Call your agent if you don't have a cabin assigned!

We just got off the January 2 sailing of the Sky. We had booked a balcony cabin guarantee, about 3 weeks prior to sailing. We, as well as two other couples arrived at the pier to be told that we had NO cabin assignment, but they let us onboard. Onboard we were told that the ship was totally booked and that we would probably have to disembark. We spent 3 hours by the purser's desk, waiting to hear whether we would be sailing at all. Eventually, at approximately 4:55, we were notified that we did have a cabin, which ended up being a balcony cabin. However, it was extremely stressful, to be told that we would probably have to disembark and it ruined our first day onboard. SO!! If you are due to sail SOON and you still don't have a cabin assignment, have your travel agent call NCL ASAP, and demand that you get a cabin assignment.

I am sure this has happened in the past, but this is the first I have ever heard of it.

Yikes!

My agent said she has been booking cruises for 12 years and it had NEVER happened to her before.. BTW, three DIFFERENT TA's involved, so definitely NOT the TA's fault, even though NCL tried to claim that our TA booked us 'waitlisted' whatever the heck that means..

Waitlisted - you are on the waiting list if a cabin opens up, due to no shows.

Not a gty, that is for sure. Did you do the online registration in advance? Did it show GTY?

Oh, yes, I filled out all the paperwork in advance online. It showed a category BE guarantee.

I am sure this has happened in the past, but this is the first I have ever heard of it.

 

Yikes!

Not only has it happened but people are actually turned away, with guarantees. Often they will try to book you on another ship.

and Yes I am very surprised we don't hear about it much more often because it does happen especially at peak times like Holiday sailings.

this is why it helps to have a printout of whatever travel docs, even if it is just a page from their website showing you have a guarantee. I doubt very much that a TA would book you "waitlist" that's BAD BUSINESS imo, I think ncl very muchly so screwed up and was passing the buck. No TA that wanted repeat business would book anybody waitlist. That's like asking a customer if they want their vacation destroyed.

Now I am nervous! I booked on Dec. 27th for a Jan. 17th sailing and still it says BD GTY - no cabin assigned yet! There are still cabins available on this sailing but it makes me nervous!!!!!!!!!

Wow that is just so wrong! I can't believe they do that, I thought GTY would be you definitly get something.

Allisonm--No joke--have your agent call NOW and make sure they give you a specific cabin assignment. Make sure the agent keeps track of the NAMES of people they talk to. The sailing this Friday on the 9th on the Sky, they were practically giving away balcony cabins. I bet the same situation will happen this Friday. My agent is writing a letter to NCL, just to recap everything that happened. I don't expect anything out of it, but anybody who has booked a category guarantee, keep on track of it!!

If you booked a GTY cabin and still do not have a cabin assigned your agent can call for you but regardless if they demand a cabin number NCL has the right not to assign it until you arrive. If you want a cabin number when you book your reservation never book it as a GTY. If you are waitlisted, your agent is told this, and their confirmation clearly indicates you are waitlisted for that sail date. Waitlist does not mean you have a confirmed reservation. You do not have a confirmed reservation until you clear the waitlist.

NCL tried to claim we had booked a waitlist, which was not true, according to our confirmation, which says BE guarantee, and that's what our online printout from NCL when we did the pre booking thing said. I'm saying that NCL is overbooking ships, with people who book a guarantee and then claiming it's the TA's fault. Have your TA make a stink and keep records. Don't let them let you drive to the pier like we did, and have them try to tell you that they don't have a cabin.

oh my god that is wrong on so many levels!! im assuming you had PAID for the whole vacation!! i mean they take your money and then tell you too bad?!?!?!?

that just doesnt make sense!!

im glad that in the end you got to stay on but im so sorry you had to go through that!!

we booked in early december for a march 8 cruise on the Pearl and we still dont have a cabin assignment just a GTY.

now im scared!! :eek:

thanks for the heads up i will make sure we have a cabin before we fly all the way down there!

did you get any sort of compensation for this?? i mean seriously!! i am a very easy going person and i dont usually make a stinkabout things but that would have sent me flying over the edge!!

I would hope a few of the regulars like Nita chime in here. This appears to be unusual. I surely would not be getting worried at this point.

As to compensation, I doubt it. Though it was delayed a few hours, they did get their cabin.

As to the waitlist vs GTY - if you had your NCL invoice with you, I would have been shoving that somewhere that made a difference.

What would have happened if you were disembarked?

Would NCL reimburse you for round trip air?

Would they get you home?

Would they have put you up in a nice hotel with meals and drinks?

Your cruise Doc's state GTY...Not Waitlist...

Just curious...

This happens on a daily basis with airlines. My job requires me to do a lot of air travel and I can tell you that this is the norm within the airline industry. Just like the OP, they book and paid for their airline ticket, ticket was issued by the airline only to get to the airport an realize they have no seat on the aircraft! They are put on the a waitlist and have to hope for a no-show or someone else willing to give up their seat so you can travel.

punkmuse--I would definitely recommend that before you fly down, that you have a definite cabin assignment. You have a long time to go before March, and I kind of assume they will get this situation resolved before then. Our TA actually knows the President of NCL, as she used to work for the same large agency that my TA works for, so she has copied the President on what happened in our circumstance. I hope that will make a difference in how they handle things like this in future.

garycarla--We got a free meal at the french restaurant, as well as ultimately two free bottles of wine. What I was the most upset about almost was our treatment on the ship, as they seemed to have zero empathy for us, and claimed it was all our TA's fault, when we knew it wasn't. Also, it was just a weekend cruise, we carried onboard our luggage, which was two rolly bags and our laptop bag. Not ONCE did they offer to hold our stuff for us, so we wouldn't have to lug it around. That was almost the worst thing, as we basically just sat by the purser's desk, as opposed to having to lug our stuff around all day.

