Feature Article: Booking a Future Cruise Onboard Disney Cruise Line - Disney Cruise Line Tips - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Feature Article: Booking a Future Cruise Onboard Disney Cruise Line - Disney Cruise Line Tips
Booking a Future Cruise Onboard Disney Cruise Line - Disney Cruise Line Tips by Mary Augustine
One of the perks of cruising with Disney Cruise Line is the opportunity to book a future cruise while onboard.
There are significant benefits to onboard bookings, including a 10% discount off the cruise price, a 50% decrease in the booking deposit, and, sometimes, an onboard spending credit. The deposit is fully refundable if the reservation is cancelled or rescheduled prior to the date full payment is due. We've booked future cruises six times while cruising on Disney Cruise Line, and I'd like to share some lessons we've learned about onboard bookings. Each of the Disney Cruise Line ships has a Future Cruise desk, located on deck 4, midship. A crew member is available there during the hours listed in the daily Navigator. However, in our experience, the wait time to speak directly with the Future Cruise crew member can be considerable, particularly on the last days of the cruise. There are no appointments; you simply line up and wait for your turn to book a future cruise. We did just that during our first Disney Cruise Line vacation and spent about an hour of precious cruise time securing the onboard booking. Subsequently, we've learned to take advantage of the onboard booking perks without spending time waiting in a line. With a little planning, you can do so, too.
First, consider including future cruise planning as part of your Disney cruise preparation. If you know the specific itinerary and dates you are interested in, you can work with your travel agent or simply use the Disney Cruise Line website to select stateroom choices and determine the current cost for the cruise to plan for the required deposit. You may book up to two staterooms for one future cruise (you'll have to occupy one of those staterooms), and you'll have to be prepared at booking time with the names of the occupants for each stateroom. If you work with a travel agent, you will need the name and contact information for your agent—more info to be added to your reservation while booking onboard. We have always worked with a travel agent, and enjoy receiving additional onboard credits for doing so (not all agencies offer these booking incentives -- discuss that with your agent beforehand). You will also need to be prepared to pay the deposit for the future cruise, currently 10% of the total cruise cost for staterooms in categories 4-11. This is one-half of the deposit typically required. We gather all of this information, and file it with our cruise documents, which we carry on as we embark each cruise.
Next, with this information in hand, you can proceed to the Future Cruise booking desk on the day you begin your Disney Cruise Line vacation, where future cruise booking cards are almost always available, even when a crew member is not present. I have completed a future cruise booking card within minutes of boarding, and placed it in the drop box located on the Future Cruise desk. Usually, by the following day, a quote will be delivered to your stateroom, written directly on the card you’ve submitted. If you are happy with the details, simply call the extension listed on the card and authorize the payment. If you want to make changes, you may call the extension to discuss them or leave a voice message, or make a visit to the Future Cruise desk to speak directly with the crew member. I have successfully made changes by leaving a phone message, and thus have avoided waiting in the queue. Finally, a typed confirmation of your reservation is delivered to your stateroom. I review this once again to ensure that all the information is correct, then save it until I have received a confirmation from Disney or our travel agent, which for us, typically arrives via e-mail a few days after the cruise. If you are unsure about a future cruise date, you can still book a future cruise or ‘dummy’ date and change the date and itinerary later, without any penalty, as long as you do so before the paid-in-full date. You may also cancel the reservation within the same time period, and receive a full refund of your deposit. If you do move the reservation to an alternate date, you will retain the perks; currently a 10% discount on the cruise cost, with a deposit of 10% (one-half the usual deposit), and an onboard credit for Castaway Club members of $100 for cruises less than 7 days in length and $200 for cruises of 7 days or more (cruisers do not become members of the Castaway Club until the end of their first cruise—incentives may be different for first-time cruisers). For example, on a recent cruise we booked a ‘dummy’ date for a 3-night cruise in December of 2013, which we plan to move to a later date when the schedules for 2014 are released. We selected the least expensive stateroom for this ‘dummy’ booking to keep the deposit to a minimum. (Editor's Note: There may be limitations on how many times you can move the date and still retain the benefits. Some cruisers are reporting being told they can only change one time.)
One final tip – to save even more time we have picked up an extra Future Cruise booking card while onboard, and filed it away in our PassPorter binder. We’ll complete it before leaving for our next cruise so that it’s ready to drop off at the Future Cruise desk after boarding. Future cruise planning is part of our preparation for a Disney cruise. Debarking with a future cruise reservation in hand keeps the magic going for us!
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
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Well said, Mary. We too grab the future cruise booking card on our first day, fill it out, and drop it in the box. I love not having to wait in line that can snake around deck 4 on the last afternoon and evening of the cruise. We then take care of all the details via phone or notes in our stateroom. I hadn't thought about grabbing an extra to take home so we can fill it out before boarding. . . what a great idea!
Also, if our TA is already linked to the current cruise reservation, it can easily be linked to the future cruise booking. We do this and enjoy the spoils of both Disney perks and our TA's perks for our next cruise, but your advice to double check is helpful. Often our TA gets our paperwork for our next cruise before we do!
We are days away from cruise #5 that was booked during cruise #4 and have the deposit for cruise #6 in the budget while sailing on cruise #5.
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