Early saver for a child to be born in June?

[Hokies of the seas]

I am considering booking a cruise using a standard rate, then in a few months cancelling and immediately switching to an early saver rate. I would book the early saver rate now, but we are expecting our first child in June (will be 7 months when we cruise). I could book early saver and add the child later, but the PVP I talked to scared me off of that a little bit. They told me that it would be possible that all of the 3rd passenger spots are filled when we go to add the third passenger. Since you are required to have a name and birth date for each passenger at the time of booking with early saver, I am considering booking a regular rate for 3, using "baby" as the third passenger. Then after our child is born, I would cancel the original booking, then change to early saver. Since I will be giving up my own 3 person cabin, then shouldn't it guarantee that a 3 person cabin will then be available to immediately re-book?

[DanJ]

I would check first that you are able to get your cancelled 3 person cabin. If there is a waiting list, you might just open up the cabin to somebody else. However, I'm also not positive you need a 3 person cabin for a baby, as you won't be using the sofa bed.

[jdbmga]

When I changed my bookings from fun select rate to early saver rate I didn't have to cancel anything, they just changed my rate and verified that the names were all correct on the bookings. You could book the room you want now with 3 passengers and then change it to early saver after the birth and change the name of the baby to the baby's name then.

[UpstateCruizer]

I am considering booking a cruise using a standard rate, then in a few months cancelling and immediately switching to an early saver rate. I would book the early saver rate now, but we are expecting our first child in June (will be 7 months when we cruise). I could book early saver and add the child later, but the PVP I talked to scared me off of that a little bit. They told me that it would be possible that all of the 3rd passenger spots are filled when we go to add the third passenger. Since you are required to have a name and birth date for each passenger at the time of booking with early saver, I am considering booking a regular rate for 3, using "baby" as the third passenger. Then after our child is born, I would cancel the original booking, then change to early saver. Since I will be giving up my own 3 person cabin, then shouldn't it guarantee that a 3 person cabin will then be available to immediately re-book?

 

Call and talk to your PVP about switching to Early Saver after your child is born. I had originally booked a cabin on the Miracle for this October. When the early saver program started I had my TA transfer my booking to Early Saver. I did not cancel my existing reservation nor lose my cabin I simply had the booking transferred to the new program. I'm reasonably sure that is all you would be doing. The only thing that may be an issue is that once your category becomes filled for Early Saver you will no longer have that option despite how far out you are from sailing. An example ....I booked the Dream using the Early Saver for April 2010. I have an 8c cabin booked but that category is no longer available for my sailing under Early Saver. The next category is an 8D which is $30 pp more than I paid for my 8C cabin. This is something to consider as well esp if you will be sailing on a popular ship during high peak season or even if the sailing has a large group on it. I don't think people realize that once the specified amount of Early Saver cabins are gone then the Early Saver for that category is gone. They still have 8C cabins for my cruise but they are under the Fun Select category and are now $110 pp to book that same catregory.

[hotpinkpanther]

Call and talk to your PVP about switching to Early Saver after your child is born. I had originally booked a cabin on the Miracle for this October. When the early saver program started I had my TA transfer my booking to Early Saver. I did not cancel my existing reservation nor lose my cabin I simply had the booking transferred to the new program. I'm reasonably sure that is all you would be doing. The only thing that may be an issue is that once your category becomes filled for Early Saver you will no longer have that option despite how far out you are from sailing. An example ....I booked the Dream using the Early Saver for April 2010. I have an 8c cabin booked but that category is no longer available for my sailing under Early Saver. The next category is an 8D which is $30 pp more than I paid for my 8C cabin. This is something to consider as well esp if you will be sailing on a popular ship during high peak season or even if the sailing has a large group on it. I don't think people realize that once the specified amount of Early Saver cabins are gone then the Early Saver for that category is gone. They still have 8C cabins for my cruise but they are under the Fun Select category and are now $110 pp to book that same catregory.

