Future Cruise Sales AKA Placeholder

Created By Chris Nichols

Essentially, there are two ways you can book a future cruise while you're on board the ship. The first is to work with the cast member and book a specific date from the published schedule. You'll get 10% off the final price. You'll need to pay a deposit for the future cruise, but you'll only pay 10%, even on 7+ night cruises. There are two exceptions to this: the first is specific blackout dates, and the second is Concierge-level rooms.

The second way is what's known as a placeholder. This is the idea of essentially putting down a small deposit ($250) to save your spot and apply that deposit towards a future cruise, which gets you all of the above onboard booking advantages for the next 24 months. You can use it past the 24-month window, but you lose the discount and onboard credit. Just like above, you can't use it for a *discount* on a Concierge room, as far as I know (but I've never cruised Concierge, so please correct me if I'm wrong), but you *will* get the onboard credit. Also, you can apply the placeholder to a blackout date cruise, but you won't get the 10% discount.

While onboard, you can book 2 placeholders per stateroom.

So... why do it? Well, a few reasons...

1. Disney usually only releases their cruise schedules about 18 months out. So, that means if the date or itinerary isn't quite what you want, you can wait until the next round of cruise itineraries are released, call and apply your placeholder, and get all of the benefits of booking onboard. Well, except that you won't be overlooking the main atrium. And no characters will be traipsing by. And you may not have a cocktail in your hand. But hey, maybe your house is more Disney than ours, who knows?

2. This generally gets you the best price on the cruise between the 10% discount and the ability to book early before the prices fluctuate. Generally speaking, it's almost always cheaper to book earlier than later.

3. The amount you have to put down on the deposit is 10%, and not 20%.

4. You don't even have to do it with one of the travel desk folks. You can just fill out a form on board, and they'll charge your room.