When is "Sold Out" not sold out ?

[Cruisemeister2002]

I like to go on the Princess website and although have booked a cruise for a couple of months time like to see how sold out the ship is. As recently as less than a week ago having gone through every deck and every grade cabin there were a lot of most types of cabin available, maybe getting a little less on balcony and premium balcony. Going on the website today it states that all inside and ocean view are sold and that grades of balcony can only be reserve but not an individual cabin chosen. Now I am aware cruise lines play these little games where they are trying to push certain types of cabin by removing other types and once they have shifted the one's they want to then re-introducing the types they are less concerned about selling as they are probably cheaper as per inside against superior balcony say. What do you think ? Are inside really sold out or are they playing games to get rid of higher grade cabins.

[Italy52]

I am very frustrated with what Princess is doing.  I have been looking at 2025 Alaska balcony pricing and there is non to be had.  I have been checking for quite a while so I know it isn't just a computer glitch.  I even went over to Holland America and the same thing was happening over there --- something sure seems fishy.

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Italy52 said:

I even went over to Holland America and the same thing was happening over there --- something sure seems fishy.

PCL, HAL, Seabourn & P&O Australia (closing soon) are all part of the Holland America Group with Jan Swartz as president so based on your experiences those might be her decisions.

 

[BazingAu]

If the ship doesn't have many inside cabins, they might be all sold out. I've seen some cabins get re-released when they assign guarantee cabins or they process bid upgrades. Have you tried looking at cabins for different # of people? Sometimes they do not release the 3 or 4 pax cabins to 2 guests until closer to sailing or you work with a TA who can "unlock" the other types of cabins.

[peety3]

If I told you Princess' booking system is antiquated and limited, would you believe me? 🙂

 

I've heard that if any particular voyage can be sold in more than one way (e.g. as a simple 7-day cruise, explicitly sold as a 14-day B2B, and/or sold as a cruisetour), Princess has to allocate rooms to each different sales mechanism individually. They can move that inventory between the different sales mechanisms manually, but a room unsold for a cruisetour is not available for a cruise and vice versa.

[cruisinsince75]

41 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

PCL, HAL, Seabourn & P&O Australia (closing soon) are all part of the Holland America Group with Jan Swartz as president so based on your experiences those might be her decisions.

 

I knew that HAL and Seabourn were operated by the Holland America Group out of Seattle.  I did not know that Princess was.  I know they are all part of Carnival Corp.  

[capriccio]

Is it past final payment?  If so, maybe they are in the process of allocating guaranteed cabins and mark those categories sold out until the allocations are completed.  At that time they can put any remaining cabins in those categories up for sale or upgrades.

[Cruisemeister2002]

2 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Is it past final payment?  If so, maybe they are in the process of allocating guaranteed cabins and mark those categories sold out until the allocations are completed.  At that time they can put any remaining cabins in those categories up for sale or upgrades.

That's actually another strange thing as we received an invite to bid from our inside to balconies with restricted view, balconies with no restricted views and superior balconies. What I found strange was if we had booked a balcony now as opposed to an inside the difference was £500 or around $650. But bidding from an inside to an ocean view was £700 or just over $900 and for an ordinary balcony it was £1,300 or $1,680. When using the sliders to bid on the balcony it also came up as poor bidding £1,300 that figure would obviously be times two. So the difference instead of being £1,000 would be more than £2,600 via the bidding process. I would have loved a balcony, not that it matters hugely as crossing the pond in September we are not that likely to be sitting on a balcony much. But given the huge difference in bidding against paying for a better cabin from the outset there's no way I would pay that much more. 

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, peety3 said:

If I told you Princess' booking system is antiquated and limited, would you believe me? 🙂

Yes!!

[LACruiser88]

1 hour ago, Astro Flyer said:

PCL, HAL, Seabourn & P&O Australia (closing soon) are all part of the Holland America Group with Jan Swartz as president so based on your experiences those might be her decisions.

 

Jan Swartz is no longer with the Holland America Group, she is now Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations for Carnival Corporation.  This moved happened last year.

 

I'm not sure who took over her position???  🤷‍♂️

 

 

[paddingtonbear]

We have booked a Canada cruise for Sept 2025 and there are very few cabins left. I talked to our TA and she said that demand has bee huge this year. There may be more inventory after final payment. And, people drop out through the year. 
 

Maybe it’s not all shenanigans by princess? 
 

some of the “deals” on airlines to upgrade at the last minute are unbelievably expensive. I think they catch the unwary or the desperate. 

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, Astro Flyer said:

PCL, HAL, Seabourn & P&O Australia (closing soon) are all part of the Holland America Group with Jan Swartz as president so based on your experiences those might be her decisions.

 

Jan Swartz has not been head of HA Group  for a year or so. She got shuffled of to be Exec VP Strategic Operations a while back. The new organization has more lines reporting directly to the Carnival Corp CEO. Though Princess and HAL still do share some shore side functions.

[Italy52]

2 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

PCL, HAL, Seabourn & P&O Australia (closing soon) are all part of the Holland America Group with Jan Swartz as president so based on your experiences those might be her decisions.

 

I knew all the cruise lines mentioned above were part of the same group and thought something was going on.  I am not a fan of withholding information especially when I am trying to book in advance.  I am a long-time Princess cruiser but if this is going to be the new norm then I am going to be looking elsewhere for my cruising needs.  I know Princess could care less about my decision-- I just had to rant.

[richstowe]

1 hour ago, paddingtonbear said:

Maybe it’s not all shenanigans by princess? 

People like to believe in shenanigans and can you blame them.

Edited July 23 by richstowe
Shenanigans

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

Jan Swartz has not been head of HA Group  for a year or so. She got shuffled of to be Exec VP Strategic Operations a while back. The new organization has more lines reporting directly to the Carnival Corp CEO. Though Princess and HAL still do share some shore side functions.

Thanks for the update…I did search online & only found that she was the HAG president but will remember it in the future.

 

@LACruiser88 Thanks for this info:

 

Jan Swartz is no longer with the Holland America Group, she is now Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations for Carnival Corporation.  This moved happened last year.

 

I'm not sure who took over her position???  🤷‍♂️

Edited July 23 by Astro Flyer

[LACruiser88]

@Astro Flyer  With the new direct reports to corporate, I believe they eliminated the HAL group and position.