Single capacity?

[DougH]

Tried to book a cruise but my TA says the ship is at single capacity and Princess won't accept booking for one. She says that she has never run into this before. Cruise is in Dec 2023. Anyone else run into this roadblock,?

[Steelers36]

6 minutes ago, DougH said:

Tried to book a cruise but my TA says the ship is at single capacity and Princess won't accept booking for one. She says that she has never run into this before. Cruise is in Dec 2023. Anyone else run into this roadblock,?

Go to Princess.com and pretend you are going to directly book the cruise yourself and see if it works. If it does, I'd find another TA.

[DougH]

I tried. My TA is very experienced, I have used her for 20 years and this is a first for her. She talked to Princess directly and they said no

I trust her completely, there are lots of other cruises

[Abercrombie2019]

18 minutes ago, DougH said:

Tried to book a cruise but my TA says the ship is at single capacity and Princess won't accept booking for one. She says that she has never run into this before. Cruise is in Dec 2023. Anyone else run into this roadblock,?

Which cruise/ship?

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, DougH said:

I tried. My TA is very experienced, I have used her for 20 years and this is a first for her. She talked to Princess directly and they said no

I trust her completely, there are lots of other cruises

I would still give it a shot. What have you got to lose? If by chance you *can* book it just transfer it to your TA.

[Sprocket]

Even booking as a solo you will be paying double occupancy, unless its a casino booking so this makes no sense to me sorry.  

I would definitely try booking it online myself if you put it on hold it drops off at midnight no CC or payment required.

[dweidensaul]

Interesting.  While Princess would collect the same fare revenue with a single paying for two, they'd lose out on extra potential on board spending?  Perhaps their profit models have established a "single capacity" to limit that potential?  Weird.

[DallasGuy75219]

If it's over the holidays, there could be a lot of 3rd and 4th berths filled, such that they're nearing lifeboat capacity.  In that case they'd rather sell two rooms to singles with the single supplement (paying for a second person who isn't cruising=pure net income for Princess) vs. booking two people in one room and having to leave another empty because there's no more lifeboat capacity. 

[Coral]

I would also try booking it via web or on phone directly. You can always transfer to your favorite agent once you gave the booking. Make sure you put a deposit down.

 

Nope, never heard of this either.

[DougH]

46 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

Which cruise/ship?

Island Princess Dec 2023 TA

[Coral]

You can always add a second person and then later drop them. I wonder if that would work.

 

I just tried to do a mock booking as a single for that sailing and it wouldn’t let me. It pretends to go through and I tried to put a deposit down and then it errors out.

 

 

[Jersey42]

39 minutes ago, DougH said:

Island Princess Dec 2023 TA

I just tried a mock booking for a single on that cruise.  I found inside, oceanview and balconies available, but most were guarantees.  There were a small number of specific cabins available across those cabin types. When I tried booking a cabin for two, the results were the same.

 

edit - Just noticed the prior post.  I went as far as the credit card page with no problem as a single but I did not attempt to go any further.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Jersey42

[Shirt-man]

Do you have a link for the transfer request form?

Thanks

[Coral]

38 minutes ago, Jersey42 said:

I just tried a mock booking for a single on that cruise.  I found inside, oceanview and balconies available, but most were guarantees.  There were a small number of specific cabins available across those cabin types. When I tried booking a cabin for two, the results were the same.

 

edit - Just noticed the prior post.  I went as far as the credit card page with no problem as a single but I did not attempt to go any further.

Try doing a hold. 

[Jersey42]

43 minutes ago, Coral said:

Try doing a hold. 

You are right.  I successfully put a cabin for two on hold, but the single cabin eventually errored out.

In any case, there are not a lot of cabins available for this sailing (single or double occupancy) on the princess website. It is mostly guarantees.

 

Edit - I also tried booking on my TA's website. Like the OP's TA, it said no cabins are available for singles.  I suspect the original information given to the OP was probably correct.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Jersey42

[Essiesmom]

This may be new to Princess, but as I now sail solo, I have run into this with Celebrity, Carnival, and MSC.  EM

[EDVM96]

8 hours ago, dweidensaul said:

While Princess would collect the same fare revenue with a single paying for two

Princess usually charges about 90% of the double cabin fare to singles.

