World Cruise released, nearly sold out

[islandwoman]

Can someone please tell me how I missed this coming?  I've been checking princess.com almost every day for months, waiting for them to release the 2021 May - September World Cruise.  I even called Princess three days ago to ask if/when it would be released and was told nothing.  Yesterday, it appeared online.  But to my chagrin,  two of the segments were already marked " This sail date is SOLD OUT "  and I haven't been able to find any availability for suites, mini-suites, or deck 9 or 10 balconies.  Yesterday afternoon, my TA told me that "Space is becoming very limited".  I checked segments and embarkation ports until I got a headache, thinking that Princess might be holding cabins for that part of the cruise, but I still couldn't find the "sold" cabins. I know that Elite passengers are supposed to get first dibs on new cruises - hey I'm Elite and no one told me anything.  

I will probably not be booking this cruise because the cabins we would have wanted were gone before I had a chance.

Can someone please explain to me where all of these cabins went so fast?

Is there anything I can do at this point?

Edited October 31, 2019 by islandwoman

[Colo Cruiser]

38 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

Can someone please tell me how I missed this coming?  I've been checking princess.com almost every day for months, waiting for them to release the 2021 May - September World Cruise.  I even called Princess three days ago to ask if/when it would be released and was told nothing.  Yesterday, it appeared online.  But to my chagrin,  two of the segments were already marked " This sail date is SOLD OUT "  and I haven't been able to find any availability for suites, mini-suites, or deck 9 or 10 balconies.  Yesterday afternoon, my TA told me that "Space is becoming very limited".  I checked segments and embarkation ports until I got a headache, thinking that Princess might be holding cabins for that part of the cruise, but I still couldn't find the "sold" cabins. I know that Elite passengers are supposed to get first dibs on new cruises - hey I'm Elite and no one told me anything.  

I will probably not be booking this cruise because the cabins we would have wanted were gone before I had a chance.

Can someone please explain to me where all of these cabins went so fast?

Is there anything I can do at this point?

Like you said.....and in my experience sometimes when one segment show sold out they are actually held in connection with another longer segment.

Many of the 2021 Med cruises I Iooked at during the Elite booking window were also showing sold out when in fact they were not.

[Orangefan]

26 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

Can someone please tell me how I missed this coming?  I've been checking princess.com almost every day for months, waiting for them to release the 2021 May - September World Cruise.  I even called Princess three days ago to ask if/when it would be released and was told nothing.  Yesterday, it appeared online.  But to my chagrin,  two of the segments were already marked " This sail date is SOLD OUT "  and I haven't been able to find any availability for suites, mini-suites, or deck 9 or 10 balconies.  Yesterday afternoon, my TA told me that "Space is becoming very limited".  I checked segments and embarkation ports until I got a headache, thinking that Princess might be holding cabins for that part of the cruise, but I still couldn't find the "sold" cabins. I know that Elite passengers are supposed to get first dibs on new cruises - hey I'm Elite and no one told me anything.  

I will probably not be booking this cruise because the cabins we would have wanted were gone before I had a chance.

Can someone please explain to me where all of these cabins went so fast?

Is there anything I can do at this point?

 

I have no knowledge of this situation but it reminds me of signing up for the Sky Princess Inaugurals.  Luckily, I booked as soon as available and under 3 for free.Then a lot of the categories had sold out signs for weeks. Then the bookings were open  and listed as sold out again.This happened all year until the final payment. By this time people had made other cruise plans. Then all of a sudden every category was open with tons of rooms left.  Many of us felt that rooms were being held by travel agencies. You could look at a category and find a whole row of empty rooms. Then they added ANOTHER 3 day cruise before the original  Sky Inaugural. Made a lot of people angry  and month before the Dec.1st cruise is empty. They are selling inside rooms for $ 229 pp.

Sali

[DrivesLikeMario]

Keep checking back.  They may release some of those held cabins.  

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

Keep checking back.  They may release some of those held cabins.  

