Please help me understand the capacity limitations!

[KS17]

Okay, I don't get this. I have booked a cruise for next year on FOS. Another family wanted to join us. They are a family of 5 and were interested in one double and one triple. There are rooms available: however, because of the Coast Guard Restrictions, RC is only able to book 2 people in a room. Even a Family Oceanview! I spoke to my TA and confirmed with RC. This doesn't make sense to me. Why have so many rooms available that can sleep more than two if they won't be able to fill them on one sailing? :confused:

[cb at sea]

It may be that all the other berths are full and putting more than 2 per room would put the ship over the limit. Sounds weird, but that could be it. Is the ship almost full? Instead of your TA, why don't you call RCI yourself and see about booking this directly through them?

[wrp96]

Think about it this way. They have as many rooms as possible that can hold as many people as possible, that way to give people a choice of which rooms they want. Otherwise, the family of 4, would have much fewer options in rooms than 2 people traveling together. They do it this way so people can be flexible. Not every family of 4 wants to be stuck in an inside on deck 2, but not every family of 4 can afford a balcony on deck 7. Families want options of rooms, too.

 

The number of actual berths on the ship is much more than the actual capacity permitted by the Coast Guard. So if all the people that book early book rooms with 3 or 4 people in them full capacity is reached faster. That means that even though rooms that may accommodate 3 or 4 people are available closer to sailing, because there are already a lot of rooms with 3 or 4 people booked in them, only 2 people can be booked into those rooms.

 

This is why we highly recommend that if you think you want to add people to your room later on, you book them when you first book, instead of waiting until later. You can always cancel somebody from a room before final payment. But as you are unfortunately discovering now, you can't always add people.

 

This happens a lot with sailings during the summer, spring break, or the holidays, when families can cruise.

[KS17]

Hi CB

 

Yes, I called RCI and they said although there were definitely rooms available they are not able to book more than 2 in a room because of capacity limitations. There are triples, family oceanviews, etc. but they can only put 2 in a room. :( The cruise isn't until next summer.

[familycruzer]

I beliebe it really has to do with how many spaces they have available on life boats. Most likely a ton of quad cabins and family cabins have the berths filled so even though there are bigger staterooms available, they cant put more than two people in them.

[wrp96]

Hi CB

 

Yes, I called RCI and they said although there were definitely rooms available they are not able to book more than 2 in a room because of capacity limitations. There are triples, family oceanviews, etc. but they can only put 2 in a room. :( The cruise isn't until next summer.

 

Summer cruises book up fast. When RCCL released next summer's itinerarys they ran some great specials for 3rd and 4th passengers that really filled up ships. That being said, since the cruise isn't until next summer, keep trying. People will cancel before then.

[piercetc4]

is it possible to switch to another sailing that has the ability to book the rooms you now need?

[KS17]

Piercetc4

 

We are considering it. We were just so happy and excited with the sailing we chose. We wanted to sail as close to June as possible, because we felt the later in the summer we sailed the possible hurricaine chances increased. If we changed the date it would be for August which makes me a little nervous.

[RDeagazio]

As others have stated-- it's a Coast Guard Regulation and it has to do with the capacity limits of the regular lifeboats. Although there are life-rafts etc available for the entire capacity limit of the ship. The CG will only allow the lines to book to the capacity of the actual life boats. As cabins are mainly sold as doubles, they will not sell a bed from one of the doubles to make up your bed in a triple/quad. Keep checking back as someone will cancel and thus free up space.

[sailor moon]

We are having this problem on a spring break cruise. There are 4 of us (2 adults and 2 kids. We want the Royal Suite and RCCL can only book 2 into this cabin at this time. I check everyday to see if a 3/4 resevervation has been cancelled so we can add the 2 kids to our room! We may just have to go with out them...... :)

[Cruising89143]

The best time to check for cancellations is about three weeks before the final payment is due. Folks start canceling about this time and cabins open up. This may be your best bet.

[MGoBlue2]

SOLAS requires that there are lifeboat berths for 200% of passenger/crew and life jackets for 125%. Besides general life jacket capacity, there also has to be 125% life jacket capacity for infant/child life jackets. This can come into play on summer cruises since few of the 1/2 passengers need small life jackets compared to the 3/4 passengers.

[bplazo]

This happened to us on our last cruise. We just booked the girls in their own room. However, when I checked a month later they were accepting 3&4 passengers.

[shaqtime32]

I beliebe it really has to do with how many spaces they have available on life boats. Most likely a ton of quad cabins and family cabins have the berths filled so even though there are bigger staterooms available, they cant put more than two people in them.

 

ya i think ur right. no matter how many cabins are available they cant go over the limit of how many ppl can fit on lifeboats. any1 kno how many ppl can fit into a regular lifeboat? like 100?