Early December Cabin Availability -- What's the Deal?

[elycelynne]

So here I am a bit confused. I always kept hearing that early December was a very low demand time for cruises, yet here I am looking on various sites at cabins for the 12/6/09 Southern Caribbean sailing on the Westerdam (specifically verandahs), and all the sites are only giving me a few cabins on each deck, all of them either really far forward or aft. Are agencies holding onto large blocks of cabins? I can't believe that otherwise so many are already sold almost a year ahead of time. I realize that this sailing is also the first leg of a B2B, but would that make so big a difference?

 

Something else just occurred to me -- I'd be booking as a solo. As such, would they automatically allocate less desirable locations to me?

[Atomica]

All online agencies only show a few cabins as being available - it probably simplifies their online booking systems by not having to track 500 cabins at a time.

 

If you have a specific cabin or area of cabins you're interested in, a good TA can help you secure one of those. Some online sites allow you to search for a particular cabin's availability (like booking direct with HAL), but many just give you five or ten choices in a particular category.

 

Being December 2009, there should still be LOTS of availability!

[InTheWASide]

All online agencies only show a few cabins as being available - it probably simplifies their online booking systems by not having to track 500 cabins at a time.

 

If you have a specific cabin or area of cabins you're interested in, a good TA can help you secure one of those. Some online sites allow you to search for a particular cabin's availability (like booking direct with HAL), but many just give you five or ten choices in a particular category.

 

Being December 2009, there should still be LOTS of availability!

 

I agree with Aaron here.

 

One more thing that might be helpful to know...

 

While HAL will count out space in their inventory for a agency group, the rooms themselves are not removed until they specifically get booked. Think of it this way. If an agency says I'll book 20 rooms, they block out space as though there are 20 guarantee bookings. That just makes sure they don't overbook like crazy.

 

If a room isn't available it's because it's already been spoken for.

[elycelynne]

Would I be better off finding a "brick and mortar" travel agent as opposed to an online agency? If not necessarily so, is it fairly easy to change locations within the same cabin category if I find later on down the line that more cabins have opened up?

 

I also added another possible theory in my initial post. Would booking as a solo have anything to do with the limited availability?

[fmax]

Have you tried going through the process of booking on HALs website to see what cabins come up. Once you see availability there then you can go back to your online agencies to check for the specific cabins you were looking at.

[twinkletoes4445]

We booked our cruise 11 months in advance and I was surprised at how many cabins were showing not available. We booked a specific cabin, even though we really didn't like the location. I kept checking to see if the cabins I preferred opened, and they did, so I called our TA and we were moved. I think this was a few months after we initially booked. I don't know if the cabins were being held and they were just released, or they were booked and people changed their minds, but pretty much the entire block of rooms around the Neptune Lounge opened up, where none of them had been open when we booked.

[InTheWASide]

Would I be better off finding a "brick and mortar" travel agent as opposed to an online agency? If not necessarily so, is it fairly easy to change locations within the same cabin category if I find later on down the line that more cabins have opened up?

 

I also added another possible theory in my initial post. Would booking as a solo have anything to do with the limited availability?

 

If you choose to go through a TA a local one might be preferred since then you can easily reach them...

 

But you already seem to pretty much know what you want, so I get the impression a TA wouldn't even be necessary.

 

Yes changes are easy to make, and you can make them yourself if you book directly with HAL.

 

Booking as a single affects the price, but not availability.

[RuthC]

I also added another possible theory in my initial post. Would booking as a solo have anything to do with the limited availability?

No. Since (in another thread) you said you're looking at a cabin that will have a 100% single supplement, HAL doesn't care that only one person will be in the cabin. They get $$$ for two.

[elycelynne]

That's good to know. I thought it might be like some restaurants where they try to stick solo diners with crummy tables.

[Aunty Pat]

The online booking engines that the cruise lines have for travel agents' (both brick & mortar & online) use show several options to choose from:

• Numbers for 4 unassigned cabins at a time in each category with numbers starting with the lowest number at the front of the ship and working towards the back
  
• A blank for specifying a specific cabin
  
• As the ship fills up 4 guarantees will also be available to chose from
  
• When the category is almost oversold only the guarantees show up.
  

Aunty Pat

 

 

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