Love your videoes and advice. Last spring we took a 2 week Alaska cruise out of Vancouver Canada and we ran into one of my old workmates and he explained the standby program to me but what he did was he booked standby on our cruise and also went on the 1 week cruise before ours, he said as he was leaving the ship thinking noluck this time customer service got him before the gangway and offered him a last minute inside cabin. We ran in to him later that day not knowing he was on the same 2 week cruise as us now and got the whole story. He was very happy the way it turned out, a family did not make it and he recieved a large inside cabin. I know a 3 week cruise is not for everyon but for him, single and lots of time on his hands it worked out. I agree with all your solutions for standby cruises. what drives me nuts is a lot of low depositbooking ar taken up and never completed and are fully refunded when time comes to pay up, very hard to get good info !!
That is a cool story! Thanks for sharing, and for the kind words. I would never have considered the option of booking the cruise immediately after a cruise the one we were on.
Half the problem with Holland America is that they have outsourced most of their calls to a call center in the Philippines as opposed to when they were all answered in Seattle.
We have not experienced that, probably because we usually work through a travel agent and rarely call HAL directly. Heavy accents are difficult for us.
LOL. I think I'm pretty invisible to HAL. And if they did find this video they would probably rather shoot me than hire me. But thank you for the kind words. I'm going to continue to watch what they do with the program, but from a distance. No more standby for us.
Thanks! Watching the history of the program, I'm pretty sure they will continue to tweak it, but I'm not convinced they are willing to invest in the customer service changes they need to make.
@mytravelwindow3061 We are Booked on Eurodam 12/18/24 5 Day cruise and Standby on Eurodam B2B 12/23/24 7 Day cruise. At +5 weeks, there are a lot of higher Category Verandahs available. But, there are also a lot of lower Category Verandahs Booked as Guarantee and probably are over Booked. Will let you know if we get on the Standby cruise.
Love your videoes and advice. Last spring we took a 2 week Alaska cruise out of Vancouver Canada and we ran into one of my old workmates and he explained the standby program to me but what he did was he booked standby on our cruise and also went on the 1 week cruise before ours, he said as he was leaving the ship thinking noluck this time customer service got him before the gangway and offered him a last minute inside cabin. We ran in to him later that day not knowing he was on the same 2 week cruise as us now and got the whole story. He was very happy the way it turned out, a family did not make it and he recieved a large inside cabin. I know a 3 week cruise is not for everyon but for him, single and lots of time on his hands it worked out. I agree with all your solutions for standby cruises. what drives me nuts is a lot of low depositbooking ar taken up and never completed and are fully refunded when time comes to pay up, very hard to get good info !!
That is a cool story! Thanks for sharing, and for the kind words. I would never have considered the option of booking the cruise immediately after a cruise the one we were on.
I enjoyed your video and content. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to do.
Half the problem with Holland America is that they have outsourced most of their calls to a call center in the Philippines as opposed to when they were all answered in Seattle.
We have not experienced that, probably because we usually work through a travel agent and rarely call HAL directly. Heavy accents are difficult for us.
They should hire you!!
LOL. I think I'm pretty invisible to HAL. And if they did find this video they would probably rather shoot me than hire me. But thank you for the kind words.
I'm going to continue to watch what they do with the program, but from a distance. No more standby for us.
Hope HAL takes your recommendations, they are right on.
Thanks!
Watching the history of the program, I'm pretty sure they will continue to tweak it, but I'm not convinced they are willing to invest in the customer service changes they need to make.
@mytravelwindow3061 We are Booked on Eurodam 12/18/24 5 Day cruise and Standby on Eurodam B2B 12/23/24 7 Day cruise. At +5 weeks, there are a lot of higher Category Verandahs available. But, there are also a lot of lower Category Verandahs Booked as Guarantee and probably are over Booked. Will let you know if we get on the Standby cruise.
Well done
Thanks! I don't expect a huge audience for this video, but I really felt motivated to say this.