How to get a cabin on a sold out sailing

[jdkdkdsd]

At check in for our July 15th departure on The Panorama we were informed that our online booking agent used a defunct email address for one of our 2 state rooms, the one for our 2 adult kids.  My husband got a reminder email on a functioning email and thought he paid the balance for both of our rooms.  The online agent canceled one reservation and is not working with us to reinstate the reservation. The cruise is sold out.  It was suggested that we "check back" to see if a cabin becomes available when a passenger uses their travel insurance and cancels their reservation.  Is that even a thing?  How do you "check back"?   This is a large family cruise for my Mom, all of her 5 kids, their spouses and most of the grand kids, so we can't just pick another cruise. Could we just show up with my daughters and hope for a cancellation?  Any other ideas or suggestions would be great!  TIA

[gotscrapz]

I can't even get that cruise to pull up for me so I am guessing it is at max capacity. Since you have many other family members going, can you put each of the daughters in one of the cabins you have booked? One in your room and one in another? Assuming they have room?

Less than ideal but I don't think you have many options at this point. 

I would still keep calling to try to catch a cancellation... 

[VIFP1987]

If you have a Carnival PVP, explain the situation to them, and ask them to monitor the cruise for you. Request that they hold any cabin that becomes available and to immediately contact you for payment. If you don’t have a PVP, call carnival and ask to speak to one. My PVP has been successful in getting me a cabin on sold out cruises before. They have access to real time availability that doesn’t always show up online. 

[vwrestler171]

The joys of online TAs.  They don't care.

[Honolulu Blue]

It's not going to help the OP, but on the charter cruises I've been on that have sold out, they offered a waitlist by category.  If someone drops out, they contact those on the list.  And there's sometimes a third-party market for cabins - Couple A can sell their spot on the ship to Couple B and the original charter company may or may not take a cut.

 

I thought Carnival had something like a waitlist in the past, but maybe I'm misremembering things.  That happens sometimes.  🙃

[ColeThornton]

7 hours ago, gotscrapz said:

I can't even get that cruise to pull up for me so I am guessing it is at max capacity. Since you have many other family members going, can you put each of the daughters in one of the cabins you have booked? One in your room and one in another? Assuming they have room?

Less than ideal but I don't think you have many options at this point. 

I would still keep calling to try to catch a cancellation... 

 

 

If the ship is at max capacity all the lifeboat slots are filled meaning no room to take any more passengers on the sailing.

[lazydayz]

Call Carnival and get on the waistline list.  And see if the cancelled cruisers can be added to the other cabins.  Then stalk the Carnival website everyday.  Good luck! 

[ColeThornton]

6 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Call Carnival and get on the waistline list.

 

 

Is that the list to get you in to the buffet?   😉

[mjkacmom]

Maybe an independent travel agent has cabins in a block? 

[mjkacmom]

8 hours ago, vwrestler171 said:

The joys of online TAs.  They don't care.

If there aren’t any available cabins (not surprising at this late date for a very popular time to cruise), what is the TA supposed to do?

[Purvis1231]

You said that you thought both rooms were paid so it seems you did not actually pay for both rooms. I too would be upset with the travel agent for not picking up the phone and calling before the due date. I suspect that you are out of luck for this cruise. I hope everyone learns a lesson from this. First, research the travel agent and make sure they have procedures in effect to prevent problems like this. Second, always know the due date and make sure you are handling the payments. I know in the past when I used a travel agent, I could not even call Carnival to ask a question much less have access to my cruise planner so this is why I decided ten years ago to go with a Carnival PVP..Third, set up a default payment that would automatically make the final payment if for whatever reason you fail to make it. Finally, use a reliable email. I have used the same email for my personal business for 25 years although I have at least a dozen other email addresses used for work and various other things.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Purvis1231

[teknoge3k]

9 hours ago, VIFP1987 said:

If you have a Carnival PVP, explain the situation to them, and ask them to monitor the cruise for you. Request that they hold any cabin that becomes available and to immediately contact you for payment. If you don’t have a PVP, call carnival and ask to speak to one. My PVP has been successful in getting me a cabin on sold out cruises before. They have access to real time availability that doesn’t always show up online. 

 

OP stated they used an online travel agency. If you use a travel agency of any sort, Carnival cannot work with you, legally. They are at the mercy of their travel agent/agency. This is one of the many many many reasons I would never use any sort of travel agent. 

[jsglow]

I really feel for you OP. As indicated above, when your husband accidentally failed to make Final Payment for the second room, that reservation was automatically canceled by Carnival. Obviously there was a communication breakdown between you and the TA.

 

I'd think 'waitlists' and 'continuous monitoring' of that upcoming cruise are the only way to go. And understand that if you are lucky enough to secure a new cabin, it will be at the prevailing price. Your original booking is long gone.

 

Good luck!

[jsglow]

4 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

 

OP stated they used an online travel agency. If you use a travel agency of any sort, Carnival cannot work with you, legally. They are at the mercy of their travel agent/agency. This is one of the many many many reasons I would never use any sort of travel agent. 

