Anybody have experience with "Space Available" bookings?

[tisabee]

My husband & I were booked on the Conquest Nov. 5-12th for our 16th wedding anniversary. This would have been the 3rd cruise for us and our best friends were celebrating their anniversary as well (their 1st cruise-we hoped to spread the addiction :) We had booked this 11 months earlier & could not have been more excited. I constantly read the boards & did my research & was pretty much obsessed (I know y'all understand that!) My husband is a police officer & we have 3 children. The twins are 9 & one has special needs. We flew my mother down from the east coast to keep the kids as we just can't leave them with anyone. Sadly we did not get cancellation insurance (our bad, never again) and I came down with bacterial pneumonia (they actually had to rule out TB as the fluid in my lungs was not typical for pneumonia) 4 days prior to leaving I mean bags were already packed, excursions booked, school's & doctor's on notice. Long story short, no cruise:( . We wrote to Uncle Bob & enclosed a letter from our doctor (she had to "quarantine" me until the TB test came back) they have responded. WE did not ask for a refund just perhaps some credit towards another cruise as we really wanted/needed the 7 days break from the real world. They were kind enough to respond with a Space Available cruise. They asked us to pick several dates over the next year & they will let us know the week of sailing if there is space for us. Good news bad news right? So very appreciative that they would do anything as we do understand their policy for cancelling cruises w/in 7 days of sailing. Just not sure how we get all our ducks in a row to travel like that. We have to consider getting my parents down here (3 days by car) and my husband's job. Did I mention this would be an inside cabin? I would never look a gift horse in the mouth I just don't know what to do next. Anyone ever had a similar experience? We'd like to at the very least have a ocean view & are willing to pay for the upgrade of such. Any help out there? I appreciate those who were willing to read this long post.

Thanks!

 

Celebration Oct 2000:)

Celebration April 2001:)

Conquest Nov. 5th :(

[suzy1212]

First of all, I hope you're doing OK now! Second, it's very kind of them to offer you another cruise!

 

I can see that the logistics could be a problem, but I'd do my best to pick a couple of dates and try to be ready. As far as the inside room, it never hurts to ask. When they tell you they have room for you, ask them if you can pay the difference for an OV or balcony. They'd probably do it if they have one open. :)

[tisabee]

Thanks for responding, I am doing better thanks, although I'm not 100% yet, I'll be there eventually. I spoke to a research coordinator w/Carnival this afternoon. He didn't make it seem as impossible of a task as the letter had initially sounded. Yeah! So now we are looking for some dates, possible in April. Trying to better our odds with not travelling around Easter & Spring Break. We'll keep our fingers crossed. My parents will be coming back to Texas that month so we're hoping it will all work out in the end. Just can't wait to order my frou-frou drink & sail away!

Thanks again for your response. Take care.:)

[iluvdoxies]

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

[rt63]

We did this in May for a cruise we missed last summer due to my wife being admitted for a lung clot (sometimes a backache is not your muscles people!).

 

While they say in the letter to do certain things, what I wound up doing was calling every week in March and April. They will tell you when they expect to get the next batch of SA info, and invite you to call back then. And they will tell you what is currently available and give you the option of taking it. We could have done a week on Legend from NYC but were looking for a Florida port. Every week the only open sailings were 3-4 days to the Bahamas. They do a pretty good job of keeping the ships full, one reason I bought Carnival stock later.

 

Once you pick something they'll get your info and give you a booking number and cabin number so you can check in on FunPass. No tickets if it's really short notice, but you don't need them to check in at the port - just photo id and credit cards, and the porters have all the luggage tags.

 

Now we buy the insurance. A trip to the hospital we can handle here, but if we had embarked and she got sick later... :mad:

[tisabee]

Thanks for the info Roger. It was very helpful. Strange coincidence here I must share. I also had bilateral pulmonary embolis in Feb. of 05. WE too will never cruise again without cancellation insurance. My husband did buy the medical ins. just in case. Oh well, live & learn. We will be leaving out of Galveston so hoping our Conquest will have room in the coming months.

Thanks again! Happy Holidays.