What are your thoughts on the new online pre-booking?

[Andrew DEREK UK]

It is very good and a lot better than a rush as soon as you get on, they should add personalised cruise documents so you can download these or accept online, stop the worry about the documents arriving.

They should extend the purchases you can make on line, order wine for specific nights in advance, if we know the dinner rotation, and also extend the gifts range its very limited for children's birthdays etc.

Special PIN's and gifts etc. should be available to pre order and maybe limited one per stateroom to avoid coming up on Ebay, and order your duty frees in advance online!

Then lastly, have the option to book Mickey at a certain time to see you in private!

 

[TexasGirl]

I had trouble with the website having technical problems at first, but last week went back and it was working.

I booked Palo, Kids club and Flounders. I am thrilled that it is available. I was worried about getting the Flounders spots I wanted, registering for the kids club is always a very frustrating long process so yeah. Plus I don't have to mess with Palo, although in the past that wasn't a big deal to do on board....but all the better to have one less thing to do.

One suggestion is to also have appointments for the hair braiding on board. That always fills up almost immediately. It would be nice to do that while setting up all the other plans.

 

[ChrizJen]

I have to say that I LOVE the new system. We made Palo and Spa ressies with no problems whatsoever. But we have not been able to book excursions yet. There is obviously a problem on the wesite regarding the booking of shore excursions that needs to be ironed out still. But overall, it's GREAT!!! We'll just go later today or tomorrow to try again.

-Christal

 

[Stepherella]

This is my second cruise and I really liked that I could book online in advance. The only problem that I have with it is that my parents are also going and it is their first time, so booking excursions, as others above mentioned, is a problem. I have to wait to do theirs and hope that the same excursions are still open or I will have to rearrange all of our excursions.
Stephanie.

 

[SueEllen]

The only problem that I have with it is that my parents are also going and it is their first time, so booking excursions, as others above mentioned, is a problem. I have to wait to do theirs and hope that the same excursions are still open or I will have to rearrange all of our excursions.

Since all excursions can be booked at 90 days if you are paid in full, all you need to do is call DCL to book those. That should alleviate any issues with the excursion for a previous cruiser vs. a new cruiser.

Sue Ellen

 

[Jsme]

I have to say I loved being able to go online and make reservations. I was able to do some on June 1, but I have just made my online reservations today. I did not have any trouble in doing this. Actually I made my Palo's and excursions last night and realized today I made my Palo's on the wrong day. I like to eat at Palo's on the way home from CC around 7:00 pm. This way we can eat by request at the window and enjoy sunset. I went and cancelled and rebooked. It was very easy. I have my travel agent book our couples massage. We had already purchased the REAS package and decided to still stick with the package. Although we only booked this for the early PS priviledge at Palo's.

If you are concerige you can book 105 days out. Castaway Club 90 days and new cruise 75 days out. I did not see where concerige was mentioned. Not that you really have to book anything when going concerige, from what I have heard you can just about get anything you want while cruising concerige.

 

[Stepherella]

Hi Sue Ellen,

I tried booking both my parent and my excursions at the same time. I actually called DCL because the online system was having problems. The agent I got tried to book both cabins for excursions and said that the computer wouldn't let her. She put me on hold and talked to a supervisor. She came back and told me that I had to wait 75 days out to book excursions for my parents because they were not cc members and were new cruisers. It was frustrating, especially since I booked through DU and your site says that we can all book at 90 days out. Not so. Dreams Unlimited should fix this mistake on their site. My parent are going to be upset with me if all of the excursions are booked when I go to make their reservations. I hope there are still openings. I think that if you are paid up, and we both did by 90 days so that we could book excursions, you should be able to reserve excursions regardless of being a cc member or not.

Stephanie

 

[minniemoms]

Sue Ellen, it is the BEST thing disney did, besides bringing the ship to California.... I loved it, didn't have any problems booking anything. Booked Palo's brunch and dinner. I do wish we could know dinning rotation, didn't want to miss a single night. Did palo's dinner, but almost enjoyed brunch more. Keep doing this, it was so nice, when you get on board, you don't have to rush to a line and stand in it, you can go to lunch and start the feasting.... And please please please bring the ship back to California again. But we want Alaska next time.....

