Can a ship be full a year in advance?

[AVAD]

For all you RC vets, I have a question. We usually book about 10-12 months in advance and take one European cruise and one Caribbean cruise a year--and we prefer RC but book other lines since we book for itineraries.

In looking for next Sept and October, I find that at least 2 Med cruises say the balcony cabins are sold out and the outside prices are ridiculous. Unfortunately, one I looked at is $900 per cabin higher this week for an OV than it was last week with a $600 credit. :mad:

Can the ship be almost full already, and is there any possibility that balcony cabins will become available if they say sold out? I note that there are only 2 people on the roll call of one of the sold out sailings and that seems fishy to me.

Any insights as to RC in this would be helpful. Thanks.

Ava

[Vitamin_Sea]

why not do a mock booking and see what comes up?

[PuterMonkey]

It's always possible that the sailing was chartered/a large group is sailing/large blocks by travel agents/etc. Try googling the sailing and date, or checking on a general travel site.

[setsail]

What did rci say when you called them?

[TheInnocentAge]

why not do a mock booking and see what comes up?

 

From the first post, it sounds like the OP has already tried that.

 

OP, it's possible that the cruise has almost sold out, but not very probable, especially given what you said about the roll call. It may have been chartered by a large corporate group that didn't quite need the whole ship, which may explain why there are still a few cabins available. I've seen that happen once before on a cruise I was interested in. One day there were hundreds of cabins available, and the next there were only a dozens or so left. Maybe check with Royal and see what they say.

 

Edit: As I was typing, I see that others have responded with some of these thoughts as well. Good luck!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Yes--all balcony cabins could be sold out this far in advance. I booked a GS on the Serenade out of New Orleans during the first days of the BOGOHO sale for a very nice price. [first full suite for us] All of the suites for that cruise were sold out within days. They still are. Also, anytime I do see a suite come available it is thousands more than I paid.

 

I think the BOGOHO sale filled up some ships.

 

Keep in mind, that many ships [Vision class] do not have than many balcony cabins compared to the newer ships. They sell out fast.

 

Could be a partial group sailing, too.

 

There is a "sale" going on currently that included OBC. the prices seemed to jump quite a bit with this.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

 

OP, it's possible that the cruise has almost sold out, but not very probable, especially given what you said about the roll call. !

 

From my reading of the OP's post they said all of the balcony cabins are sold out. OP mentioned OV's available at a high price.

I looked to see what ships are sailing in the Med in Sept and October. The Rhapsody, splendor and Vision all have a limited number of balcony cabins compared to newer/larger ships. These sell out quickly.

[AZAficionado]

I'll address your questions as best I can:

In looking for next Sept and October, I find that at least 2 Med cruises say the balcony cabins are sold out and the outside prices are ridiculous. Unfortunately, one I looked at is $900 per cabin higher this week for an OV than it was last week with a $600 credit.

Cruise prices change more often than I change my underwear and I've yet to understand the reasoning behind it. Obviously, the changes are to stay competitive/profitable, but they seems to be mostly random.

Can the ship be almost full already,

Sure, but it is not very likely unless there are special circumstances - entire cruise ships are "bought out" for theme cruises. Also, depending on the sale prices, some cabins will be gobbled up. My upcoming Panama cruise was like that. Full suites were priced cheaper than Junior Suites with the BOGOHO sale. I couldn't click the "Book It" button fast enough.

and is there any possibility that balcony cabins will become available if they say sold out?

You betcha. People cancel their reservations all the time. Until the ship actually sets sail, there is always a chance.

I note that there are only 2 people on the roll call of one of the sold out sailings and that seems fishy to me.

Participation in the roll call may or may not reflect the number of passengers booked. It all depends on the individual passengers.

 

If you want that "perfect" cabin with the "ideal" itinerary at fire sale prices, you have to be patient and start looking early (more than one year out).

[Goodtime Cruizin]

try sea scanner dot com

[insidecabin]

Pricing is mess as we are between sales.

