For the Experts: reservations and changing rooms after boarding (to get discounts)

[sampup333]

We have 5 cabins and 9 adults. With a lot of nightmarish moving around, I can stretch a residency discount and a senior discount pretty far (since 1 couple qualifies for a residency discount and 1 couple qualifies for a senior discount but only on the type of cabin that another couple has booked - not their own cabin). If we re-shuffle the reservations to split up the couple with the residency discount (so we can stretch that discount to two cabins since you only have to one qualifying resident to get the discount for the whole cabin) and book 1 of the seniors into one of the cabins that does get a senior discount, I think we would save about $600. This will be a lot of headache and mixing up of documents. I am asking those of you who have played this game -- is it worth it and how much of a pain is it to get it straightened out once you get on the ship - i.e., with keys, credit cards matching the seapass, etc. Oh, and final payment is due tomorrow! Thanks!

[madforcruising]

I´m not sure but I think that at least one person from the original booking has to stay in the cabin otherwise it´s considered a cancellation and rebooking (at current going rates) so make sure you even could do all this with moving around people.

[KelJ]

We have 5 cabins and 9 adults. With a lot of nightmarish moving around, I can stretch a residency discount and a senior discount pretty far (since 1 couple qualifies for a residency discount and 1 couple qualifies for a senior discount but only on the type of cabin that another couple has booked - not their own cabin). If we re-shuffle the reservations to split up the couple with the residency discount (so we can stretch that discount to two cabins since you only have to one qualifying resident to get the discount for the whole cabin) and book 1 of the seniors into one of the cabins that does get a senior discount, I think we would save about $600. This will be a lot of headache and mixing up of documents. I am asking those of you who have played this game -- is it worth it and how much of a pain is it to get it straightened out once you get on the ship - i.e., with keys, credit cards matching the seapass, etc. Oh, and final payment is due tomorrow! Thanks!

 

If you are going to shuffle people around in different cabins to get the discounts, I wouldn't shuffle them back officially. There is fine print that says if you're not entitled to the discount, you will be charged the prevailing rate.

What I would do is just have extra keycards made for each room and not mess with the seapasses. Set the seapasses up for each person's charges as you normally would, but those actually staying in a different cabin will have to carry two cards -- a seapass card and a keycard for the actual room in which they will be sleeping.

We split my parents up (one with me, one with DH) to take advantage of a senior discount, and all we did was have extra keycards made.

On our upcoming cruise, we have DH and one of our sons in one cabin, and I am in the other cabin with our other son. This was so that we could use two platinum balcony discounts. We will not officially change anything after we board. We will just get an extra keycard made for each room. The kids will stay in their room, and DH and I will stay in our room.

[pepsicruiser]

Having each person set up a seapass with a separate credit card and getting extra door keys seems to be the way to go.

[sampup333]

Kelly,

Thanks so much for your answer. That explains a lot.

[KelJ]

Kelly,

Thanks so much for your answer. That explains a lot.

 

Glad to help.:) I hope you can get everything worked out to your group's advantage.