Any tips or insights when on a Cunard waitlist?

[frankp01]

We're on a waiting list for the QV Panama Canal transit in January 2023. That's one of the segments of QV's world cruise.

 

Does anyone who's been on a Cunard waiting list have any tips or insights? I have to assume that sometime in the next year there will be cancellations. But will we have to wait until the final payment deadline to find out how many reservations have dropped out? Is there a way to see what our chances are of getting aboard? I'm pretty confident we'll be on the trip, but the waiting until we're confirmed is going to be excruciating.

[RJChatsworth]

Be wary about waitlists,  Twice in the last month we have been on upgrade waitlists for two different cruises.  On both occasions upgraded cabins came up on the Cunard website so we moved quickly and rebooked into them.  On neither occasion were we informed by Cunard.  In the case of the first I understand we jumped from 14th place on the waitlist and we were concerned this was unfair to others higher up the waitlist.  I asked how this could happen and was told it shouldn’t but it did twice.  The message is keep checking the Cunard website.  I was doing it about three times a day.

[frankp01]

2 minutes ago, RJChatsworth said:

The message is keep checking the Cunard website.

Yeah, I've been doing that. But mostly out of shear impatience and thinking, maybe, one time cabins will have magically become available. I guess I need to keep checking and to jump on our travel agent if I see something's come open. Is there actually a place where one can see where one stands on a wait list?

[Host Hattie]

Same here, I was supposed to on the wait list but noticed cabins available in the grade we wanted so rang to change.

[RJChatsworth]

frankp01 - I don’t believe there is anyway of finding out where you are on the waitlist.  I deal directly with Cunard and sometimes there seems to be a reluctance by agents to tell you even though the information must be readily available to them.  I don’t know why there is a certain secrecy about it as no data protection rules can be in jeopardy.  All I can suggest is that they are worried about objectionable people ringing up daily just to ask where they are on the list or to bombard customer services with unbelievable complaints of some kind.

[frankp01]

An interesting development... I revisited the Cunard website right after I posted my inquiry here. Sure enough, there are now balcony cabins available for my intended voyage. I've shot off an email to our travel agent asking him to jump on one of them.

[frankp01]

I wonder if posting my question here about waitlists was just the push our mojo needed to make a cabin magically appear. Our travel agent says that wait lists are supposed to clear automatically. But he said there was, in fact, one guarantee balcony cabin available, which he's booked for us. woohoo!

[RJChatsworth]

What is an ‘undeposited reservation’ please?  It sounds like a luxury we don’t enjoy in the UK as the deposit is paid to confirm the booking at the time the booking is made.  If you mean at the time the final payment is made, who wants to wait perhaps several months before knowing whether you are to be offered anything on the waitlist?  I wouldn’t want to be in limbo for so long which might muck up other holidays being planned!

[TouchstoneFeste]

19 hours ago, kohl1957 said:

So, yes... the booking policies are all over the shop. In the U.S., if you book with a travel agent, you have 7 days to pay your deposit to make it a "real" reservation. After that, if you don't pay the deposit, what you reserved is gone and put back into general avail.   I think if you book direct, they want their money upfront.  Maybe in the U.S. or U.K. or... why in Canada.  

 

We booked by phone from the US - wow, a couple years ago now, what with cancellations and all - and we had to pony up the deposit during the call.

 

[frankp01]

19 hours ago, kohl1957 said:

In the U.S., if you book with a travel agent, you have 7 days to pay your deposit to make it a "real" reservation.

That was our experience. The agent had placed a 'Courtesy Hold' on the one remaining cabin, while he waited for our confirmation to go ahead and book it. I'm not sure we had 7 days, however. The Courtesy Reservation was made 1/11 and we had until 1/16 to pay the deposit. From the booking document:

 

Deposit of 1,715.00 is due by January 16, 2022 . If the deposit due date falls on a weekend, booking will not cancel until the next business day. Total Amount Received: 0.00 . Final payment is due by September 22, 2022 .

[Neuhoftraveler]

On 1/11/2022 at 3:45 PM, kohl1957 said:

the accessible QG suites on QM2.  If you don't need it, those are pretty dismal. 

Mr/Ms Kohl, may I ask you to elaborate on this?  I do need accessible facilties, and we are booked in an accessible QG suite for a Fall 2022 QM roundtrip crossing.  We have previously been in a regular Q5 (I think it was).  I'm aware the closet space is a bit more limited, but what else do you think makes them "pretty dismal"?

Edited January 13, 2022 by Neuhoftraveler

[RJChatsworth]

We were upgraded from a PG cabin to an accessible QG cabin. The bathroom area was huge, some cupboards were at low level, there were emergency pull switches everywhere I was afraid of pulling and a ramp on to the balcony which pushed the furniture up one end.  If you don’t require an accessible cabin it wasn’t very attractive.

 

We were upgraded about two weeks before sailing.  I wasn’t very happy about this because I felt I was occupying a cabin others might have required with a late booking.  The response was that generally disabled passengers didn’t want accessible cabins!

[Electra 7]

On 1/11/2022 at 4:34 PM, frankp01 said:

We're on a waiting list for the QV Panama Canal transit in January 2023. That's one of the segments of QV's world cruise.

 

Does anyone who's been on a Cunard waiting list have any tips or insights? I have to assume that sometime in the next year there will be cancellations. But will we have to wait until the final payment deadline to find out how many reservations have dropped out? Is there a way to see what our chances are of getting aboard? I'm pretty confident we'll be on the trip, but the waiting until we're confirmed is going to be excruciating.

In my experience your best bet is to keep looking at Cunard website yourself as I was on a waitlist for October they never contacted me to say there had been a cancellation however I just happened to notice a cabin on the cruise I wanted so booked it straight away myself

[frankp01]

Thanks. We did discover on our own that a cabin had become available.

[Electra 7]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:52 PM, frankp01 said:

Thanks. We did discover on our own that a cabin had become available.

I am so glad that you got a cabin we loved Panama Canal hope you enjoy 

[3rdGenCunarder]

On 1/14/2022 at 2:12 PM, Electra 7 said:

In my experience your best bet is to keep looking at Cunard website yourself as I was on a waitlist for October they never contacted me to say there had been a cancellation however I just happened to notice a cabin on the cruise I wanted so booked it straight away myself

 

I agree, just keep checking. I checked my Alaska cruise every day for a few weeks, and when a PG cabin became available, I grabbed it. A nice splurge to make up for deciding to cancel QM2 in Feb.