 

Some European cruises sell well on certain grades of cabin.

[knittinggirl]

We had booked our Hawaii repo and about 18 months before we lost our booking because they decided to send the Rhapsody to Asia. We did get $400 OBC for the inconvenience. But we had two weeks to rebook, and they chose the two weeks that included Thanksgiving weekend.

[irishcropper]

You must be looking at the Sept. 25, 2015 Vision sailing. I am one of the two members on the roll call. When I booked during the BOGOH over a month ago, all the balcony cabins were sold out. I also wonder where all those cruisers could be! Several other roll calls a year out are very active. Hopefully, some fellow passengers will chime in soon.

[AVAD]

You must be looking at the Sept. 25, 2015 Vision sailing. I am one of the two members on the roll call. When I booked during the BOGOH over a month ago, all the balcony cabins were sold out. I also wonder where all those cruisers could be! Several other roll calls a year out are very active. Hopefully, some fellow passengers will chime in soon.

 

Yes, the one I was most interested in is the Vision on 9/25/15, although the October sailing shows all the balcony cabins sold out too.

Thanks for all the insights, everyone. When I called RC yesterday, they said the ship had not been booked by a big group or anything, as that was my first thought.

I guess I started looking too late, although I am going to keep checking and hope availability increases or prices come down with the next sale. The present sale is a rip off IMHO. We really aren't interested in huge shipboard credits since we usually don't do many ships excursions and aren't big drinkers.

Thanks again

Ava

[north29]

In booking on RC web site, or maybe even on a ship. They only show or see what has not been turned over to travel agencies. As the magic 60 or 70 out day nears many TA will turn in or back cabins they have not sold. Now they cabins could be sold for more or less than the original price, so it is a crap shoot as to what cabins may or may not become available.

[Desert Cruizers]

For our Oct 19, 2015 SOS Quebec to FT Lauderdale, which I booked our JS last Feb before we left for our Australia/NZ cruise and 6 months after I booked our JS all suites were gone. Presently there are only OV & Inside maybe around 25 total cabins.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Desert Cruizers

[Cruzin-K]

My Jewel OTS cruise this past January had all balconies sold out over a year in advance. I booked my balcony the day the cruise opened for booking, or I'd have been out of luck. As it turned out, there was a large group of HVAC contractors on board. They'd all been given the trip by a large HVAC manufacturer (I think).

 

The theater was half empty for most of the shows - I think the group had other activities that conflicted. I felt bad for the performers, with so many empty seats.

[3kids1dog]

Try doing a mock booking for 3 people instead of 2. I booked on Jewel for March 2015 last May, and by June it looked like all the balconies were sold out. If you did a booking for 3, instead of 2, balconies were then available. Now, within the last month or so, balconies are suddenly available again. The price changes every minute it seems, but suddenly, all those balconies that I thought were sold out in June (which I thought seemed weird) are suddenly available as we get closer. Maybe someone else can explain the 2 or 3 person balconies, someone explained it on my post with kind of the same question last spring.

[tidygirl]

We just did a Med cruise in Sept. For quite awhile before the cruise it was saying the balcony cabins were all sold out. Come to find out when we got on the ship a group had booked all of the balcony rooms so that could be what is going on. Like someone else had posted they felt bad for the performers so did we since many shows were almost empty on our cruise too.

[Desert Cruizers]

The situation with trying to book 3 to a room later in the cruise, they allow only so many 3 to a room within a certain area of the ship, reason for this, is the lifeboat capacity. Say in a block of 20 cabins they allow 10 rooms to have 3 to a room, once that section of rooms reaches their quoto, then no more 3 to a room can be booked within that sections of rooms.

[Coralc]

Actually, it is Royal Caribbean's newish policy that cabins which hold 3 or 4 (excluding suites) may no longer be booked by only 2 passengers during high season and on popular sailings.

 

They may, apparently relax the rule when it gets closer to sailing.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Coralc