CABIN SELECTION ANNOYANCE

[sarellen8385]

Please remind me why the cruise lines (in this case, Princess) reserve all the cabins, listing few for customer selection! It is not possible for all the cabins on a particular deck (except for a few) to be booked 9 months in advance. Do they want my business or not? Tried guarantees in the past and will not go for that again.

Any tricks to navigate the cabin selection?

[Cruise Raider]

2 minutes ago, sarellen8385 said:

Please remind me why the cruise lines (in this case, Princess) reserve all the cabins, listing few for customer selection! It is not possible for all the cabins on a particular deck (except for a few) to be booked 9 months in advance. Do they want my business or not? Tried guarantees in the past and will not go for that again.

Any tricks to navigate the cabin selection?

Seems Princess might be trying the Holland America method.  New cruisers usually don’t mind but, like you, I don’t like it much either.  I guess all that we can do is voice our opinions until they are heard.  

[voljeep]

3 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Seems Princess might be trying the Holland America method.  New cruisers usually don’t mind but, like you, I don’t like it much either.  I guess all that we can do is voice our opinions until they are heard.  

work with a TA or CVP to see available cabins?

[Ellipooh]

I hate it. 
I’ve looked at five cruises (‘25-‘26) and will not book any of them because I am not permitted to choose my cabin. 

[sarellen8385]

Voljeep: travel agent says they see what we see online as to what is or is not available.

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, Ellipooh said:

I hate it. 
I’ve looked at five cruises (‘25-‘26) and will not book any of them because I am not permitted to choose my cabin. 

Funny I have chosen my cabin on every cruise I have taken and the 6 I have in the next 16 months

[NavyVeteran]

Is your cruise available as a longer combined cruise as well as in small segments? For example, some Mediterranean cruises are available as 7-day segments, 14-day segments, and 21-day segments. They may also be available as overlapping segments - for example, as a 14-day segment starting in the middle of another 14-day segment. If so, Princess will allocate some cabins to each booking option. I believe this may be a limitation in their booking system. A specific cabin may show as available for two consecutive 7-day segments but not for the 14-day segment combining them.

[Wishing on a star]

Navy makes a good point...  they hold back SO many cabins for those who are booking two or more segments together, leaving the choices for any one segment to be seriously lacking.

Another problem is the well known issue with Deluxe Balconies not being available to select for less than three guests.  There might be work-arounds for that.  But it is a HUGE problem.

 

I do not know if some better Travel Agents or Princess Planners might have a bit more ability/luck with knowing how to find more cabins 'available'....  But, not in my experience.

 

As far as voicing these concerns to Princess...  This is NOT new....

I do not, for one moment, think that they care.   I have no more affinity or respect for PRINCESS as a corporation.

Is the department that handles this not part of the 'Revenue' department.

Ugggghhhh.

[Bgwest]

Just booked a 27 day sailing in 2026. 

When looking at the entire 27 day sailing, 60% of the M1 cabins are unavailable. 
This caused me to look at the 12 day segment then the 15 day segment. 
 

 

When doing this,100% of the M1 cabins show available. I booked the sailing as 2 individual segments.  
 

Why does Princess do this? I wish I knew. 

[Wishing on a star]

Excellent tip for anyone booking more than one segment!!!

[cr8tiv1]

I just booked at cruise.  Actually, sent my TA an email at midnight and she booked it before I woke up this morning.  I could see the cabins available (I do not do guarantees).  

 

When I got up (and awake), I did look at other voyages.  The b2b was sold out...but the first leg still showed availability.  I wasn't interested in the b2b so it didn't matter to me...and got the cabin I wanted.

 

Made no sense to me.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

Just booked a 27 day sailing in 2026. 

When looking at the entire 27 day sailing, 60% of the M1 cabins are unavailable. 
This caused me to look at the 12 day segment then the 15 day segment. 
 

 

When doing this,100% of the M1 cabins show available. I booked the sailing as 2 individual segments.  
 

Why does Princess do this? I wish I knew. 

They do it to make sure people who want  the 27 day option have something to choose from. Otherwise you could have people who book 90% of the cabins for leg 1 leaving no cabins for those who want the 27 day

[DCThunder]

9 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

Just booked a 27 day sailing in 2026. 

