Placeholders

[FigmentSpark]

I am looking forward to seeing how this works out. DH and I (same address) are in separate staterooms this cruise. My hope is to book a total of 4 placeholders. More than likely these will all be used on one future cruise. But the hope is that DH can book a set of two placeholders, one in his name and one in, say MIL's name... then I can book one in my name and one in my mom's name.

They won't let you book 4. Now, if you and DH had different addresses, you could, but it's 2 per household, not 2 per stateroom.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I wouldn't have thought so either, but... on a social media group, someone posted the rules as follows - this is a direct quote - and was apparently confirmed as official policy. I bolded the part that would apply to me.

To clear up the confusion above, the official policy is you can book 2 staterooms, per household, per stateroom on 1 future sailing each.
Examples:

James living at 123 Main Street in the same stateroom as Susie living at 456 second street may book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing EACH.
James may book his 2 staterooms on the same or different cruise as Susies 2 staterooms.
Susies 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing. James 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

Johnny and Mary both living at 123 Main Street in the same stateroom may book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing, period. They may not book more than 1 future sailing and/or more than 2 staterooms. Johnny and Mary’s 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

Mike and Sarah both living at 123 Main Street in 2 different staterooms May book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing each. Mike may book his 2 rooms on the same or different sailing as Sarah. Mike and Sarah MUST be in different staterooms on the future sailings. Mikes 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing. Sarah’s 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

For all 3 scenarios, the lead guest MUST sail in the 1st of the 2 staterooms. If the lead guest is removed or moved into one of the other staterooms, the discount is removed from that stateroom.

For all 3 scenarios, the guests in the 2nd staterooms DO NOT have to be onboard at time of booking.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I wouldn't have thought so either, but... on a social media group, someone posted the rules as follows - this is a direct quote - and was apparently confirmed as official policy. I bolded the part that would apply to me.

To clear up the confusion above, the official policy is you can book 2 staterooms, per household, per stateroom on 1 future sailing each.
Examples:

James living at 123 Main Street in the same stateroom as Susie living at 456 second street may book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing EACH.
James may book his 2 staterooms on the same or different cruise as Susies 2 staterooms.
Susies 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing. James 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

Johnny and Mary both living at 123 Main Street in the same stateroom may book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing, period. They may not book more than 1 future sailing and/or more than 2 staterooms. Johnny and Mary’s 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

Mike and Sarah both living at 123 Main Street in 2 different staterooms May book 2 staterooms on 1 future sailing each. Mike may book his 2 rooms on the same or different sailing as Sarah. Mike and Sarah MUST be in different staterooms on the future sailings. Mikes 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing. Sarah’s 2 staterooms MUST be on the same sailing.

For all 3 scenarios, the lead guest MUST sail in the 1st of the 2 staterooms. If the lead guest is removed or moved into one of the other staterooms, the discount is removed from that stateroom.

For all 3 scenarios, the guests in the 2nd staterooms DO NOT have to be onboard at time of booking.

Well, that wasn't my experience when I tried booking. DH and I always get 2 rooms and when I asked if we could each book 2, I was told no, since it was 2 per household.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I wouldn't have thought so either, but... on a social media group, someone posted the rules as follows - this is a direct quote - and was apparently confirmed as official policy. I bolded the part that would apply to me.

This from the letter DCL hands out regarding onboard bookings:

It says "two staterooms on one future cruise date (Per household sailing)". No mention of "per stateroom".

That would mean the max allowable is 2 rooms/placeholders for any ONE household address, regardless of how many rooms they are booked into on the cruise they make the future reservation on.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Well, I'll report back, but it certainly seems like this is a YMMV item since some have confirmed they WERE able to do it and others have said they were not. The key word seems to be, is it "per stateroom per household" (as stated in that 'official policy' in my post, or simply "per household".

 

[lilsonicfan]

By the way, not trying to circumvent the system at all, but in that same post, it was said that onboard agents might differ in what they tell you, but that the computer system itself would either allow or not allow any particular booking. I'll update in about a month and a half

 

[Deb T.]

While I would never disagree with our esteemed moderator, I will say that on our first cruise (before we knew what the heck we were doing), we had two inside connecting staterooms with myself listed in one with one DS and my DW listed in the other with our other DS. They let us make two placeholder reservations. Now we ended up only using one of them (we actually thought at the time that if we booked two connecting staterooms again that we'd need two placeholders; since we got a verandah it was a moot point) and DCL transferred the deposit from the 2nd placeholder as part of the down payment on the new reservation. So either the policy has changed, or the onboard booking person made a mistake. (Maybe they get a bonus for a certain number of placeholders sold and was willing to look the other way to meet his quota!!)

