Who is offering best OBC or incentives??

[TwingleMum]

I am going to book a 4nt cruise when I get my tax return (hopefully soon) . so how can a cruise newbie like me get the best deal?? I have Disney visa. I was told Disney Visa gives you a credit. another Dis'er who has experience told me one trick was to book through DCl first get their credits and then transfer to Du and get obc from them also. is this correct?? TIA.

 

[LMCmom25kids]

I am going to book a 4nt cruise when I get my tax return (hopefully soon) . so how can a cruise newbie like me get the best deal?? I have Disney visa. I was told Disney Visa gives you a credit. another Dis'er who has experience told me one trick was to book through DCl first get their credits and then transfer to Du and get obc from them also. is this correct?? TIA.

No.. it is not correct. We booked with DCL first, then just last month, transfered our ressies for 2 verandah rooms, cat 5, and Dreams Unlimited told us if we would have booked with them in the first place we would have got the full on board credit of $100 per stateroom. Since we first booked with DCL, sure we got the $25 per room on board credit, but after transfering ressies to DU, they only gave us a $50 obc per room. So, we only ended up with $75 per room. We lost $25 per room.... (We booked 2 rooms, so that means we lost out on $50 of on board credits.) Bummer!

Here is part of an e-mail from them that explains why.

Hi Teresa,

We have determined that we are not able to offer the standard shipboard credit on your reservations. We would be able to $50 per stateroom. The reason we are able to offer more shipboard credit on other reservations is that we are receiving more commission on those reservations. Disney Cruise Line changed their policy on amount of commission paid to travel agencies for transferred reservations and we receive much less than we used to receive on these reservations. We now review every transfer request to determine if we will receive enough revenue from the reservation to offer our standard shipboard credit.

I hope this helps you to understand why it is important to book thru Dreams Unlimited.

Good luck.

 

[kcashner]

DCL pays a reduced commission for transferred ressies; less than they do when the TA makes a ressie. I was told that this is because a couple years ago one agency tried to get people to transfer ressies for sold out cruises--they couldn't sell em so they tried to get people to transfer them. In response to having to pay commission on those ressies when DCL CMs essentially did all the work, DCL reduced the commission for transfers.

In response to the reduced commission, some TAs reduced the OBC or gift they give for a transfer, others won't take transfers at all, still others kept things the same but "eat" the loss of commission.

Bottom line--there's way more to a TA than an OBC. A TA can get you the same deals you can get yourself thru the web site--the Disney Visa OBC, etc. In addition, they can give you great service; especially important in an emergency or unusual situation. And, they can give you an OBC or other gift. There's no downside to booking with a TA from the beginning. Pick up the phone, call their 800 number, and talk to them.

 

[croppincolburn]

TAs will give you a free quote and tell you how much OBC they are giving. I got a couple quotes before I choose. Both the TAs I got quotes from broke it out and said 25 for them booking it online, etc. One thing my TA did that helped was that she knew to look beyond the suggested room on the Disney site and got me a better location. Since we are only 3 Disney site wanted to put us in the rooms that only hold three and they are much more aft than the ones that hold 4.

If you want to PM me then I can give you the name of a couple TAs. And of course there is the sponsor of this forum.

 

[slcmom]

imho the only way to go is to use cruisecompete and let TA's bid for your commission. Give it a try - there's no obligation to use them. Have fun.