Before I make a complaint...

[Cruise Junky]

I want to get a greater understanding of how Wait Lists work. We are currently booked on a cruise next year in an inside (that was all that was available when we booked). We are wait listed for a balcony. We started at 75th on the list and have moved up to 70th as of last week. Today, a balcony cabin shows up on Princess's site. I go through the booking process and it's actually a Balcony Guarantee. Shouldn't these be offered to the people on the balcony wait list rather than opened to the public?

[can786]

It should have been offered the first person on the waitlist, but that doesn't always happen. I was once booked in a balcony cabin on the Sea Princess and was #1 on the waitlist for a minisuite. I checked the Princess site daily and finally found a minisuite was available. I was upset that it was showing on Princess.com and I had not been offered the cabin. My TA was closed for the day so I called Princess directly and insisted that I be switched to this cabin. Normally they wouldn't have dealt with me direct since I had booked with a TA but I pointed out that I was #1 on the waitlist and that my TA was unavailable, so they switched me themselves. My advice to anyone on a waitlist is to be proactive and check at least daily for yourself.

[srphnx]

Why not just book the balcony guarantee and cancel the other booking? Are you already in to penalty?

[Coral]

Several people have reported this same situation. They are wait listed and never made aware that cabins are available.

[Cruise Junky]

Why not just book the balcony guarantee and cancel the other booking? Are you already in to penalty?

 

To clarify, it's not about me getting that balcony. I'm questioning Princess Policy. At #70 on the list it would have been just as unfair for me to get that balcony as the general public.

[caribill]

I think it is worth speaking to Princess about it. And if the agent you speak with is not knowledgable enough about the situation, ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

From the known facts, it is hard to tell if this is a Princess policy or if it is due to defects in their booking software.

[Cruise Junky]

I think it is worth speaking to Princess about it. And if the agent you speak with is not knowledgable enough about the situation, ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

From the known facts, it is hard to tell if this is a Princess policy or if it is due to defects in their booking software.

 

Agreed.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I want to get a greater understanding of how Wait Lists work. We are currently booked on a cruise next year in an inside (that was all that was available when we booked). We are wait listed for a balcony. We started at 75th on the list and have moved up to 70th as of last week. Today, a balcony cabin shows up on Princess's site. I go through the booking process and it's actually a Balcony Guarantee. Shouldn't these be offered to the people on the balcony wait list rather than opened to the public?

I was wondering if you were able to get a balcony for our cruise when I saw that offered. If I were you I would jump on it. If you don't, someone else will, and they may be farther down the list than you!

[Loonbeam]

Silly question but are you waitlisted for any balcony class or just a subset?

I want to get a greater understanding of how Wait Lists work. We are currently booked on a cruise next year in an inside (that was all that was available when we booked). We are wait listed for a balcony. We started at 75th on the list and have moved up to 70th as of last week. Today, a balcony cabin shows up on Princess's site. I go through the booking process and it's actually a Balcony Guarantee. Shouldn't these be offered to the people on the balcony wait list rather than opened to the public?

[Cruise Junky]

Silly question but are you waitlisted for any balcony class or just a subset?

 

Just a balcony, no specific class.

[spongerob]

If you look at list prices for a cruise, there are always a very few cabins in the lowest categories for all the major subsets of configurations (except suites) that are priced much higher than the rest. I have always assumed that this was because these cabins are "reserved" for the inevitable last few guarantees that don't get some sort of upward bump.

 

I think this is done so that no one in their right mind would ever book these cabins outright. It's possible that this is what has opened up (technically, someone who would have received one of these cabins got moved up into a cancelled cabin, whether they actually had an assignement or not). A possible reason that the waitlist did not change is that the software saw the price differntial and didn't move anyone.

 

Or maybe the waitlist process is as flakey as I have always suspected it is. ;)

[Coral]

 

Or maybe the waitlist process is as flakey as I have always suspected it is. ;)

 

I think it is flakey.

 

Cruise Junky - I hope you have secured the balcony cabin you want. I would be pro-active in doing this and not wait for Princess to do it.

[Cruise Junky]

I think it is flakey.

 

Cruise Junky - I hope you have secured the balcony cabin you want. I would be pro-active in doing this and not wait for Princess to do it.

 

Oh, I definitely wouldn't be waiting for Princess to do it. It's the Sapphire's wine cruise for next year. I think once we couldn't get a balcony we started looking at alternatives and right now 5 or 6 days in Napa/Sonoma is winning.

[Coral]

Oh, I definitely wouldn't be waiting for Princess to do it. It's the Sapphire's wine cruise for next year. I think once we couldn't get a balcony we started looking at alternatives and right now 5 or 6 days in Napa/Sonoma is winning.

 

I think you made the right choice :)

[Cruise Junky]

I think you made the right choice :)

 

And sooo much cheaper. I'm finding $2,500 for two on a coastal to be a bit much. I totally get supply and demand. But for a westcoaster where the ports have been visited many times...I'd rather spend that elsewhere.