Being on standby...

[sgtp]

Im trying to get on a ship thats leaving in 10 days and its full. I dont know what to believe, so I was wondering if anyone has any experiences to share of a time when they were on standby.

 

I know there will be other cruises to go on, but I have a big group thats hoping I can make it on to their ship. Wish me luck............

[MSUcruisers]

Im trying to get on a ship thats leaving in 10 days and its full. I dont know what to believe, so I was wondering if anyone has any experiences to share of a time when they were on standby.

 

I know there will be other cruises to go on, but I have a big group thats hoping I can make it on to their ship. Wish me luck............

 

 

Since 9/11, stand-bys are not allowed. Unless something has changed, tickets must be bought at least 72 hours in advance.

[sgtp]

so I only have 7 days to wait for a cancelation. I wonder how long these waiting lists are.........

[AAAAmerican]

Im trying to get on a ship thats leaving in 10 days and its full. I dont know what to believe, so I was wondering if anyone has any experiences to share of a time when they were on standby.

 

I know there will be other cruises to go on, but I have a big group thats hoping I can make it on to their ship. Wish me luck............

 

Luck .. but what ship?

 

WHo said its full? etc..:eek:

[CCCM]

sgtp - We sail in about 10 days. Our cruise keeps going back and forth between full and open again. Are you looking for the Westerdam???

[peaches from georgia]

Luck .. but what ship?

 

WHo said its full? etc..:eek:

Since OP has been put on standby I think we can safely assume that the cruiseline has told them the ship is full. Who else but the cruiseline could put them on standby? A TA alone cannot put anyone on the ship's standby list.

[sgtp]

sgtp - We sail in about 10 days. Our cruise keeps going back and forth between full and open again. Are you looking for the Westerdam???

 

Yes, the HA ship leaving Fort lauderdale on the 15th.... We were told there is a room so we scrambled to get airfare, then find out its full, what a snafu....

[sgtp]

Allow me to elaborate: Someone from our group thats already booked told us they found a room and it was held for us, but that turned out not to be the case, so now we are somewhere near the top of the waiting list, or so Im told. I know we are taking a risk here....just hope we get lucky

[newmexicoNita]

All I can say is: if they say there is a cabin available in the next couple of days, you had better grab it, pay for it and then worry about airfare. There is no other way as they will not hold a sold out ships cabin for more than an hour if that. Most of the time, not at all. NMnita

[Krazy Kruizers]

Do you only have a deposit on a cabin?? Have you given your TA the final payment of any amount??

 

This sounds very risky to me -- I would never buy airline tickets unless I knew that I had a cabin -- hope you got some kind of a deal on the airline tickets. Some airlines charge top dollar for flights booked on short notice.

[kryos]

All I can say is: if they say there is a cabin available in the next couple of days, you had better grab it, pay for it and then worry about airfare. There is no other way as they will not hold a sold out ships cabin for more than an hour if that. Most of the time, not at all. NMnita

Airfare is gonna cost a mint, though ... so close to the sailing date. That's why booking stand-by is only worthwhile if you can somehow drive to and from the port.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[AAAAmerican]

T/A have said a lot of things before.:cool:

 

Proof... is usually in the pudding .. ..

 

It like most things in business depends on the character whom your dealing with Maam.

 

:cool:

 

Especially without a hard dollar deposit the words standby.. mean little if anything...even as we all have seen on this BB recently as well before...

 

Even the major retail soft goods firms are not doing the old LayAway anymore now..

 

 

 

Since OP has been put on standby I think we can safely assume that the cruiseline has told them the ship is full. Who else but the cruiseline could put them on standby? A TA alone cannot put anyone on the ship's standby list.

[Little Feet]

Since 9/11, stand-bys are not allowed. Unless something has changed, tickets must be bought at least 72 hours in advance.

