Somethings I didn’t know

[Canadian Girl]

I was also pressured to upgrade and told I would be getting the last 7A available. I politely declined but later booked a three day hold on it online. There are still more showing as available. Do agents get commissions? I am actually very disappointed in my experiences as this type of thing has never happened to me before and we have sailed on DCzl a number of times. Maybe it was just the people I spoke with. Generally my interactions with DCL have been great.

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

I was also pressured to upgrade and told I would be getting the last 7A available. I politely declined but later booked a three day hold on it online. There are still more showing as available. Do agents get commissions? I am actually very disappointed in my experiences as this type of thing has never happened to me before and we have sailed on DCzl a number of times. Maybe it was just the people I spoke with. Generally my interactions with DCL have been great.

I have always been told the rooms become available again after 3 days when the Platinum cruisers holds expire. Sad that it raises the prices for the rest of us, but that is how it goes....

 

[JWG]

I have always been told the rooms become available again after 3 days when the Platinum cruisers holds expire. Sad that it raises the prices for the rest of us, but that is how it goes....

Not necessarily. We booked at opening day prices on Silver's day. We have family that may join us who have never cruised. The pricing hasn't yet changed for our category.

 

[Canadian Girl]

The Western TA gets snapped up immediately by people who often have no intention of going. Happened to each of the TAs I have been on as opening day prices are generally relatively low. Suddenly in the last few days, there has been a flood of availability after the new dates were released but prices have gone up many times since release. They never go down. Anyone booking now will be paying much more than at release. Other cruises before this one are still at opening day prices.

 

[lanejudy]

It sounds like you made a placeholder (no date) when onboard. Then booked (put a hold) no a cruise without using the placeholder. Then tried to apply the placeholder/OBB discount to the “hold” a few days later. The OBB placeholder doesn’t work that way; it can’t be “applied” to another reservation, regardless of when that reservation was made. The “hold” had to be canceled and “current” prices used for the OBB placeholder. Unfortunately the fares had increased in the interim. Next time, just use the placeholder. If you change your mind about doing that particular cruise, the placeholder can be pushed out using a “cheap” dummy date until you decide a real date.

Sorry that happened and you got caught in the price increase. It is a nasty side-effect of DCL pricing when a lot of people place holds on opening day and then allow those holds to cancel without booking, causing prices to increase.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Canadian Girl]

I firmed up a couple of days later with no additional price increases showing on Cruisefish. As I said, there seem to be increases going on not reflected places that can be accessed for sold out categories. The placeholder is actually irelevant here as it was well after opening day and most cabins were already booked. I am fine with it now. Just surprised and disappointed.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

with no additional price increases showing on Cruisefish

Well, Cruisefish isn't always complete in their information. It's quite possible there were other increases during interim dates that don't show there.

 

[JW9DVC]

It sounds like you only placed a $250 placeholder without naming a specific cruise. Your booking was not for a specific cruise. Maybe you shopped cruises and received prices.

The price went up while you were making your decision. Possibly not including port fees or even insurance or gratuity.

You then came with a specific date and transferred your place holder to a cruise and paid a deposit. The day your deposit was complete. Is the rate you pay. JW

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It sounds like you only placed a $250 placeholder without naming a specific cruise. Your booking was not for a specific cruise. Maybe you shopped cruises and received prices.

The price went up while you were making your decision. Possibly not including port fees or even insurance or gratuity.

You then came with a specific date and transferred your place holder to a cruise and paid a deposit. The day your deposit was complete. Is the rate you pay. JW

Yeah, that's been pointed out. A couple of times.

 

[cyclenut]

This thread exemplifies how complicated the booking process can be, especially when trying to coordinate schedules and lock in prices all while there is a mad scramble for those opening day prices for new itineraries. We booked our WBPC on opening day. We didn't have an OBB placeholder available but were sailing a few months later. We knew that anything we did on board would be considered a new booking. We went to the booking desk and shared our already booked information as a reference. We were told that there were no more cabins in our class available and that prices had gone up considerably for the few that had been available. There was no point in trying to rebook to get the OBB benefits. This was sill more than a year away from the sail date. Cabins have become available on occasion as people cancel. We are approaching PIF now and prices are even higher. The cruise has been "sold out' many times but cabins continue to become available as people reach PIF and decide they just can't make it work (for a variety of reasons).

It's very easy to get the various booking options confused. OBB placeholder vs. OBB cruise vs. reservation Hold vs. standard booking. They all have different rules and restrictions. The easiest order of operations is to have an OBB placeholder available when new dates are released. Call DCL or your TA and tell them about the placeholder when the booking window opens (you can call your TA in advance of course). If you are trying to book one of the more popular cruises (e.g. TA or PC) then be prepared to move fast.

 

[JW9DVC]

Yeah, that's been pointed out. A couple of times.

Cool. I pointed it out again.

