Disney Wonder 14 night Panama Canal

[sassy~one]

From Miami, May 6th I have a ocean view Guar. ( i think ) no room number. The web site is showing no ocean views left. Could that be right?

 

New to Disney. thanks.

[vakamalua]

No worries--since you booked an OGT, you WILL get one. But you won't know exactly what cabin until the last minute. We just returned from a Fantasy cruise on which we had booked a VGT (Verandah Guaranty) and didn't find out our room number until 11 days before sailing. BTW we ended up with a great cabin in a great location. We will also be on the Panama Canal cruise in May--VGT again. See you on board.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

From Miami, May 6th I have a ocean view Guar. ( i think ) no room number. The web site is showing no ocean views left. Could that be right?

 

New to Disney. thanks.

 

Do fully agree! Do not worry, basically DCL (the same as airlines) know a certain % of people will not cruise, (travel/fly), they will cancel or move their booking on.

 

They will give you a room at that catergory or better.

[MizDaisy]

Do fully agree! Do not worry, basically DCL (the same as airlines) know a certain % of people will not cruise, (travel/fly), they will cancel or move their booking on.

 

They will give you a room at that catergory or better.

 

 

Are you suggesting that they overbook? If so, that is absolutely false.

 

The website won't show the rooms as being available because they are being held by actual reservations that are guaranteed with a deposit, or booked by travel agencies for them to sell.

But once a person has booked a GUARANTEED room...as the OP has done, a room for them is taken out of the system.....or as DCL calls it, Inventory Control.

If the cruise line finds that they have more people wanting to book the rooms in the lower categories, they will, at that point, start to randomly move people up from those lower categories (people who have already booked) and place them into available higher category rooms. But if the ships becomes fully booked at one point, and that could even be opening day of booking reservations, reservations shut down. And if someone DOES cancel, the room will go back into Inventory Control and will be released, either to open booking or to someone on a waitlist.

 

Yes, some people might cancel at one point or another, but the cruise line cannot count on that, and will NOT overbook.

 

One of the biggest reasons is that they need to have an actual count of the number of passengers is because of the lifeboat situation. They can never have more people booked than what the lifeboats will hold.

 

Also, they need to know exactly how many children will be onboard, and their ages, because they have a limit as to how many kids can be in each club.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Are you suggesting that they overbook? If so, that is absolutely false.

 

The website won't show the rooms as being available because they are being held by actual reservations that are guaranteed with a deposit, or booked by travel agencies for them to sell.

But once a person has booked a GUARANTEED room...as the OP has done, a room for them is taken out of the system.....or as DCL calls it, Inventory Control.

If the cruise line finds that they have more people wanting to book the rooms in the lower categories, they will, at that point, start to randomly move people up from those lower categories (people who have already booked) and place them into available higher category rooms. But if the ships becomes fully booked at one point, and that could even be opening day of booking reservations, reservations shut down. And if someone DOES cancel, the room will go back into Inventory Control and will be released, either to open booking or to someone on a waitlist.

 

Yes, some people might cancel at one point or another, but the cruise line cannot count on that, and will NOT overbook.

 

One of the biggest reasons is that they need to have an actual count of the number of passengers is because of the lifeboat situation. They can never have more people booked than what the lifeboats will hold.

 

Also, they need to know exactly how many children will be onboard, and their ages, because they have a limit as to how many kids can be in each club.

 

Whilst I agree with most of your post, the bit where you say its ''absolutely false'' about overbooking in itself is totally false.

 

DCL are very good at working out the percentage of people that cancel on average and they do over book for that.

 

I can actually give an example where it went wrong.

 

A Christmas cruise had 'too many' booked people turn up at the port, and the percentage of cancellations that they expected didn't occur, maybe as it was Christmas.

 

Cruisers were approached with an offer to cancel or change their cruise.

 

I know of a family who swapped from Christmas to a new year cruise, and got a *free* stay at WDW when they were supposed to be cruising on the first week. and I think there was an incentive on a cruise, maybe an upgrade.

