Sail Standby for $49 a day- new program

[SilvertoGold]

3 hours ago, twilightrabbit said:

I promised to share our final resolution.  We waited the additional 24 hours, as I mentioned above, until about noon Friday for the Saturday sailing.  Still no cabins available, so we chose to cancel at that point.  I documented the whole thing on our "my travel window" channel if anyone is interested.

 

This morning (4 days later) I received notification that my credit card had been refunded the full amount originally paid.  Kudos to Holland America for that.  We have another (longer) standby trip booked for November.  On that occasion we will be at the port waiting until the last possible moment.

 

For any of  you in Europe, we discovered HAL does have a similar program sailing out of Amsterdam and other locations.  You can't access this from the US unless you have a VPN that allows you to log in with a European IP address.  Rules are a little different, but very similar.

So sorry you didn't get on but maybe next time.  Appreciate all the time and effort you put in expaining the Standby process.

Is there any way to sign up for post notification of your blog? Looks most interesting!

[twilightrabbit]

Cruise Critic doesn't like us referencing other social media platforms.  So not sure how to do this without running afoul of their rules.  Just google mytravelwindow and both my website and the channel should come up.  If you subscribe with the notification bell you will be alerted to new videos.

[Mary229]

27 minutes ago, twilightrabbit said:

Cruise Critic doesn't like us referencing other social media platforms.  So not sure how to do this without running afoul of their rules.  Just google mytravelwindow and both my website and the channel should come up.  If you subscribe with the notification bell you will be alerted to new videos.

You can add a link in your signature 

[kevingastreich]

Has anyone ever seen an Alaska cruise on this list?

[SilvertoGold]

Wrong post!

Edited Thursday at 02:33 AM by SilvertoGold

[SilvertoGold]

35 minutes ago, kevingastreich said:

Has anyone ever seen an Alaska cruise on this list?

Huge nuimber out of Vancouver and some out of Seattle.

[romet]

But what do you get when you sign up for the standby deals?  A promise of a cheaper cruise, but that comes with the great unknown or whether you will get to take the trip of a lifetime.  Is it worth it in the great scheme of things - I doubt it.

We subscribed to Koningsdam on August 24, but this and most other Alaska cruises are already sold out.  So what are the odds of taking this cruise, or should we be looking at plan B?

So today we called Holland America to try and find out our odds of travelling.  We asked could they tell us what position on the list we were, but nobody would tell us anything.  “That information is not available.”

So, HA is playing the cards close to their chest, and not helping the passengers who have made a commitment.  They could have given us a little hope, but chose not to.

So we are now stuck, something which we did not consider when we took the bait.  We can’t book another vacation because we might still get to go on this cruise.

I doubt we will gamble on a standby cruise again.

 

[TiogaCruiser]

The program has been around long enough now and with sufficient information available that anyone signing up should understand that they might or might not get to go. If they do, the cost is reduced- how much might depend on private sales that just might come their way. If someone signs up, it’s on them to think it through.

[Mary229]

6 hours ago, romet said:

or whether you will get to take the trip of a lifetime

I don’t think that is the target audience.  This is geared more to travelers with  a lot of free time (think retired), those who are frequent travelers with a more nomadic lifestyle or those who are trying it out for a first time but intend to travel more.  IMHO, a once in a lifetime experience should be tailored and planned.    Just my opinion 

[POA1]

2 hours ago, Mary229 said:

I don’t think that is the target audience.  This is geared more to travelers with  a lot of free time (think retired), those who are frequent travelers with a more nomadic lifestyle or those who are trying it out for a first time but intend to travel more.  IMHO, a once in a lifetime experience should be tailored and planned.    Just my opinion 

 

It's also targeted at people who live close to the embarkation ports. We're a 15 minute ride, less than 5 miles from Port Everglades. We're just missing the retired with plenty of free time on our hands piece. 😔

 

I could not see us doing standby though. We're such Type A, planning personalities that we couldn't stand the stress.

