SittingDuck

Where are you seeing the $79 Verandah pricing?

I don't think it was malicious... just not very well thought out. Lack of communication in companies nowadays is rampant...just call nearly any CSR. When the whole program was rolled out late last year, Dan Rough, VP of Revenue Mgt at HAL told a leading travel magazine, "We see Holland America Line’s Standby Program as a win-win for guests and our business. Circumstances may arise for booked guests where they have to cancel a cruise the week before sailing. The Standby Program allows us to fill those cabins with people who have already committed to going and who presumably live close enough to the port that they can make last-minute travel arrangements." (emphasis mine) The bean counters probably brought the idea to management with the notion of approx. a week's notice before departure and that notion got chiseled into stone and here we are. HAL certainly hasn't lost me as a customer or shareholder, but excellence in customer service requires quick response to problems or miscommunication and in this case there was a fumble. 🙂

I think the whole gist of this thread is not how close you live to the port, how old or young you may be, how you were notified or anything thing else. It was how HAL presented the Standby program. It was clearly stated in the original T&C (which has now been modified but still contains the 7 day nonsense) as an approx. 7 day notice. Someone in corporate decided to headline the "approx. 7 day thing" and it just wasn't being honest with their customers. IMO. If HAL had said from the beginning you may be notified up until 90 minutes to departure we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation. If you can handle up to "Day of Departure" notice, that's wonderful and I honestly hope you get to go a great HAL cruise. 🙂

Dadgummit. We were hoping someone would make it. 😞

So, did you get to go? 🙂 We hope so! 🙂

True for airlines. If HAL had 4 cruises on the same day and you had a confirmation on the last cruise of the day headed for the same itinerary, and you could "hang out" at the cruise terminal hoping to grab an available cabin on an earlier cruise...it would be like a "once upon a time" standby scenario. :-)

We got an email from HAL stating that our cruise was cancelled and it showed we still owed all the money. We called back and were told we would be getting a full refund. In reality...the only thing we know is we are not going on a cruise. Buyer beware.

Please don't interpret what HAL did with us as what any other customer can or should expect. I have never experienced a situation with a company who's guidelines were as chaotic and contradictory as I have with this Standby program.

Nope, no cruise for us. 😞 HAL cancelled our cruise. We were told to expect our refund in 7-10 days. We didn't ask if that was calendar days or business days because, well, did they mean solar days, lunar days, 24 hr periods based on EST or PST, etc. We learned our lesson. 🙂

In the midst of this debacle...I would like to take a moment to recognize a person from HAL's reservations team; Her name is Erin. She was extremely friendly, went out of her way to help resolve our issue and hung with me as she called every department she could to try to get to the bottom of the Standby mess. Even though we made no progress towards a resolution...you were a champ! Thank you, Erin! I hope management recognizes what a jewel of an employee you are!

I just spent an hour on the phone with HAL and finally with a resolution team member (Georgio in Resolutions) and I was just told we would know for sure by 24 hours prior to check-in (12:00 EST) if we made the list or not. The ship sails out of Ft. Lauderdale Friday. Check-in is noon. When I pinned him down to make sure what he said was we would receive a go/nogo email by noon tomorrow, EST....he changed it to close of business at HAL offices in Seattle (7PM PST). No kidding....he really did that. 🤬 So, we have been assured by HAL that we should expect the official email NLT 10PM tomorrow night...for a cruise that leaves the next morning. In the course of our conversation he changed it from 24 hours to 14 hours. When I told him it was iffy to make it in 14 hours (we would have to drive all night) he was quick to tell me I was on the hook for all charges if I didn't make it. I felt that was the only part of the program that he was sure about. He really could have cared less. 🤬

Same cruise. We just finished "chatting" with HAL and they told us we would be notified 1 day before sailing. 😞 So, "Notification approx. 7 days before sailing" in our contract magically morphed into "1 day before sailing" which was whittled to "90 minutes before sailing" and now has further decayed to "You are expected to be in the parking lot". Really, really disappointing. 😞

@publicpersona... After reading this entire thread several times...I think we are looking at a 48hr notice, at best. Doable for us, but not "approx. 7 days" as advertised. I think that is really poor business judgement on the part of HAL. I would have still signed up if the notification had been 48hrs, go or no/go... but the stress of waiting to hear at "approx. 7 days" is unnecessary. 🙂 We will need a cruise after this. 🙂

We signed up STANDBY on Jan. 4 for a HAL cruise departing Friday, Jan. 26. We were told we would be notified approx. 7 days before departure. I will update this post as we draw nearer to the departure date and when and how we are notified of our go-no go status. 🙂 Also, if we don't get to go...how long it takes to get our refund. 🙂 Today is 8 days till departure.