Does Princess Withhold Midship Cabins?

[Atomica]

Just wondering if anyone has had a problem with this: we're trying to book two cabins for another cruise on the Crown to the Baltics for next August, and were surprised when we learned that all the BD Balcony cabins were 'unavailable'. The Princess rep said there were lots of triple and quad occupancy cabins available, but that we couldn't have one of those, either. The only two they had available were all the way aft on Aloha deck.

 

We tried other cabin categories and were told, sorry, no cabins next to each other, and no free cabins whatsoever midship.

 

No problem - we switched sailing dates. Twice. No midship cabins on either sailing, and only one or two cabins next to each other, both times all the way forward or aft.

 

Has anyone else run into a similar problem trying to book for Europe 2010? We booked our last one to Europe 13 months out, and were booking this 12 months out - last time, we were told the ship was almost empty and we had our pick of cabins - this time, it seems like there's only extreme forward and aft cabins free. My girlfriend and mother both suffer from seasickness, and neither would be happy about being that far forward!

 

We're willing to have our cabins separated, but the line we keep getting is sorry, no midship cabins - they're not available.

 

Do you think, since the cruise is still 12 months away, that if I play the waiting game something might come up, or should we just book guarantees and cross our fingers? Did some research on HAL & Celebrity and had pretty much the pick of the mill on those ships...

[Toto2Kansas]

They told you that because there were only two of you that they would not allow you to book a triple or quad balcony cabin? If this is true, I would find a good travel agent. My guess they can get those staterooms booked for you. Unless something has changed very recently. Many times passengers will book triples and quads because of the location, even with only two passengers in the stateroom.

[hightownCO]

I'm guessing you're trying to book the 12 night beginning 8/22? And there's a 26 night booking that also begins 8/22?

 

I'm on a 12 night med cruise in November and that's the first leg of what is a 33 night cruise (could also book a 21 night portion). What I saw is that at differnt times, a category would open up for say the 12 night and only be Gty for the 33 night. Then may be gty for the 12 night and show available cabins for the 33 night.

 

I think Princess will open up/close up certain categories of this type of cruise with legs so that they can manage bookings and fill the ship for the entire portion.

 

Maybe you should go ahead and take a GTY and later on it may give a choice of cabins in the category you want. If the reservations are linked, they would probably try to keep them together. And once a cabin is assigned, if there are free cabins in same catgory, you can request to move.

 

Will also say have been midship and aft and there's not a great deal of difference between the two as far as movement. Although would rather be lower than higher for that. I get seasick too and take pills. Plus I'd much rather be by the aft elevators. It's very convenient there.

 

Good luck!

[can786]

You can definitely book two people in a cabin that will hold three or four as I have done it when I wanted a cabin across the hall for my kids. In fact, I put a hold on the cabins directly with Princess then had my TA actually book them for us. Just use a good TA or be very firm with Princess that this is what you must have. If you are booking directly with Princess and one rep tells you they cannot do it just hang up and speak to someone else.

[kikiwik]

Atomica (acutally got the cruise wrong) it is the british isles cruise July 17th/or aug 10th. I have talked to princess myself and got the same answers about mid ship cabins. We have an excellent TA but he is not having luck with these guys. We both can't understand how they can be this full 12 months out when the cruise was only advertised 2 months ago. We'll keep on trying!

[FritzG]

Some travel agencies book blocks of rooms when bookings open. They release them as it gets closer to final payment date.

 

Some people with FCC's book rooms without having definite plans to sail and cancel before final payment. Both of these could be affecting the number of cabins available to you at this point.

 

We booked the TA for next April in July, and I got the last BD cabin available, and my cousin took a guarantee for BD. Last year I booked the April 2009 TA in April 2008, and balcony and mini-suite cabins were booked up very quickly. By the time final payment was due there were cabins in most categories.

[sidari]

A lot of those cabins get booked by USA cruisers who also have the opportunity to cancel close to the date having locked those cabins and prevented others from booking them!! ... time cruise lines leveled the playing field so everyone has a chance to book a cabin of their choice and not just those that appear to be available!!.... :mad:

[alabama ghost]

Another thing I wonder about is how flight reservations work into this. If someone is planning on using airline frequent traveler miles they generally have to make their reservations about 11 months ahead of time. This is especially true of flights to Europe, I think, where a lot of people plan to use miles for the flights.

 

What do you think?

 

Pam

[caribill]

Another thing I wonder about is how flight reservations work into this. If someone is planning on using airline frequent traveler miles they generally have to make their reservations about 11 months ahead of time. This is especially true of flights to Europe, I think, where a lot of people plan to use miles for the flights.

 

What do you think?

 

Pam

 

 

That is why you book a cruise before using your FF miles.

[Pam in CA]

I'm guessing you're trying to book the 12 night beginning 8/22? And there's a 26 night booking that also begins 8/22?

 

Some travel agencies book blocks of rooms when bookings open. They release them as it gets closer to final payment date.

Fritz is right. The larger travel agencies book large blocks of cabins and sell them to their customers. If they don't sell, they are released. As has been said, find a good TA; they'll be able to book you.

[mom2tcdx2]

It would seem they are taken or at least on hold by someone. I checked through an online TA site and where normally it pulls up at least 10 cabins, I never got it to pull up more than 6. Generally I have found if you pull up less than 10 that is all there are left available at the moment.

 

I do believe they are showing midship cabins if you choose the BC category. Which is the middle cabins on the Aloha Deck (where the BC are the aft and forward cabins on the Aloha Deck). However they are not together.

 

The category BB is showing cabins available midship side by side on the Riviera deck.

[choochella]

We are running into the same scenario. We are looking at possibly doing a Mexican Riviera in May 2010. We normally like Lido deck cabins, but nothing is showing available. Either as an inside or balcony. Even our online TA is not showing anything available. I find it hard to believe that all of these cabins are already booked. Is this itinerary that much in demand? Never did the Mexican Riviera before, so this is all new to us.

 

We have been able to book Caribbean fall cruises and booked up to 3 months in advance and still got the cabin we wanted!