whole ship is wait listed for our cruise

We are booked for the Alaska June 20, 2017 cruise and when I check the bookings page all of the categories are wait listed. We have reservations for a specific cabin but I find that this is unusual this early. What does this mean? Is the ship a charter or can it truly be sold out ?

Ask your ta. We can only guess. Your ta can find out

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If the ship is chartered you would not have been able to book a cabin

Maybe just a good time for families with children to go

End of school & the Children's program on that sailing

You could google for the ship/date & groups that may be sailing with you

Alaska cruises sellout fast long in advance... There is a charter May 21-24 fron Vancouver to Vancouver I am on th May 10-21 Regatta for that very reason, school is not out and the ship is wonderfully open... 11 days SF to Vancouver via Alaska

If the ship in all categories is wait listed your SOL If you do have a cabin, you may get a "move over offer"

Not necessarily a charter, but a quick Google search came across this:

http://www.umnalumni.org/UMAA-alumni-trips/Alaskan-Falls-and-Frontiers

What does your cruise planner on the Oceania website show?

Joe

We are booked for the Alaska June 20, 2017 cruise and when I check the bookings page all of the categories are wait listed. We have reservations for a specific cabin but I find that this is unusual this early. What does this mean? Is the ship a charter or can it truly be sold out ?

Your category of cabin may be is sold out. If your traveling with 3 or more those cabins might all be sold out or being held by a group.

Not necessarily a charter, but a quick Google search came across this:

http://www.umnalumni.org/UMAA-alumni-trips/Alaskan-Falls-and-Frontiers

 

 

Joe

We have encountered the Alumni cruise groups before. They block a large number of cabins and then, at some specified time in their contract, turn back the unsold cabins. Therefore, Oceania has wisely listed the cruise as "Waitlisted".

Other agencies/organizations such as professional meetings of doctors or dentists do the same block purchases but the Alumni groups are often very large and have a bigger impact on the cruise.

Sometimes the turned back cabins result is some last minute sales but I think Oceania has been moving their "drop dead" dates earlier so they can sell the cabins at regular prices.

Robbie

Another thing to consider.

Many people have been unhappy with their cruises when many cabins are booked by alumni groups. Sometimes they are rowdy. Sometimes they just outnumber all the others on the ship.

If your cruise DOES have a large number of bookings with this alumni group, you may want to consider switching to Dan's cruise! (If you can ...)

Personally, just speaking for me, if I knew that my cruise was going to have such a large group on board -- I'd cancel. Just from what I have heard of other cruises that had such a large number of a private group on board.

Mura

Alumni group cruises can be great if the group is right. We lucked out twice-once on a Russian river cruise that had a large alumni group from Colby college and two others. They were wonderful, invited everyone to their added lectures with their college professors, didn't hang out exclusively with their group and weren't into rowdy behavior. Another time we were on a small ship that went from Santiago Chile to Ushuaia Argentina. There was an Audubon Society group, also wonderful people who shared their interests and expertise.

Google your cruise date and ship and the group may pop up. One Oceania Alaska cruise is a Big Ten group. Be warned. Could be less pleasant.

Mary

Our cruise this January 2017 has been wait listed for the past 8 months.There was never a gty offered for this cruise.

Maybe no gtys offered to avoid the costs associated with buyoffs

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Maybe no gtys offered to avoid the costs associated with buyoffs

 

 

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Could be there new business plan,no more gtys,only wait list or available.

We were on a wait list for only 2 or 3 days on Riviera in Feb. for a PH1. We got a GTY for the cabin. When do the suite numbers show on your booking? It's not a big deal, but I do like to know the location.

We were on a wait list for only 2 or 3 days on Riviera in Feb. for a PH1. We got a GTY for the cabin. When do the suite numbers show on your booking? It's not a big deal, but I do like to know the location.

No way to predict that. It could be anytime someone either cancels their PH1 or moves up/down to open up your GTY.

It could even be just before you sail.

We once got an upsell offer via e mail while we were on our flight to Europe - needless to say someone else took it before we even landed :(.

We were on the February 2015 Marina sailing from Sidney to Auckland. We booked our cruise in mid September 2013, when the cruise first opened up. Within a couple of weeks all PH and above was waitlisted. By mid November the entire ship was waitlisted. When the payment due date hit months later, Oceania was not able to make a dent in the waitlist. Only a very small minority of cruisers cancelled their reservations. Around Christmas of 2013, we had our TA inquirer about upgrading to a PH from our Concierge suite. The shortest waitlist was 23 paid requests ahead of us, we decided to stay put!

