Baby On Board - Booking Tips

[cruisinkids]

A thread for this very specific scenario that I could not find anywhere else on this blog but has to happen a lot 

My husband and I are part of a group of eight who booked Icon of the Seas back on Black Friday 2022 for December 2024. We booked and Ocean View Balcony knowing that it accommodated 4 as we assumed we may have our first baby by the time our cruise rolled around. Fast forward to the present and that will be the case! Little girl will be 7 months old in December 2024. She will meet 6 month requirement and we will have no more than two consecutive sea days.

Now to the fun part... making sure the unborn baby is added to our reservation. I called RC because of course there is not a way to book her online and was first told that our stateroom did not accomodate 4 and the room that we paid to select was going to have to be moved away from our family on deck 14 to deck 9--and for a price difference of over $3,500. My stomach dropped. I asked to speak to a supervisor because I was looking at the deck plan and it said accommodates 4 like we had planned. Within 15 minutes from asking for a supervisor a pack-and-play was added to our existing room and we were told it would only be taxes & fees of $168 to add her. The catch-- we would need to call back and give a DOB when she was born. This obviously made me nervous because that did not secure her anything and I was worried about occupancy. I called back today to just give them a birthday from this year that I can update before sailing. They tried to give me the same change fee of over $3,500. I asked to speak to a supervisor again who reviewed our conversation from yesterday, honored the taxes only cost, and got her booked. We also paid the $250 deposit for her. All that to say if you are trying to add an unborn baby after you've booked your trip always:

1) Start your call with saying you just would like to add a newborn. If you want to book for a future birthday they will say that you need to call back and then nothing is guaranteed which stresses this expecting mom out. Be prepared with an anticipated name and a current birthday (I just back dated her due date a year). 

2) Call during a Kids Sail Free promo for your booked cruise. I was able to pull up a ghost booking and show it was only processing the taxes & fees for her for our sailing date. 

3) Ask to speak to a supervisor. I find the general customer service is just stuck plugging in numbers and don't really solve issues. As much as RC will money grab, they do not want to jeopardize entire families not boarding because of a crazy price disparity. 

4) Be overly pleasant and always mention you're traveling with a group/family/other bookings. They don't want four ocean balconies cancelled because the first grandbaby can't go anymore lol 

 

Hopefully this helps someone because I know this made me panic for a few months and now that I bit the bullet I feel much better. Happy sailing!

[Crown&AnchorEsq]

Similar experience, we frequently travel with extended family and have young ones that our extended family (graciously) help watch after bedtime.  We also tend to prefer suites when possible.  This leads to a scenario where only certain rooms can really serve our preferences perfectly so we book far in advance. In the past we had difficulty adding even a newborn to a reservation after the fact due to timing and (we assume) muster limitations.  That cruise ended up being a COVID casualty so it ultimately did not matter.

More recently we were planning for a cruise (Jan 2025) where we anticipate having a 1 year old.  When making the reservation we worked with MEI and agreed the best solution was to place a reservation for the yet-unborn infant.  Currently the reservation is under the name of "Place Holder [Last Name]."  Once we have name and birthdate we will swap in the new identifiers.  Obviously for people booking more than 9 months out situations can change but I would recommend always adjusting your reservation ASAP because there can be situations where your room may not be able to accommodate additional people even if the stateroom theoretically has the space.  

As an aside, my wife has already vetoed naming the kid "Place Holder."