Carnival Fascination... I don't understand!

We are looking for a cruise over New Year's and came upon the Fascination. However, when selecting balcony cabins the only thing that comes up are guarantee balconies. I know that ship does not have many balcony cabins but don't understand why we can't select some this far out. Help me understand this please and what it might mean for us.

They have sold most of their balconies is what comes to mind

This is a small ship with much fewer balcony cabins than a larger newer ship. And you’re looking at a holiday sailing when schools out. Those type of sailings sell out of their premium cabins pretty quick. If it were a year in advance and they were sold out I would be shocked. But slightly over 6 months away and being sold out for a big holiday sailing like New Years is no surprise. If you’re looking at a cabin for 4 switch it up and see if you can book two cabins for two people near each other. Maybe an inside and a balcony across from each other. Or keep checking to see if something opens up. Right before final final payment is due some cabins become available. Or check with some of the online TA’s that buy out blocks of cabins and see if they’ve got some balcony cabins available. Good luck.

A New Years sailing is a high season sailing, so a max occupancy restriction is most likely in place. What that means is that Carnival will only sell you a cabin on that sailing if every single bed will be filled (for example, they won’t sell a cabin for 4 people if only 2 will occupy it).

With that said, a possible scenario is that there are plenty of balconies left for your sailing, but not for the occupancy that you’re requesting. In that case, Carnival will sell you a balcony as a guarantee and will then assign a cabin number to you closer to departure date based on what’s left in inventory at that time. Once again, this is just a possible scenario.

The other scenario is that some travel agencies may have blocked large groups of balconies (once again, it’s a high season/high demand sailing). In that case you may need to have some patience until they release unsold cabins.

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If balcony GTY's are available, why not just book one? You know you'll end up on balcony and it's usually cheaper than picking a cabin.

If the OP is set on a balcony out of San Juan, there are other lines like Celebrity and NCL that also sail from that port. Who knows, you might even find a lower cabin fare as well. I did, but that was for a solo inside in December and again the next year in January, but neither was a New Years sailing.

We are looking for a cruise over New Year's and came upon the Fascination. However, when selecting balcony cabins the only thing that comes up are guarantee balconies. I know that ship does not have many balcony cabins but don't understand why we can't select some this far out. Help me understand this please and what it might mean for us.

That is not that far out - it's 6 months. Many people book 2 year+. And as others have said, balconies are few and far between on the Fascination. The rooms are old ocean views (ie no couch) where they have welded on the balcony portion and added a door.

I would call Carnival and speak directly about booking options.

Re-do your booking paying vey close attention to the buttons you press. A while ago there was a slight change to Carnival's website and one of those changes was the addition of a button that takes toy directly to checkout with what basically is a guarantee room. You simply checkout and Carnival assigns your room. You have to pick the "let me choose my room options" to be able to puck your rate, room location, etc.