More than any other cruise line, Disney Cruise Line (DCL) has a ton of hype around releasing their next season’s itineraries and booking on opening day. While other cruise lines offer promotions throughout the year that help defray the cost of their cruises, Disney does not (with the exception of some rare Florida resident or military discounts) and usually their prices continue to climb as you get closer to cruise time. For this reason, there is often a mad rush to book on opening day and secure the lowest possible price.
I got caught up in the frenzy last week for the first time. My extended family has decided to take a DCL cruise to Alaska in summer of 2019 – almost 18 months from now. 18 months is a really long time from now. Yet I found myself dialing endlessly and then waiting on hold forever to get the coveted opening day rates.
DCL has a tiered booking system. Platinum Castaway Club members (those with 10 or more completed DCL cruises) get to book first. The next day it opens up to Gold members (5-9 cruises) and the next day it opens up to Silver members (1-4 cruises). Finally, on the 4th day, general booking begins. In theory, depending on the popularity of specific cruises, prices can climb not just from day to day but hour to hour. Hence the mad rush to phone in as soon as your booking window opens.
Since Alaska is a notoriously expensive cruise on DCL, I was hoping to get the lowest possible price. As a Silver Castaway member, I could start booking on the third day. I had looked at historical prices for this summer’s Alaska cruises and saw that for the ocean view staterooms that we wanted, prices had gone up over $1500 per room between opening day (last year in February) and early January (still 7 months before cruise date). Yikes!
So after dropping the kids off at school, I started dialing. And dialing. And dialing. I first tried around 8:45 am and tried off and on all day. I got nothing but busy signals. I picked up the kids from school and came back home and got back to dialing. Finally around 3:45 (7 hours after I first dialed), I got through. Hooray!
Except it wasn’t time to celebrate yet. “Getting through” just means that instead of the dreaded busy signal, I got put on hold. So instead of having to redial and hear the busy signal, I got to put the phone on speaker and listen to endless Disney tunes and messages thanking me for holding. After about 2 and a half hours on hold, I really got through. An actual person picked up the phone!
My “cruise coordinator” was lovely and sweet, despite the unbelievably long and stressful day I knew she had to be having. I heard a cheer in the background and she told me that they had just had pizza delivered. 🙂 We chatted briefly about the craziness of the day and got down to business – booking our Alaska cruise!
We knew exactly which date we wanted to cruise and the deck and category that we wanted to book. We wanted deck 2 ocean view rooms (verandas in Alaska add several thousand dollars to your price tag). Our previous cruise had been on the Magic, the sister ship to the Wonder, which cruises in Alaska. We had been in a deck 2 forward room (category 9C) and loved it. It was super quiet with no through traffic. My plan was to book a similar room for this cruise.
All told I was booking four rooms for different members of my family. But because only my sister and I had been on a Disney cruise before, I thought I could only book our two rooms today and would have to call back (or book online, which opens with general admissions) the next day for the other two rooms. Thankfully, I asked my cruise coordinator about this early on in our conversation and she let me know that we could move the adults around to book one Silver adult member in each stateroom and then change the names around later. So I was able to book all 4 rooms at once – it saved me tons of time and also ensured that we had rooms next to each other.
My sister and her family had cruised in November and made an onboard booking for two rooms at that time. While on a Disney cruise, you have the option to put $250 down (per room for up to 2 rooms) to book a placeholder for a future cruise. You must book another cruise that sails within 24 months of your booking to get the benefits – 10% off that cruise, a $200 onboard credit (for 7+ night cruises), and a 10% deposit instead of 20% (again for 7+ night cruises). If you do not book a cruise within the 24 month window, your $250 is refunded. Knowing that we hoped to do Alaska 2019, she made an onboard booking for her family and mine.
Thanks to my wonderfully helpful cruise coordinator, we were able to apply our onboard bookings to save 10% off two of the rooms and to book all 4 rooms together. The whole process took about 30 minutes. At one point during our conversation, I mentioned that this trip was to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. I heard her start typing away furiously and then she said simply “we’re going to make it magical for them.” I love Disney service! They always go above and beyond and I can’t wait to see what surprised they have in store.
In the end, I spent almost a full day invested in the opening day booking process but got the cruise I wanted and the rooms I wanted for what I thought was a (relatively) decent price. Was it worth it? I think so. But only for this trip. I could never see myself doing that for a Caribbean or Bahamas cruise. But for the more unique destinations with a limited number of sailings (like Alaska or Europe), I absolutely think it makes a difference.
So, having survived my first DCL opening day booking frenzy, here are a few tips…
- Book the first day your window opens for lowest prices and largest selection of rooms.
- Make sure you are able to stay by the phone for 1-2+ hours from the time you are dialing. At one point, I took a break from dialing because I knew I was going to have to run out to pick up the kids soon and didn’t want to be in the middle of booking the cruise when I had to hop in the car.
- Have the following information ready for everybody in your cruise party:
- Full names and birth dates
- Castaway Club member numbers, if applicable
- Onboard booking reservation numbers, if applicable
- Preferred room category or location
- Dining preference (early or late seating)
- If you know the exact cruise date and room category you want, things will obviously move along faster. But the cruise coordinator will price out multiple iterations of dates and rooms for you if you want to price shop.
- You can put a cruise on hold for three days without putting any money down. This will lock in opening day prices for you without having to commit right there on the phone. If you decide to book within those three days, you will have to make your 20% deposit (potentially less with an onboard booking). Otherwise your hold will expire.
- Don’t stress. It is not the end of the world if you don’t get through on opening day. Prices can only go up so much during the first week of booking. The real difference (greater than a few hundred dollars) is between months, not days.
- Don’t get angry at the person who answers the phone. It isn’t their fault the wait is so long and they are just as tired and frustrated as you (probably more).
- After you book your cruise, go in to the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app and enter your cruise date to start a Countdown to Your Cruise. Mine is only 517 days. On second thought, maybe hold off on doing that until later because that seems sooooo far away. Happy sailing!
