Princess Hiding Cabins

[Wishing on a star]

Their policy is clear that GTY cabins are discounted  (or possibly now that selected cabins cost more)

But it is not clear that the entry level lowest priced cabins are all GTY and non refundable.

And, if that is true, which is possible. Then, for example, on many ships, how many balcony cabins are far forward or far aft on deck 8.   That is a small number of cabins, that are probably not in great demand anyhow.

 

The thing is, there are TONS of cabins being blocked for any of several reasons.

It is a problem.

 

The problem is bigger than the issues that have been noted with availability of Deluxe Balconies.

It is how Princess is setting up their booking algorithms.

It is way to exclusive.  Way to controlling.

A person who is booking early, when the sailing goes live, should be able to get some kind of cabin that they are wanting.   And, that isn't the case.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Wishing on a star

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Their policy is clear that GTY cabins are discounted  (or possibly now that selected cabins cost more)

But it is not clear that the entry level lowest priced cabins are all GTY and non refundable.

And, if that is true, which is possible. Then, for example, on many ships, how many balcony cabins are far forward or far aft on deck 8.   That is a small number of cabins, that are probably not in great demand anyhow.

 

The thing is, there are TONS of cabins being blocked for any of several reasons.

It is a problem.

 

The problem is bigger than the issues that have been noted with availability of Deluxe Balconies.

It is how Princess is setting up their booking algorithms.

It is way to exclusive.  Way to controlling.

A person who is booking early, when the sailing goes live, should be able to get some kind of cabin that they are wanting.   And, that isn't the case.

The policy that lowest price cabins in each meta class is now non refundable was confirmed by the head of on board sales on Regal, as well as others.  So that is pretty established.Have not gotten a clear word about the higher capacity deluxe balconies.

[Cajuntraveler]

Most comments on this topic relate to deluxe balconies, but I am seeing the same issue when trying to price a specific Reserve class mini suite for a Nov. 2023  caribbean 7 day cruise.  Only guarantee cabins appear when I select 2 passengers, but plenty of cabins show up when I select 3 passengers.  When I try a dummy booking from a big box online TA, cabins appear for 2 passengers.  I hope Princess rethinks this strategy quickly.  I am accustomed to paying slightly higher to select my own cabin when I book with HAL or Celebrity.  I do not want to book a guaranteed cabin.

[Wishing on a star]

That is interesting!

I have tried to book a balcony (all are called deluxe balconies) on the SUN, and have entered more guests, and that didn't help.

This issue with 'blocking' can really be a problem, and Princess so-called reasons for this blocking can be one of many. 

The bottom line, it just isn't right.

People like us who will NOT book a GTY will stop booking with Princess if they can't choose some kind of acceptable cabin.

[RedEarth]

They also allocate blocks of cabins to specific 2/3 week combinations of the rolling itineraries such as Europe where the ship does continuous Barcelona-Rome-Athens loops (where you book it as a single cruise but actually it's a B2B). We booked a forward mini suite on the Royal a few years ago but then discovered one of the corner minis (with the bigger balcony) was available for other combinations that overlapped our cruise. Called UK customer services to ask to switch but they said they couldn't do it, so tried again later in the evening after UK office hours had finished (so the call got routed through to US CS office), and they were more than happy to switch the cabin allocations so we could have the one we really wanted, no extra charge. YMMV obviously...

Edited April 30, 2023 by RedEarth

[Sydney24]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:32 AM, ldtr said:

The policy that lowest price cabins in each meta class is now non refundable was confirmed by the head of on board sales on Regal, as well as others.  So that is pretty established.Have not gotten a clear word about the higher capacity deluxe balconies.

We also had that confirmed with our Princess cruise planner. We booked the 2025 world cruise and wanted a mini suite with a covered balcony. The only location with covered balconies are on deck 8 and are classified as entry level so we could not book. All other mini suites are totally uncovered on deck 9 so we had to book a deluxe balcony instead. It doesn’t make sense to restrict those so called entry level cabins to a paying customer who chooses that location.