 

So my original post is accurate and not ''absolutely false ''

[MizDaisy]

They will NEVER overbook the entire ship. Ever.

 

Maybe what you're trying to say is that they will overbook a certain CATEGORY of rooms on the ship, but in that instance, they will, as I said, move people up to a higher category.

 

 

In all of my years on the Disney Cruise boards and cruising with Disney (since 2002) I have never heard of the situation you're talking about...people showing up and being turned away.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

They will NEVER overbook the entire ship. Ever.

 

Maybe what you're trying to say is that they will overbook a certain CATEGORY of rooms on the ship, but in that instance, they will, as I said, move people up to a higher category.

 

 

In all of my years on the Disney Cruise boards and cruising with Disney (since 2002) I have never heard of the situation you're talking about...people showing up and being turned away.

 

Well you learn something every day as it did occur, yes they can overbook one category knowing another isn't full and bump up, but they also calculate a % for people who will cancel for whatever reason, it always ( or nearly always) occurs, yes for security too many people cannot board a ship, the same as a plane too many people cant get on a plane.

 

The 'case' in my previous post, did occur, they asked for volunteers to be bumped off. The offer was good, so they accommodated that into their plans.

[MizDaisy]

Well you learn something every day as it did occur, yes they can overbook one category knowing another isn't full and bump up, but they also calculate a % for people who will cancel for whatever reason, it always ( or nearly always) occurs, yes for security too many people cannot board a ship, the same as a plane too many people cant get on a plane.

 

The 'case' in my previous post, did occur, they asked for volunteers to be bumped off. The offer was good, so they accommodated that into their plans.

 

 

Proof?

 

I can possibly see a cruise line calling people a month or two or three in advance to ask them to switch....even though that's a stretch for my imagination....but I absolutely do not ever see them letting people fly from all over the country, or even overseas, just to show up at the terminal and turn them away. No way, no how.

There are these things that they mail out called "Cruise Documents" and those have luggage tags with room numbers on them. Did they print doubles??

 

Once again, you're probably scaring the crap out of the OP for no good reason.

[MizDaisy]

Proof?

 

 

I didn't think so.

 

Because, seriously, DCL is going to stop someone at the terminal and say "Well, we realize that you're disappointed, but we don't have room for you afterall. Yes, we believe that you DO have unlimited vacation days, and a bunch of money to make changes to your flight schedule. But we'll make it a little better by putting you up at WDW for a week, because we know you can also afford park tickets and food for that extra week. Honest, your boss will understand. We can do this, because we're DISNEY!"

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

And of course, no one else in the world would have heard about this outrage, except for you, DisneyFantasy. Somewhere in that DisneyFantasy world you live in.

[sassy~one]

I'm not scared! I know i'm the first one to give up my airline seat, i offer every leg of the trip. Retirement has been good to me.

 

I just want a room, Ocean view is what i paid for, i do believe i will get that. Anything else would be awesome.

 

debbie

[MizDaisy]

I'm not scared! I know i'm the first one to give up my airline seat, i offer every leg of the trip. Retirement has been good to me.

 

I just want a room, Ocean view is what i paid for, i do believe i will get that. Anything else would be awesome.

 

debbie

 

 

You will definitely at least have the oceanview category you wanted, possibly a higher category oceanview, or even a balcony.

[Ship's Wake]

Well you learn something every day as it did occur, yes they can overbook one category knowing another isn't full and bump up, but they also calculate a % for people who will cancel for whatever reason, it always ( or nearly always) occurs, yes for security too many people cannot board a ship, the same as a plane too many people cant get on a plane.

 

The 'case' in my previous post, did occur, they asked for volunteers to be bumped off. The offer was good, so they accommodated that into their plans.

 

Can't say what Disney's policy is, but I do know that other cruise lines do in fact overbook.

 

If this happens, and there are no other cabins available, the cruise line will as you mention make irresistible offers until they open up enough cabins.