 

[Canadian Girl]

Ha ha. This has gone in circles and apologize for being so convoluted. I appreciate the time everyone took to reply. My placeholder was a red herring. The issue when I booked was most categories were already gone, and it was not when they were first released. There is no way to verify prices in these categories for the day I paid my deposit as they do not show up anywhere passengers have access to. I think things continue to escalate for each category whether sold out or not. I decided to keep my 9b. The price difference for a Navigator is now too much of a jump to make it worthwhile for me as I pay in Canadian dollars. I also might get off the ship at the last Canadian port instead of spending the extra day going to New York. My other TAs have been in a full verandah but we tried out a four day ocean view last March on the Wonder and it was just fine. My daughter will miss the pull down bunk but can live with that. Lol. We are GTY. Maybe we will get pixie dusted.

 

[bumbershoot]

I keep checking out this (very confusing to me) thread and it seems like posters are asking pretty specific questions in order to help the OP but those aren’t really being answered. In an effort to unconfuse myself....

I had a placeholder but wanted to make sure I really wanted that cruise so I did a three day hold to lock in the price. There were almost no cabins left, only ocean views in GTY and maybe a higher verandah category when I really wanted a 7A. Those had sold out sometime in the weeks before. I checked prices on Cruisefish and when I firmed up, asked if my price would be locked in when I rebooked and told yes

You did a three day hold to lock in the price. But paid no deposit at that time. Others are saying that it doesn’t work that way.

When I called to upgrade not only was I stuck with the date I paid the deposit, ( they had cancelled the earlier one)

Cancelled what earlier one?

So you made a hold, then called to have the placeholder cover that ajdboaid the deposit, then later on went to upgrade?

They could have said any number as there was no way to verify.

You either trust a company or you don’t.

Even my ocean view is hundreds more than my verandah I had this year.

Well yeah.

I responded that it was nearly twice the price of the cabin I had this year in a category three steps up.

Irrelevant to this.

I was also pressured to upgrade

By whom? When?

My placeholder was a red herring.

Is it? Because it seems you switched the hold to the placeholder, and from what others are saying that seems highly relevant.

We are GTY

Could that be part of it?

 

[dcassetta]

Ha ha. This has gone in circles and apologize for being so convoluted. I appreciate the time everyone took to reply. My placeholder was a red herring. The issue when I booked was most categories were already gone, and it was not when they were first released. There is no way to verify prices in these categories for the day I paid my deposit as they do not show up anywhere passengers have access to. I think things continue to escalate for each category whether sold out or not. I decided to keep my 9b. The price difference for a Navigator is now too much of a jump to make it worthwhile for me as I pay in Canadian dollars. I also might get off the ship at the last Canadian port instead of spending the extra day going to New York. My other TAs have been in a full verandah but we tried out a four day ocean view last March on the Wonder and it was just fine. My daughter will miss the pull down bunk but can live with that. Lol. We are GTY. Maybe we will get pixie dusted.

If you are planning to not get back on for the last bit of the cruise, make sure and contact Disney ahead of time to make arrangements for that. You'll need to arrange immigration and customs for you in Canada in a different way then if the ship was just stopping for the day and you were getting off and then back on again. I understand that you're Canadian, but you can't just get off the ship without telling anyone.

 

[rcchello]

One problem is that cruisefish only catches prices if there is availability when they run their scans. If a room becomes available for less than a day cruisers may not catch the change. Also, Disney may change prices multiple times in a single day and cruisefish will only catch one of them.

The problem this person was caught by was that Disney will make increase the price of all rooms with less than x% availability (including sold out rooms) as of a certain date. Cruisefish won't catch these for sold out rooms. You would need to call Disney and ask the current cost of that category, and you might not get an answer because there is no reason to inform their agents since they can't currently sell one.

If you looks across rooms of a certain type on cruisefish you will see that they all have increased in the same day (for the rooms with availability). You can assume that the rooms of a similar type without availability have just gone up also.

Someone already mentioned prices going up because of people reserving rooms they did not actually want. This is one reason they stopped requiring you to book a dummy date for Onboard Booking discount. It was driving up the prices of the cheapest, shortest cruises, since those had the lowest deposits.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

This isn't true on DCL. In the past, if someone wanted to change categories ON THE SAME CRUISE they are already booked, it only cost what the prices were the day the original reservation was made. You are locked into those prices once you've made your deposit.

There have been times where a CM made an error and charged the prevailing price when someone changed categories, but a talk with a supervisor would fix that.

Yes, we did this just last January. Booked a cruise with inside room but almost booked oceanview. Would have been just under $100 more (can't remember exact numbers). Around 4 months before the cruise, we decided we wanted the oceanview and checked online to see that price had gone up to around $250 more. Even at $250 more we were still interested in upgrading and called to see about it. Price to upgrade was just under $100, so yes, we got original price.