Wish Early Booking questions

[Livelovedance]

I’m fairly new to cruising and have never booked on an early booking day, so I have questions!

I’m hoping to book a cruise on the Wish for next summer on Tuesday (DVC early booking day). I have a placeholder cruise booked right now with Costco that I’m planning to transfer to the new cruise. We’re not set on any special date, we just want just a cruise over the summer in a deluxe family oceanview stateroom. I know I’ll have to call Costco first, and then have them call DCL, and I imagine the holds will be long. Unfortunately I have work that day and don’t have a job that will allow me to wait for lengthy amounts of time on hold.

Is there anyone that could give me some input on how opening days or early booking days tend to work? Any opinions on the following questions would be greatly appreciated: Should I try during my lunch break, or just wait until after work? Would I be better off taking off that day?

(Edit to add: This will only be our 2nd cruise, so I’m still figuring out booking categories and deck preferences!)

 

[AquaDame]

Waits can be long, but the order of booking for this release has been a little different. To my knowledge there has never been an entire day set aside for DVC members and adventure insiders to book, so it is uncharted territory.

Whether or not you take the day off would depend on how important this is to you - if you will be heartbroken if you can't get a specific day and category and you have the time to burn I might take it off. I've usually been able to get through relatively quickly as long as I'm not calling within the first few hours of opening - I'm on PST so my "lunch" is around 3pm for the phone lines and I get right through.

There are still two whole groups AFTER your booking day so I hope you still have many options..! We may have a better idea how things look after Gold wraps up tomorrow.

 

[Livelovedance]

Waits can be long, but the order of booking for this release has been a little different. To my knowledge there has never been an entire day set aside for DVC members and adventure insiders to book, so it is uncharted territory.

Whether or not you take the day off would depend on how important this is to you - if you will be heartbroken if you can't get a specific day and category and you have the time to burn I might take it off. I've usually been able to get through relatively quickly as long as I'm not calling within the first few hours of opening - I'm on PST so my "lunch" is around 3pm for the phone lines and I get right through.

There are still two whole groups AFTER your booking day so I hope you still have many options..! We may have a better idea how things look after Gold wraps up tomorrow.

Thank you! I just realized that Costco Travel opens 2 hours after DCL, so attempting to call early wouldn't help anyway. I'm leaning towards not taking off because we have multiple date options, but I hope I don't regret it! Like you said, there are more booking groups after Tuesday so hopefully we'll still be okay...

 

[OpieDoodle]

Wait times right now are insane. Everyone wants to get on the Wish. I heard from a few people it was 2-3 hours. Personally, my stance is I don't want to be on that boat right now THAT BAD. I'm sure its great but I have so many of the other boats I still need to do that the Wish is on the back burner for me until things calm down.

I'd imagine it'll be crazy when it opens for silver castaway. Anyone who has been on ONE cruise or more can call that day. It will be a significantly larger group than the previous groups and those groups had hold times for hours.

If you're not set on a specific date/room type you're probably fine to wait a few days and hopefully there will still be some rooms available after the rush.

 

[Trera]

Wait times right now are insane. Everyone wants to get on the Wish. I heard from a few people it was 2-3 hours. Personally, my stance is I don't want to be on that boat right now THAT BAD. I'm sure its great but I have so many of the other boats I still need to do that the Wish is on the back burner for me until things calm down.

I'd imagine it'll be crazy when it opens for silver castaway. Anyone who has been on ONE cruise or more can call that day. It will be a significantly larger group than the previous groups and those groups had hold times for hours.

If you're not set on a specific date/room type you're probably fine to wait a few days and hopefully there will still be some rooms available after the rush.

I would book online.

 

[OpieDoodle]

I would book online.

My understanding is that option wasn't available to most of the people trying to book for one reason or another. I'm not sure, just relaying info from friends of mine that have been in this process with the Wish. Personally, I'm not really that crazy about getting on it RIGHT THIS SECOND so we booked for the Dream in Feb and we are looking at a future Fantasy trip. I'll get on the Wish eventually

 

[dina444444]

My understanding is that option wasn't available to most of the people trying to book for one reason or another. I'm not sure, just relaying info from friends of mine that have been in this process with the Wish. Personally, I'm not really that crazy about getting on it RIGHT THIS SECOND so we booked for the Dream in Feb and we are looking at a future Fantasy trip. I'll get on the Wish eventually

It wasn’t available for the first 3 levels of platinum. Online booking opened on Thursday when it went to all of platinum.