Yes.  For sure.  I am not familiar with the cruise mentioned, but we got into the frenzy of attempting to book the Island's first WC season some time back and found it mostly sold out.  Holding a cabin for a segment voyage we don't really want with a wait-list on another.  Thing is, these cruises are not at all sold out.  Princess released a very limited number of cabins and they were mostly snapped up.  

 

Sometime after, I was curious and checked the 2020 WC and segments and saw plenty of cabin choice.  I then suspected Princess wanted to keep selling 2020 before opening up 2021.  We are making other plans now and will defer a WC for another future date, but I am curious to see when more inventory will be released. 

 

[icat2000]

That world cruise is very popular with Australians and New Zealanders. A lot would have probably pre booked cabins while they were on the current world cruise.

[DrivesLikeMario]

I've never heard of "pre-booking cabins".  How is that done exactly?  You can't do that in the US so this is new to me.

[Steelers36]

1 minute ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

I've never heard of "pre-booking cabins".  How is that done exactly?  You can't do that in the US so this is new to me.

Terminology by the poster??  The next season's WC is always for sale before the current season sails.  But anyone on a cruise does not have any greater access to book inventory than folks sitting at home.  Unless there is some Princess "funny business" going on.  LOL.

[mamkmm2]

Several cruises we looked at today were marked sold out on the Princess website but when our TA got on the line with Princess (long wait times today because of the $1 deposit sale and the last day of 3 for free) they weren't "sold out" but did have "very limited availability."  

 

I suspect a lot of the "sold out" cruises will slowly open back up as people decide they overbooked and they pull out.  The same may hold true for the World Cruise.

Edited November 1, 2019 by mamkmm2

[caribill]

When a part of a cruise can be sold multiple ways, then cabins are reserved exclusively for each way it can be sold.

 

For example, if a cruise has three segments A, B and C and if it can be sold with a single booking number as A, A&B, B, B&C, C and A&B&C, that means it is sold six ways.

 

If you only wanted to be on segment B, for example, then the cabins set up to be sold as A&B and as B&C and as A&B&C will not be shown as available for segment B by itself, even if they have not yet been sold in another combination. Similarly, a cabin available in segment B by itself will not show up in the available inventory for A&B, B&C, or A&B&C.

 

I was once on a Princess cruise which was sold the following ways.

W -  Houston to Southampton (stopping in Fort Lauderdale to pick up passsengers)

X -  Houston to Southampton together with the next itinerary around the British Isles

Y -  Fort Lauderdale to Southampton

Z -  Fort Lauderdale to Southampton together with the next itinerary around the British Isles

 

So, cabins to Southampton were divided up among the four different ways they could be sold. When Fort Lauderdale to Southampton cabins were sold out (method Y above) , nobody was allowed to take any of the available cabins reserved for W, X and Z to be used just for the W option.

 

This was especially stupid since nobody could book a cabin from just Houston to Fort Lauderdale. Princess would rather let the cabin be empty from Houston to Southampton then sell it for Fort Lauderdale to Southampton. At least one person flew from Florida to Houston in order to book it that way in order to get on the cruise.

[Cruiserkenn]

Couldn't you be wait listed for this cruise?

[SargassoPirate]

Don't rule out P&O for a world cruise.  I've been waiting and watching world cruises for a couple of years at least.  P&O's 2022 world cruise opened up about a week ago and my backup TA (the Big Box doesn't book P&O) snagged me the exact cabin I wanted and at what I consider to be an excellent price.  The ship carries under 2,000 PAX, is adults only, there is no tipping, and they have guest laundromats!

 

Now is the painful part - waiting until 2022. 

[skynight]

Try some different dates & different embarkation ports. Have your T.A. work on it. Sometimes a T.A. can get cabins released.

[Schonert]

We have had this for other trips, Alaska, we wanted 14 days, but all those on a certain deck were “sold out” but we were able to book the cabin on two 7 days trips.

We get stiffed out of well over $150 OBC and had to use both our FCC credits for the one trip.  They do this so they can make more money

[islandwoman]

On a previous cruise, the cabin we wanted was listed as "sold out" but was available as two shorter cruises.  Our TA was able to get it for us at the long cruise rate.

