applying the $250 placeholder deposit and transfer my current deposit to the new reservation and keep the same stateroom. They even sent a prefilled form to use to get the placeholder(s). Just to make sure, I questioned the process with the onboard rep and she agreed this was the way to do it if I wanted to keep my stateroom. The problem onboard is they have a slow connection with shoreside and she can’t do the cancel/rebook/deposit transfer so she could only book me into a different stateroom as a new reservation and pay full deposit and do the cancellation and wait for a refund. I would have to deal with a room change with my TA and take my chances my original stateroom would still be available. I dropped off the placeholder form and called my TA as soon as we got home. In less than 10 minutes the TA had a new reservation # for me with all the funds applied straight to it and a cancellation # for the original reservation. Same stateroom. Worked slick!

The one time we reshopped a cruise, it was for the second leg of a B2B cruise. When we booked originally, we had gotten the discount on the first leg of the cruise and had the same stateroom for both cruises. Since we were using a TA, when we reshopped on board the CM could not cancel the original reservation and booked us in a different stateroom. It was also a slightly different category, since whatever category we had booked originally booked wasn't available. Once we disembarked, we contacted our TA and she cancelled the original booking and modified the new one so we were able to get back to the original room. Since the category also changed, the price was slightly different from what we were quoted on board, but still saved us money over the original booking.

 

[Garyjames220]

I am hoping they can just transfer any money across to my new booking rather than refund it all

 

[Dug720]

I am hoping they can just transfer any money across to my new booking rather than refund it all

You cannot do that onboard.

 

[Garyjames220]

You cannot do that onboard.

Can I call them after the cruise and transfer the money from the old booking to the new one

 

[Dug720]

Can I call them after the cruise and transfer the money from the old booking to the new one

As I have stated before in this thread, I have always had my other reservation cancelled and it was refunded to my card, and I then turned around and applied it to the new reservation.

Honestly since you will be paying the current rate at booking (minus the 10% for OBB) and don’t want to deal with a refund, I would just wait to either book it onboard (easier - and they can credit it to the TA you are booked with) or get the certificate and do the booking once back on land with that. That way you don’t have to worry about a refund or transfer.