 

 

Sorry to burst your security bubble.......but this is just not true. We have been "evacuated onto" the Zuiderdam from Ft. Lauderdale in less than 20 hours. We were vacationing and due to hurricane evacuation we had to leave our resort. In order to save the vacation, our TA (in Pompano Beach) was able to get us onto the Zuiderdam the next day.

 

I, too , thought it could not be done due to "security issues", and it was just a few years ago (well after 9/11)....but so-called regulations are not as we are told. Our government "postures" a lot about security and how much "safer" we are now....but I certainly don't feel any safer at all. The airport screening is ridiculous......certainly not an effective way of REALLY managing flight safety. Anyway , I don't want to stray way off topic here, and the issue of "security" is certainly a whole topic unto itself......but you CAN get onto a ship pronto.....and they will probably do it if it is undersold, or if they have lots of cancellations due to weather situations.

[Grumpy1]

Regarding the security issue... Homeland security is concerned about who gets back INTO the country, not who leaves. As long as the length of the cruise is more than 72 hours, Homeland Security will have all of the time needed to check what needs to be checked for the passengers onboard. That's why it is possible to sail with no advance notice.

[newmexicoNita]

Airfare is gonna cost a mint, though ... so close to the sailing date. That's why booking stand-by is only worthwhile if you can somehow drive to and from the port.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

I agree, but if they are hell bent to go they will have to take a cabin if it comes up and hope for some last minute decent air or just give the entire plan up. For me, that is what I would do, for them, it may be worth it to just go for it..........NMnita

[newmexicoNita]

Regarding the security issue... Homeland security is concerned about who gets back INTO the country, not who leaves. As long as the length of the cruise is more than 72 hours, Homeland Security will have all of the time needed to check what needs to be checked for the passengers onboard. That's why it is possible to sail with no advance notice.

This is correct, but I most lines are not allowing stand bys at the pier, in fact I don't think any are. It is just not worth it anymore. Actually Princess started this policy before 9/11. The only cruisers I have heard to get on ships with less than 72-96 hours notice are those who use a TA. NMnita

[kryos]

I agree, but if they are hell bent to go they will have to take a cabin if it comes up and hope for some last minute decent air or just give the entire plan up. For me, that is what I would do, for them, it may be worth it to just go for it..........NMnita

The other option ... and from how I am reading his post, it appears that's what he did ... is to go ahead and book the airfare ... maybe he got a deal ... and hope against hope he gets a cabin on the cruise. But then ... I guess if he doesn't, he can always take a land vacation in the Fort Lauderdale area if he doesn't want to see his airplane tickets go to waste.

 

But re-reading the post, it looks like air was purchased already, and now they don't know if they'll have a cabin.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

Regarding the security issue... Homeland security is concerned about who gets back INTO the country, not who leaves. As long as the length of the cruise is more than 72 hours, Homeland Security will have all of the time needed to check what needs to be checked for the passengers onboard. That's why it is possible to sail with no advance notice.

Just out of curiosity then ... if 72 hours is all that is needed before the cruise DISEMBARKS ... then why can't you just show up on the pier that morning with your suitcase in your hand and try to get a great deal on a last minute ticket? Would seem a great option if you found yourself with a week's vacation time, no plans, and some real budget constraints. You could probably pick up some great last minute deals that way ... especially if you weren't too picky as to cabin assignment. Of course, you could just as easily be SOL if all the ships leaving that day were fully booked.

 

Wonder why after 9-11 this sort of thing was stopped? Didn't people do that routinely before?

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[newmexicoNita]

Just out of curiosity then ... if 72 hours is all that is needed before the cruise DISEMBARKS ... then why can't you just show up on the pier that morning with your suitcase in your hand and try to get a great deal on a last minute ticket? Would seem a great option if you found yourself with a week's vacation time, no plans, and some real budget constraints. You could probably pick up some great last minute deals that way ... especially if you weren't too picky as to cabin assignment. Of course, you could just as easily be SOL if all the ships leaving that day were fully booked.