While it's true that they used a TA, anything going forward will be a NEW booking. The OP won't ever be getting that 'old' booking reinstated.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

34 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

 

OP stated they used an online travel agency. If you use a travel agency of any sort, Carnival cannot work with you, legally. They are at the mercy of their travel agent/agency. This is one of the many many many reasons I would never use any sort of travel agent. 

That booking was cancelled.  They can call Carnival directly for a new booking (which is what they need at this point).

[Pyxie]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

If there aren’t any available cabins (not surprising at this late date for a very popular time to cruise), what is the TA supposed to do?

 

What they mean is it is the online TAs fault that this even happened in the first place since the OP never got their notifications to make payment.

 

A good TA would have been reaching out to the OP any way they could to prevent the cancelation because the TA loses the sell too. I'm guessing this must have been a 3rd party cruise booking site and not an actual person.

[mjkacmom]

Just now, Pyxie said:

 

What they mean is it is the online TAs fault that this even happened in the first place since the OP never got their notifications to make payment.

 

A good TA would have been reaching out to the OP any way they could to prevent the cancelation because the TA loses the sell too. I'm guessing this must have been a 3rd party cruise booking site and not an actual person.

 I thought the canceled cabin’s reservation was booked with a now non working email, maybe the TA sent emails that were never received? I think the OP accepts the blame, thinking he/she paid in full for that reservation.

[Pyxie]

Just now, mjkacmom said:

 I thought the canceled cabin’s reservation was booked with a now non working email, maybe the TA sent emails that were never received? I think the OP accepts the blame, thinking he/she paid in full for that reservation.

 

I agree that part of the blame is on the OP, but a good agent would have been calling, texting, using whatever method they possibly could to get in touch with the customer before the final payment date. This is why I think it was either a terrible TA or it was one of these online 3rd party sites with no actual person monitoring anything.

[Haljo1935]

@jdkdkdsd many good tips for you here already. So, to circle directly back to your questions:

1) By "check back" your TA likely means for you to continually check Carnival site to see if there's an opening that comes up on that cruise

2) No, you cannot just show up on day of hoping to get on

Since your other booking is w/TA, Carnival will not make changes to that booking, so that won't add you guys, BUT they will answer basic questions about the cabin on that booking that can let you know what options you may have (ie how many people does it hold vs # booked in it & cost to add people). You would have to go through TA to act on the info you receive.

Also CALL & MONITOR CARNIVAL WEBSITE multiple times per day to see if anything opens up and be willing to take it. You may well get an inside cabin, but that is better than no cabin. And Carnival doesn't care where anyone sleeps once onboard, they'll even swap keys around for you, so don't fixate on what cabin you can get, just that you get one.

Don't think someone can just volunteer to stay home and someone else take their place - it doesn't work that way. You would have to call Carnival and ask to do a name change (cost somewhere around $100-$200) which likely your TA would have to handle.

I wish you luck and feel for you. Please keep us updated as many here are rooting for you.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[NewCruiser09/09]

Ya'll keep blaming the TA--OP for some reason gave an email that was now longer good for some reason and why didn't DH notice that the price was significantly cheaper??

[Joebucks]

Well this can't be true, I was told a TA can move the "sun and the moon" if something went wrong.

[AllgoodOnTheRoad]

Something is likely to come open, but you really would have to check carnival several times a day. You will not be the only person stalking this sailing. A PVP can sometimes help with this though. They got me a room on the Elation a few years back when the sailing appeared to be full. 

 

 

[jdkdkdsd]

Thank you all so much for your helpful suggestions! After a couple of calls to Carnival an available state room was found and booked 😃

I agree that both the online agent and ourselves were at fault.  I was under so much stress at the time of the booking my DH set it all up to take something off my plate.  Somehow his old Hotmail email was used for one of the cabins, maybe from when we booked directly with Carnival 15 years ago?  For our cruises the past 15 years we worked with a dear friend and travel agent, but she is no longer in the business. We were frustrated that the online agent did not use the correct phone number to alert us of the balance due.  It was on us for not putting the payment deadlines on our calendar and not noticing that the payment was half of what was expected.  Lesson definitely learned! We'll work directly with the cruise company or a TA that we can speak to for future cruises.

[Purvis1231]

5 minutes ago, jdkdkdsd said:

Thank you all so much for your helpful suggestions! After a couple of calls to Carnival an available state room was found and booked 😃

I agree that both the online agent and ourselves were at fault.  I was under so much stress at the time of the booking my DH set it all up to take something off my plate.  Somehow his old Hotmail email was used for one of the cabins, maybe from when we booked directly with Carnival 15 years ago?  For our cruises the past 15 years we worked with a dear friend and travel agent, but she is no longer in the business. We were frustrated that the online agent did not use the correct phone number to alert us of the balance due.  It was on us for not putting the payment deadlines on our calendar and not noticing that the payment was half of what was expected.  Lesson definitely learned! We'll work directly with the cruise company or a TA that we can speak to for future cruises.

Good news! 

[jsglow]

Fantastic news!

 

Truth be told I had reached out to my PVP to see if she could do anything.  Her response, 'There's literally no cabin available on my system.' This was maybe 2 hours ago.

Edited July 6, 2023 by jsglow