Rebooking a reservation through Costco

[BigDadNau]

So I had my third rebooking of what started out as an April 2020 DCL cruise, our first DCL. The first cancellation was met by tears and wales from the children (there might have even been a ripping of garments somewhere in there)...by the third they just laughed when I told them.

Having booked through Costco, the previous process of rebooking was OK...not frustrating, but not transparent. The Costco agents took care of rebooking the cruise basically as I had before, just with new dates. They dealt directly with the DCL agent. The Costco Agent did not offer me any additional options, or ideas how to employ my excess Future Cruise Credits (FCC) on my reservation (other than the reservation itself).

For my rebooking yesterday the Costco rep actually conference called me in with the Disney Cruise lines rep he was working with, and boy was that experience A #1 awesome. We were able to coordinate how best to rebook and employ a large FCC credit to cover other things in the booking (tips, insurance, etc.). The DCL agent explained what will happen to unused FCC (turns to On Board Credit that expires at the end of the sailing) and set up a payment plan (all from the FCC, but when the last FCC payment is made to the reservation) for maximum flexibility.

The Costco agents are well trained and wonderful to work with, but they work with numerous cruise lines and they are not experts in any single cruise line. Sometimes policies across various lines cross streams in their heads.

I would highly recommend that anyone rebooking through Costco travel ask the Costco agent to conference them in with the Disney agent and all work together on the rebooking.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Did you check that the credits had been applied correctly? I think when we rebooked, ours were not applied per person. As such, the only person on our guest list that has any credit left is the one person who only paid her own way. I essentially have just paid for her trip and my son, who may not be going with us, now, has no credit left, as it paid her fare. This is a mess I have to fix, and I'm dreading it, because, like you, I have to talk to DCL through Costco and there's no guarantee they will conference me in.

 

[BigDadNau]

Did you check that the credits had been applied correctly? I think when we rebooked, ours were not applied per person. As such, the only person on our guest list that has any credit left is the one person who only paid her own way. I essentially have just paid for her trip and my son, who may not be going with us, now, has no credit left, as it paid her fare. This is a mess I have to fix, and I'm dreading it, because, like you, I have to talk to DCL through Costco and there's no guarantee they will conference me in.

Hmmm...interesting. Since we are doing this as a family and extended family, that will not be as much of an issue. I believe the way they did it was the DCL rep left all the credit on mine and my Father in Laws account. Since we are all in this together I do not think it should be as much of an issue for us.

I would definitely be insistent with the Costco rep that you are conferenced in with the DCL agent. As my example shows, the Costco agents have the ability to conference you in. If they refuse ask to talk to their manager.

 

[cvjw]

Did you check that the credits had been applied correctly? I think when we rebooked, ours were not applied per person. As such, the only person on our guest list that has any credit left is the one person who only paid her own way. I essentially have just paid for her trip and my son, who may not be going with us, now, has no credit left, as it paid her fare. This is a mess I have to fix, and I'm dreading it, because, like you, I have to talk to DCL through Costco and there's no guarantee they will conference me in.

Same thing happened with us. Moved our May, 2021 cruise to September, 2021. Somehow all the credits are in my name, none in my husbands. I think it is because our May 2021 cruise was more expensive than the cancelled May, 2020 cruise. They used part of the original FCC to cover the fare increase and then used my FCC as extra OBC. When we moved the cruise, all the FCC was under me. I was able to use it on an additional cruise since the September cruise was cheaper than the May one.

 

[FigmentSpark]

So, in your case, it worked to your favor to have the credits applied in a general way, rather than by person. I had thought that would be a good idea until I had to look at pulling my son out of our reservation.

 

[cvjw]

So, in your case, it worked to your favor to have the credits applied in a general way, rather than by person. I had thought that would be a good idea until I had to look at pulling my son out of our reservation.

And, they allowed me to use all the FCC that was in my name on a January, 2022 cruise where my son is also in the stateroom with me. They in essence, allowed me to use the FCC on a totally different cruise passenger.

 

[BigDadNau]

And, they allowed me to use all the FCC that was in my name on a January, 2022 cruise where my son is also in the stateroom with me. They in essence, allowed me to use the FCC on a totally different cruise passenger.

I found they (DCL agent) were really fast and loose on how they worked with the credit, trying to figure how it would work best for me. They seem to have a lot of flexibility. The Costco agent (when they were the go between), not so much. Honestly, once the conference call was set up all the Costco agent did was listen (perfect) and the DCL agent and myself hammered things out. Then the Costco agent put a bow on it at the end.

Cudos to Disney for their flexibility with the FCC. Had heard other cruise lines restricted it to only reservation related stuff, and it would not convert to on-board credit.