Question about onboard credits and switching dates...

[Quirky Cruiser]

Hi There,
We booked on-board last August for the August 21st Eastern. We got 10% off and a $400 onboard credit since it was a special eastern itinerary. I transferred this reservation over to Dreams Unlimited. We are now considering switching to the September 4th Eastern (still the special itinerary) due to scheduling conflicts. Does anybody know - will the 10% discount and $400 onboard credit switch over to the new cruise? Will the fact that I switched the reservation over to dreams unlimited affect this? It is just a matter of switching dates. I just want to make sure we'll still be able to apply the discounts and onboard credits. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I'm almost positive you'll keep your onboard credit. I can't answer the question about the 10% off, though...but am curious of the answer.

 

[Kaa]

You will receive the discount on the current price for that date and you will retain the shipboard credit since you are changing to another date with the special itinerary.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I would think just the opposite. I would think becaue you are no longer booking directly through DCL, you would loose your discount and credit, because you technically are not booking early. Now if you kept the booking with DCL, I would think they would keep the discount and credit. Because you are really canceling with DCL and rebooking with DU. I could be dead wrong, but as a business person, this is how I would see it.

 

[twhipple]

We asked about this when we booked our 2005 cruise. We wanted to get the new itineraries, but nothing was out yet so we booked the latest we could with the intent to change dates. We were told if we modified our existing reservations, we would still receive the 10% and the stateroom credit. If we made a new reservation, we would not receive either. I don't know that the price would be the same though changing dates, it will be what the current rate is (of course less the 10%).

 

[Regina]

Clarabelle, that's not how it works. You're not cancelling your existing reservation, you're transfering it. Everything remains intact when you switch it over to a TA.

 

[dtuleya]

Thanks so much for your answers. I'd like to book another cruise onboard, but don't know when we'd be able to go. Guess we could book it for the latest date available and then firm up our plans later in order to get the rebooking perks.

 

[mark & sandra]

It seems the only downside to rebooking while onboard is laying out the money for the deposit. In my case 250.00 per person. If I decide to not go I have 10 months to cancel with no penalty. Or as I said in my other posts 10 months to find more deals to save even more money. I'm not sure if a change of dates qualifys as a modification, which allows you to keep your discounts, better make a call first to clarify that.

 

[tigger53]

we booked our july 10 th on board last summer and when i switched to AAA because of the sale , AAA said my 200 on board credit went down the drain since i was no longer booked through DCL. is this true i wonder or was AAA giving me the wrong information?

 

[minniesota]

We were on the 1/24 eastern and had this very situation. We were fairly certain we would not be sailing again until sometime after April 2005 (the latest we could book onboard and get the 10 percent off and $200 shipboard credit). I asked if we moved our dates out past the April 2005 time, would we still get the discount and credit. She seemed a little cagey about this and said IF we booked a 7 day, our new dates would also have to be a 7 day cruise but IF DCL changed its itinerary on the 7 day, the discount and credit would not apply. I asked her if DCL was planning to change the itineraries and she smiled that cheshire cat smile and said, "Disney is always trying new things."

 

[Regina]

Here's a tip. Instead of putting down $250.00 for each person, book it for a party of one. Just be sure to get a stateroom that can hold all of you if you plan on adding more people to your reservation.

There's two things that you need to be cautious about if you do this. The first is if you have children. The kids programs have capacity limits and you don't want to find out that your child's age group has been closed out if you add him/her later on.

Another thing is your dining time. If first dining is important to you, you may find that by adding more guests to your reservation means you've been bumped to second seating.

If neither of these is a concern, then just put the minimum down to hold your room and get the onboard promo.

 

[Regina]

Originally posted by tigger53
we booked our july 10 th on board last summer and when i switched to AAA because of the sale , AAA said my 200 on board credit went down the drain since i was no longer booked through DCL. is this true i wonder or was AAA giving me the wrong information?

It looks as if you're referring to special sale that AAA was offering. In all likelihood, it was a group rate that AAA held with Disney.

If that's the case, you do lose the onboard credit as Disney will not combine a SBC with a group booking.

However, you most definitely do not lose your shipboard credit simply by transferring a reservation to a TA. It had to have been the situation I described above that caused this to happen to you.

The other scenario would be if you were told to cancel and rebook by AAA. Unless it's a transfer, you lose your onboard credit and discount.

 

[mark & sandra]

dvcreg- we think alike. This is exactly what I did. I even go one better, I put my name on one room and my wife on the other. If the lead name on the room changes you lose the discount and credit and by having our names on both rooms we get both stateroom credits.

 

[tigger53]

dvcreg, i'm confused. are you saying if our orginal reservation was transfered to AAA we should still receive our onboard credit? because thats what we did, transfered from DCL to AAA, so should i be calling AAA and persue the onboard credit issue?

 

[Regina]

What I'm saying is that if you transferred it to AAA and they in turn converted it to one of their group bookings, that's the reason that you lost the SBC. You don't lose it simply by transferring it to a TA.

I would call them and ask if this is what happened. If not, someone either screwed up the transfer or you were misinformed.

 

[tigger53]

dvcreg, thanks for your input, i appreciate it. i'll give AAA a call on monday and check it out, although it's really tough to get any information on anything from them regarding our cruise because they tell you only the person you booked with can help you and from past experiences with her its almost impossible to reach her or get a return call. next time i'm sticking with DCL.