This was also during the period that O was stupidly selling "guarantees" without logic. TAs the sailing date approached, hey were making offers of up to 150% of the cruise price to exit the ship. Things got really stupid, for awhile, with all the offers. We accepted none and really enjoyed a wonderful cruise.

That cruise disappeared from all sales brochures and from their website for a period of several months because it was sold oversold. If one didn't have it saved under their account, they couldn't even find reference to it!

Some cruises are very popular and sell out quick, while others lanquish and O has to make super offers, or do TA give aways, to fill the ship. The OP probably just choose a popular cruise on a great date.

FYI they dont buy people off a waitlist, the passenger receives a dollar for dollar refund.

Of course, they probably try to sell an alternate cruise first.

StanandJim;

FYI, O was offering more cash back than the cost of the cruise for those willing to exit the cruise, considerably more. These were not passengers on the waitlist, but passengers that had reserved and paid for a cabin where Oceania had oversold, via guarantees, those cabins.

Yes, they did offer other cruises with upgrades and all sorts of goodies, but for those that held out the cash offers ran well over the amounts paid for the cruise.

Adventures like that is why my TA says they are significantly reducing the cruises where they will sell "guarantees".

StanandJim;

 

FYI, O was offering more cash back than the cost of the cruise for those willing to exit the cruise, considerably more. These were not passengers on the waitlist, but passengers that had reserved and paid for a cabin where Oceania had oversold, via guarantees, those cabins.

 

Yes, they did offer other cruises with upgrades and all sorts of goodies, but for those that held out the cash offers ran well over the amounts paid for the cruise.

 

Adventures like that is why my TA says they are significantly reducing the cruises where they will sell "guarantees".

pinotlover,

Unrelated to any Oceania issues, but your handle is interesting. I have crossed paths on wine bulletin boards with fellow wine lovers using that handle. Maybe our paths have crossed somewhere before - an offline maybe?

Michael

We were just on a cruise on regatta with a Go Next group. I had guessed there was a large group on board when very few people visited our Roll Call pre cruise. We didn't even have a get together due to lack of interest. However, the people on our cruise, plus the Go Next leader weren't problematic. There were a few times when there was a special function which took up part of Horizons or other locations but no huge deal. Of course, another time we cruised with a huge group of car dealers and they really took over the ship.

It's a toss up when a group is on the ship. They need meeting rooms, special dinner nights and more. Once we had a group and we had to move dinner plans because they took over the Polo-they got us in another night but it's poor planning on "Os" part.

I don't think it's poor planning on O's part; just good business practice. If a large group wants to cruise together, they should be allowed to. If they all book a restaurant on the same night (say, on a sea day), they're entitled to, as long as they follow the booking rules. If a large group of Roll Call participants have a party at Horizons, it takes up space but there's room for others on the other side. But as you say, it's a toss up as to what an individual's experience will be with any large group. Even with the car dealers, I don't think I would have changed anything, although some people did complain because half of the pool deck was closed off for a couple hours.

Is there one place to look to find out if your specific O cruise is an alumni one? Mine is Riviera Barcelona-Venice October 25, 2017

Is there one place to look to find out if your specific O cruise is an alumni one? Mine is Riviera Barcelona-Venice October 25, 2017

I don't know of any site, although as someone mentioned above, a travel agent might be able to get that information. You could also check for travel websites that fairly exclusively promote Oceania cruises. I don't think I'm allowed to give you names of travel companies, but with some googling you might be able to find something on your own. I looked at one, and plenty of Oceania cruises were listed, but no yours. Of course, I suppose that just because a travel company promotes particular cruises, or advertises them as an alumni or other type of cruise, that doesn't guarantee large numbers of people end of booking. On our recent Regatta cruise the sponsor (or chaperone, or whatever she's called) told us there were 150 alumni on board from various colleges/universities. Quite honestly, I wouldn't jump ship or choose my itinerary because a group of 150 people were onboard. I didn't feel anything less was available to me or the service was different because of the group onboard. I couldn't tell who was or wasn't with the group unless someone sported clothing that gave me a clue, and they weren't rowdy.

Roothy,

Sorry disagree-If I have a dinner res and have to be moved because a group plans a dinner on the same night I'm (and I'm sure others) book-that's good business for "O" short term and bad planning. Why should I pay a price to cruise, plan my trip, make my res for dining and then be moved because they now have a group. I may not book again.

SeaDreams did this once-but moved me to the other ship, one day later and offered a deal I couldn't say no! If it's dinner, a tour or the whole cruise-they need to do more than just move you. We all plan, so can they.