Cabins 'blocked' possibly due to cruise also being a Back-to-Back?

[Wishing on a star]

I had posted this some time ago, about the appearance of large sections of cabins appearing to be 'blocked' many months before sailing. Some said this might be because of the Back-to-Back situation???

 

Do you experts think that this might be what is going on.

And, if so, what if you wanted one of those cabins in an area that appears to be blocked???

If it is set aside for B2B, and not actually sold already, to another cruiser, would Princess be able to reserve that cabin for you?

 

Hhhhmmm???

 

Given the availability, we booked a nice standard balcony... But when we decided to move our cruise up several months, were able to get a good UNobstructed obstructed deluxe balcony. Which, unfortunately, we had to cancel. It would be nice to get that type of cabin on that future sailing.

[JF - retired RRT]

Not so much a B2B...more likely a cruise that has more than one embarkation port.

We tried to book a particular cabin in the area that we like for a cruise that had 3 embarkation ports. Couldn't do it, the whole section was "sold" and this was a year before the cruise.

Called Princess and were told that those cabins were reserved for others who were boarding at the later embarkation ports.

[Wishing on a star]

I don't think so? The same concept, probably... but this is just a 7 day, with the alternating Caribbean 7 day, both from FLL.

Sounds like they won't free up the one cabin you want, though...

Thanks for the info!

 

If we do this cruise later in the year, it would be nice to be able to get that cabin, or similar!

Maybe they will open them up, closer to the cruise date.

We would have to get a great rate to give up the cabin we have now with the Drink Package.

[Hlitner]

A 7 day cruise with blocked cabins! So there are likely a few things going on. If its still pretty far in advance, some cabins might be held for back to backs (there are always some who do these in the Caribbean). But even more cabins will be blocked out for travel/cruise agencies and consortium's who have deals to hold a specific number of cabins in specific categories. So a cabin that might not be available if you book direct with a cruise line might be available if you book through certain agencies or consortium's who have space on that cruise. If they fail to sell all their allotted cabins they will eventually be released back into general inventory...although this can happen pretty close to the final payment period. The other possibility (and my personal nightmare scenario) is that cabins are being held for a large group! This is a real possibility on shorter cruises (10 days or less) and some groups can fill hundreds of cabins. What makes this worse is that most cruise lines will refuse to disclose if there is a large group booked on a cruise (because many experienced cruisers avoid these cruises like the plague).

 

Sometimes you can stumble on a group deal by simpling using Google to search for the ship and date. But other times it can be a mystery until you get aboard, find there are hundreds from some weird group...and that group takes over many venues for their own functions (and deprives others from using these facilities).

 

Hank

[Wishing on a star]

Def hope it is B2B and not some huge group taking over!

That is what I am thinking it is.

[GUT2407]

But any cruises can be booked b2b.

[dickinson]

In the Caribbean and elsewhere Princess will sell cruises EITHER as a b2b or as a longer cruise. Example - 7 day eastern caribbean followed by a 7 day western caribbean. Can either be booked as separate cruises or as a 14 day cruise. In these cases there are certain cabins available for sale as a 7 day and others available as a 14 day. If the cabin you want shows available for 14 day then when you look at the 7 day version it will say sold. Sometimes if you have a TA that sells a lot of Princess cruises they can call them and possibly get them to release the unsold cabin for your cruise.

[sawtooth]

We booked an advertised 14 day Caribbean cruise which is also sold separately as two 7 days. The cabin we wanted was not available on the 14 day but was available on both 7 days. Booking two 7 days would have been somewhat more costly than the one 14 day.

It took a lot of work with customer relations to finally get them to release the cabin we wanted for the whole cruise. I could not figure out why there was a problem, but it took a special department to sort it out.

14 day still shows club class, mid ship, sold out but if you check the two 7 day cruises cabins are available (and the same one for both).

Go figure.

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, anyone can book two concurrent cruises.

But, some of these are actually sold, together, as one 14 day. As this one is.

I think that can make a difference.

 

Even though we would be going from standard balcony to obstructed deluxe balcony (which I think is a lessor category) I believe we would have to re-book, and loose our Drink Package. I will keep an eye on this, and if I think it would work out for us, with pricing, etc... I will consider contacting our TA.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Thrak]

We booked an advertised 14 day Caribbean cruise which is also sold separately as two 7 days. The cabin we wanted was not available on the 14 day but was available on both 7 days. Booking two 7 days would have been somewhat more costly than the one 14 day.

