New to Princess - question

[CLEMM]

I recently tried to book a princess cruise online but every cabin # I requested came up as unavailable. It was a cruise from Beijing to Whittier and then down to British Columbia. The first leg was advertised as one cruise while adding the Alaska leg made it a "Grand Adventure." since the cruise was in May of 2014 I couldn't imagine that so many cabins were unavailable. I finally called Princess and was able to book a suitable (but by no means my first or second or even third choice,) cabin. When I asked why so many were unavailable the princess employee told me that certain cabins were reserved for the final Alaska leg. It was the best cabins (in my opinion) that were reserved. My question is if they were going to reserve cabins (and I don't understand why they would) why is it that someone who was booking for 23 days would have to settle for the less than ideal cabins while those only booking for a week would get the better locations? I don't really understand why each customer wouldn't get their choice on a first come first served basis as usual. But, I am new to Princess so maybe some of you more familiar with the policies came help me understand.

[Loonbeam]

Two reasons.. First, the AK legs are easier to sell, so they are booked by the Group travel agents.

 

Second, they can sell those cabins in AK for more money, sometimes enough to offset the slightly smaller revenue on the longer leg.

[Pam in CA]

Plus, many TAs have blocks of cabins reserved for their clients. FYI, it's not unusual for a cruise to be sold out or mostly sold out two years in advance.

[CLEMM]

Ah. That makes sense I guess. I'm more used to cruises such as this selling as back to backs. This is a different type of marketing than my previous experiences.