AYWD not always available in 2009

I was under the impression that As You Wish Dining would be available on all ships by the summer of 2008. We just booked the Westerdam for 15 Feb 2009 and were told by our TA and a HAL representative that AYWD will not be available and that only Late dining is available and they have closed the wait list for early dining. What the heck is going on - we book a year early and can't even waitlist for early dining and they don't have AYWD????? Does this mean that we may have a large group of some sort on board with us that has the entire dining room booked for early dining??? Wonder how we find out??:confused:

Just looked at your sailing on HAL's site and it seems that virtually all of the verandahs and suites are already closed and, indeed, open seating is not an option. Not offered, not closed, not waitlisted. So ... I would surmise something is going on! If indeed you determine there is a large group onboard and you would rather not deal with that, seems it's far enough out that you might be able to select a different ship, sailing date, or itinerary. I know, it's a pain in the proverbial to change your plans, but you might be more comfortable in doing so. I've understood from these boards that occasionally large groups get preferential use of ship spaces that normally would be available to all passengers.

That is weird. It's awfully early for both to be closed.

I went to the HAL site and checked your date and others around it. On your sailing, 13 categories are closed. On the Westerdam 2/8 sailing, there are only 5 categories closed. Same with the W sailing on 2/22.

I wondered if because it's around Valentine's Day that possibly the ship might book quicker...so I checked the Eurodam sailing on 2/14 and it only has 5 categories closed.

I don't know for sure, this is just a guess, but I'd bet there's a large group on your sailing. Or it could be that a lot of people just wanted to do the itinerary...hard to say. Maybe your TA can get HAL to tell them if there is a large group. If there is a group that large, I'd want to know. They may not tell your TA, but if it is a group...that's a lot of people.

I did a google search but didn't find anything. If it is a group, you'd think something would pop up.

I also checked the HAL site and it said the Westerdam AYWD will start on 2/24/08.

Double post.

Poked around again on HAL's site ... it appears that HAL is marketing a 14-day Western and Southern on the Westerdam sailing February 15. For the 14-day itinerary, ALL suites and verandahs are already closed, including the penthouse. And the only available dining is waitlist for main upper seating.

So, indeed, something is on the horizon for that Westerdam sailing ... perhaps your travel agent can pull in some favors and find out what's going on so as not to disappoint you, her client, with a less than wonderful experience.

This is strange...I try to edit my post, and it deletes. Then it reappears. Hmmm...

Definitely weird that the OP's 7-day shows so many categories closed, the 7-day sailing on February 22 shows many open categories AND open seating ... but the 14-day itinerary combining both of those itineraries shows virtually all suites and verandahs closed, and no open seating option, as with the Feb 15 sailing.

Something is going on on your cruise.

I checked HAL's website for the Westerdam 2/8/09 and 2/22/09 sailings and on both of these they list the 5 options. On yours, they only list 4. Once they implemented the AYWD, they have the following options:

Early Upper

Early Lower

Main Upper

Main Lower

Open Seating

It's my understanding that Early Lower and Main Lower are the AYWD and on the websites, they say "closed." The Open Seating is the AYWD.

On your cruise, the "open seating" is missing. So there's something going on and I think you should be able to find out what's going on.

We get a call from our TA today that she had gotten a call from HAL that we had been bumped from this cruise beceaus of a charter. This was going to a B2B for us so now is we pick the next sailing we are stuck since the sailing on the next B2B is the same as the first which is not what we wanted. Only good news is that we will get some on board credit and since we signed up for this during a special for downpayments we can transfer our $100 deposit to the new cruise - just a pain in the but. This was over a year out when we signed on???

Guess we will just plan for 10+ cruises in the future since they don't seem to get with the charters as much.

When I first started to read this thread, the first thing that popped into my mind was that there was going to be a large group on your cruise.

Have you tried to "Google" to see what group is on the Westerdam at that tome?

My instinct was that this was a large group. Given how quickly cabin space was being sold, I speculated it was going to turn into a charter and it did.

This is from HAL's orginal press release on the topic of open seating:

Once implemented, will AYWD always be available?

Generally speaking, AYWD will be available, upon implementation. However, from time to time, Holland America may need to revert to the former traditional four seating dining to accommodate some voyages that have very large groups.

I know this happened on the Noordam over Mother's Day where the large group, otherwise anonymous, was accommodated in Open Seating.