Onboard Booking Offer Updated to Offer Passengers Option to Book A Placeholder Date

Effective immediately, Guests sailing on a Disney Cruise Line Ship can take advantage of the onboard offer without selecting an actual sailing date. The deposit for the placeholder date is $200 per stateroom.

This new placeholder process allows Guests to book the onboard offer without booking a reservation for a specific sail date. The confirmation will include a confirmation number, but will not display details such as ship name, sail date or category.

If a Travel Agent has a Client who has held an onboard sales offer, they can reference the confirmation number to call back to modify the booking when their Client decides on an actual sail date.

Please note while this is a new process for confirming placeholder date reservations, there are no other changes to the current onboard offer policies, including the number of bookings allowed or the need to complete travel within 24 months from the date the reservation is booked.

Disney also made the onboard booking flier available as a PDF for future cruise guests to print and complete before arriving at the port. 

Guests with existing placeholder reservations will receive an email next week with more details on this new placeholder process.

Thanks to Travel on a Dream for passing along this information. 

20 Replies to “Onboard Booking Offer Updated to Offer Passengers Option to Book A Placeholder Date”

  1. Walt S.

    Please note while this is a new process for confirming placeholder date reservations, there are no other changes to the current onboard offer policies,

    Scott, do that mean that discounts and onboard credits will or will not apply whenever the date is reserved. If not I will continue to book my date on board, because that is giving up a lot. I’m usually at least a year in advance and can move it prior to full payment date within the 24 month of my reservation.

    Reply
  2. travelonadream

    Walt, this means that you will still have the 24 month limit to use the reservation and you will receive the discounts, subject to black out date.

    The problem has been that when you book a date onboard that you aren’t going to use, you are tying up active inventory. Rooms that other people want to book but might not be able to because so many people have reservations on the date they won’t use. This has created a huge problem for Disney (of their own making) so this will alleviate that problem. Everything that you got before when naming a specific date will follow with these placeholder reservations. They just don’t want you to think you are going to get more than 24 months or something different because of the new procedure.

    Reply
    1. Walt S.

      Thank you for your detailed explanation. Then it is worth it. It is cheaper than my last two down payments which was more than $200.00 by far. I agree with you that more people will sign up to it. I will be one of those people. 🙂

      Reply
    1. Marnix

      You can book two stateroom on one future cruise per household per stateroom.
      Additional staterooms and/or cruises do NOT receive the 10% off the cruise fare, but only the On Board Credit and reduced deposit for 7n and longer cruises.

      Reply
      1. FellowCollector

        We wish DCL would go back to letting us do 2 onboard bookings and get the 10% and the obc on each, even if they are not back-to-back.

        Reply
      2. mzjcricket

        1) How does Disney define a household and what proof do you need to bring?
        2) Can a 19-year-old in college use a college address?

        Reply
  3. Dennis C

    This is an amazing offer. While other cruise line’s allow you to book future cruises on board the perks and savings are minimal at best (we booked Alaska on the Magic and saved close to $1000).

    I only wish this offer was available back in December when we were on the Dream.

    Reply
  4. Walt S.

    I’m just curious…….. Can we use this Onboard Booking Offer for special category offerings like IGT, OGT and receive the discounts since no date is locked in?

    Reply
  5. beth

    I am one who always has a specific date for the cruise I want to book on board (if it’s not already booked and I’m just reshopping it). Do we know if rebooking a specific date will still be an option? If everyone has to go to this generic $200 no-date deposit it honestly kind of turns me off of the process as that’s just another step for me to go through. It’s great for those who don’t know when they want to sail, but it would really be nice if they kept the option for those of us who know when we do to book an actual cruise…

    Reply
    1. Summer

      It’s my understanding that guests can still book a specific date. This is only if you don’t know when you’re cruising so you don’t book up a date you aren’t actually going to use.

      Reply
    1. Marnix

      You must specify this when booking and you will have to buy a placeholder for both legs. If you want two staterooms on each leg of a B2B you must purchase 4 placeholders (totalling $800) and later move them to your B2B cruises. It is NOT possible to add a second leg of a B2B with OBB benefits after leaving the Ship and if you move one (or two) placeholders to a cruise without moving the other one or two to a B2B leg you will loose the OBB benefits on the latter.

      Reply
  6. Susan

    We are going on cruise in March of 2016, one stateroom. We are planning a family cruise in August 2017 and will need 5 rooms. Can I book a placeholder in the names of family members for the the 4 staterooms while on the March 2016 cruise? I know I can do a placeholder for my room. It’s a 4 night cruise, will the other family staterooms get the $200 on board credit?

    Reply
  7. Lisa Shapiro

    If I travel with my mom and daughter who’s three, will I be able to get a placeholder and my mom be able to get a placeholder? Can we get 2 per cabin? Although I am temporarily living with my parents due to an expensive divorce so we share the same address. Would this be considered one household?

    Reply

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