Balcony waitlist on PG

[mtd100]

Has anyone ever been waitlisted for a balcony suite and actually been moved up before the cruise? We just booked for the 3-8-08 cruise on the PG, and for now have a room with a picture window. We are locked into this week, as it is during spring break and we are taking our teenage son. We recently returned from the Alaska cruise, and we really enjoyed the balcony, and would like to be able to have one for this cruise also.

 

Thanks

[karen2cruz]

As we have recently booked this ship as well, been doing a lot of research. Seems like I remember that there arent alot of cancellations for these cruises and you just might have to "settle" for that oceanview. Good luck and I hope you get that balcony. We sure love balconys too!

 

Post a review and let us know how you like the cruise, as we are not familiar with Regent cruises.

[mtd100]

We really enjoyed our experience with Regent in Alaska; enough so that we have been home only a few weeks and are already booking another cruise with them. Our only other experience with cruises was with Carnival, and after that experience, we stopped taking cruises for eight years. I am positive, balcony or not, we will have a wonderful time. We are going to get certified for scuba diving before we leave, and today I bought three new swimsuits for the trip. I also figure the money I save on not having a balcony, I can spend on pearls, so for me it is a win-win situation.

[karen2cruz]

We are divers too. My husband has over 100! Im only up to 25. We look forward to diving on this cruise.

[LovinDivin]

We were on the PG last year at this time in a stateroom without a balcony and we had the trip of a life time. We were traveling with 3 other couples, and honestly, did not miss the balcony (and we love our balcony's)! We wanted to be on deck with our friends all of the time. If we had been traveling alone, I for sure would have had a balcony. We loved the trip so much we are taking our 3 children and their spouses back in May 2008. We have been diving for many years and did every dive offered on the PG. The PG dive masters are wonderful. And the ease of diving off the PG will spoil you! Our children all dive, so this time we will fill an entire zodiac....can't wait!

[tgh]

See my comments here :

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=509724

 

For us cellar dwellers it is Caveat Emptor..

 

Only a few weeks to go now .. maybe maybe .. hope springs eternal...

[mtd100]

tgh:

 

When I made the reservations with Regent directly (spoke with Ember) there were cabins available in class D, E, or the owners suite, and I was told I could wait list for a balcony. Because I had read your previous posting before I called, I specifically asked if people were moved up the list up according to their cabin category and was told the move was based on the numerical order of the request, not the cabin category. I was also told that there was a good chance that we could get a balcony because the cruise was more than 200 days away; which was probably telling me what I wanted to hear. Based on that information, I booked a category E cabin because I liked the location of the cabin better than what was available in category D. When I called back to pay my deposit (spoke with someone different), I was told that there was no way to know what number you were on the waitlist, but that again, there was a good chance we would get a balcony (again telling me what I wanted to hear).

 

I called Regent again today to double check how the waitlist worked and spoke to Maureen. She told me that the agents were kept in the dark about how the list works, and they didn’t know if it was based on category or numerical order. She said the agents received emails from inventory and then they contacted the client who was given 72 hours to make a decision about the upgrade; but there were not many cancellations on the PG, it was hard to get a balcony, but every once in a while people did move up. She also said that the price for the balcony would be based on the published price and it would sell for what was listed on the web today.

 

After numerous phone calls, I can only conclude that there is a lot of conflicting information given out by Regent regarding the waitlist, and that somehow my chance of getting a balcony decreased after I paid my deposit.

But the good news is that window or balcony, I am sure we will have a great time after reading all the postings of everyone's wonderful trips, and the bad news is I have to wait until March.

[traveller333]

mtd100, I agree that you will have a fantastic time with or without the balcony but hope you clear the waitlist.

 

If you don't mind me asking, why would you book directly with Regent when there are top travel agents who do such large volume of Regent cruises and may likely have a better chance of getting you a balcony (and probably at a better price)?

It sounds like you're making so many phone calls to Regent with conflicting answers. I think the people you're talking to are more like "order takers" and not really very knowledgeable about Regent. (JMO)

 

I too have gotten such mixed answers when I've called Regent with simple questions.

[mtd100]

With the internet, and the ability to price shop and do research, I have gotten used to doing all the planning and making my own reservations for all of our vacations; it is something I enjoy doing, and I tend to be the typical type A personality so it works well for us. Also, we don't have a TA that we normally do business with.

 

When we originally made reservations for the Alaska cruise last spring, we started with a TA that my husband found on the internet, but they seemed to always have to call regent for any answer to any question, and we spent days playing phone tag. It didn't seem to be a very effective way to do things, so we had the booking moved to regent and it worked fine for the trip. Plus, I made all the pre, post, and airline reservations, so besides for giving us a cabin number there wasn't much contact with them.

 

Because it went smooth last time, we used them again for this cruise. this time we are having them handle the whole package; air and pre-cruise stay. There was only a $100 difference in their air rate and the orbitz/Kayak/expedia rate and I figured it would cost us that much in transfers, so it seemed like a good deal. But, getting conflicting answers to questions doesn't give me much confidence in them, especially when they are handling all of our arrangements.

 

If you know of a good TA, and wouldn't mind sharing, please let me know and I will forward my email address. We may change things up for the next cruise.

[micked10@earthlink.net]

I am like you and a very type A personality and also love to research and plan our trips. This time ( trip to Tahiti on PG) we were busy with many things in our life so I decided to use a TA. After reading many posts and doing some research I found one that I really love. We booked about 8 months ago for a Sept. 1st cruise ( can't wait, it is finally within sight). Our TA is not local ( we live in the Midwest) but she has been so helpful and has been able to grant all of our requests and answer all of my many questions about shore excursions, what to do, etc. etc. She is always extremely pleasant and knowledgeable. Returns phone calls or e-mails immediatley ( being the impatient person I am this is so wonderful not having to wait days for an answer!) Everything has gone extremely smoothly. If you would like her name and e-mail please e-mail me at micked10@embarqmail.com. After comparing prices with several internet sights our total price was almost the same as doing everything myself.

[tgh]

Thanks mtd100 .. nice to hear other angles.

 

TA's in Australia have gone from full service to no service.

 

If there was a ta here offering quality service with a requirement that we contribute to the cost of service to make up for the disappearing commissions .. I would pay.

 

Amex travel service in Australia used to PAY their consultants, who did not receive commissions for selling. We had a relationship with a wise old hand and had some fantstic well organised adventures over the years.

 

We are now dealing with bright bushy tailed kids who try , but are poorly trained and rely on volume booking to make their wages , hence we get all sorts of garbled communications and precious little real service.

[petlover]

mtd100, I may be able to offer some suggestions so you're free to email me at marciematassa@roadrunner.com

[twa1011]

We are living proof that moving up to a balcony from the waitlist is possible. We booked our tickets at the end of March 2007 for the August 22, 2007 cruise. We were originally on Deck 4 because no balcony cabins were available. Five weeks later a balcony cabin opened up on Deck 7, and we took it. We booked through a TA, and have been very happy with the service and the discounted price. We were told that the closer to the time of the cruise, the more likely it is a balcony will become available due to various reasons including that more and more of the ticket price becomes non-refundable. A balcony cabin opened up in our case; hopefully it will in yours, too.