World Cruise released, nearly sold out

[islandwoman]

1 hour ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

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.  

That explains a lot.  You'd think that they'd allocate a little of everything to the various markets if they have to divvy them up.  Seems like an antiquated system to me.  I went to princess.com.au and saw the exact same selections that I see on the US site with the same prices in US$.  I guess big brother is telling them where I live.  Quite possibly the cabins I wanted were never available to me and never will be.  Very disappointing.  

[AtlantaCruiser72]

5 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

That explains a lot.  You'd think that they'd allocate a little of everything to the various markets if they have to divvy them up.  Seems like an antiquated system to me.  I went to princess.com.au and saw the exact same selections that I see on the US site with the same prices in US$.  I guess big brother is telling them where I live.  Quite possibly the cabins I wanted were never available to me and never will be.  Very disappointing.  

 

The Princess Australian, UK, EU, etc websites will detect your IP address and redirect you to the US site.  Other cruise lines like NCL, RCCL, Celebrity, HAL, etc all do the same.  Same thing happens if you are outside North America and try to access the US based cruiseline websites - it will automatically redirect you to the site for your country based on IP address.  Only way around this is with an IP blocker.

[Steelers36]

Regardless of geographical splits and segment splits, the Island WC's in 2021 were very much inventory-controlled.  I know the number of cabins that were offered for sale on the segment we wanted (and it was for half-way around the world at least) and the allocations just don't explain it.  I'd look for inventory to magically appear some day.

 

[islandwoman]

27 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

 

The Princess Australian, UK, EU, etc websites will detect your IP address and redirect you to the US site.  Other cruise lines like NCL, RCCL, Celebrity, HAL, etc all do the same.  Same thing happens if you are outside North America and try to access the US based cruiseline websites - it will automatically redirect you to the site for your country based on IP address.  Only way around this is with an IP blocker.

I wonder what IP address they detect when you're out to sea on a Princess ship - say somewhere off South America?

[AtlantaCruiser72]

3 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

I wonder what IP address they detect when you're out to sea on a Princess ship - say somewhere off South America?

Usually a US based IP unless you are on a ship that is "based" in Australia and has it's currency in AUD (Sea/Sun) then it would be an Australian one.

[islandwoman]

 

7 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Usually a US based IP unless you are on a ship that is "based" in Australia and has it's currency in AUD (Sea/Sun) then it would be an Australian one.

 

Curses, foiled again!

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Usually a US based IP unless you are on a ship that is "based" in Australia and has it's currency in AUD (Sea/Sun) then it would be an Australian one.

I like looking at Princess.com on a cruise as I don't have to see CAD numbers and do conversions to get the "real" fare.  😉

Of course, I usually have better things to do anyway.

 

[Go-Bucks!]

On 10/31/2019 at 10:09 PM, steelers36 said:

But anyone on a cruise does not have any greater access to book inventory than folks sitting at home.  

 

They do on Oceania...people on the current world cruise get the opportunity to book the newly released one before the general public does. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

They do on Oceania...people on the current world cruise get the opportunity to book the newly released one before the general public does. 

 

Holland does something similar for World Cruise and Grand Voyage guests allowing them to put in placeholder deposits onboard for yet to be announced World Cruises and Grand Voyages. Once announced the placeholder guests get their booking confirmations with final fares before any new bookings are accepted.  In some cases full World/Grand voyages have initially been sold out with a waiting list and full voyages not available to new bookings until very close to or after final payment deadline.

[paradiselivin1]

4 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

They do on Oceania...people on the current world cruise get the opportunity to book the newly released one before the general public does. 

Princess does the same.

[villauk]

You can use a VPN and see other another country’s pricing.

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Princess does the same.

Although I wonder how many of the passengers on a WC immediately book again for another without having at least a gap of time?  If I did one, I think I would wait a while before going around again.  Just me perhaps.

[paradiselivin1]

3 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Although I wonder how many of the passengers on a WC immediately book again for another without having at least a gap of time?  If I did one, I think I would wait a while before going around again.  Just me perhaps.

 

So...for the 2019 winter/spring WC passengers were offered the option to sign up for the 2021 WC since the 2020 had already been offered/launched a year earlier. People we know go every two years. What I am slowly learning (since we won't do our 1st until 2021) is that it is not uncommon for people to jump off during the WC; tour an area of interest; meet back up with the ship a week later at another port not too far away. It may sound crazy to some but I understand the concept as last year we flew to Barcelona for 2 week Med cruise; flew to Nairobi for 2 week safari in Kenya/Tanzania; flew to Copenhagen for the 11 night Baltic cruise spending time at the cities of embarcation for several days. That being said ~ there is a huge expense doing it that way & when I look at the track of some of the WC's it would cut out a lot of air travel which gets a bit pricey...

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

 

So...for the 2019 winter/spring WC passengers were offered the option to sign up for the 2021 WC since the 2020 had already been offered/launched a year earlier. People we know go every two years. What I am slowly learning (since we won't do our 1st until 2021) is that it is not uncommon for people to jump off during the WC; tour an area of interest; meet back up with the ship a week later at another port not too far away. It may sound crazy to some but I understand the concept as last year we flew to Barcelona for 2 week Med cruise; flew to Nairobi for 2 week safari in Kenya/Tanzania; flew to Copenhagen for the 11 night Baltic cruise spending time at the cities of embarcation for several days. That being said ~ there is a huge expense doing it that way & when I look at the track of some of the WC's it would cut out a lot of air travel which gets a bit pricey...

Yes, I could see us doing similar "jumping ship".  We are going to do that next fall when we travel from UK to Singapore.  Going ti jump ship to spend extra time in Dubai and then re-join.

 

BTW, your travels sound amazing.  We just did the Baltic this past June and it was terrific.  We spent time in Europe pre- and post-cruise.  It's a good way to do it.  If we were not using up the last of my FF miles from years of business travel, we could have booked EZ-Air for both legs (which I will certainly look to do in the future).  In hindsight, with the EZ-Air price deals I have read about this past year, perhaps I should have saved the points for other usage, but I am fine to be done with them.  Going to book EZ-Air for flight to London and return from Singapore.

 

[islandwoman]

Well, this is interesting:  3 midship balconies have magically appeared on deck 10 of the Brisbane - Brisbane WC.  Also 3 midship balconies have appeared on deck 9 of the Sydney to London segment, but I can't find any such cabins on the London to Sydney or even the London to NY segments.

I'm looking for a deck 9 midship balcony RT from Australia or New Zealand. (I get seasick) I might want to book it in segments so as to increase my Elite benefits.  But no such luck either way at this point. 

 

[paradiselivin1]

15 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

We are going to do that next fall when we travel from UK to Singapore.  Going ti jump ship to spend extra time in Dubai and then re-join.

Makes sense to me. Tired of the expense of flying from place to place when some of these cruises make it easy to jump of for a quick stay in desired location. Thinking about looking into one that does So. Africa as I'm ready to do a safari there as well and can either make that a stopping point or mid-point. You learn a lot when you hit the road  constantly - we're traveling about 6 months this year and keep learning on each trip! Enjoy your planning ~ found that is half of the fun!