Since 1 placeholder = 1 stateroom, they do allow 2 placeholders to be booked with the expectation that both will be used on the same cruise. I'm not sure how well that is enforced... They do not allow 2 different cruises to be booked.

Years ago, they did allow each cabin to book two different placeholders that didn't need to be on the same sailing. This was also before they were actual "placeholders" and you just booked reservations on two different future sailings as far out as possible until you decided which two cruises you would actually end up going on. This was a great perk because we typically had a cruise booked in the current year and then would book another as new itineraries were released (basically always having 2 cruises booked over each two-year period).

Eventually, DCL changed the rules. Now they are actual "placeholders" with no specific sailing date assigned to them. We happened to be sailing on the Magic the week the rules changed. We booked two future cruise dates like we'd always been able to do, not having a clue the rules had changed. Then, when we returned home, we learned that DCL automatically changed them so that both bookings were for the same date. We tried to fight it because we knew we'd need two placeholders for our upcoming cruises, but they would not bend.

Your mileage may vary, but this was our experience.

 

[Starwind]

It does not matter if you the guests are in different cabins, if they have the same household address, they are limited to either receiving onboard booking benefits on a total of up-to-2 cabins on the same future cruise or through a total of up-to-2 placeholders good for single cabins on the same future cruise.

So does that mean that two unrelated adult roommates, who therefore share the same address, would only be able to book two placeholders between them, not two placeholders each ?

SW

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So does that mean that two unrelated adult roommates, who therefore share the same address, would only be able to book two placeholders between them, not two placeholders each ?

SW

That's what it looks like.

 

[Dug720]

That's what it looks like.

Yep.

But by the same token, a family of parents and 2 adult children who live in different places and have 3 different addresses but are sharing a stateroom (yes, it CAN happen - we did it for my parents' 45th anniversary celebration trip) could theoretically book 3 cruises/placeholders and up to 6 cabins.

 

[FigmentSpark]

By the way, not trying to circumvent the system at all, but in that same post, it was said that onboard agents might differ in what they tell you, but that the computer system itself would either allow or not allow any particular booking. I'll update in about a month and a half

Good luck. It never hurts to try. I'll be interested in what you find out.

 

[lanejudy]

Years ago, they did allow each cabin to book two different placeholders that didn't need to be on the same sailing.

That must have been a LONG time ago, not in the past 10 years. Since we’ve been cruising, it’s been 1 future cruise date (for full benefits). The exception was they allowed booking a B2B - technically 2 cruises.

But the OBB program has undergone various tweaks over the years.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Okay, so I found this post again, yay! I wanted to update. So DH and I were in two separate staterooms this cruise as we are a family of 5. I tried to join the queue for the future cruise desk a couple of times but it was busy, so when the guy saw me standing nearby he briefly paused with the other guest asked if I would just like the placeholder forms. I took them and filled them out as follows:
1) My form - put down my name for one placeholder stateroom and filled out my mom's name for the second placeholder stateroom. Note that there's no place to put an address.
2) DH's form - he put down hiss name for one placeholder stateroom and filled out his mom's name for the second placeholder stateroom.

We submitted both forms and figured that if the rule was that we, sailing as one household, only got to book one "set" of two placeholders, then the computer wouldn't process the second form. But it all went through just fine and we have paid a total of $1,000 in deposits. My understanding is that I have one "set" of placeholders to be used on one future cruise; DH has one "set" of placeholders to be used on one future cruise. We could choose the same cruise, i.e. four rooms on one cruise, or two separate cruises with two rooms each. However, it's much more likely we will be doing four rooms on one cruise as it's our goal to take his parents and mine for a big anniversary in the future.

 

[grantclaire]

Hi, another placeholder question. I booked a placeholder on our last cruise and transferred it to Dreams Unlimited. I cannot remember what day of the cruise I booked on. To find out the expiry date do I contact Dreams Unlimited or DCL?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi, another placeholder question. I booked a placeholder on our last cruise and transferred it to Dreams Unlimited. I cannot remember what day of the cruise I booked on. To find out the expiry date do I contact Dreams Unlimited or DCL?

Dream Unlimited would be my best answer. They should have all the info regarding the reservation.