HAL Messing with Dinner Waitlist

We are sailing on the 12/10/06 Westerdam Carribbean cruise. Preferring not to eat at the early seatings, we have been #4 on the waitlist for the 8:00 p.m. dinner seating for some time. Our travel agent (representing a large on-line agency) informed us today that we are now #57 on the waitlist due to the booking of a large group (80 passengers). The HAL dining coordinator has decided to accomodate the desires of these late bookers by pushing passengers who have already paid in full onto the waitlists. It's one thing to do this prior to final payment but to do it now is *********. I'm a lady so I won't express my true feelings.:mad: :mad: :mad:

Groups are bread and butter for any travel vendor. If it takes giving them preference in dining times or shore excursions then it makes economic sense to do it. I know it's disappointing, but that's the way things work out sometimes.

They may be the bread and butter, but if the cruise lines continue to cater to the groups, they are going to find themselves only booking groups. I wonder how many ships will sail full when that happens. The things I have read alone have made me wonder if I'll ever cruise again...groups coming in and bumping off paid passengers...large groups on the cruise which will severely change the dynamics of the cruise.

They can't have it both ways...at least I don't think so. I think one of these days, this is going to come back and bite them in the rear. I'd be furious if I was bumped from #4 to #87 for those reasons...especially after final payment.

On my cruise we went from 5th on the later early seating to 35. I called

ship services, and they confirmed us after checking the numbers. The

woman I talked to said there was a large group. We've got the time we

need, but will we be surrounded by people talking to each other and leaving

us in the cold. I agree that sharing a cruise with a large number of people

who know each other is awful. Like being seated in a restaurant with a group

of birthday or anniversary celebrators. You can't hear yourself think.

I hope things work out for you.

I understand the economics of booking groups. However, I may tell a few people about the good experiences that we have had on HAL but I will definitely tell a lot more people about the bad experiences. Market research has proven this time and again.

The plot thickens...I just read that the Celebrity Millennium's 7-day Caribbean cruise leaving Ft. Lauderdale on 12/10/06 (the same day as the Westerdam) has been canceled due to mechanical problems. Hmmm...perhaps a travel agency called HAL and rebooked passengers on the Westerdam.:rolleyes:

I'm sorry they did that to you. It isn't right.

Sure sounds like "X" Millienium passengers rebooked when their cruise was cancelled.

Sorry to hear what has happened to you.

That is terrible of HAL!!!

They are going to make a lot of unhappy campers who will soon be looking to other cruise lines if they keep this up.

If that is truly the reason they dumped you in the waitlist, then that IS a shame. I guess they got big bucks from Celebrity for taking those passengers. (Again, IF that is the cause.)

It seems like something is definitely up...

There are a number of people reporting in on our roll call (same cruise as Desert Cruisers) with varying stories about having requested/confirmed upper main dining and suddenly ending up with lower main dining or being bumped way down the waitlist.

We requested upper main, showed as confirmed upper main, received our docs and were suddenly confirmed for lower main - not even waitlisted for upper...and this was not a TA error, as I checked with them.

Same story from another roll call poster as well...

Okay, I can understand bumping waitlisted for a group butttttttttttt to bump confirmed is just plain wrong. To us if we could not get our preferred dining time we might adjust our cruise by one or two weeks depending on price.

Okay, I can understand bumping waitlisted for a group butttttttttttt .

I can't. As kids we all learned "get in line", "no cuts", "first come/first served". We were taught that these rules were fair.

They still are.

Just to add even more validity to Desert Cruiser's post. DH and I are also on the 12/10 Westerdam and we are doing back to back. We are dining at 8 pm on the 1st cruise and are waitlisted on the 2nd leg. I'm sure we will be fine at 8:30 but it is just the principle of the thing. Those of you that eat at 8:30 do you have any trouble making it to the evening show?

Still super excited about being on our first VISTA ship.

Mary

Those of you that eat at 8:30 do you have any trouble making it to the evening show?

I only had 8:30 dinner once. It was at a table for four and I would have been in time for the late show every evening if I wanted to get there.

I suspect I would have had difficulty being on time for the show, however, if I had been at a larger table. In my experience the larger the table = the longer the dinner.

Just to add even more validity to Desert Cruiser's post. DH and I are also on the 12/10 Westerdam and we are doing back to back. We are dining at 8 pm on the 1st cruise and are waitlisted on the 2nd leg. I'm sure we will be fine at 8:30 but it is just the principle of the thing. Those of you that eat at 8:30 do you have any trouble making it to the evening show?

 

Still super excited about being on our first VISTA ship.

 

Mary

Mary....

Just a suggestion. IF you decide you still would prefer the 8:00 seating for your second week, speak with the Maitre d' (Dining Room Manager --or whatever they are calling him these days) in the middle of/toward the end of your first week. He does the dining assignments for the upcoming cruise a few days before the end of the previous one. I think he will try his best to accommodate your request. ALWAYS when we have done b-to-b's , we have had the same table for both segments. We always speak with Maitre d' toward the middle/end of our first cruise and he handles it for us.

Have a GREAT time.

Thanks for the advice, I was wondering about talking to Matre D or someone about our seating. On our previous back to backs with HAL they have asked us what we wanted to do about dining the second week, however this is our first BIG ship so didn't know if the same procedure held firm and as I stated this is the first time when we boarded we didn't have confirmed dining for both segments. I'm sure however it goes we'll be fine but just curious as to everyone's thoughts. I'll let you all know when we get back.

Thanks again

Mary

The HAL dining coordinator has decided to accomodate the desires of these late bookers by pushing passengers who have already paid in full onto the waitlists. It's one thing to do this prior to final payment but to do it now is *********. I'm a lady so I won't express my true feelings.:mad: :mad: :mad:

HAL did the same thing to a whole bunch of people on my recent Amsterdam cruise. A group of 300 boarded in Fort Lauderdale, and they all wanted early seating. Apparently, HAL switched around people who were already confirmed for early seating and gave them one of the late seatings. When they tried to change back, they were told "sorry ... both early seating times are filled." Those folks had no option but to take a late seating or eat in the Lido.

True, it's not fair, but unfortunately it happens. Groups have a lot of influence because they are big money for the cruise line. If the group decides they all want a certain seating ... especially if they are a larger group ... guess what? HAL will give them their preference even if they only booked two months ago, and you booked a year out.

What's that bible verse say? "And the first shall be last ... " :(

Blue skies ...

--rita

I suspect I would have had difficulty being on time for the show, however, if I had been at a larger table. In my experience the larger the table = the longer the dinner.

Yeah, but I thought the dinner seating times and the show start times were purposely synched so as to ensure you could finish dinner and get to the show in plenty of time? I would hope that if a waiter were running behind schedule with a larger table, that the dining captain for that area would assign another assistant to help him along. Making a table full of guests miss the show wouldn't be too smart.

Of course, while I assume something could be done to ensure everyone was out of the dining room and off to the show lounge before the start of the show, I could also imagine that those at that larger table would probably get to the lounge maybe five minutes before the show was due to start ... and long after all of the seats were taken. :(

Blue skies ...

--rita