 

To the OP, I wouldn't worry about not having a cabin assignment yet. This is par for the course of booking a gty cabin. Let Disney do the worrying about assigning you a cabin.

 

I'm on your cruise as well - am really excited about going through the canal!

[MizDaisy]

Can't say what Disney's policy is, but I do know that other cruise lines do in fact overbook.

 

If this happens, and there are no other cabins available, the cruise line will as you mention make irresistible offers until they open up enough cabins.

 

 

Yes, they may overbook some categories...and they will call people well BEFORE sailing date to offer upgrades....but I have never, ever heard of Disney Cruise Line asking someone who already has a reservation to switch dates, nor have they ever had someone expecting to have a room onboard show up at the cruise terminal, only to be turned away.

 

You'll love the Canal, by the way.

[cruzisme]

We are still waiting for a cabin number (with the other people in our group)

We know we are all booked for one of those family balcony cabins so just waiting patiently! There are about 300 people in our group.;)

[PJbear]

So we booked our first veranda without knowing the location. I am hopeful it will be a nice spot. I am going to go this time without the nausea patch. It gave me bounce back issues after i took it off when home. I hope we have smooth waters.

[PJbear]

I was trying to find a meet and greet for Disney but can not see it. Anyone know?

[vakamalua]

I was trying to find a meet and greet for Disney but can not see it. Anyone know?

 

There is an active group for the WBPC on the disboards. Come join us.

[cruzisme]

I was trying to find a meet and greet for Disney but can not see it. Anyone know?

 

May6 at 3pm at PromenadeLounge deck 3

See you there!:D

[megrissamom]

We booked this cruise for May 2014 - can't think there will be many kids as it is 2 weeks in middle of school year - I'm thinking some home-schoolers or maybe some little kids, but really can't see that many with kids being able to do two weeks.

 

Anyone experienced with this May cruise? We like children fine, the 3 night from Canaveral was packed with kids, and we enjoyed the adult areas. Just wondering what the experience will be like on the Panama Canal trip.

[GatorMomInNC]

Yes, they may overbook some categories...and they will call people well BEFORE sailing date to offer upgrades....but I have never, ever heard of Disney Cruise Line asking someone who already has a reservation to switch dates, nor have they ever had someone expecting to have a room onboard show up at the cruise terminal, only to be turned away.

 

You'll love the Canal, by the way.

 

With the exception of when they change a cruise to a charter, but that always happens months in advance.

 

I'm wondering if your friends were spinning you a tale, Disney Fantasy. Or perhaps the DCL reservation system screwed up. Or maybe Brad and Angelina and their kids wanted to book a last minute cruise and DCL didn't want to say no ;).

 

But I find it hard to believe that DCL would intentionally overbook a cruise and wait until embarkation to break the news. Even if they "overbook" in anticipation of people canceling prior to the PIF date (which I'm sure there are ALWAYS a significant percentage who do that), they would know months in advance if they have done this. They certainly wouldn't continue to oversell after the PIF date, that would be ridiculous. And that is when they would take steps to reschedule people not on embarkation day, if indeed this ever happened (and I have never heard of it).

[GatorMomInNC]

We booked this cruise for May 2014 - can't think there will be many kids as it is 2 weeks in middle of school year - I'm thinking some home-schoolers or maybe some little kids, but really can't see that many with kids being able to do two weeks.

 

Anyone experienced with this May cruise? We like children fine, the 3 night from Canaveral was packed with kids, and we enjoyed the adult areas. Just wondering what the experience will be like on the Panama Canal trip.

 

We have done the 14 nigth WBTA during the school year - with my 2 kids who are in year-round schools - and there were more kids than you would think - although NOTHING like a normal DCL cruise, even in off season. Just the right amount in my opinion - the kids could get to know each other and have fun without all the kids venues being overrun.

 

We have friends going on this cruise with their 2 kids!! Wish we could go, but we are 'tracked-in' to school in May.