A Question About Travel Agents and Cabins

[Figsgrandma]

I have a question about the availability to travel agents of different cabins on a cruise. Does each travel agent have access to only certain cabins? If I want a certain category of cabin, but my travel agent says there's none available, might another travel agent still have one available in that category? Is the answer different as it gets closer to the time of a cruise?

[kitty9]

Some very large agencies book a large number of cabins and hold them for their customers, but every agent can book whatever category cabin you want---agencies aren't assigned particular cabins by the cruise line. If a particular cabin or cabin category is fully booked, you can waste time by calling a lot of other agencies to see if they have booked space, but I think that would not be worth the effort. If a TA says the cabin you want is unavailable, then you can bet that the cabin has already been booked by another passenger.

 

As you get closer to final payment time, which is usually 70 days from departure, some cabins might open up because people cancel their cruise, but you cannot count on a particular cabin or category of cabin opening up. But, to sum up, every agent has an equal chance of booking any cabin or category that you want and they are not restricted in any way to only booking a particular cabin or category.

[Figsgrandma]

Kitty9, thanks.

 

One of the reasons I was wondering was that when we booked our first (and so far only) cruise, we had looked at the cruise line's web site, and the choice of cabins that came up didn't seem to include one we wanted, even if I kept clicking on 'view more cabins', yet the travel agent was able to give us a choice in the category and location we did want.

[HappyStamper]

When we booked last spring and wanted an adjacent cabin that could accomodate three passengers for the kids our TA didn't have anything available "in her block". She called RCI to find out if the cabins we were interested in were still available and had RCI add them to "her block". So it sounds to me like different agencies have different cabins on hold for their customers.

[JanetMarie]

Over the years of cruising, I, too, have noticed the "difference" in available cabins. One web site may have the whole deck available, another only half...

[WeBeGone]

Unless an agency has a group of cabins blocked for their use only, then all cabins are available to everyone. Cabins not sold by an agency 75 days prior to sailing are returned to the cruise line inventory. If you were trying to get a triple cabin, there might have been none available because there are only a limited number of quads and triples on a ship.

[Fran0521]

I have a question about the availability to travel agents of different cabins on a cruise. Does each travel agent have access to only certain cabins? If I want a certain category of cabin, but my travel agent says there's none available, might another travel agent still have one available in that category? Is the answer different as it gets closer to the time of a cruise?

 

 

We booked our up coming November cruise back in February. I started out with one travel agency (which is a very large one), one we always used, except this case the agent was different (the original girl moved away). Gave her the week and the cabin we wanted. She got back to me said neither were available. She came back with an alternative at a higher price. I called another TA at a much smaller agency (their connections for availability maybe better than the first one I used, I'm not sure of that) but not only did we get the week we originally wanted, but the original cabin at a much lower price. This was the first time out of 9 cruises we have had a problem with an agency telling us she couldn't get the week and cabin we requested.

[serene56]

Over the years of cruising, I, too, have noticed the "difference" in available cabins. One web site may have the whole deck available, another only half...

 

You will not see all availabity of cabins available on any ship. You will only be seeing 7-9 cabins at a time of any category. (not sure how the top of line cruise ships work- I never even ventured to look) This doesnt mean that certain cabins are not available. Your agent can determine this by calling the cruiselines itself to see if a deposit was made on a certain cabin.

 

Fran: maybe at the time you called for a certain cabin someone had it on hold for 48 hours and didnt come up with a deposit in time. Thats why it was available the next week.

[doone]

I always book early to insure that I get the cabin that I want, so far so good. My TA is great and has always gotten the exact cabins we wanted or within 1 or 2 cabins in the area.

[Fran0521]

Fran: maybe at the time you called for a certain cabin someone had it on hold for 48 hours and didnt come up with a deposit in time. Thats why it was available the next week.

 

Serene, that could be a possibility, but the second call was made within an hour of the first. The first TA I called, had an attitude with what we wanted to do right from the start. We have cruised 9 times this was the first time we ever had a problem. In this case, I know the first TA was trying to get us on the 11/06 cruise instead of the 11/13/04 week we originally wanted. What she could have said if that were the case was " I can't get you into that cabin that week, but I do have such and such available, the week of the 13th". Which would not have been a problem as long as it was the same catagory..After the arrangements were complete with the second TA, we had the cruise confirmation, hotel confirmation (going down the day before) and flight along with seat assignments, confirmed by our TA in email all within 5 or 6 hrs, then followed up by regular mail. So now all is fine, we have our arrangements, even just reserved with the local Park and Fly for the week, now just have to pack and go. :)

[critterchick]

The cabins we prefer (aft minis) almost never show as "available" on, say, Travelocity or the RCCI website. But our TA has always been able to get one for us (knock wood). We book way in advance, as you can see from my siggie!