Overbooking on Vendaam to Bermuda July 4th

[cricri7]

Hi guys....I am leaving on the Vendaam this Sunday July 4th. I just got a call from my travel agent this morning asking me if I wanted to postpone my vacation. It seems they have overbooked the ship and are asking people to postpone their vacation until August. I am relatively new to cruising, this in only my 3rd cruise, so I did not know that cruise lines did the same thing as airlines. They are offering a reimbursement of 620$ and a possible upgrade or credit onboard the ship. I said no because my plane ticket is already bought...my vacation started today (I am a high school teacher so the school year just ended)..my hotels are boooked...I have been dreaming about this cruise for a while now so I said no to my travel agent even with all the interesting perks attached to the offer.

 

I am curious.....does this sort of thing happen often? Should I be worried about my cabin being taken away from me....haha....What do they do if not enough people accept their offer?

 

I am curious if anyone here booked on the Vendaam for the 4th had the same call I did.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Yes, this happens from time to time, and no, they will not take your cabin from you. Go and enjoy your hard-earned cruise:) Somebody, somewhere will accept their offer, and if not, they will keep sweetening the deal until someone does. This happned to me just last month prior to my Alaska cruise departure. I got a very good deal to take a later cruise, and because no airfare was involved, I was able to take advantage of it.:)

 

Bon Voyage!

[NordicPrince]

Their booking estimates will usually allow for overbooking because they can normally expect a certain amount of people to cancel and they do want to sail with the ship as full as possible to maximize the income on the voyage.

 

Sounds like they got caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.

 

Believe me you are not the only one receiving a call. They will try to capture the low hanging fruit. Since you already have hotel and planes booked you are not easily picked.

 

Next they will try the upgrade game to try to get people to buy up categories to free up space in other categories so they can squeexze everyone in.

 

FMI, did you book a specific cabin or a category guarentee?

[cricri7]

Nordic prince.....I have a cabin reserved in the M category, I have a room number assigned to me by my travel agent. I am sleeping there no matter what....even if I have to squat the room and their new occupants, I am sleeping there:p

 

If I had had more time to think, I would have looked at other cruises leaving from New York but she had to have an answer right away so I said no. I am so happy about leaving after a hard school year that I could not envision not leaving on that cruise!

 

Thanks for your input!

[LADYLAYLA]

Next they will try the upgrade game to try to get people to buy up categories to free up space in other categories so they can squeexze everyone in.

 

If the ship is overbooked, upgrading would not allow them to add more people. AFAIK Overbooking means they have more rooms reserved than they have on the ship

[iggybee77]

We've been booked on this sailing for over a year now, and our travel agent received the same notice from HAL stating that they're overbooked and are looking for folks to take them up on their offer. Something along the lines of 50% back, an upgrade and $75 onboard credit for switching to one of the August sailings. Not a bad deal if you have flexibility to change.

 

We weren't all that surprised as we've been trying to get my parents onboard but since they decided last minute to come along they were placed on the "waitlist". TA has been calling everyday since - but looks like they're out of luck at this point!!! Maybe next time. :cool:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Yes - overbooking does happen even with cruise lines.

 

One year it was happening quite a bit with the Canada/New England cruises on the Maasdam.

 

On one of our cruises in the Caribbean the ship was also overbooked.

 

Some of the offeres that some people have gotten were pretty good.

 

Even though we are retired we could not change dates for a cruise because of air and hotels.

[RalphWiggum]

Overbooking has happened on the first few Veendam cruises to Bermuda. I was on the 4/25 cruise and I got the call as well. The next available cruise was over a month out. I live 45 minutes from NYC so rearranging travel wouldn't have been a problem, but they had gotten enough takers by the time I called back.

 

I was then worried the ship was going to be packed and my cruise would be seven days of lines. I was amazed by how empty the ship seemed.

[ShipsAreTheBest]

Yes - overbooking does happen even with cruise lines.

 

One year it was happening quite a bit with the Canada/New England cruises on the Maasdam.

 

 

We were booked on the Maasdam in late July 2004 for this itinerary, and were notified it was oversold. I had booked directly with HAL on the website (first HAL cruise). I received notice of overbooking the week before the sailing, ignored the request, and had no problem boarding the ship - our cabin was waiting for the four of us. I suspect that they sweetened the pot, and enough took them up on the offer!

[ShipsAreTheBest]

Just checked my e-mail - on the 7/11 sailing and they are offering here too!

[bridget22004]

it has happened to us on a princess cruise. they oversold. we had two cabins and were told if we roomed together, and gave up a cabin ,we would get $600 back. boy... that would be crowded, so they offered us the premium suite and all the amenities that went with it and 600.00, It was awesome for the 3 of us!!

[3rdGenCunarder]

it has happened to us on a princess cruise. they oversold. we had two cabins and were told if we roomed together, and gave up a cabin ,we would get $600 back. boy... that would be crowded, so they offered us the premium suite and all the amenities that went with it and 600.00, It was awesome for the 3 of us!!

 

It sounds like they wanted your specific cabin for some reason. Perhaps it was handicap accessible. Or it might have connected with an available cabin and somebody wanted connecting cabins. My parents got a good upgrade on QE2 because they were in a cabin that connected to its neighbor. Somebody wanted that pair so Cunard bumped my parents up a couple of decks to free up the desired cabin. (Our TA is a good negotiator!)