 

[MarceloandFefa]

Marcelo Macuco from Brazil

Hi Sue:

I tried to take a look at my reservation in the Disney
site but they show a message saying that, at the
moment, I can´t retrieve my reservation.
I entered all the information needed: conf.#, birth
date, e-mail and password. The password is correct
because disney sent me an e-mail to confirm my
password while I was trying to log-in.
I just don´t know if it´s a general problem ocurring
at the site affecting everyone or if it´s a particular
problem regarding my own reservation.
See if you can discover what´s going on.
Thank you

Dr. Marcelo Vechi Macuco, TSA-SBA

Below is a picture of my daughter

[/IMG]

 

[txaggie94gigem]

your daughter is beautiful!!!

i had some trouble getting on too once but then i used my husbands birthdate and name and i was able to get on...maybe the main name on your ressie is not you....just a thought...

 

[SueEllen]

Stepherella,
According to DCL--as long as a reservation is paid in full at the 90 day mark the shore excursions should be able to be booked (repeat cruiser or not) If the reservation is not paid in full then you cannot book the shore excursion.

Marcelo,
Your daughter is beautiful.

Sue Ellen

 

[CruisingCA2005]

I do like the option of booking palo & spa ressies prior to boarding but DCL does have a few kinks to work out. I've had two messages from DCL to make changes to my Palo ressies. My champagne brunch was moved up 1/2 an hour (not really a big deal). However, one night their site had a "glitch" and when I looked up my ressies, my Palo dinner ressie wasn't there. By that time most of the reservation slots were booked so I made a ressie for the last night of the cruise. On Monday I got another message from DCL about our reservations. They caught the "glitch" and wondered if I wanted my original reservation back. Of course!!! I wonder if they'll call about my high tea ressie next!

 

[Stepherella]

Sue Ellen,

According to the DCL website, you have to be paid in full to make the excursion reservations, but repeat cruisers get to at 90 days out and first time cruisers have to wait until 75 days out. My parents and I both paid before the 90 day mark and they still were not able to make reservations for the excursions at the 90 day mark. I tried online and when I called. The person I spoke to was very nice and tried to make both reservations at the same time. She told me the computer wouldn't let her. She put me on hold and then came back and told me her supervisor said only repeat cruisers may make excursion reservations at the 90 day mark, that first time cruisers could make theirs at the 75 day mark.

The dreams unlimited site now also gives this information.

On the 75 day mark, I was finally able to make excursion reservations for my parents. I am happy to say that they were able to get the same excursions as my husband and I.

Stephanie

 

[SueEllen]

My apologies Steph--that must be a very recent change then as they were doing all bookings at 90 days if paid in full (as compared the the 60 day window they used to do.) I guess when they went live online they changed the booking window also (because these could be done by phone or fax prior to the online system)
I'm happy to hear you were able to get these all booked together.
Sue Ellen

 

[starwood]

Stepherella,
According to DCL--as long as a reservation is paid in full at the 90 day mark the shore excursions should be able to be booked (repeat cruiser or not) If the reservation is not paid in full then you cannot book the shore excursion.

Marcelo,
Your daughter is beautiful.

Sue Ellen

That is not true. We are sailing 8/13. We are repeat cruises but MIL and DM are not. I booked our cruises but were told there was no way to override the system and book them until 75 days out. We paid in full the beginning of May which was more than 90 days out.

 

[Mom24Princesses]

We'll sail for the first time on 4/1/06 then again 72+/- days later. Will we even get our info to be CC members before we sail in June? We won't be CC even 75 days before 2nd cruise!! Doesn't do us much good. My TA said something about "when you've paid in full" not 90/75 to make ressies. Was she assuming we'd just make the deadline?? I was planning ot pay off the 4/1/06 by 10/1/05.
Melanie

 

[disneycrazzzy]

1) I can't look at any new openings for Palo reservations unless I cancel my reservation first. I didn't get the day or # of people I wanted the first time around.

2) The excursion times are not listed in excursion info.

3) There is a glitch when you initially register kids for the kids clubs. When I authorize them to check themselves out, it un-authorizes them. I have to go back and re-do it.

4) I can't reserve excursions at all for 14-day August Repo Cruise and haven't been able to for the past 4 days.

5) I thought I would be able to reserve at 90 days, but then they instituted the 105/90/75 rules. It would be nice if they could tell us that upfront. It would also be nice for them to tell us what day is 75 days in advance or whatever.

That's all...