What are the benifits of booking a DCL cruise while on a DCL cruise About This Page:

[RedSox Mickey]

Is it really cost effective to book next years DCL cruise while on this years DCL cruise? Do they give better discounts to book our next cruise this way? Please advise ASAP we leave on the Dream in 7 days. Woohoo

[unewillow]

I don't know what the current re-booking discounts are but when I rebooked on my last cruise I got 10% off the rate and because it was a 7 day cruise I booked, a $200 on board credit.

[MickeyWatch]

Our discount was similiar. The other nice thing is that you can just book a "dummy cruise" while on board, and change the dates when you get home and actually look at your school or work calender. You keep the discount and onboard credit even if you change cruises. We went from a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Wonder that we booked on board the Magic last summer and changed it to a 4 day cruise on the Dream when we got home.

We had friends on board the Baltic Cruise with us who visited the Cruise reservations desk the last night on board, just before the Kids Club show. They told the cast member to just book then on any ship; in any room, just to get the discount and then left for the show. They didn't even know what ship they were booked on until they got home and looked at their e-mail.

[cubfancolleen]

The other benefit of booking while onboard, is that the required deposit is only 50% of the normal deposit. SO, you don't need to put as much down when you book.
Good luck! And have a GREAT time on the Dream! 131 more days to wait for me....

[modisney]

I have a question here as well. If you book on board, can you choose your stateroom?

[Dave Marx]

Yes, you can select your stateroom.

Overall benefits of booking on board vary. In most cases, this encourages you to book sooner, rather than later. Since DCL rates rise as time go by (and rarely go on sale), anything that gets you to book early is a good thing. But be careful if you delay your plans to book, just so you can take advantage of the on-board deal. If the base cruise rate rises too much while you wait, the on-board deal may actually cost you some money.

[Donald_Quackers]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

The other benefit of booking while onboard, is that the required deposit is only 50% of the normal deposit. SO, you don't need to put as much down when you book.
Good luck! And have a GREAT time on the Dream! 131 more days to wait for me....

The deposit changed...when I rebooked onboard, it was 10% off the fare and a 10% deposit instead of the 20% if you didn't book onboard, and this was as of Dec 2010.

[PixieMichele]

They change the incentives from time to time, I believe (Dave, correct me if i'm wrong) it's listed somewhere on the daily Navigator...the back page if i'm not mistaken. And you can always stop by the "future cruise sales" desk and speak with them, they're very quick. You can move your dates and not lose the benefit. MickeyWatch-That's so funny about your friends, they are smart though!
I think the cruise director may also make mention of onboard booking incentives during the dialogue before the shows.

[travling1]

Originally Posted by Dave Marx

Yes, you can select your stateroom.

Overall benefits of booking on board vary. In most cases, this encourages you to book sooner, rather than later. Since DCL rates rise as time go by (and rarely go on sale), anything that gets you to book early is a good thing. But be careful if you delay your plans to book, just so you can take advantage of the on-board deal. If the base cruise rate rises too much while you wait, the on-board deal may actually cost you some money.

Need your opinion Dave. We are sailing on the DREAM end of May this year in about 50 days. I was thinking about booking one of the newer port destinations for 2012 while on board. Do you think the rates will go up from now until then??

[B.M.]

Is the $200 on board credit per room?

[Dave Marx]

Originally Posted by travling1

Need your opinion Dave. We are sailing on the DREAM end of May this year in about 50 days. I was thinking about booking one of the newer port destinations for 2012 while on board. Do you think the rates will go up from now until then??

I know that the NY itineraries are going very, very fast. I'd expect Galveston is also going fast. In either of those cases, you might not even get a reservation if you wait 50 days. I'd check your desired cruise to see how many vacancies there seem to be. The more stateroom categories that are available, the better the vacancy situation is. Then, you can try to book the desired category and see what rooms are available to select from. That's help tell you how heavy the demand is. At that point, either bail out and wait 50 days to test your luck, or not.

If you're interested in Mexican Riviera, you'll probably be fairly safe waiting 50 days. In all other cases... The Fantasy is hot, because it's the great, new ship on those very popular Caribbean itineraries. The Dream continues to be hot, because it's such a great ship. Alaska will be hot (so to speak) because it's always a high-demand itinerary, and I expect sailing from Seattle will make a lot of potential cruisers very happy.

[Dave Marx]

Originally Posted by B.M.

Is the $200 on board credit per room?

Yes, per stateroom.

[TracyKim]

We plan on booking a couple of "dummy" cruises while on board in May. Then I will tell my TA when we want to cruise so she can move those "dummy" cruises to the 1st day that they are available to get the lowest rate.

I may just book another "dummy" cruise and name it "Hawaii 2016" and give myself 5 years to pay it off!!!

I have a question along these lines.

Say we book a "dummy" cruise at the lowest level (stateroom) possible and then keep increasing the levels (stateroom) and nights as we pay and all the while taking other cruises to increase our CC level. Once we plant that "dummy cruise on the cruise that we actually want to take (Hawaii 2016) will we get the benefits (OBC) of the higher level CC membership for that cruise or will we get the level that we were on when we first booked that "dummy" cruise?
So the "dummy" cruise would start out as a 3 night Cat 11 something and then end at a 15 night (Hawaiian) Cat 5 something.

[Dave Marx]

I suspect you'll get whatever OBC you were entitled to when you made the original booking. In other words, the incentive that was being offered when you booked. The club benefits/ gift will reflect you club status at the time of the cruise.

[TracyKim]

Bummer!!! Oh well we will still be going to HAWAII!!!!