[adkkev]

Actually there's nothing preventing a cruiseline from taking your room away from you ... all they have to do is refund your money and send you on your way. They are not obligated to do any more than that. If you have trip insurance you may be able to get your airfare & hotel reservations refunded (it's really up to the insurance carrier). The cruiseline can call your room "guarranteed" but that actually means little. Especially when demand creates overbooking.

[TracieABD]

Actually there's nothing preventing a cruiseline from taking your room away from you ... all they have to do is refund your money and send you on your way. They are not obligated to do any more than that. If you have trip insurance you may be able to get your airfare & hotel reservations refunded (it's really up to the insurance carrier). The cruiseline can call your room "guarranteed" but that actually means little. Especially when demand creates overbooking.

Scary!:eek:

[KAKcruiser]

I don't think they would ever take your room away. I'm sure they would get takers to their offers.

[ShipsAreTheBest]

I got to thinking about this. Not sure it is overbooking as much as it is the fact that they have people waitlisted. Perhaps they have future dates (in August, for example) that may not be fully booked or waitlisted, so they decide to reward those already booked to see if they are willing to move to another date - free up a cabin, and sell it to a waitlisted person (perhaps at a higher fare, since there is demand, no discounting necessary). This way they get a full ship now and in the future. Interesting.

 

My offer (for the July 11 sailing) was 50% off to go in August. Too much on our plate in August, and I am too close and psyched to wait 3 or more weeks. Crazy, I know. Perhaps if the offer was made a month or so ago, I would have bitten! I'm sure somebody will!

[IRL_Joanie]

Actually there's nothing preventing a cruiseline from taking your room away from you ... all they have to do is refund your money and send you on your way. They are not obligated to do any more than that. If you have trip insurance you may be able to get your airfare & hotel reservations refunded (it's really up to the insurance carrier). The cruiseline can call your room "guarranteed" but that actually means little. Especially when demand creates overbooking.

 

Before this causes things to get out of hand, can you PLEASE provide proof of your statement???

 

I do believe that there are laws that protect cruise passengers (just like airlines and hotels) that cover situations such as this. BUT... I want to see proof before I react...

 

So Link(s) etc., would be greatly appreciated...

 

Joanie

[0bnxshs]

Before this causes things to get out of hand, can you PLEASE provide proof of your statement???

 

I do believe that there are laws that protect cruise passengers (just like airlines and hotels) that cover situations such as this. BUT... I want to see proof before I react...

 

So Link(s) etc., would be greatly appreciated...

 

Joanie

 

It's in the ticket contract's fine print. On Carnival, it's in section 7 as:

 

(b) Carnival has the right without previous notice to cancel this contract at the port of embarkation or any time during the voyage and shall thereupon return to the Guest, if the Contract is completely canceled, his passage money, or, if the Contract is partially canceled, a proportionate part thereof. Under such circumstances, Carnival shall have no further liability for damages or compensation of any kind.

 

(f) Specific stateroom assignments are not guaranteed. Carnival reserves the right to move Guests to a comparable stateroom for any reason, including but not limited to, instances in which a stateroom is booked with fewer than the maximum number of Guests the stateroom can accommodate; or when a partial Guest cancellation occurs and the remaining number of Guests do not match the maximum number of Guests the stateroom can accommodate.

 

Pretty simple really. Doubt it happens often though. And I expect, if you must, there's always some lawyer ready to file a suit on your behalf if it does.

[TracieABD]

It's in the ticket contract's fine print. On Carnival, it's in section 7 as:

 

(b) Carnival has the right without previous notice to cancel this contract at the port of embarkation or any time during the voyage and shall thereupon return to the Guest, if the Contract is completely canceled, his passage money, or, if the Contract is partially canceled, a proportionate part thereof. Under such circumstances, Carnival shall have no further liability for damages or compensation of any kind.

 

Pretty simple really. Doubt it happens often though. And I expect, if you must, there's always some lawyer ready to file a suit on your behalf if it does.

 

Really, really scary!:eek::eek:

 

I see that this is for Carnival. Does HAL have the same or a similar clause?

[0bnxshs]

Really, really scary!:eek::eek:

 

I see that this is for Carnival. Does HAL have the same or a similar clause?

 

I'll try to dig up the contract for a previous HAL cruise. Being as HAL is Carnival though, corporately speaking, I doubt it's much different.

[0bnxshs]

I'll try to dig up the contract for a previous HAL cruise. Being as HAL is Carnival though, corporately speaking, I doubt it's much different.

 

The HAL contract from our May 2008 cruise on the Amsterdam is much more wordy and scattered about throughout different sections, but essentially says the same thing to me as the Carnival contract.

 

However, I'm not a lawyer and don't play one on TV, so this is all IMHO. One thing that struck me as I was reading all the fine print in the HAL contract was that it could be construed to apply to cancellation of the cruise itself for many and various reasons and not to cancelling individual cruise contracts. Again, all in how you read it I guess.

[Murrhers]

Hi! We were to leave from NYC on this Sunday (July 4) as well. When we got the email, we jumped at getting a discount and used the extra $$ to upgrade cabin. We're in PA and didn't have airline ticket issues, just exchanged our train tickets at no cost (you gotta love Amtrak for that one!). We've done 4 cruises and this is the 1st time this has happened to us. As we're flexible (both work in schools) we could take advantage. Go and have a great time! Let me know what you thought about the cruise after you returned. Bon Voyage!

 

Christy