9/6 Zuiderdam

[mrsfitz28]

How empty was the Zuiderdam last week? If you went on cruise did you get VIP treatment? I'd love to hear about your experience.
Mrs. Fitz

[Spot]

I'm curious also.

[sail7seas]

Were you originally booked on that cruise but didn't go? It would be interesting to hear....more so if you had been booked.

[gliles]

I also want to hear from those who went, what was it like? Did you get an upgrade? Were there empty chairs at the pool? :rolleyes:

[Esme]

e-mail I received from a crew member last Wednesday:

Monday, we cast off from Port Everglades with only 700 passengers for a short cruise consisting of a sea day, Cayman Islands, Cozumel, sea day and back to Ft. Lauderdale. A Vista class ship seems terribly empty with so few people.

He is home now, (lives in my home town), so I will probably hear more about the cruise when he phones.

[stillfrantic]

Kyros posted from onboard for her b2b that it was pretty empty. She thought about 600 onboard. They compressed down to a single 7 pm dinner seating for everyone. She said there was a sign that it wouldn't be fair to upgrade some of the few and not others, so they gave out no upgrades to the few who managed to get there.

I am waiting to hear more myself. We cancelled on Sunday night when they made more changes and seemed even more confused than usual for themselves.

United gave me all my money back immediately on a nonrefundable ticket. HAL is taking 8 weeks to refund my money for this trip.

[KSCnCA]

"She said there was a sign that it wouldn't be fair to upgrade some of the few and not others, so they gave out no upgrades to the few who managed to get there."

Okay, so when are upgrades fair?

[kryos]

"She said there was a sign that it wouldn't be fair to upgrade some of the few and not others, so they gave out no upgrades to the few who managed to get there."

Okay, so when are upgrades fair?
I think the rationale behind this policy was that just about everyone onboard was requesting an upgrade and there was probably no way all of these requests could efficiently be granted. Therefore, especially since discounted fares were offered for this second week, they decided that everyone would get the cabin type they paid for and the only upgrades given would probably be to those who would have gotten them anyway (frequent cruisers, high numbers Mariner members, etc.).

I too had originally requested an upgrade, but went down to the desk the next morning to cancel that request (only to find out that it wasn't going to be granted anyway). After thinking about it during the night, I decided that it was just too much trouble to have to move all of my stuff, and I kind of liked my inside cabin anyway.

Blue skies ...

--rita