Strange question about wierd booking patterns

[d&a Delaware]

I am booked in a Concierge Class cabin on Summit for the November 5, 2016 seven night Southern Caribbean sailing from San Juan. From time to time I go to the Celebrity website to do a ghost booking in hopes of finding a price drop, and my most recent foray into that quest showed that at this point, nearly 6 months before the cruise, two cabin categories (Balcony cabins and Concierge cabins) are completely sold out. There appear to be lots of cabins available in all other categories. A quick check of other Summit 7 night sailings in November indicated one or two cabin categories (not always the same categories) sold out, while lots of cabins available in other categories. This pattern seems to me to be very strange. Why are entire categories of cabins selling out six months in advance of sailings in a month which is not usually seen as a high demand month (pre Thanksgiving, anyway)?

 

Allen and I usually sail in high demand months (spring break and summer months), and I have never before seen this pattern of discrete categories of cabins completely sold out six months before sailing. What's going on?

 

David

[FlorenceItaly]

David,

 

This is very interesting, especially early in November. It's possible some travel agencies are holding group space. Like you, I follow pricing, and find it pretty interesting. I have five upcoming cruises and they have all gone up in price. I keep hoping for a drop, but, so far it is not happening. I got GOOD deals on all of them.

 

 

 

Marie

[DrivesLikeMario]

There could be a lot of TAs holding Group space in those categories or a large affinity group (a group of persons with a common interest) that has booked the cabins, or even a combination of both. You can do a google search for your sailing date and the ship and see what comes up. I didn't see anything but I didn't look thoroughly. I think there's also a website that lists all the groups that have booked cruises but I don't remember the address.

[SeaHunt]

There could be a lot of TAs holding Group space in those categories or a large affinity group (a group of persons with a common interest) that has booked the cabins, or even a combination of both. You can do a google search for your sailing date and the ship and see what comes up. I didn't see anything but I didn't look thoroughly.

 

I dug around a little and I agree with the TA holding group space scenario. I found page after page of TA's advertising this particular sailing for booking as an "8 night Caribbean package with one night in SJ" (11/4 Caribe Hilton or better).

 

OP google "CEL SM 110516 SJU" and check it out. :)

[jimmieg]

Interesting - Googling that link I do see many agents offering the cruise, but all agencies lead to identical web page and pricing. I suspect one agency with many home based agents operating under their own small business names, has locked up rooms for the time being.

[NanaChar]

Ahh. That could explain our cruise. We grabbed the last RS about 4 weeks ago for our Sept 2016 cruise. Sunday, suddenly four (half the number on the ship) were available.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[pete_coach]

Something also you may wish to try is deleting all your cookies.

Cookies keep track of you (your computer) and your visits and the website may change based on the number of visits.

There is no such thing as "ghost" visits as the cookies know exactly who you are :)

[Zoedokey]

There could be a lot of TAs holding Group space in those categories or a large affinity group (a group of persons with a common interest) that has booked the cabins, or even a combination of both. You can do a google search for your sailing date and the ship and see what comes up. I didn't see anything but I didn't look thoroughly. I think there's also a website that lists all the groups that have booked cruises but I don't remember the address.

 

I just did this for my Alaska sailing next June and I found that a Canadian Square Dancing group will be there that week. They are bringing three of their own callers along. Will this effect the venues for evening entertainment do you think?

[d&a Delaware]

Thanks all for your responses. I had suspected something like an umbrella TA (one that coordinates for lots of smaller individual TAs) scooping up groups of cabins to offer in some sort of package or "group" rate, and this could also explain why variations on this same scheme seem to be appearing on other November cruises for Summit. I have lots to learn about the travel industry :confused:.

 

Pete_coach -- you are absolutely right about the cookies and I have the general expectation that I am being tracked on most of the sites where I do business. Though I guess the term "straw" booking would have been more accurate than "ghost" booking.

 

SeaHunt -- thanks for the link. Curious me will take a look.

 

David

[d&a Delaware]

I dug around a little and I agree with the TA holding group space scenario. I found page after page of TA's advertising this particular sailing for booking as an "8 night Caribbean package with one night in SJ" (11/4 Caribe Hilton or better).

 

OP google "CEL SM 110516 SJU" and check it out. :)

 

Still some mystery here about available (if any) Balcony & Concierge class cabins on this Nov. 5 sailing. The 8 night package deal appears to be offering only inside, ocean view and suite cabins -- same as are available through the Celebrity website.

 

David