What does "waitlist" mean under availability?

[pinotlover]

I have been on cruises we’re certain categories waitlist the day the cruise opens for sale and those categories never open up. The categories are often PH and above on popular cruises O runs only once or twice a year.

 

In fact, some of those categories are filled with pre-sales allocated out to top TA and even those bookings on Day 1 are waitlisted and never clear. Certainly not all, or even a majority, of cruises are this way but it is a misnomer to say waitlists always clear.

 

In fact, I can recall cruises that Oceania stopped advertising and took off the cruise view list because it was so oversubscribed. Paulchili will remember a cruise we were on in the days when O was foolishly selling Guarantees where they had to pay people more than the price of their cabins to get them off the ship so to fill the Guarantees. The entire ship was waitlisted about 15 months pre-cruise and the cancellations were few. Different cruises yield different results on waitlists. 

[ropomo]

Our upcoming cruise on Regatta 10/14/19 as of today, less than a week out, has every category waitlisted except D - Oceanview and F - Inside which are shown as available.

[Essiesmom]

So I will open the eternal can of worms as ask about upgrades, or 'what do they do with those who are waitlisted...' .?  When I booked, all categories of OV were available, as well as F insides.  G insides were waitlisted.  As an aside, the max number of cabins in any category displayed was 7.  Does this mean that only 7 were available?  Or is thre a way to find out if there are more available?  I get that if they show less than 7, that's all there is.

   Anyway, back to yield management.  When it comes closer to sailing do they start allocating those G waitlisted to the empty F cabins, and then to the E obstructed OV, D - OV, etc.?  Or do they upgrade an F to an E so they can slot a G waitlist into that F?  Or do they contact the F cabins and offer an upsell to an E, D, C...?  I looked at the E cabins, but when I realized they were smaller than insides, I went for the F.  Would not want to be upgraded to E...  Just trying to understand...EM

[ORV]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

So I will open the eternal can of worms as ask about upgrades, or 'what do they do with those who are waitlisted...' .?  When I booked, all categories of OV were available, as well as F insides.  G insides were waitlisted.  As an aside, the max number of cabins in any category displayed was 7.  Does this mean that only 7 were available?  Or is thre a way to find out if there are more available?  I get that if they show less than 7, that's all there is.

   Anyway, back to yield management.  When it comes closer to sailing do they start allocating those G waitlisted to the empty F cabins, and then to the E obstructed OV, D - OV, etc.?  Or do they upgrade an F to an E so they can slot a G waitlist into that F?  Or do they contact the F cabins and offer an upsell to an E, D, C...?  I looked at the E cabins, but when I realized they were smaller than insides, I went for the F.  Would not want to be upgraded to E...  Just trying to understand...EM

Probably yes to all of the above. They do what they need to do to sail the ship as full as possible at the best price they can get. One of the ways they do that is to keep the entry level rooms open, meanwhile getting the people there to upsell to a higher empty room at a better rate than they could have got if booking that level originally. 

 

Then again, as others have stated if it's a cruise that is selling well then there will be no deals to be had. 

 

I was looking at a sailing for the summer of 2021 that is completely waitlisted and I doubt it will open up. Edinburgh to Reykjavik, which you don't see real often. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

So I will open the eternal can of worms as ask about upgrades, or 'what do they do with those who are waitlisted...' .?  When I booked, all categories of OV were available, as well as F insides.  G insides were waitlisted.  As an aside, the max number of cabins in any category displayed was 7.  Does this mean that only 7 were available?  Or is thre a way to find out if there are more available?  I get that if they show less than 7, that's all there is.

   Anyway, back to yield management.  When it comes closer to sailing do they start allocating those G waitlisted to the empty F cabins, and then to the E obstructed OV, D - OV, etc.?  Or do they upgrade an F to an E so they can slot a G waitlist into that F?  Or do they contact the F cabins and offer an upsell to an E, D, C...?  I looked at the E cabins, but when I realized they were smaller than insides, I went for the F.  Would not want to be upgraded to E...  Just trying to understand...EM

I do not think  they would upgrade from an inside to an E  they will put entertainment members  in those before taking revenue cabins for them

I agree with ORV 

The revenue dept along with the upgrade fairy are mysterious creatures & one can never tell how they work 😉

 

I believe  the 7 cabins shown are due to the program most line use  where  they only show  7 there may be a lot more available

JMO

[arima22]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

So I will open the eternal can of worms as ask about upgrades, or 'what do they do with those who are waitlisted...' .?  When I booked, all categories of OV were available, as well as F insides.  G insides were waitlisted.  As an aside, the max number of cabins in any category displayed was 7.  Does this mean that only 7 were available?  Or is thre a way to find out if there are more available?  I get that if they show less than 7, that's all there is.

   Anyway, back to yield management.  When it comes closer to sailing do they start allocating those G waitlisted to the empty F cabins, and then to the E obstructed OV, D - OV, etc.?  Or do they upgrade an F to an E so they can slot a G waitlist into that F?  Or do they contact the F cabins and offer an upsell to an E, D, C...?  I looked at the E cabins, but when I realized they were smaller than insides, I went for the F.  Would not want to be upgraded to E...  Just trying to understand...EM

There used to be a way to see all cabins that were open for the stateroom class, but it has not been working since about May 2019.  The function button is still present- "View All" - clicking on that button would change the 7 rooms listed, and by continued clicking you could work through the entire availability for that stateroom class.  Now you have to call an agent.  The stateroom number "suite search" is also not working.

