Seating to be assigned this year?

Last year on the post-cruise survey, the ONLY thing I listed under "Needs Improvement" was controlling the queueing for events. Sure, you didn't have to spend time in line, but most of us did. We all know by now that BHs are champions at queueing.

Now, from BlockBeerGirl, some excellent news on ning!

I talked with Rose Tours when I made my 2nd payment and the lady said seating goes by order number: meaning in order we got our cabins and not by price...of course minus the 6E cabins.....they get 1-6 but they also go in order they were purchsed 1-6... hope this makes sense!!! =)

This year, we will have assigned seats according to what order we booked our cabins so we will never have to wait in line like we did last cruise...she said we will have the same seat for every show. YAYY this makes me excited since my last cruise was spent almost entirely in line!!!

NO lining up for events?! Can you imagine?! I don't even know what I'm going to do with all the extra hours in the day. I hope it means I get to meet and talk with more of you. Or, maybe this year we will get that promised Speedo Fun on the Sun Deck.

The suites/6E part of BlockBeerGirl's post may be a bit unclear. I'm pretty sure that the suites go first, and then the 6E will fill in behind, regardless of whether the 6Es booked before the suites.

I don't know how exactly you know what order you booked in, but I'd guess the confirmation number gives some indication. The lower, the better. I think they started at 1000.

Also, the concert is presumably standing room only. I don't know whether the suites/6Es will all be placed in the same area or split into two groups. And if they don't break up the rest of the deck, I can see some out-of-control queueing for that. Everyone on the boat will be jockeying for a great view. Let's hope they figure out a zone system or something. (Do you ever think, "I am so glad I'm not the one that has to figure this stuff out because if BHs don't like it they will come after me with pitchforks?" I sure do.) Anyone have a good idea on how the deck arrangements could work?

On a personal note, I'm bummed that ALL of the Minnesota and Seattle girls that I had such a great time with last year either couldn't book or have had to cancel their reservations, including my roomie Katie. I will miss them bunches. On the plus side, this means I get to room with Malina again! We had a great time together in 2009 and I know we will again in 2010.

Anyway: assigned seating! Yay!

Much more than 10 days later, PWL still being filled

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I had been holding out for the PWL finishing off and the first regular wait lister getting a call, but that still hasn't happened. On the plus side, as of Friday, PWLs were still getting calls.

Two posts of interest on ning. First, from Sarah:

When I talked with RT they told me that there was still several PWL people left, that there was several below me. But a lot of them aren't going anymore. 2 people out of my group of 4 decided not to go. The bad thing is that since I had 4 people in my group I can take 3 others with me...even if they aren't in my group. Like only 2 of us wanted to go but we were able to put a 3rd person that wasn't on the PWL in our room or the two of us each could of booked a 2 person room and taken 2 no PWL people wth us....so find a PWL person that has roomies that have backed out and get on with them. That could possibly be faster!

If I'm reading this right, it's good news and bad news for wait listers. On the plus side, PWLers are backing out. On the downside, apparently PWLers can take whoever the heck they want if the person they were on the wait list with originally no longer wants to go. I suppose that's no different from the people that find their own replacements for cancellations, but probably not what PWLers want to hear.

Second interesting post from Michelle:

I got my call from RT last Friday that I was on the boat. Got my email confirmation and everything! Well, yesterday Mary called me again and I told them they already called me and put me on the boat. I asked her if everything was OK and she assured me it was. So, I guess that means they still have enough open spots that they're trying to give me another one! HAHAHA!! So, girls, stay close to the phone over the next couple of weeks. I have a feeling that RT has alot more openings than they want us to know about.

My guess is that they have enough rooms to clear out the PWL, but it's taking them much longer than 10 days (obviously) to get through everyone.

Any PWLers still out there who haven't gotten a call yet? Let me know in the comments!

Priority wait list will be cleared within 10 days!

Last Friday, several PWLers started getting calls after many on the boat failed to make the second payment. Calls continued into this week and are still coming through today.

My best guess is there were around 35-40 pairs on the PWL. A few had gotten placed here and there in the last two months, and others got on finding roommates on their own. Since last week, I had heard of 12-14 more pairs getting calls. Now it seems the PWL is nearly cleared.

From @Shesha12:

"I'm on the boat. Mary at Rose Tours said only rooms available right now are inside and 2 oceanviews: 6B and 6C. She let me pick [from those three room types]. I was on PLW but I'm sure it was near the bottom."

From @JKsGrownNSexy:

"I just got off the phone with RT - she said all PWL's should be all set within the next 10 days, at most."

Regular wait listers, while it's probably impossible that all 1000 on the list will get placed, I expect an even higher number will drop out around the third payment on April 1, which is the biggest yet. The payments so far of $300 and $400 seem insignificant compared to the $1100 or so some of us will have to pay in the spring. That won't give much notice for shopping and prepping (especially if it takes a few weeks after the payment date for the calls to come in, like this time), but it's a spot on the boat!

Regular wait listers, do you know anyone who has gotten a call yet? Are you saving for a spot or have you given up? If you get a call in mid-April, do you think you'd take it? Let me know!

(Happy Thanksgiving!!)

Rose Tours calls have started again!