 

[princesscinderella]

I’m gold CC and I’m trying to get a B2B booked with the DVC wish cruise and the following June 17th sailing. I usually use Costco for my DCL bookings but knew that they would not be of help to try to get the second half booked since they don’t even open until a few hours after the booking window opens. I put in a request through Dreams Unlimited travel and the agent that I was assigned to has been great! She advised me to try on my own tomorrow morning at the same time she will be too so I can hopefully get the same cabin if it’s still available. I really appreciated her help and integrity to help me get what I want. She informed me if I could get it on my own I can always have it transferred over to dreams to get a partial on board credit. I was really impressed.

 

[Livelovedance]

Wait times right now are insane. Everyone wants to get on the Wish. I heard from a few people it was 2-3 hours. Personally, my stance is I don't want to be on that boat right now THAT BAD. I'm sure its great but I have so many of the other boats I still need to do that the Wish is on the back burner for me until things calm down.

I'd imagine it'll be crazy when it opens for silver castaway. Anyone who has been on ONE cruise or more can call that day. It will be a significantly larger group than the previous groups and those groups had hold times for hours.

If you're not set on a specific date/room type you're probably fine to wait a few days and hopefully there will still be some rooms available after the rush.

Thank you! Believe it or not, we’re trying to book the Wish primarily for the itinerary. We’re booking with an extended placeholder and wanted a 3-4 night cruise on the Dream from Port Canaveral, but the Wish has taken over those sailings. We’d rather not have to fly into or travel to Miami, so that leaves us with this hectic booking situation. I’m trying not to lose the placeholder, but if we can’t get a cruise booked we’ll just cancel our original cruise and wait for a less crazy time!

I would book online.

I wish I could, but the DVC early booking day is by phone only. I’m also trying to reschedule a placeholder booked cruise with Costco, so I have to call through them...

I’m gold CC and I’m trying to get a B2B booked with the DVC wish cruise and the following June 17th sailing. I usually use Costco for my DCL bookings but knew that they would not be of help to try to get the second half booked since they don’t even open until a few hours after the booking window opens. I put in a request through Dreams Unlimited travel and the agent that I was assigned to has been great! She advised me to try on my own tomorrow morning at the same time she will be too so I can hopefully get the same cabin if it’s still available. I really appreciated her help and integrity to help me get what I want. She informed me if I could get it on my own I can always have it transferred over to dreams to get a partial on board credit. I was really impressed.

That is wonderful news! I hope you get what you’re trying for! My situation is slightly complicated with an extended placeholder and quite a few cruises already rescheduled with it through Costco. I had no idea how complicated booking a cruise could be lol. Good luck with your B2B!

 

[MickeySwirl]

I would book online.

You have to call to use an OBB. Maybe someday DCL will make it an available option online. That would make everyone’s lives easier on opening booking days.

 

[Trera]

You have to call to use an OBB. Maybe someday DCL will make it an available option online. That would make everyone’s lives easier on opening booking days.

Then I would be on the line at exactly 8:00 am

 

[Livelovedance]

Just wanted to check in with an update:

We're booked! I called Costco Travel during a break at work and was on hold for a little over an hour just waiting to speak with them (they had a wait time alert at the beginning of the call, so I left it silently on hold and figured by then it would be my lunch time, which it was). The woman I spoke with was very nice and warned me that the wait times with Disney were very long. She was incredibly kind and understanding, and checked in with me throughout the day. Each check in she asked for a time that would work for me with my work schedule, which was totally unexpected and so thoughtful of her. At the end of my work day she transferred my call to another Costco Travel rep (as her day was ending), who I just finished the call with! I was on the phone for a total of about 5 hours between waiting for Costco and waiting for DCL, but we're booked without any disappointments in availability.

Thank you to everyone that replied to my questions, and best of luck to those still booking!

 

[AquaDame]

That really sounds like they went above and beyond, good on Costco!

 

[Livelovedance]

That really sounds like they went above and beyond, good on Costco!

Yes! I was very happy with my experience and very thankful for the patient representatives I spoke with today. It was a long wait, but both reps made the experience easy and stress-free!