Question about using "Placeholder"

[PattiPB]

Good morning all!

I have a "Placeholder" that I bought on my last DCL. I am Silver CC, so looking to book on Nov 2 for Jan 2025.

Is it worth the potentially hours on hold to use the placeholder, or should I book online? Can I apply the placeholder later? Is the placeholder just $250 off, or is there some benefit I'm forgetting?

Thanks for all the help~

 

[jennifermcb]

Good morning all!

I have a "Placeholder" that I bought on my last DCL. I am Silver CC, so looking to book on Nov 2 for Jan 2025.

Is it worth the potentially hours on hold to use the placeholder, or should I book online? Can I apply the placeholder later? Is the placeholder just $250 off, or is there some benefit I'm forgetting?

Thanks for all the help~

Placeholder also gives you 10% off the cruise (not including taxes). I am not sure about applying the placeholder later.

 

[ljhayes]

You cannot apply the placeholder later. You would have to cancel and rebook. If prices have gone up by then, you'll pay the prevailing rate. As mentioned, the placeholder gets you 10% off and a lower deposit on 7+ night cruises.

 

[lanejudy]

The placeholder cannot be applied to an existing reservation nor booked online. If you want the 10% discount, you'll need to book by phone.

 

[Geomom]

You have to call to use the placeholder. (I use a TA, so they call for me ). You get 10% off your cruise and if it's 7 nts or longer the deposit is 10%. The $250 you already paid is part of your deposit

 

[CastawayCayLover]

I've had it go two ways trying to apply a placeholder after already booking. One time (and I think this is the usual process) they had to rebook the cruise when I called. The price hadn't changed so this was no big deal but if it had changed I would have been charged the new price. Another time, they were able to just apply the placeholder without rebooking it.

 

[nancipants]

One day, they'll update their website and allow people to use placeholders to book online.

 

[PattiPB]

Thank you all for the quick information. I just realized it will be 25 months between cruises, so they might not honor the placeholder anyway...sigh...

 

[lanejudy]

I just realized it will be 25 months between cruises, so they might not honor the placeholder anyway

No, sorry, they won't. It's 24 months to the day which is why many folks hold off until late in the cruise to book the placeholder. It will automatically cancel at 24 months, or you can call to cancel it soon if you know you won't be changing plans and want to use it.

 

[Bruce66]

One thing to be aware of, if you book a place holder and initially assign it to a travel agent, if you want to handle the reservation yourself or transfer it to another TA you need to have the TA release the place holder and many will not. It's an additional step but I recommend assigning the placeholder to yourself and then you have up to 30 days (I believe) to decide and assign it to the TA of your choice. For me DCL is so user friendly I don't know why you need to use a TA other than to get a OBC and for that you can go through Costco Travel and get such a better return on your money..

 

[Mommb]

For me DCL is so user friendly I don't know why you need to use a TA other than to get a OBC and for that you can go through Costco Travel and get such a better return on your money..

If you have a travel agent you like, the value of using a travel agent for a placeholder is the situation the original poster was in — a travel agent can apply your placeholder to a booking so you don’t have to spend time waiting on the phone when new bookings open.

I have not used Costco so I don’t know how they handle newly released bookings.

 

[Girl of the South]

You will get your $250 back if you don’t use your placeholder.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

You will get your $250 back if you don’t use your placeholder.

In 2 years. Or they can cancel now and get it back.

 

[Louise97]

If you have a travel agent you like, the value of using a travel agent for a placeholder is the situation the original poster was in — a travel agent can apply your placeholder to a booking so you don’t have to spend time waiting on the phone when new bookings open.

I have not used Costco so I don’t know how they handle newly released bookings.

This is a really big benefit - I spent hours waiting to get through to use my placeholder after buying one on my first cruise. I made sure to use a TA after that, so now my wonderful Dreams agent deals with placeholders for me!

 

[happycamper47]

This is a really big benefit - I spent hours waiting to get through to use my placeholder after buying one on my first cruise. I made sure to use a TA after that, so now my wonderful Dreams agent deals with placeholders for me!

Especially when the new itineraries come out and it doesn't cost you one cent extra.

 

[Carohs]

I have not used Costco so I don’t know how they handle newly released bookings.

For us, they got the sailing date/ship of what I wanted to book then put me on hold while they called DCL. It took some back and forth as they were giving me quotes for different staterooms. My suggestion is know what stateroom# you want before calling Costco. You can quote it out yourself on the Disney site, I just didn't have that option because of IT issues at the time.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

This is a really big benefit - I spent hours waiting to get through to use my placeholder after buying one on my first cruise. I made sure to use a TA after that, so now my wonderful Dreams agent deals with placeholders for me!

This is why I like having a TA. I just email her what cruise we want, top 3 choices of cabins, or that general vicinity if they're not available. When I come home from work, I usually have email that it's booked. She keeps my cc on file and it's all taken care of.

There's no way I could spend hours on hold unless I take a day off work. That would really irk me to have to do that.

 

[Cheburashka]

When wait times are extreme, Costco Travel's phone system often has offered to call me back so I don't spend hours on hold.

Also, booking via Costco Travel gets you a shop card worth 8.5% off the base price of the cruise. That is on top of any discount (such as the placeholder 10%) that you get from DCL. For me, that's a great deal, because I mostly use my shop card to buy gasoline at Costco, which I would have to buy anyway and already costs less than buying gasoline elsewhere. I also book using my Costco Visa to get another 3% back in the form of a certificate that I can redeem for cash at the end of the year.

So altogether that's like getting 21.5% off the price of a Disney cruise. Worth it for me.

 

[Darren1969]

The placeholder cannot be applied to an existing reservation nor booked online. If you want the 10% discount, you'll need to book by phone.

That has to be one of the top 3 requests since forever.