It took a lot of work with customer relations to finally get them to release the cabin we wanted for the whole cruise. I could not figure out why there was a problem, but it took a special department to sort it out.

14 day still shows club class, mid ship, sold out but if you check the two 7 day cruises cabins are available (and the same one for both).

Go figure.

 

Princess does stuff like that and they make it difficult for folks like you who really are doing both segments. They have a 49 day cruise from FLL to LA (around the horn) in early 2019. They wouldn't allow that to be booked under the Sip and Sail but, if you booked the same cruise as a 19 day segment followed by a 30 day segment you were able to get the Sip and Sail promo. It's kind of like the government when they say they can't do something because it comes from a "different pot of money". Princess has more than one "pot" of cabins and it takes a supervisor or someone to release them to a single person because their computer system doesn't understand.

[Mapu]

Princess has more than one "pot" of cabins and it takes a supervisor or someone to release them to a single person because their computer system doesn't understand.

Inventory control is the issue. An agent can usually request the preferred cabin and it generally is honored. It is a big waste of everyone’s time.

[sawtooth]

Funny, when the customer relations did move us to a mid ship CC mini they gave us a standard (small) balcony. When I asked to be moved to an extended balcony (that was also open) she all but told me not to push the envelope. Be happy with what we got.:o

[OCruisers]

A couple of years ago we were booking a B2B2B.

I always check things out before calling our travel agent so I can tell her exactly what we want -- midship mini-suite.

I could find the same cabin for the first two legs but not the third. Called our TA. She told me she needed to talk to her favorite contact at Princess and/or someone within her network of TAs.

The next day we had the same midship mini-suite for all three legs. :)

[peety3]

Someone else here posted that Princess' booking system is somewhat antiquated, and any time that the ship is considered in part of multiple sailings (multiple embarkation ports, shorter cruise sold alongside longer cruise, cruise or cruisetour, etc.), they have to allocate rooms into one (logical) sailing or the other, and have to move "inventory" from one logical sailing to another logical sailing even though it's obviously only one physical sailing.

[lstone19]

Someone else here posted that Princess' booking system is somewhat antiquated, and any time that the ship is considered in part of multiple sailings (multiple embarkation ports, shorter cruise sold alongside longer cruise, cruise or cruisetour, etc.), they have to allocate rooms into one (logical) sailing or the other, and have to move "inventory" from one logical sailing to another logical sailing even though it's obviously only one physical sailing.

 

It may be antiquated or it may be a deliberate attempt to minimize unsold space. Consider, as a trivial example, a ship with just two cabins (A and B) and is sailing 7-night cruises that are also marketed as 14-night cruises. Customer #1 wants to book the first 7 nights and selects cabin A; then customer #2 comes along, want to book the second 7 nights but books cabin B; finally, customer #3 comes along, wants all 14 nights but finds there is no cabin available unless they move after the first 7 nights as B is available for the first 7 and A is available for the second 7. They don't want to move so they don't book and the ship sails with those cabins empty.

 

If instead, A was allocated to the 7 night cruises and B to the 14 nights, customers 1 and 2 both are assigned to cabin A and then when customer 3 comes along, cabin B is available for the entire 14 nights.

 

Further, think about how Regal Princess is sold in the Baltic with three embarkation ports (Copenhagen, Warnemunde, and St. Petersburg) with a fourth (Helsinki) coming in 2019. Since those cruises are only sold as full circles back to the port of embarkation, a cabin must be allocated to a specific embarkation port for the entire season or there will be segments where the cabin sells empty (e.g. if one customer wants cabin A for a Copenhagen embarkation in June and another customer wants that same cabin for a Warnemunde embarkation in July, at some point that cabin would need to be empty for a Copenhagen to Warnemunde segment to allow that). And to make that even more complicated, the TransAtlantic cruises that start and end the Baltic season are sold to and from each of the Baltic embarkation ports so a cabin allocated to Warnemunde embarkations during the season also must be allocated to Ft. Lauderdale to Warnemunde for the Spring TA cruise and to Warnemunde to New York for the Fall TA cruise.

 

Having worked in the travel industry (airline) for almost my entire professional life, I've learned a lot of things are far more complicated than they appear at first glance. So while it may seem customer friendly to not allocate cabins to particular segments of a cruise, to not do so can cause enough other inventory issues that impacts cruise profitability (and let's face it, we need Princess to be profitable if they're going to keep serving the cruise markets we want them to serve).