Looking for an Affordable, Last-Minute Cruise? Try a Standby Ticket
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Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, February 7th. I'm Mariana Aspuru for The Wall Street Journal. Monitoring prices months ahead of time and planning every expense to a tee is one way to travel on a budget. But if you're okay with some chaos, trying to nab a last-minute standby ticket for a cruise is another option.
Basically, you pay the money. But you don't find out if you get on until seven to two days before the cruise leaves. These programs, you know, ideally are for people who live in the port, right? Florida or Seattle. But I wanted to add a twist. So I booked this and I had to get all the way across the country on very short notice. So it was quite the adventure. Is it worth it?
We'll talk with Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson about how she landed a low cost ticket on a sold out cruise. After the break.
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Looking for a cheap getaway? Have you considered taking a chance on a standby cruise? Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson just did, and she joins me. Dawn, why did you choose to sail standby?
There's some of the best deals out there, and I had heard about Holland America's standby program, and I was like, I wonder how this works in practice.
Can you give me like a quick definition? Like, what is a standby cruise? Because I had never heard about it pre this story.
The way Holland America Standby Cruise works is you go on their website and they have a list of eligible cruises over the next several months. So I had looked at it and I wanted to test a last minute cruise. So a few weeks in January, I looked and found a cruise out of Florida. And basically you pay the money. But you don't find out if you get on until seven to two days before the cruise leaves. These programs, you know, ideally are for people who live in the port, right? Florida or Seattle, the other places where Holland America has cruises. But I wanted to add a twist. So I booked this and I had to get all the way across the country on very short notice. So it was quite the adventure.
How did you find this particular standby cruise deal?
on their website. I had heard that Holland America had this great deal. I mean, it's $99 a day, including taxes for a inside cabin and $129 for a room with a balcony. And again, that applies whether your cruise is a week long or you know, four weeks long. The price goes up for there. But I paid $693 for a week. And how much would that have normally cost you? You can find a cruise on Holland America for roughly this price, maybe not as low, but for roughly this price if you book in advance. But the appeal here was this was last minute and I could not find a last minute cruise deal, you know, when everybody's trying to flee the cold on the East Coast for this price. So that was the appeal.
You said you were waiting to hear back until about two days before. Is that correct? What was it like, like in that limbo to see if you had a spot on the cruise or not?
Oh my gosh, I was kind of freaking out because here's the rules. When you get on the standby list, you pay. So if you get off the standby list, meaning they approve you, you have to be there or you lose your money, right?
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