When looking at the entire 27 day sailing, 60% of the M1 cabins are unavailable. 
This caused me to look at the 12 day segment then the 15 day segment. 
 

 

When doing this,100% of the M1 cabins show available. I booked the sailing as 2 individual segments.  
 

Why does Princess do this? I wish I knew. 

I ran into the exact same thing last week in looking to book a 35-day cruise in 2026.  Cabins I really wanted weren't available for the 35-day itinerary, but miraculously were available for the 17-day, then 18-day B2Bs.  My CVP took care of getting me booked into the cabin I wanted.  Two booking numbers, so two sets of SH OBC.

[Ken the cruiser]

For us we just booked a 2026 NL cruise linked with a TA back to the US. All of the front-facing M6 cabins were available on the combined 27-day cruise, with none available on the first leg which was the Northern Lights cruise. But it makes financial sense for PCL to do that, as those M6 cabins would get booked relatively quickly for the NL leg and be much harder to sell at a decent price on the follow-up TA leg. 

[ProfMHC]

Funny. Has opposite problem with Caribbean. Easy to book one week.  Very hard to get 14 day — in the same cabin. CVP has to book two 7 day. But when the Star came out he was definitely able to see cabin availability that was zero online, 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, ProfMHC said:

Funny. Has opposite problem with Caribbean. Easy to book one week.  Very hard to get 14 day — in the same cabin. CVP has to book two 7 day. But when the Star came out he was definitely able to see cabin availability that was zero online, 

That’s probably because there are a lot of folks, especially working families now, that like to book 7-day Caribbean cruises rather than the longer 14-21 day combined ones. OTOH older, retired folks like us like to book longer 3-5 week cruises and don’t like to change cabins. I think that’s why PCL has these 7, 14, 21 combination itineraries to attract both young and old, with the most desired cabins are usually available on the 7-day itineraries where they can charge the most for those highly sought after cabins.

[Spudd]

1 hour ago, sarellen8385 said:

Voljeep: travel agent says they see what we see online as to what is or is not available.

Your travel agent may not know what they're doing then, or else the cruise you're looking at has very limited rooms available. 

 

In the travel agent site there is a button to see all available cabins in the chosen category.

[Ken the cruiser]

Just now, Spudd said:

Your travel agent may not know what they're doing then, or else the cruise you're looking at has very limited rooms available. 

 

In the travel agent site there is a button to see all available cabins in the chosen category.

I’m assuming on a specific itinerary. What about when that 7-day itinerary is included in 11 different itinerary combinations like ours was when we booked a “combined” 21-day Med cruise made up of three 7-day cruises?

[Spudd]

Just now, Ken the cruiser said:

I’m assuming on a specific itinerary. What about when that 7-day itinerary is included in 11 different itinerary combinations like ours was when we booked a “combined” 21-day Med cruise made up of three 7-day cruises?

Then your TA needs to do some work and look at all the lists and find cabins that will work.

[Ken the cruiser]

Or we can do the same thing, and then tell our TA which one we would like them to book for us.

[leck57]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

They do it to make sure people who want  the 27 day option have something to choose from. Otherwise you could have people who book 90% of the cabins for leg 1 leaving no cabins for those who want the 27 day

 

As most people on here are saying,  it is the short legs showing as available and not the longer combined cruise legs. Recently found that myself. Could get a specific cabin for the Norway 7 day segment or the Baltics 14 day segment but couldn't for the 21 day combined, yet the same cabin was showing as available on the shorter legs.

[Cruise Raider]

3 hours ago, voljeep said:

work with a TA or CVP to see available cabins?

they can only see what I can see.  

[leck57]

35 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

they can only see what I can see.  

 

My TA has told me the same thing and they are very experienced. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

Funny I have chosen my cabin on every cruise I have taken and the 6 I have in the next 16 months

Same here...

[DallasGuy75219]

5 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Another problem is the well known issue with Deluxe Balconies not being available to select for less than three guests.  There might be work-arounds for that.  But it is a HUGE problem.

It's the same for all categories.  If there are available cabins that sleep 3 or 4, they won't show up online for someone trying to book a cabin for 2.