My wife and I are on the Wait list for Sapphoire princess sailing out of Sydney on 12/23/2004. Has anyone had experience with Wait Lists and what do you think the chances are of us getting onboard? We had to give $800 for the privilege of getting on this list. It is fully refundable if we don't get on. I guess this is a very popular cruise in that it goes over Christmas/New Years. Any comments appreciated.

Did they tell you what number you were waitlisted? If you are #20, i think you have a great chance. If you are number #460, I wouldn't be as confident.

Thanks for responding Theresa. I will try to find out what number I am on the list tomorrow. What cruise did you get on which had you on the waitList and what no. were you. I guess that a low number means that you tried to book just after it sold out.

We had a Christmas sailing that we had held and then let go and decided to go for it - we were very low on the waitlist and cleared within a few days.

I was reading on another board that this sailing has been sold out for awhile. If the list is long, you may not find out until final payment if you can clear.

Think about it this way: there is a date..what? two-three months out from the sailing at which final payments are due? That will probably be when that wait list will start to clear as people decide they aren't going to go after all and want all their money back.
I've been waitlisted in the past on NCL and this is exactly what happened both times. Good luck.

I just found out that I am 220 on the WaitList. The ship holds 2600. We are also down for all of the inside categories-categories E thru K. So....we will see.

Hi again Jay:
I posted yesterday on another of your postings. I don't know where you are getting your info on a sold out ship, but my one source www.icruise.com shows many categories still available. Even a great looking deal for this 14 day cruise-- Cat. J $1611.

Have you checked other sources? I see you already paid $800. for the privilege of getting on the wait list.

Maybe you had better look around a little more.

Good luck!!

Some lines put you higher on the list based on how much $$ you put down....If you REALLY want to get on, you may want to ask if you can put more down and expand to other categories...Also make note of the final payment date (usually about 90-60 days prior, maybe sooner if a holiday) Most will cancel right before that date to avoid penalties. Good Luck !!

Thanks for the tip Cruiser. Although I don't believe there is anything out there in my price range, I will check out cat J at $1611 and i would guess that is plus tax/port charges of arounf $330. For a JJ category I got 1,848 pp
including tax. But, what does that mean, since I am on WaitList.

Cruiser...........

I took your advice and called i-cruise.com and they apparently prebought a block/group of cabins and did indeed have a J category available. Although the price was right in line with the others the air part of the package was off. The salesguy quoted me RT air of $1729 out of Los Angeles. That is way off the mark, however, because the other two agencies i called quoted $1464 including tax. i even called Princess to verify air price as part of package and thay stated $1,399 + tax = $1461 per person as part of the cruise package. Is i-cruise trying to put one over on me or did the guy make an honest mistake? Because they are located in New York, they were closed for the day when i tried to get back to the sales rep. I left a message on his machine and e-mailed him that wwe wanted to book it with them pending adjustment or reconfiguring of the air portion. What do you think of that? What do you know about them, if anything? Appreciate any comments.

Jay:
I have never used i.cruise but I have read others on these boards using them.
I have used CruisesOnly for dozens of my cruises and they have ALWAYS be reputable. Try www.mytravelco.com

It sounds as if you have been dealing with Princess--are you going with the brochure prices or their website maybe??

These other sites do take over large blocks of cabins. That is why as you get closer to the final payment, people start to cancel without penalty and cabins will open up. Of course you can keep your waitlisted cabin, too, if you wish.

Another suggestion--try to get airfare on your own...many times it will be cheaper than the cruise line air.

Keep posting and researching. It will be worth it to save some money.

Another travel forum I enjoy and get lots of info from is www.cruisecrtics.com

Jay:
I have never used i.cruise but I have read others on these boards using them.
I have used CruisesOnly for dozens of my cruises and they have ALWAYS be reputable. Try www.mytravelco.com

It sounds as if you have been dealing with Princess--are you going with the brochure prices or their website maybe??

These other sites do take over large blocks of cabins. That is why as you get closer to the final payment, people start to cancel without penalty and cabins will open up. Of course you can keep your waitlisted cabin, too, if you wish.

Another suggestion--try to get airfare on your own...many times it will be cheaper than the cruise line air.

Keep posting and researching. It will be worth it to save some money.

Another travel forum I enjoy and get lots of info from is www.cruisecritics.com

Sorry about the double post. I went in to change an error and it got posted anyway.

www.cruisecritics.com For lots of information and cruisers with lots of experience. And it is a lot of fun getting together on line.