 

Wonder why after 9-11 this sort of thing was stopped? Didn't people do that routinely before?

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

Rita, good question, but as I mentioned earlier, actually Princess stopped the stand by, day of sailing a few years before 9/11. I have no idea why. As for the OP, I think you are right about purchasing air already. The post had me a little confused. NMnita

[kryos]

Rita, good question, but as I mentioned earlier, actually Princess stopped the stand by, day of sailing a few years before 9/11. I have no idea why.

Well, then the cruise lines are dumb. I've been on several HAL sailings where the boat was nowhere near full. They very well could have sold a few last minute cabins and gotten some additional warm bodies onboard. Even if they sold the cabins at basically cost ... or even a bit below ... there is a good chance those people would have dropped some money onboard and turned out to be a profit source for HAL.

 

I know that if it was possible to do this, even I might be inclined to head down to the Port of Philadelphia at the last minute if I happened to be sitting on a week off with nothing much to do. What's the worse that could happen? I bring my suitcase back home again? Even though I'd probably wind up on an NCL ship (that and RCCL are the only ships going out of Philadelphia these days), at least it's a boat ... and at least it's going out on the ocean. And, for the right price, I think I could even enjoy an NCL cruise.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Sprocket]

I think it was about 2 years ago there was an ad in the Vancouver Province newspaper for a last minute cruise bargain. You only had to show up at the pier and it was first come first served, as many as 4 to a cabin for a very low rate. I'm pretty sure it was a repositioning cruise.

 

I seem to recall there was a posting that the ship was very crowded and there were a lot of unhappy people onboard. I suppose an agency had a block of unsold cabins and used this method to sell them. I don't remember seeing anything like that since though.

 

Bev

[Grumpy1]

I know that if it was possible to do this, even I might be inclined to head down to the Port of Philadelphia at the last minute if I happened to be sitting on a week off with nothing much to do. What's the worse that could happen? I bring my suitcase back home again?

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

We met a couple on the world cruise that did exactly that in San Diego, 2004. Just on a whim, they packed a suitcase, headed to the port, and after a bit of a wait, found out there had been a cancellation. Off they went for a week in Mexico.

[KAYEF]

If I was going on a "last minute" cruise, I'd surely use the cruiseline's air; it would be FAR cheaper than booking a last minute air ticket on your own (if they had any seats left on the cruise program).

Good Luck; hope you make it.;)

[kryos]

If I was going on a "last minute" cruise, I'd surely use the cruiseline's air; it would be FAR cheaper than booking a last minute air ticket on your own (if they had any seats left on the cruise program).

Good Luck; hope you make it.;)

I think the only way to really take advantage of truly last minute deals is to live in the general area of the port of embarkation. This way you just hop in the car when you get the word you have a cabin.

 

That's why cruise lines like HAL keep an e-mail list of people interested in these last minute deals. Many of them live within a couple of hundred miles of Fort Lauderdale and can get to the pier literally with a day's notice. If you had to book air at the last minute ... through the cruise line or otherwise ... it would probably cost you a small fortune and render any savings you got on the cruise nil.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

I seem to recall there was a posting that the ship was very crowded and there were a lot of unhappy people onboard. I suppose an agency had a block of unsold cabins and used this method to sell them. I don't remember seeing anything like that since though.

Unhappy or not, people have to realize that a cruise line is not gonna sail a ship with loads of empty cabins ... not if they can help it. Those people knew how many the ship held ... and when they found it "crowded," they would just have to deal with it ... especially since I doubt any cabin had more than four people ... so the ship was merely full to capacity.

 

I've heard the same sort of thing happens out of San Juan. If the ship is not full, the cruise lines will cut a "family deal" ... four family members in a cabin for ridiculously low rates ... something like first two at $400 each, $100 each for up to two kids. Great opportunity for a family vacation on the cheap, and entire extended families will take advantage of it. Needless to say, there are a ton of kids running around on the ship that week.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita