Limiting passenger capacity?

[Cruise Raider]

We are on three cruises, all of which appeared to have availability on cabins but are showing as ‘Currently Not Available’…. All of which are on the Royal Princess.  When booking a cabin for a friend, my CVP said she would have to check capacity before booking it because of a staffing shortage.  I didn’t think to ask her about it at that time, wish I would have as she is so busy, I really don’t want call her back and waste her time with such an insignificant question.  However, if there are any travel agents on here that might be able to answer the question of limiting capacity, particularly on the Royal Princess, I’d really appreciate it.  

Maybe they are all actually sold out and have no cabin availability?  Just wondering what to expect.  

 

[sandyoftheseas]

Our Sept 1st cruise on Diamond Princess said "Currently Not Available" for about 2 weeks (I checked it daily) then about 2 weeks ago we got an email that the cruise was cancelled so we had to scramble to find another vacation to take. I would recommend to think of a plan B just in case the cruise is cancelled.

[Alcairns]

We are on Sky in October and it has been unavailable for the last three weeks or so. I have spoken to my PCS at Princess and she said all is well. In fact we got a change of itinerary on Friday. I suspect that staffing problems are dictating availability. That is to say they are trying to maintain passenger crew ratios. 

[partybarbie]

Even though I don't have any inside information from a travel agent, I was on the Royal last month. The ship appeared to be fully staffed, although we were sailing at about two thirds capacity.

 

It's strange that some of the cruises showing unavailable now, were available last week when we booked a Mexican Riviera cruise. Perhaps the unavailable cruises are actually sold out? 

[vjmatty]

On the TA website, my Regal cruise in October showed every single category being waitlisted immediately after the final payment date passed.  From what understand, they are trying to balance staff ratios as well as still needing to keep enough cabins open for possible isolation.

[PacnGoNow]

We have the same on the Crown and several cruises before it. TA said it shows sold out, but he can’t see what cabins are still available.

 

A CVP might be able to see more, IDK.

 

[donswife]

1 hour ago, partybarbie said:

Even though I don't have any inside information from a travel agent, I was on the Royal last month. The ship appeared to be fully staffed, although we were sailing at about two thirds capacity.

 

It's strange that some of the cruises showing unavailable now, were available last week when we booked a Mexican Riviera cruise. Perhaps the unavailable cruises are actually sold out? 

It  is great to hear there were adequate staff for being at 2/3 capacity.  If the ship is full, more staff are needed in many departments,  such as room steward, dining room servers, kitchen  staff, room service delivery,  laundry,  etc. I'm glad someone is recognizing that quality of passenger experience matters. It is quite a shift from a year ago, running ships with more crew than passengers. 

[rheathslc]

42 minutes ago, donswife said:

It  is great to hear there were adequate staff for being at 2/3 capacity.  If the ship is full, more staff are needed in many departments,  such as room steward, dining room servers, kitchen  staff, room service delivery,  laundry,  etc. I'm glad someone is recognizing that quality of passenger experience matters. It is quite a shift from a year ago, running ships with more crew than passengers. 

Those were the days! Our cruise on the Royal that leaves in 12 days has only about 16% of cabins showing available on the website which is the least amount by far of any of our post restart cruises. It should be interesting to see how crowded it feels now after those ones.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, rheathslc said:

Those were the days! Our cruise on the Royal that leaves in 12 days has only about 16% of cabins showing available on the website which is the least amount by far of any of our post restart cruises. It should be interesting to see how crowded it feels now after those ones.

Let us know. Also ask if they are doing capacity control these days. They probably know.

[John99]

Alaska Discovery Princess 7 day Inside Passage 2023 Season

 

I checked the Princess web site for a Deluxe Balcony (all levels) for the months of June, July and August -- the following appears on the screen:

 

We're Sorry

There are no longer any stateroom available in this area. Try another deck, or a different section of the ship.

 

Capacity control because of labor shortage? 

Possibly holding back cabins for the new bidding process?

[tonit964]

3 hours ago, donswife said:

It  is great to hear there were adequate staff for being at 2/3 capacity.  If the ship is full, more staff are needed in many departments,  such as room steward, dining room servers, kitchen  staff, room service delivery,  laundry,  etc. I'm glad someone is recognizing that quality of passenger experience matters. It is quite a shift from a year ago, running ships with more crew than passengers. 

This actually makes sense. It might also explain why all of the 2022 sailings on the Sapphire are showing ‘ currently not available’.

The rep told me a couple of weeks ago when I called that they are sold out, which I know my sailing on 9/24 was not.

Maybe they are capacity controlled. I sure hope this is the reason. Fingers crossed they don’t get canceled which is what I’m thinking is going to happen.

[NavyVeteran]

1 hour ago, John99 said:

Alaska Discovery Princess 7 day Inside Passage 2023 Season

 

I checked the Princess web site for a Deluxe Balcony (all levels) for the months of June, July and August -- the following appears on the screen:

 

We're Sorry

There are no longer any stateroom available in this area. Try another deck, or a different section of the ship.

 

Capacity control because of labor shortage? 

Possibly holding back cabins for the new bidding process?

Are other cabin categories available? Capacity control would limit the total number of people on the ship. They wouldn't gain anything by limiting Deluxe Balcony but allowing people to book inside, outside, and regular balcony.

 

Why would they ever hold back cabins for the bidding process? If someone is willing to book at full price, why would they prefer selling it for a bid at less than full price?

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

John99,

Just in case this helps in your situation.  There might have been some kind of issue or 'glitch' in the system wth the Deluxe Balcony cabins.   Since they are deluxe balconies, they can sleep more than two.  It is possible that trying to book for 2 guests, that the system will not find or show any of these cabins for you.

 

Try to act like you are making a booking for 3, or for 4, guests.  See if any Deluxe Balconies show up for you to select from.

 

IF THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, I do not know if there is any easy work-around.  Perhaps book for 3, to get the cabin, and then take that extra person off?

[rheathslc]

1 hour ago, NavyVeteran said:

Are other cabin categories available? Capacity control would limit the total number of people on the ship. They wouldn't gain anything by limiting Deluxe Balcony but allowing people to book inside, outside, and regular balcony.

I have noticed several other cruises where there are some of every cabin type available EXCEPT Deluxe Balcony (even suites and club class minis) which seems strange to me. I don't think it would make sense to limit just that category either but it also seems strange that just that one category would be the only one sold out on the many cruises I've looked at. Maybe those are the ones they are using for quarantine? I know the quarantine cabins are balconies at the very least. But who really knows. 🙂 

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

There is the off chance that you might meed other solo cruisers,  either on the roll-call here on Cruise Critic.  Or once onboard.

 

Remember, dining isn't locked-in, and can always be changed or adjusted!

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Oooooops!!!   somehow that post above is here, instead of the thread it should be.  Sorry!

[latebloomer56]

3 hours ago, tonit964 said:

This actually makes sense. It might also explain why all of the 2022 sailings on the Sapphire are showing ‘ currently not available’.

The rep told me a couple of weeks ago when I called that they are sold out, which I know my sailing on 9/24 was not.

Maybe they are capacity controlled. I sure hope this is the reason. Fingers crossed they don’t get canceled which is what I’m thinking is going to happen.

For the Sapphire at least all is well. When the Diamond canceled and our trip showed currently not available I called my TA, she talked to them and the cruise was still a go.

We changed our return flight on their air and they had no issue with that or our transfer. Could also book dining last week. So hoping we get to cruise this year if not I have a backup plan.

[tonit964]

2 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

For the Sapphire at least all is well. When the Diamond canceled and our trip showed currently not available I called my TA, she talked to them and the cruise was still a go.

We changed our return flight on their air and they had no issue with that or our transfer. Could also book dining last week. So hoping we get to cruise this year if not I have a backup plan.

I’m cautiously optimistic now, but any TA is not going to know anymore than we do as far as if the cruise is a go or not. 
I really hope they are learning with past sailings and are capacity controlling these cruises by cutting off the bookings. 
 

I may just have my Caribe balcony 10 day birthday cruise after all and all the sailings after mine will be good too!

Fingers crossed for all of us!

[latebloomer56]

15 hours ago, tonit964 said:

I’m cautiously optimistic now, but any TA is not going to know anymore than we do as far as if the cruise is a go or not. 
I really hope they are learning with past sailings and are capacity controlling these cruises by cutting off the bookings. 
 

I may just have my Caribe balcony 10 day birthday cruise after all and all the sailings after mine will be good too!

Fingers crossed for all of us!

Fingers crossed as well we sail in 42 days to Hawaii. 

TA would have called them but she deals better with NCL, like all TA's they do it all but are better with some things.

[ReadyToCruise2]

22 hours ago, PRINCESS Sweet Pea said:

John99,

Just in case this helps in your situation.  There might have been some kind of issue or 'glitch' in the system wth the Deluxe Balcony cabins.   Since they are deluxe balconies, they can sleep more than two.  It is possible that trying to book for 2 guests, that the system will not find or show any of these cabins for you.

 

Try to act like you are making a booking for 3, or for 4, guests.  See if any Deluxe Balconies show up for you to select from.

 

IF THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, I do not know if there is any easy work-around.  Perhaps book for 3, to get the cabin, and then take that extra person off?

Great suggestion!

 

We recently wanted to book a Deluxe Balcony cabin on a Feb 2023 cruise for 2.  When we looked on-line, all the Deluxe Balconies showed either with "No Longer Any Stateroom Available . . ." on most decks or on a few decks got the "Reserve a Guaranteed Stateroom".  If you looked on-line for regular balconies, lots showed up available.

 

We were planning to use a Princess Cruise Vacation Planner anyway and had just wanted to do some pre-homework and pick a general location on the ship.  When we called our CVP to see what she could do, she had no trouble booking us a specific cabin.  We didn't think anything about it until we saw your suggestion.

 

So we went back in on-line and indicated 3 guests and took a look at the same cruise.  Sure enough, cabins showed up available everywhere (even on the decks that had the "No Longer Any Staterooms Available . . ." notation when trying to book for 2.

 

Looks like you may be able to look at availability using the 3 guests approach and then  calling a Princess CVP to workaround this problem.  Not sure if an outside travel agent could do the same thing.

[Vexorg]

Someone on the roll call thread for our upcoming Sapphire Princess cruise posted a link to this article, published yesterday:

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28069-princess-restart-update-remaining-ships-to-resume-service-by-november.html

 

Not sure where they're getting their info, but the article does state that Sapphire Princess is on track to go back into service on September 24th as scheduled, and Diamond Princess on November 20th.

 

Another article on the site says that for Carnival booking activity has increased significantly since the relaxing of testing and vaccination requirements, and bookings through the end of 2022 are "solid".  

Edited August 23, 2022 by Vexorg

[cruisequeen4ever]

It would be very good for the pax and very wise for the company to limit capacity if they’re short staffed as it’ll better ensure a satisfied cruise experience, resulting in positive reviews and increased future and repeat bookings. 

[Cruise Raider]

Well, three of our Royal Princess cruises are showing as currently not available.  I spoke with one of my friends that works on the Royal and they aren't controlling capacity ... they are just fully booked.  Wow!!  

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Well, three of our Royal Princess cruises are showing as currently not available.  I spoke with one of my friends that works on the Royal and they aren't controlling capacity ... they are just fully booked.  Wow!!  

Maybe the Royal is fully staffed?  Did they say?  I hope.

[nini]

Our upcoming Alaska cruise has been on and off "Currently not available" for the last few months. It is now available, but wait a few moments.....

We originally thought it was due to possibly needing to make a change regarding Skagway. About a month ago, our TA thought it had been sold out. Nope, cabins still available.