In February, Barb McGowan took a seven-day cruise with Holland America Line, visiting the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Dominican Republic for just $343, or $49 per day, excluding taxes, port fees, and extras. For comparison, Holland America is currently offering a seven-day Caribbean trip in October starting at about $700.
The catch: She only had 48 hours’ notice.
Ms. McGown, a 64-year-old from Naples, Fla., who runs a restaurant franchise, took certainly one of the road’s recent restaurants Standby cruisesthat are geared toward travelers who live near departure ports and are intended to fill vacant ship positions.
“I look for deals and this was a particularly good experience,” Ms. McGowan said, praising the food and entertainment. “I was so impressed that I put a deposit down on a future cruise.”
A option to keep the ships full
Holland America launched its standby program last August to maximise ship utilization, knowing cancellations were inevitable. So far, the remaining of the cruise industry has not followed suit.
“If cancellations occur within a week or two of departure, it is difficult to resell that space on the open market,” said Dan Rough, vice chairman of revenue management at Holland America.
Just as airlines offer too many seats, cruise ships can compensate for cancellations by having too many cabins. But backfilling standbys reduces Holland America’s reliance on overselling, risking forcing passengers onto more distant departures or potentially offering generous money incentives to steer volunteers to cancel.
Although the corporate is not heavily promoting the brand new practice, it has attracted a following amongst thrifty people by offering a bargain price of $49 per person, whether sharing a cabin or alone, on a web site that lists available departures travels, before taxes and charges, offers dates to draw flexible travelers. According to the corporate, standbys should expect an inside cabin, but ocean view cabins with verandas have also been assigned. (The company declined to say what number of on-call booths it offered.)
“$49 per person per day is pretty extraordinary,” said Colleen McDaniel, the editor of CruiseCritic.com, a web site that reviews cruises and notes that the value covers all meals and entertainment. “There is no better value at a land resort for what is included in the price.” (In 2023, the typical nightly rate for a hotel room within the United States was nearly $156, in response to STR, an information analytics firm that monitors the hotel industry .)
To participate, travelers select an itinerary from the standby list on the web site – current ports of embarkation are Boston; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Montreal; Quebec; San Diego; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Whittier, Alaska – and prepay the trip by calling Holland America or booking through a travel advisor.
There aren’t any refunds for standby drivers who want to exit. However, if the danger doesn’t repay and the cruise line is unable to supply a cabin to someone on the standby list, a refund will probably be issued.
The company says standbys are added on a rolling basis and typically lists itineraries inside two to 3 months of departure. Current offerings include seven-day cruises on Alaska’s Inside Passage from April to September and seven- to 11-day cruises along the New England coast and Canada’s Maritime Provinces between May and October.
Proximity is a bonus
Standby cruisers don’t learn of their acceptance or rejection until every week to 2 days before departure, complicating transportation arrangements.
“Last-minute airfares could offset cruise savings,” wrote Crystal Seaton, the owner of Path to leisure travel, a travel agency based in Raleigh, North Carolina, in an email. Although she hasn’t booked a client for a standby trip yet, she suspects it’s for travelers who can go to a port.
“We were lucky; “We came upon on Tuesday that we can be sailing at 3 p.m. on Fridays,” said Sheila Valloney, 66, of Clermont, Florida, who spent nine days with her husband aboard a Holland America ship in February the southern Caribbean by going on standby.
Before she was released, she reserved a parking spot near the boat dock in Fort Lauderdale, which would have set her back about $6 if she canceled. She also had her last-minute vacation clothes ready for the three-and-a-half-hour drive to the port.
Booking a refundable airline ticket – or at least one that guarantees a credit in the form of loyalty points or cash in the event of cancellation – is one way for travelers who need to fly to take advantage of the offer.
For her standby trip, Ms. McGowan drove 90 minutes from her home to the ship in Fort Lauderdale. But her traveling companion was from Indiana, and when she got on the standby list a few months before the departure date, she booked her friend a flight on Southwest Airlines using frequent flyer points that would be refunded if the last-minute Cruise didn’t take place.
Avoid additional fees
On board, fees for extras like cabin upgrades, Wi-Fi, alcohol, and shore excursions can add to the bill, but the most frugal travelers try to avoid these.
Ms. McGowan purchased an upgraded beverage package at $17.50 per day (basic soft drinks are included in the cruise) and took a shore excursion focused on coffee farming, which she considered good value at $89.
On their Caribbean cruise, the Valloneys asked for recommendations of good beaches to rest on on port days and waited until they were ashore to check their email so they wouldn’t have to pay for the ship’s Wi-Fi.
“We didn’t miss it at all,” Ms. Valloney said. “For drinks, we waited until happy hour, then it was buy one, get one free.”
Will other companies follow this example?
To date, no other cruise lines have implemented standby programs.
Princess Cruises said it had no plans to offer cabins on a standby basis, but noted that it already did Last minute offers, which typically cost between $50 and $60 per passenger per day. For example, a seven-day Alaska cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage departing May 8 costs $399 per person in a double cabin.
Several other major cruise lines did not respond to inquiries about the possible introduction of standby programs, despite operators’ desire to do so royal Caribbean And Norwegian cruise line also offer last minute deals on their web sites.
“We would be surprised if many mainstream cruise lines began adopting a model similar to the standby system,” wrote Kimberly Coyne, director of sales and content strategy at Cruiseline.com, a cruise review website, in an email. She said the standby fares may not be financially viable for cruise lines, citing the possibility that travelers could become too accustomed to late-booking deals.
More ways to save lots of
With the recent surge in cruise bookings, companies are offering fewer discounts, said Ms. McDaniel of CruiseCritic.com.
She identified more reliable ways to get a deal compared to standby mode, such as: For example, booking during “wave season,” a sales period that typically lasts from January to March, or participating in a repositioning cruise, which moves a ship from one region to another seasonally. A realignment of the route could lead from Alaska to the Caribbean via the Panama Canal in the fall.
“It’s not unusual for a repositioning cruise to cost lower than $75 an evening,” Ms. McDaniel said, noting that other expenses such as a flight route to one city and a return trip from another may cost more than a standard Round trip ticket.
The realignment of cruises tends to include fewer ports and more onboard enrichment programs, such as lectures and activities such as cake decorating classes and craft spirits tastings.
“For many people the ship is the destination and this is the perfect activity for people who enjoy being on the ship,” she said.
