Booking on board scary now?

rav4lcrv

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
We were planing on booking an Europe cruise for 2016, seems like it could be very complicated if you only have a hold reserv. and be bumped if it gets to full, might have to reconsider
 
We were planing on booking an Europe cruise for 2016, seems like it could be very complicated if you only have a hold reserv. and be bumped if it gets to full, might have to reconsider

Not sure what you mean by bumped if it gets to full? Are you referring to the placeholder reservations? My understanding is that you only book a placeholder if the sailing you want isn't released yet. Otherwise, you are making an actual reservation for the sailing that you want.
 
You can do either!

If you do not know your date or it has not been released you book a future cruise placeholder with $200 deposit and then move it to the correct date when you know it or it becomes available.

If you know your date and it has been released you book a regular on board reservation for that date!
 


If you are wanting Europe 2016, I would book it now before the prices go up more. If the price does not go up more than the discount rebook it when you are onboard.
 
Does this also include the OBC ? So if we want to book 2 rooms, 1 of which would be for my Brother & Sister in law for June 2016 in Europe, we could get locked in price & date with 10% discount & OBC ?
 
Yes, when you book onboard you get the 10% discount and OBC - $200 for 7+ night cruises and $100 for shorter cruises. The deposit is 10% for 7+ nights and 20% for less. But if you are not cruising soon, I would book it now before prices go up more.
 


you or some other adult from your current starroom will need to be registered in that second room though. can't be a reservation under your brother or SIL's name only, if they are not traveling with you on this trip.
 
I'm not sure they would let you book for your brother and SIL if they are cruising with you when booking. If they don't I would book one with you and your brother then in the other cabin book your spouse and SIL. Then once you're home have your TA straigten it out.
Each cabin gets the discount and OBC.
 
you or some other adult from your current starroom will need to be registered in that second room though. can't be a reservation under your brother or SIL's name only, if they are not traveling with you on this trip.
AFAIK, the first room has to have an adult who is on the current cruise booked in it, but you can have completely different people in your second room who are not on the current cruise at all. Occasionally people have been told that they had to put one of the current cruisers in the second room, but it's not common. We've done it several times and have not had to put either of us in the second room.

You can actually book a cruise for an adult friend and not sail on that cruise, but keep the discount. Book yourself and the friend in the stateroom onboard. When you get home, remove yourself from the stateroom (and presumably add someone else). Your friend will keep the discount; the rule is that one adult who was on the onboard booking must stay in the room to keep the discount. I confirmed this with DCL, and with the booking agent onboard. They all said that was perfectly OK under the current rules. Obviously they could change the rules in the future to say that someone from the original cruise needs to be in the room to keep the discount, but that is not the current policy.
 
my bad. this is from the FAQ page (but it's dated 2012 so may not apply entirely):

When booking onboard, you are allowed to book 2 reservations per household that will receive the 10% discount, 50% deposit reduction and onboard credit (based on Castaway Club level). They must be for the same sail date. You will not be allowed to book these for someone not on the sailing and that is not in your household.

Disney Cruise Line will allow you to book more then the 2 reservations for future sailings but they will not have the 50% deposit reduction or 10% Discount. They will have an onboard credit (based on Castaway Club level). There is nothing stating these have to be in the same household so this basically replaces the Friends & Family certificate without giving additional 30 days after sailing to book.

 
You will not be allowed to book these for someone not on the sailing and that is not in your household.

I'm fairly sure that's true for the first room, but not for the second (and subsequent) rooms. You have to put yourself in at least one, but beyond that you can book anyone you want. We booked a room for some friends on our last cruise. We had to put ourselves in the first room, but they were in the second. And on the cruise before that, we booked for a different set of friends. We were completely upfront with the booking agent about what we were doing. No trouble at all.
 
I'm fairly sure that's true for the first room, but not for the second (and subsequent) rooms. You have to put yourself in at least one, but beyond that you can book anyone you want. We booked a room for some friends on our last cruise. We had to put ourselves in the first room, but they were in the second. And on the cruise before that, we booked for a different set of friends. We were completely upfront with the booking agent about what we were doing. No trouble at all.

This is correct. We are sailing in two weeks with my cousin and her family. They are first time cruisers and we booked on board for them during one of our previous sailings. We could book an additional stateroom on our sailing for people not on the cruise with us and not in our household. I had to pay their deposit (they later paid me) as you need to provide credit card info for deposits for both rooms. The second stateroom receives all the same benefits.
 
There is no need to do any switches with the names after you get home. You can book both rooms for other people if you wish. You do not have to have a person currently on the cruise on the OBB reservation.
 
thanks for the clarification, everyone!

@lbgraves , are you able to edit the DIS DCL FAQ page? that's where i got the verbiage from. sounds like the line "You will not be allowed to book these for someone not on the sailing and that is not in your household." no longer applies, then?
 
There is no need to do any switches with the names after you get home. You can book both rooms for other people if you wish. You do not have to have a person currently on the cruise on the OBB reservation.

That may well be true, but I'm not sure all the booking agents know it. The one time we wanted to book two rooms for someone else (and nothing for us), I had done my research and were fairly confident it was possible to do just as you say. We were told by the future cruise agent that we had to put someone from our cruise in the first room. So I put myself in the first room along with one of our friends. When we got home I deleted myself from that room and added the right person. The other times we booked onboard I don't recall being told that we had to include one of us, but we wanted to put one of us in the first room anyway, so it's possible the subject never came up.
 
There is no need to do any switches with the names after you get home. You can book both rooms for other people if you wish. You do not have to have a person currently on the cruise on the OBB reservation.

My wife and I would like to have take a cruise in Feb 2017 for our 40th anniversary. We want our kids and grandkids all to come as well. We would probably need 5 (or 6) staterooms total. My wife and I are currently scheduled to take a cruise this summer, then a B2B cruise next January. Would the two of us be able to book 2 staterooms for each of those cruises, with us being named on only one reservation to get us the number of rooms we need?
 
My wife and I would like to have take a cruise in Feb 2017 for our 40th anniversary. We want our kids and grandkids all to come as well. We would probably need 5 (or 6) staterooms total. My wife and I are currently scheduled to take a cruise this summer, then a B2B cruise next January. Would the two of us be able to book 2 staterooms for each of those cruises, with us being named on only one reservation to get us the number of rooms we need?

Yes, for sure, and probably it'll be super smooth, but there could be some quirks to work around.

You *might* end up with a recalcitrant booking agent on board who wants someone from your cruise to be booked in the first onboard room. If that happens on your first cruise, you can just put you and your wife in whatever room you want. If it happens again on the second cruise, you can have them remove your wife from your existing booking and put her in some other room with someone else for now. When you get home, you can straighten everything out. Hopefully it won't even come up.

And keep in mind you can book more than two rooms, and get a lesser bonus for the 3rd (and 4th, 5th, etc.). You get the onboard credit of $100 or $200 per stateroom (depending on length), but not the lower deposit or 10% discount, for each room after the first 2.

So if you need 5 or 6 rooms, you'd probably want to book 3 on the first cruise and 3 more on the second cruise. That way you have 6 if you need them. If it turns out you need 5, cancel one of the rooms that has the lesser discount.

Four of your rooms will get a 10% discount, $100 or $200 onboard credit, and a lower deposit if the cruise is 7 days or longer. Two of the rooms will just get the $100 or $200 onboard credit, which ain't nothing.

I would definitely build a spreadsheet or a list or something to keep track of all your booking numbers, who you've booked and who you haven't, etc. especially if you have to split you and your wife to satisfy the booking agent.
 

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