How full is the ship?

[carajoemom]

Can someone give me the steps to find out if there are any empty staterooms on my cruise and their locations? Thanks

 

 

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[john watson]

You could try a dummy booking on the cruise line website. I always use a false name and details.

 

Regards John

[Itchy&Scratchy]

did you try Princess website and check your specific cruise?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just go to the cruise on the Princess website and go through the motions of booking a cruise up to the point where you select a cabin. You don't enter any personal details to do this and can see all the cabins that are available - well, maybe not all as some may be allocated to travel agents if it's before final payment. These get released at some stage and go back into inventory.

 

I sometimes do this just to see how well a cruise I have booked is selling. Mostly for curiosity, it can be an interesting exercise sometimes.

[voljeep]

I do it all the time, sometimes multiple times a week on cruises we have booked.

 

Sometimes you have to do a complete mock booking all the way to actually picking a cabin to get the true price to see if your price has dropped for a possible refare.:cool:

[geoherb]

Also check out the roll call thread for the particular cruise to see if people who booked guarantees are waiting for their cabin assignments. The cabins that show up as available can all of a sudden disappear when Princess starts assigning guarantee cabins. Sometimes this happens early. Other times, it's in the last week before the cruise.

 

If you look at prices, they can give you an indication as to how well a particular cruise is selling. For instance, the prices for our upcoming cruise have increased around 30 percent since we booked. The final payment date was last week.

[peety3]

You'd also have to look at all the different ways that the ship is offered. For example, in Alaska some sailings have "cruisetours" (land+sea) available, and Princess' booking system requires that they allocate some cabins to the cruisetour, which are then not available to the cruise. Hence if the cruisetour doesn't sell well but the cruise itself fills up, you'd think it was full but you'd have to also try a mock booking on the cruisetour to get the full picture. I'm sure Princess moves cabins around between the different "things", so it's a moving target.

[land lover]

Calling Princess is always my first stop for any of my questions....

[voljeep]

Calling Princess is always my first stop for any of my questions....

 

 

yes, and keep calling back to get a different rep and a different answer works too...:rolleyes:

[moki'smommy]

Princess makes a serious effort to fill every sailing. How full it is remote from the cruise is difficult to tell because cabins are blocked for various reasons. For example, if a cruise is being sold as both a 14 night and 2 7 nights, cabins will be allocated to specific types of bookings. Bottom line, if they are still taking reservations, there is likely to be room! (not always, hence move over offers). Even with a fake booking attempt, availability can change daily as they assign guarantees, etc.

 

On the other hand, when a ship isn't selling as well as they'd like, it will be available for last minute deals and such. An empty cabin is a loss to Princess. It costs the same money to fuel the ship, pay the crew, etc. whether it is full or not. On the other hand, a cabin sold at a discount can still represent a profit as people purchase beverages, excursions, etc. It is ultimately better to sell a cabin at a reduced fare than to cruise empty.

 

Again, looking at my upcoming cruise....initially offers started appearing that, when I factored in the perks I got (free grats, etc) came out to about what I'd paid. Now that we are closer and there must still be unbooked space, I'm seeing amounts that are less than I paid,even considering the perks I got....but I'm within the penalty period and it isn't enough less to be worth taking the penalty and rebooking. Seriously, it is only a tiny bit less when you consider what I'm getting and that a new booking wouldn't include grats, OBC, specialty dinner.....

 

Sure, cruises leaving next week are an even better deal, but flights for those cruises are seriously high.

[land lover]

yes, and keep calling back to get a different rep and a different answer works too...:rolleyes:

 

Actually...more helpful then a lot of the posts here.....:halo:....;)

 

CC is never my first place and never will be....and that is after 15+ years. What did everyone do before the internet, call a TA and the cruise line....when did we posters on CC all become the experts...just sayin'....

[MCC retired]

Even if there was a site, that anyone can view ,showing all available cabins , it would not be accurate until all Guarantee's are assigned, close to sailing .

[DrivesLikeMario]

Good point as usual, MCC Retired. I rarely ever see ships sail at below double occ. capacity nowadays.

[caribill]

Just go to the cruise on the Princess website and go through the motions of booking a cruise up to the point where you select a cabin. You don't enter any personal details to do this and can see all the cabins that are available

 

Although this is correct, it is not that simple for the OP's question which is how full is the entire ship.

 

What you have to do with the above procedure is look at each category of cabin (inside, oceanview, balcony, etc.) in five different areas on the ship (forward, mid-ship forward, center, mid-ship aft, aft) and then on each deck that kind of cabin is offered.

 

As others pointed out, you can count unassigned cabins, but that will not reflect unassigned GTY bookings.

[leck57]

I also tried to check how a cruise I am doing in Feb is going and tried the mock booking approach. However on just about evry deck for every category the option of choosing a cabin was not available and only guaranteed cabin choices were offered. Last week the deck plans were there showing available cabins but not now so I have no idea how the cruise is selling.