Disney Cruise Placeholder Offer: How to Book and Save Money

What is a Disney Cruise Placeholder?

The Disney Cruise Placeholder is a $250 deposit towards a future Disney cruise that you can only make onboard a DCL ship. It gives you a 10% discount off the cruise fare of a future cruise and a reduced deposit on sailings that are 7 nights or more. For the exact information, check this link out https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/future-cruise-onboard-offer/ . It's a great way to get another magical Disney Cruise right after this one.

The placeholder is really called the Disney Cruise Line Onboard-Only offer. Many people refer to it as the placeholder because you used to have to book the actual cruise that you wanted while onboard. Calling it a placeholder doesn’t do it justice because it doesn’t hold your place for anything since you're not picking a specific date. Instead it's just an exclusive onboard booking offer.

The discount portion of the onboard-only offer does not apply tto concierge staterooms and cannot be combined with any other offer. However, in 2021 Disney had to cut our cruise short because of Covid and gave us a 25% discount on a future cruise. We were able to combine that with a placeholder and get 35% off a cruise in 2022! But unless something crazy happens, you probably won’t get a combo like that.

The onboard-only offer is available for up to two rooms for one family traveling together. This is regardless of the number of adults. In fact, you'll have to have adults in each room on your future vacation in order to book. We didn’t know this on our last cruise, so we booked two placeholders. I guess we’ll have to go on two cruises.

That’s what a placeholder or onboard-only offer is. 10% off of your next cruise. If you book one and start looking at prices, remember that you’ve already paid $250 as well. So if a cruise costs $5000, you get 10% and $250 off. The cruise will cost $4250.

How does the Disney Cruise placeholder work? Let's take a look.

Our girls hanging out with Donald and Goofy in Halloween costumes. The younger one is pretty excited.

How Do You Book a Disney Cruise Placeholder?

To book a placeholder or onboard-only offer, you need to be on a Disney Cruise Line ship. I suppose it goes without saying, but you need to be aboard the boat legally as one of the passengers. You can’t sneak on and get the deal. Please don’t try. Nobody wants to be bounced by the mouse.

Once aboard, Disney recommends you use the Disney Cruise Line Navigator App to book it. I know from experience you can also talk to guest services in the atrium of your ship in order to book one. You’ll have to use your credit card on file, one you brought with you, or a fat stack of cash (this only works in person. You can’t feed the cash through your phone…yet).

How to Use Your Disney Cruise Line Placeholder

In order to use it, you’ll need the confirmation number. Ours are in an email labeled DCL Onboard Booking Confirmation. When you go to book your cruise, you’ll be able to input that number to get your 10% discount.

Having a travel agency to handle all of this is amazing. Both of my placeholders are registered with my agent. All I have to do is pick a sailing date, and she’ll make the new reservation happen for the right price.

Disney Cruise Placeholder Expiration

In order to reap the benefits of the 10% discount, you need to book a cruise within 24 months of booking the onboard-only discount. But there’s good news. If you don’t end up taking a Disney Cruise within two years, the placeholder automatically cancels, and you’ll be refunded (back to the original form of payment). It would be sad to not go on another trip, but imagine forgetting about it and waking up to $250 you forgot about on your credit card statement.

Our family, ready for dinner on the Disney Fantasy after using one of the placeholder offers.

Other DCL Placeholder tips

Here are few other things you should know about Disney Cruise Line placeholders or onboard-only offers.

Travel Agents

If you use a travel agent, specify that you want the onboard-only offer to be connected to your travel agent. This is easy to do if your agent did the original booking of your cruise, but if not, you’ll need to specify the name of the agent at the time booking.

If you decide later that you want to book your next Disney Cruise through an agent, you’ll need to transfer the placeholder to your agent within 30 days.

Again, use agents. They’re free, and they handle so many tedious details for cruises. Nothing better than an agent reminding you to submit your passport before you miss your deadline.

Multiple Rooms

As a reminder, the placeholder is only good for two rooms. If you need more than that, book more than one placeholder. You don’t have to use them for two separate cruises, you can use both placeholders for the same cruise. I confirmed that at guest services when I booked two. Of course, I didn’t know I could get two rooms with one, so double check when you book.

DCL Placeholder Blackout Dates

Here’s the first downside to the onboard-only offer. There are lots of blackout dates where you will not get the discount if you book a cruise. For the most part, the blackout days correspond with major holidays, Spring Break, and other important sailings like the opening of Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point or the maiden voyage of the Adventure.

However, some ships (like the Wish) have more blackout dates than others. For the exact black out dates, I’ll post this link again: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/future-cruise-onboard-offer/ . That link will tell you all the important details.

What Are the Downsides to a DCL Placeholder? (money, concierge)

Whenever a company tries to get you to sign up for something, it’s wise to assume that there’s a catch in the fine print. However, the downsides of signing for a placeholder are limited.

As I mentioned above, the placeholder cannot be combined with other discounts like military or guaranteed staterooms, or the amazing Disney Plus subscriber deal we took advantage of last Spring.

Second, there are blackout dates that keep you from getting the 10% discount, which correspond with the most sought after sailing dates. This means that the dates that are easiest or most fun for your family might be blacked out.

Third, you can’t use the placeholder to book a cruise in category 1-3 staterooms, which are for a concierge room. Of course, if you have the money to book concierge, you probably don’t need a 10% discount—but 10% off of a $20,000 sailing is a lot of money.

Fourth, and this should seem obvious, but you’ll be out $250 per placeholder. The good news is that if you book a cruise, that money is deducted from the total cost. The other good news is that if you decide not to use your placeholder, your money will be refunded.

Final Thoughts and Further Reading

All in all, I think the placeholder, onboard-only offer is the best way to book your next cruise unless you have special discounts by other means. If you’re onboard a Disney Cruise Line ship, and you think to yourself, “I’d like to do this again,” then booking a future sailing discount is a no-brainer, especially if you’re planning to take another Disney Cruise anyway. You should definitely take advantage of this offer for your next Disney Cruise Line vacation, so that you can sail again at a later date.

Worst case scenario is that you’re out $250 that you can get back if you don’t use it. And you don’t have to wait 2 years, you can get it back any time. This is yet one more reason why Disney is one of the best cruise lines.

Once you get on your ship, you can ask any cast member for more details.

For more tips on cruising with Disney Cruise Lines, check all of my Disney Cruise tips here.

If you're about to head on your first cruise, check out my tips for Disney Cruise first-time cruisers.

If you've ever used a placeholder reservation or any other onboard offer benefits for a Disney Cruise ship, let us know your experience in the comments.