[clo]

10 hours ago, ORV said:

Then again, as others have stated if it's a cruise that is selling well then there will be no deals to be had. 

 

I just booked a cruise, Stockholm to Amsterdam, 9/20, that my trusted O rep says is 59% booked.  So although most of the cabins show as available I'm guessing it will fill up.  I haven't looked but I'm guessing this isn't a cruise with tons of departures.

[Shawnino]

10 hours ago, clo said:

I just booked a cruise, Stockholm to Amsterdam, 9/20, that my trusted O rep says is 59% booked.  So although most of the cabins show as available I'm guessing it will fill up.  I haven't looked but I'm guessing this isn't a cruise with tons of departures.

 

I'm on this one--not sure if it'll fill. Kind of a 'typical' Baltic itinerary (Helsinki, 2x overnight in Leningrad, Warnemunde, Copenhagen etc.) with a few days strapped on the end down to Amsterdam via Oslo. Other than the last few days, price-conscious cruisers can find a hundred ways to do it less expensively, and people who want more daylight won't be joining us in September. 

[pinotlover]

Clo;

 

You’re far braver than I! To lazy to search this morning, but there is a great photo posted here from 4-5 years ago from an Oceania group in St. Petersburg in late September. It was at Peter’s Hof and the Group was bundled in winter coats and hoods with a caption:

 

30 degrees, 30 mph winds, heavy snow 

Maybe we should have come earlier!

 

As Lyn can relate from her experience this year on a very early Trans-Atlantic, pushing the envelopes of the seasons isn’t always rewarding! Best of Luck!

[clo]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

30 degrees, 30 mph winds, heavy snowI 

I don't mind the temp and could tolerate the snow/wind since we used to live at Tahoe.  But here's this year and historically it's mid50s high and mid40s low.

 

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/saint-petersburg/295212/september-weather/295212

 

But I agree that if one's not used to real weather then it could be a tad nasty 🙂

[Jancruz]

On 10/5/2019 at 4:03 PM, Mary229 said:

My theory is that the big tour companies and charters “buy” up blocks that they later release.  Probably a sweetheart deal that has to be relinquished well before the final payment date.    Except for the biggest suites I have always seen the waitlist disappear sometime around 9 months out  

Not true..no one can buy up anything

Jancruz1

[ropomo]

3 hours ago, Jancruz said:

Not true..no one can buy up anything

Jancruz1

 

Not necessarily, I just received an alumni cruise offer on O.  They promoted the cruise with the standard list of cabins and prices, etc.  There was a booking deadline well before the cruise date.  I would imagine there is the possibility for a group such as this to hold a block of each category until the "book by" date, at which point the unbooked cabins would be released.  The alumni rates were not competitive with the O published fare and there is probably incentive for both the group and O to sell these cabins at the group rate.  So, in effect, the group is "buying" up the capacity and then releasing the unsold portion after the "book by" date.

[clo]

15 minutes ago, ropomo said:

 

Not necessarily, I just received an alumni cruise offer on O.  They promoted the cruise with the standard list of cabins and prices, etc.  There was a booking deadline well before the cruise date.  I would imagine there is the possibility for a group such as this to hold a block of each category until the "book by" date, at which point the unbooked cabins would be released.  The alumni rates were not competitive with the O published fare and there is probably incentive for both the group and O to sell these cabins at the group rate.  So, in effect, the group is "buying" up the capacity and then releasing the unsold portion after the "book by" date.

I don't know about cruises but when I worked for QANTAS a lifetime or two ago, I was familiar with our business and convention department.  Tour operators would work with hotels, airlines and others and block space for certain 'events.'  It's been so long that I don't remember the details but certainly space was held for some period of time.  I'd be surprised if cruise lines were any different.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, ropomo said:

 

Not necessarily, I just received an alumni cruise offer on O.  They promoted the cruise with the standard list of cabins and prices, etc.  There was a booking deadline well before the cruise date.  I would imagine there is the possibility for a group such as this to hold a block of each category until the "book by" date, at which point the unbooked cabins would be released.  The alumni rates were not competitive with the O published fare and there is probably incentive for both the group and O to sell these cabins at the group rate.  So, in effect, the group is "buying" up the capacity and then releasing the unsold portion after the "book by" date.

Do they offer specific cabins  or just  categories?

If just cat  they are not buying anything  just holding  a certain number of cabins in the specific  categories  until  a certain date   when they go back to the inventory

 

Is the Book By  date  before the normal final payment date  or after?

[clo]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Do they offer specific cabins  or just  categories?

If just cat  they are not buying anything  just holding  a certain number of cabins in the specific  categories  until  a certain date   when they go back to the inventory

 

Is the Book By  date  before the normal final payment date  or after?

But don't they pay a 'deposit' to hold the space?

[pinotlover]

Having sailed with one of those groups, the “ deal” is in the negotiated commission  schedule. How the Agency organizing the cruise utilizes those funds is up to them. The Agent works as a regular TA. They book the cabin, take the deposit, and do everything a regular TA does. They supply their own list of perks and in some cases private shore excursions not available to regular guests. Different Groups have different cut off dates which meets their needs. They aren’t promised a certain block, but compete with all other Agencies for the cabins available.