Stefan--I don't know what would have happened if we had gotten off and just accepted their lame excuse. I did start to get really worried when the one lady asked us if we had flown down or whether we were local in South Florida..

We were in contact with our TA several times during the three hour ordeal and she called just about everyone in NCL corporate during that time.. She was a trooper..

Those of you who have gaurantees there is no need for alarm. I have been a TA for 11 years and when you book a gty cabin you are booked on the cruise.

As a recent poster stated, the airlines do this all the time and cruise lines do it as well but not with the frequency of the airlines.

Just as airlines bump passengers cruise lines can and will bump cruise passengers if they have a gaurantee room OR a cabin assignment it does not matter. I had clients sail five years ago on the Carnival Legend from NYC in the summer with a cabin assignment and they were bumped at the pier. In the end they were refunded and given a free cruise in a suite.

Of course they yelled at me but what I learned is that both airlines and cruise lines have this all figured out so they maximize their profits. Both airline and cruise lines count on cancellations on the day of sailing so many times they oversell. What Carnival learned was that cruises from the northeast can't adhere to that biz model because summer sailings from the NE depart full unlike other areas.

Basically what NCL did was overbook this trip and they randomly select people to bump AFTER they have tried to offer other travellers an incentive to move their cruise.

Princess is known to oversell. I worked in angency full time up until last year. Last summer Princess contacted our office many times to see if we could ask many of our Alaska cruise clients to move sail dates. They offered free upgrades and suites but many passengers did not want to give up their sailing at the last minute.

I know this sounds scary but I had this all explained to me by the former CEO of Carnival - Bob Dickinson. Years back when my clients were bumped I mailed and spoke with so many high level people at Carnival because I did not know as a travel agent that the cruise lines did this to. Finally I emailed Mr. Dickinson and he mailed me a letter describing their practices that he states the entire industry adheres to ""to remain competative in the market" as he stated.

nycruiser--respectfully--YES, you are SUPPOSED to be booked on the cruise when you book a cabin guarantee. That's what we did. And we were told we would probably have to disembark. I know there were several people who booked AFTER we did on this particular cruise, talked to at least two people who did book after we did, in balcony cabins. If someone books AFTER we did, they should be 'bumped', not us... Because other businesses, like airlines, do it, doesn't make it right.. And, as far as I know, there are no specific rules for overbooking on cruise lines, like there are on airlines. And sorry, overbooking on airlines is a TOTALLY different thing.... Airlines are transportation, purely... A cruise IS the vacation..

Dear Carol,

I am so sorry this happened to you. I know that it could be very upsetting. I hope that you could get beyond it. I hope that it never happens to anyone again, but from what we are seeing, it could. I will always have a room number before I sail. Nancy

What really surprises me is that they allowed you to board the ship. What if you had just "disappeared" somewhere, instead of parking near the pursers desk? How would they "finid" you to debark you? Seems to me they wouldn't have let you on without being pretty sure that they were going to be assigning a cabin. (not that I doubt you, I'm just supposing here).

Either way, glad to hear that it all worked out and that you received some compensation as well for your upset (dinner and wine).

nycruiser--respectfully--YES, you are SUPPOSED to be booked on the cruise when you book a cabin guarantee. That's what we did. And we were told we would probably have to disembark. I know there were several people who booked AFTER we did on this particular cruise, talked to at least two people who did book after we did, in balcony cabins. If someone books AFTER we did, they should be 'bumped', not us... Because other businesses, like airlines, do it, doesn't make it right.. And, as far as I know, there are no specific rules for overbooking on cruise lines, like there are on airlines. And sorry, overbooking on airlines is a TOTALLY different thing.... Airlines are transportation, purely... A cruise IS the vacation..

I agree with you 100% a cruise is the vacation while an airline ticket may not be. But according to a CEO of a cruise line they are looking at profits and they really do not want the ships to sail empty. I don't think its fair either. Sorry it happened to you because I would be just as upset as you are. Unfortunately the order of booking does not count at least with airlines it does not not sure how that happens with cruise lines.

This does happen with cruise lines from time to time. It actually happened with NCL specifically about 2 years ago. If memory serves me it was out of New Orleans (I can't be certain it was that port though, it's been too long ago). There were people turned away because the sailing was overbooked and they could not accomodate them. A week or two later I was booked to sail out of NOLA and I actually got a call from NCL offering to give me a refund and allow me to sail the following week because they had once more overbooked. The offer was very generous, and had we not had other commitments for the following week I would have jumped on it!

In my opinion, there is absolutely no excuse for a cruise line to pull a stunt like this and have families travel all that way to sit through the stress of waiting to see if their vacations are going to happen or not. They know in advance when they have too many people booked on a given sailing and have the opportunity to call around and offer compensation to folks to allow them to book a different sailing. I would be livid! It does happen though and it is unacceptable.

Do the cruise lines do this to later arriving passengers (like the airlines?) Would seem not, since OP said she had to wait 3 hours for assignment which would indicate that she was certainly at the pier early enough.

And since someone else mentioned that it was NOT in order of booking, I was wondering how they determine who to bump.

We arrived at the pier at 1:15. One other couple who were in our situation arrived at around 2 PM--for a sailing at 5 PM. Have no idea what time the 3rd couple arrived at the pier.