Cabin Availability

A week or so ago I noticed that a single inside cabin had become available and I realised that it would be cheaper to put my 19 year old daughter in it rather than have her share our superior delux balcony. Events conspired against me and by the time I was able to book there was no availability. Lo and behold the next morning several more single insides became available so I snapped one up (happy daughter now has her own bathroom). By lunchtime again all of these had become unavailable and the category was sold out. This has been repeated every day since, about 3 singles become available only to be sold out by lunch. Can anyone shed any light on what is happening? Are the cabins being released a few at a time or are they being booked and cancelled? I haven't been noting the cabin numbers but with only 6 of these on Azura it seems very strange that they keep freeing up.

They are being released in small numbers to encourage potential customers to 'panic' and book immediately. The other cruise line I use do it as well on their website, 'hurry, only 3 cabins left'.:rolleyes:

If you book through a TA you might find that there are a lot more cabins available than listed on the web site.

Never go by what is listed on the website. I have checked the site, noted which cabins in the grade I wanted were available and then phoned my cruise agent to discover there were far more than were listed. Always check with a reputable, specialist cruise agent after looking at the website.

The number of available cabins on most cruise line sites is rarely the sum total, the only one I have noticed that shows them all is Princess, and even here the limited availability cabins, eg accessible, 3 or 4 berth, and suites, are often shown as booked when they could be available.

I booked a JE guaranteed balcony for my next cruise as its the lowest grade, it only ever shows one available, it still shows one even after booking, they just upgrade you so they can advertise the lowest price.

Insides become available as upsells occur.

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Insides become available as upsells occur.

 

 

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I was going to suggest the same, I don't actually know this but it would seem logical that they upgrade/up-sell to increase sales. Maybe it is more profitable to give singles a double cabin and resell the single than sell the double at a huge discount later on? It would be a way of filling up cabins they have a glut of on a particular cruise and freeing those in short supply and high demand. Just a thought.

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When you use the P&O website to check a booking, when you select a cabin grade it only shows you a selection of the available cabins, not all of them. There is a small box which allows you to check availability of a specific cabin. This feature hasn't worked for a year or more as it showed every cabin as not existing, but P&O's razor sharp IT department has at long last managed a fix.

Sorry to scotch all the conspiracy theorists, but if you simply make a list of all single cabins, you can systematically check all of them, one at a time, using this facility - or just phone P&O. You don't have to book with them if you don't want to (although I have yet to see any robust evidence that travel agents give you anything that you don't get anyway from P&O - they just make it sound as though they are offering you something which is exclusive to them, which it isn't).

Check out the pricing for a double inside for single occupancy and you might find it is not all that more expensive. Then your daughter could have all that space to herself :)

ps - I tried the single inside cabins on Ventura and the layout was good but the noise was appalling. Constant creaking, groaning and squeaking coming from the walls and ceiling. They moved me the next morning. With P&O I now book double cabins for single occupancy. The single ones on Britannia were OK as they were installed when the ship was built.

The only time I ever booked a single cabin rather than paying the supplement for a double was an outside single on Azura about 3 months before sailing. Within 4 weeks I'd been upgraded to a midships outside double with which I was very happy, so i think they do become available as people are upgraded.

Since booking for 2018 on Oriana, a (single) friend decided to come too. She has booked an outside LB grade and has been charged a supplement of a bit less than 50% which we reckon was pretty good. Dont know how that compares with others as have never had any experience of booking for singles before but had heard thT supplements of up to 100% were not uncommon.

Thanks for your responses, it looks like she may get an upgrade but if she doesn't she will be happy with her single inside. Noise will not be any problem as she is still a typical teenager and can sleep through anything. I priced up a double inside and it was £300 more so not worth getting her a bigger cabin. All six of the single insides on Azura are midships and low so it will be very stable. Lets face it though anything would be better than sleeping on an uncomfortable sofa bed and sharing the cabin and bathroom with me and her 17 year old sister. It was about £150 more to put her in her own cabin and I have put parking as her benefit which had a similar value. As the 3rd person does not get any benefits I reckon I have just about broken even.