 

I noticed that too, with the early saver rates getting filled and then no longer offered. So from now on, I will book early saver rates as soon as possible. I hate missing out on good deals.

[macy222]

We booked last June 2008 for a cruise we're taking in 6 days April 2009! Our grandduaghter was not yet born and we were able to book her at that time. She will be exactly 9 months old to the day when we cruise! We just used the due date as her date of birth and we knew she was a girl and her name was already decided so we could use her name. Once she was born we just called our PVP and had her update to the correct D.O.B. It wasn't a problem at all! We even told the PVP the baby wasn't born yet. She had no trouble with that at all!

[firefly333]

I would check first that you are able to get your cancelled 3 person cabin. If there is a waiting list, you might just open up the cabin to somebody else. However, I'm also not positive you need a 3 person cabin for a baby, as you won't be using the sofa bed.

 

You do!!! It has to do with the lifeboats and how they count. Each person counts as a person, no matter what their age is. It doesnt have to do with if you will be using the 3rd bed or not or a crib.

 

OP Im not sure what you gain by booking and cancelling. BTW you can book and change to early saver on the same booking without cancelling the original booking, just changes the fare you booked under.

[zqvol]

Seems to me that you are getting the cart ahead of the horse. I hope you have lots of help going with you on the crusie. Crusing with a child that small is a whole lot of work. You have to take pretty much everything along, plus, without help it is not really a vacation for mom because the child is too small for any of the baby sitting services.

[DanJ]

You do!!! It has to do with the lifeboats and how they count. Each person counts as a person, no matter what their age is. It doesnt have to do with if you will be using the 3rd bed or not or a crib.

 

 

I'm not saying the baby doesn't count as a person in the grand scheme of things. I'm saying I'm not positive you need to have a cabin capable of sleeping 3 to take a baby since the baby won't be using that sofabed.

[Crusin6]

April is already half over....would it be such a stretch to wait until the child is born? It is not as though you will have school schedules to contend with....so it would not be such a difficulty to just look for the best deal you can get after the baby is born would it?

 

 

Now,,,,I understand why you want to book this vaction...I truly do....but you really will find that the cruise will become so unimportant once the baby is born and you may even want to not cruise at all.

 

This is a first baby...and the reality is just starting to sink in I would think. You will get over it and realize that the children will be more important than booking a cruise now...with so many potential issues still to be resolved.

 

I too, did not feel ready to give up my travel lifestyle when dd#1 was born...I got over it and had 3 more kids....wish I had more...we still travel...a lot too....but there will be a certain amount of time when certain vacations are just not realistic......don't worry you will be able to spend money on Carnival cruises again...that is unless you would rather do other things to benefit your family;)

[goldentrio]

I'm not saying the baby doesn't count as a person in the grand scheme of things. I'm saying I'm not positive you need to have a cabin capable of sleeping 3 to take a baby since the baby won't be using that sofabed.

 

You do have to have a cabin capable of sleeping three, even if one is a baby. We will be traveling with our baby and we had to get a cabin that slept three people even though we won't be using the sofabed, either.

 

It is, as the PP said, a requirement due to lifeboats and safety regulations. The ship can only have so many people on board, and you have to be in a three-person cabin if you are three people, no matter the age or sleeping arrangements. We would have preferred a two-person cabin so that we could get one adjoining with our friends that we're traveling with, but that wasn't an option due to the three-person cabin requirement. We were told that by our TA.

[Hokies of the seas]

Thanks for all the advice! I wasn't aware that I could book under a regular rate, then just transfer it to an early saver. The reason we are wanting to go ahead and book is because we are going in a large group of about 20 people, and we want to try to end up in the same area on the ship. Most of them are the ones that are wanting everyone to go ahead and book.

 

The great thing about the group we will be traveling with includes grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, all of which are already wanting to help out as often as possible. We know it will be a much different experience with a little one, but we're really looking forward to a trip with the whole family, including the 7 month old.