But as much as I've looked at the segments and different embarkation ports for this World Cruise, I cannot find any mini suites, suites, or balconies on decks 9 or 10. 

[villauk]

6 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

On a previous cruise, the cabin we wanted was listed as "sold out" but was available as two shorter cruises.  Our TA was able to get it for us at the long cruise rate.

But as much as I've looked at the segments and different embarkation ports for this World Cruise, I cannot find any mini suites, suites, or balconies on decks 9 or 10. 

 

 

If other cabins are available on different decks (unsure if this is the case), why don’t you book one of those in the same cabin category and then change/move at a later date when more cabins open up (as other posters have stated this usually happens)?

[JF - retired RRT]

18 hours ago, Orangefan said:

They are selling inside rooms for $ 229 pp.

Sali

I just popped over & checked...

Dec. 1, 3 day, inside, $169.

If I lived in FLL, I'd be all over that.

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, Schonert said:

We have had this for other trips, Alaska, we wanted 14 days, but all those on a certain deck were “sold out” but we were able to book the cabin on two 7 days trips.

We get stiffed out of well over $150 OBC and had to use both our FCC credits for the one trip.  They do this so they can make more money

Ask the rep to contact the office that handles cabin allocation (can't recall the name at the moment) and request the cabin to be opened up for the 14 days.

We just did that for a cruise in 2021. The cabin we wanted for a B2B was only available as 2 cruises. Asked for the realignment and got it.

Altho' sometimes it doesn't work, we tried it a couple of years ago and were turned down.

[paradiselivin1]

13 hours ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

I've never heard of "pre-booking cabins".  How is that done exactly?  You can't do that in the US so this is new to me.

 

Friends of ours who have done multiple WC's told me that they did book the 2021 while they were on-board the 2019 WC well in advance of release to the elites and then the rest of the cruising public the next day. We were able to book the day it was released and guess we should feel fortunate. 

[DrivesLikeMario]

Interesting!  Thanks. 👍

[islandwoman]

2 hours ago, paradiselivin1 said:

 

Friends of ours who have done multiple WC's told me that they did book the 2021 while they were on-board the 2019 WC well in advance of release to the elites and then the rest of the cruising public the next day. We were able to book the day it was released and guess we should feel fortunate. 

That would explain where some of the cabins went.  

When was this WC released to the Elites?  I'm Elite and I still haven't received notice.

[paradiselivin1]

1 hour ago, islandwoman said:

When was this WC released to the Elites?  I'm Elite and I still haven't received notice.

 

I think we're talking about two different cruises. I talking about the one that starts in January 2021 out of FLL. I didn't even know they had more than one WC a year. 2021 will be our first!

[islandwoman]

41 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

 

I think we're talking about two different cruises. I talking about the one that starts in January 2021 out of FLL. I didn't even know they had more than one WC a year. 2021 will be our first!

Princess also does a World Cruise round-trip New Zealand and Australia May - September. That's the one I'm interested in for 2021.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

In addition to what others have said about only a limited # of cabins being sold for any specific segment, combination of segments or full World Cruise there is another inventory spanner in the works.  Princess only allocates a certain # of rooms for sale through it's North American sales office, a different # for their UK sales office, another batch for the Australian sales office, etc  For the World Cruise ex-OZ the North American sales office gets a smaller # of cabins available for booking and once they are gone they are gone. 

 

Customers from North America cannot book through the Australian or UK Sales office - period, end of, full stop - and likewise those residing outside of North America cannot book through the North American offices or travel agencies.  This is true for all Princess cruises, not just World Voyages/Segments.  Due to their corporate structure and IT systems they divvy it up like this and it can be maddening.

[idahospud]

3 hours ago, islandwoman said:

That would explain where some of the cabins went.  

When was this WC released to the Elites?  I'm Elite and I still haven't received notice.

It was released to Elites on Oct 28 at 3pm. As an Elite I was never notified this time either. I only knew because of my TA information.