[BermudaBound2014]

I agree that this offer is not designed for "trip of a lifetime" or "Type A"; as the program requires flexibility and patience of steel. It's not even the best deal if you are looking at itineraries that are historically underpopulated. 

 

One thing HAL did was greatly reduce the Alaska sailings starting last April. This strategy is filling the ships so that now, to get on as standby, you likely aren't taking an cabin that was never booked, you are most likely taking a cabin where the occupants had an emergency and cancelled very close to sailing. I think that was the design of the program from the start.

 

You can prebook any of the cruises below  4/5 months ahead of time (plenty of time to check out air, although air on points will be tough). Most are cheaper than the stand by price. Plus you get all the perks (obc, stockholder, etc..) and you know you will be sailing on the ship. Of course, these types of discounts (especially for Trans Atlantic's) are nothing new and I'll bet dollars to donuts that 11/16 sailing of the Nieuw Statendam will drop even lower. 

 

 

 

 I believe one of the biggest benefits of the standby program is that solos don't pay double making this a reasonable gamble for solos. Otherwise the program isn't for me even though I'm super flexible on time and can book with points making air last minute refundable.

 

 

 

@romet it sounds like you are locked into the August 24th date. Here are 6 other ships sailing from Vancouver on the 23, 24, or 25th. Is it possible for you to book a back up on one of these with CFAR insurance? You would be out the cost of CFAR if HAL's offer came thru, but some of these cruises are pricing pretty low so CFAR won't be that much. At least this way you can plan to get to Vancouver and know you will be sailing on a ship. 

 

Sailing from Vancouver:

 

 

Also, you could add any of these ships to your list of possibilities. If HAL doesn't come thru on the 48 hour mark you can cancel HAL and take a quick shuttle from Vancouver down to Seattle to jump on any of these. This way you can still fly into/out of Vancouver and you would be guaranteed to be cruising. Of course, a bit more research will be needed, but there is a way to get you cruising to Alaska on August 24th (or very close to that date if you are willing to be slightly flexible). All hope of your Alaska cruise is not lost. I wish you the best :). 

 

Sailing from Seattle:

 

 

Hope that helps, let me know if this doesn't make sense and I'll try again 🙂

[romet]

Thank you, BermudaBound, for your very thoughtful reply.  It was really inspiring to read your detailed comments, particularly your screen prints of available cruises - are those available to everyone on line, or do you need specialist credentials?

Unfortunately, those other cruises are showing full, so we will keep our fingers crossed to sail on Koningsdam.

We obviously need more training on booking cruises and extracting more web information.  Looking forward to your next seminar, and thanks again.

[BermudaBound2014]

16 minutes ago, romet said:

Thank you, BermudaBound, for your very thoughtful reply.  It was really inspiring to read your detailed comments, particularly your screen prints of available cruises - are those available to everyone on line, or do you need specialist credentials?

Unfortunately, those other cruises are showing full, so we will keep our fingers crossed to sail on Koningsdam.

We obviously need more training on booking cruises and extracting more web information.  Looking forward to your next seminar, and thanks again.

 

Thank you, I hope this helped a little.

 

I just found inventory available on Princess, RCL, and NCL (although I don't like the prices). These cruises are not all sold out and are available to anyone to book. I assure you, I'm not special no matter what my hubby says :-D. 

 

I recommend you get yourself a good Travel agent who deals with selling all cruise lines. We aren't allowed to mention them here, but think 'big box' stores for a starting point. A good TA will also help you navigate getting to Seattle if you end up choosing that as your backup.

 

If you want to sail to Alaska on the weekend of August 24th, I assure you that there is still availability you you to do just that.

 

Again, hope this helps and wishing you the very best of luck!! 

[jlawrence01]

21 hours ago, kevingastreich said:

Has anyone ever seen an Alaska cruise on this list?

Dozens of them leaving from Whittier and Vancouver.  I have never booked one as the cruise that I booked traditionally was $54 pp per night for an Oceanview.