[Expat Cruise]

20 hours ago, DougH said:

Tried to book a cruise but my TA says the ship is at single capacity and Princess won't accept booking for one. She says that she has never run into this before. Cruise is in Dec 2023. Anyone else run into this roadblock,?

The simple answer is book the cabin for two guests, and when the second guests do a no show, the port fees and taxes will be refunded. It works out the same as booking a single passenger in the end, or every close. 

[phoenixxx]

On 5/25/2023 at 12:39 AM, Expat Cruise said:

The simple answer is book the cabin for two guests, and when the second guests do a no show, the port fees and taxes will be refunded. It works out the same as booking a single passenger in the end, or every close. 

What happens to the second persons deposit in this instance?

[Expat Cruise]

1 hour ago, phoenixxx said:

What happens to the second persons deposit in this instance?

If you book a cabin for one guest, you pay two fares plus one port fee. If you book two for guests, you pay two fares and two port fees. Then when the second guests cancel or doesn't show up they forfeit the fare the port fee is returned. It is the same.   

[Yaya_in_Oz]

I had exactly the same problem on the Island Princess earlier this year for the Iceland/Greenland tour in Aug. My TA couldn't book me a single, she called Princess and they said there were no more singles left. I tried to put it on hold and the website wouldn't allow me to go to that final step. I'd never come across this before.

The advertised price for a single was approx AU$6K, a double was going for AU$8.5K for a balcony and that includes port fees in Aus. So the single price was greatly discounted compared to the usual almost the double price.

About 5 weeks later when I was about to finalise my air ticket, I thought, I'll try again and this time they let me buy a single so perhaps they hadn't sold as many cabins as they'd hoped. I chose my cabin, being Covid averse I had to have a balcony just in case.

[LDVinNC]

I have booked next year's Greenland cruise out of Boston.  I am paying one fare plus approximately 50% of the second fare.  I think that is a pretty good deal, considering...I sure wish the cruise lines would provide more single cabins!  Lots of us who used to travel with partners do not want to stop traveling due to the cost.

[hooked_on_cruising]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:22 AM, DougH said:

Tried to book a cruise but my TA says the ship is at single capacity and Princess won't accept booking for one. She says that she has never run into this before. Cruise is in Dec 2023. Anyone else run into this roadblock,?

I experienced this for an April 2023 Cruise on Regal Princess.  Apparently, this is something new that Princess has embraced.  I have been sailing solo for over 15 years and was shocked when I tried to book online and it would not allow me so I called Princess and I was told no "single/solo" booking were allowed on that particular cruise, I could book other itineraries without a problem, only the one I truly wanted would not allow.  Not sure why they have chosen to do this as we solo travelers pay the base cruise fare for 2.  I guess we don't generate enough revenue that is needed to support specific itineraries.  I expressed my disappointment with letters/emails to corporate but I sure they went into a 'too bad" file. 😄😄
 

[AGE CRUISER]

It's a real thing.  I had the same thing happen to me when booking a cruise in January - new this year in my experience all these years and first time my TA has ever seen but a couple of her colleagues had run into it as well in 2023 and with other cruise lines.  Princess online will let you mock book but once at the actual final step to book it won't let you actually book the single you get error message.  Single as well as Plus and Premiere are now "capacity controlled".  I waited a couple of weeks and single capacity became available again so my TA grabbed it fast you just have to keep checking.  Or has been suggested book as two people then have one no show but I'm not personally comfortable with that particularly for travel trip cancellation insurance etc.   I also wanted to book Plus on a different cruise but I couldn't do so "capacity was met" for that particular cruise and it didn't open up again for Plus fare but you could upgrade to the Plus drinks package only.   I agree so frustrating as in most cases we are paying 200% of fare but the concern seems to be the our onboard spend they figure we spend less than 2 in a cabin but I would disagree with that but they must have the metrics to support the decision - one would hope!