A few weeks ago, Rose Tours said they would be calling people from the wait list at the end of November, and what do you know, they are!

From Jaime (@HereWeGoAgainJM):

"Rose Tours called a friend of mine today, and she's now on the boat. Some people didn't pay their second payment."

Soon after, I heard from @randaogden that her friend @jennifer_benson also got a call!

Update: I've since heard of at least two other pairs of roomies who received calls today, so that's a minimum of 6 people who joined the boat!

These were priority wait listers. I wonder at this point how many priority wait listers are still in limbo. Anyone have an idea?

By the way, totally unrelated, did you all see this post from Jared on ning?

"Let me assure ANY fan that attempts to re sell cruise cabins on the secondary market (ebay, craigslist, etc) will be VOID. We have alerted Rose Tours to look out for these instances."

This came on the heels of someone putting a cruise vacancy on eBay that sold for $2050 (at least $500 over the value of the room). Several people reported the listing to eBay as unauthorized. I never heard what became of it. I'm also not 100% sure what the best action to take against these listings is. Report on the listing site? Post on ning? All of the above?

Will keep you updated if I hear more on wait list placements. If you've gotten a call today, know someone who has, or are on the PWL and still waiting, please leave a comment!

Beware: scammers trying to take advantage of those wanting to cruise

I suppose it was only a matter of time before some lowlife figured out that they could use the cruise as a way to scam money out of BHs.

From a post on Ning by Yolanda:

"There was a girl on here just a couple of days ago saying she had 2 spots open for the cruise. When I contacted her about the tickets I asked her what type of room does she have and what is the cabin number. She wrote back that they don't give you that info until day before take off. Which I knew right then she was a scam. I know they give you the room number through your email confirmation page. If anyone wants your CC info tell them you will call Rose Tours to give them that info. Now she is no longer a member of this website, she disappeared." 

In the excitement of seeing a cruise opening and the sense of urgency that goes along with vying for an open spot, it's not hard to forget to be thorough, but please be careful. Here are some tips.

• Ask questions about the cabin type and room number. Ask for a confirmation number and compare against people you trust who are cruising.
• Check the seller's ning profile page or Twitter account. Do they have friends? Are they interacting like a normal BH? Of course, fellow BHs could still be scammers, but if someone seems odd, that's a red flag.
• Never give anyone your credit card or bank account information. You only need to give it to Rose Tours.
• If you pay someone, use PayPal or another trusted service. Get a receipt. Use a credit card with buyer protection.
• Check the room category and price the seller is advertising against the price list at www.nkotbcruise.com to make sure they aren't inflating the cost.
• Ask for your name to be added to the reservation before money changes hands, and confirm with Rose Tours directly before you pay the individual.

Good luck ladies!

Live from the cruise: KT-TV

My husband has done some pretty cool techno-geek BH stuff for me in the past (made me a personalized Joe Mac app, put Hangin Tough Live on our HTPC, loaded The Block onto the PS3), but this may be the best yet.

Last week, we picked up our Droid phones. And last night, husband installed on mine a beta client called Qik. Qik on the Droid works like UStream on a PC. Two clicks on my phone and whatever I'm doing is streaming in live DVD quality video on the internet. Plus, it has a live chat feature so I can see what you're replying while I'm filming.

You know what this means? I could be at the NKOTB cruise sail away party next May, phone in the air, and you could be seeing everything as it's happening. HOW COOL IS THAT??

My 2009 roomie Malina asked last night if there was a limit to how long a video could be. I don't think so. What will limit me, though, is that I'll be using the ship's $0.50/minute wi-fi, so I won't be streaming hours of coverage. But every now and then (from approved video-friendly events) you could get a live peek of the cruise.

Qik automatically starts a video feed when I start filming, so I envision that weekend you can leave a browser window open to www.qik.com/ktsummer with the volume on high, and randomly throughout the three days, the noise of live video will scare the pants off of you. Don't worry if you miss one, because videos are stored on my channel so you can watch them anytime.

(Because it is so easy to go live, I'm a bit worried that husband will swipe my phone and start streaming things like me brushing my teeth, but let's hope not.)

Here's a sample video we did last night of the most exciting film subject in the house: our cat.

Priority wait listers may hear more news this month

It's been a LONG time since we've heard anything on the wait list, hasn't it? Here is a tiny morsel of news, posted on ning by Kathrin:

"We will start to clear some of the priority wait list the end of this month. After they are all cleared, we will start with the regular wait list.

Thanks and have a great day,
Jeannie Gearhart | Office Manager"

I mentioned in my last post that I had only heard of two people in the last month or so who had gotten placed from the actual waitlist. I'm sure there are more, but it definitely seems like the vast majority of those who cancel are finding replacements on their own. (As we've seen, that comes with its own problems.) Maybe that will change at the end of the month.

Also, the last two payments have been pretty reasonable. The big payment for many people will come April 1. Think of how many rooms were over $1500. That means without an intermediate payment many cruisers will owe $800, some even $1200. And, at that time, people will really have to start booking flights and making final arrangements. Cancelations will keep coming.

So what haven't I heard? Have others from the wait list gotten calls? And on another note, have any roommates been matched yet? Rose Tours had said November for that.