Cruise lines updating cabin availability

Good morning: I am thinking about booking a cruise for this summer. I was wondering how often cruise lines update their deck plans with certain cabin availability? I am hoping for a better cabin than those currently available. Am I getting too close to my July departure for there to be many changes? I haven't cruised much before so I am unsure about how this works. Thanks so much in advance.

It might help us if you would name the cruise line you are considering. Not all handle things the same way. How close are you to the final payment date for the cruise you want? There may be agents holding groups of cabins that will have to release those unsold back to the cruise line after final payment. There are often cancellations at the time of final payment. (Some people book several cruises for the same dates and when final payment time comes, decide which to do and cancel the others). But you have to be on top of it after final payment, but some lines will start offering upsells to unsold cabins, and they will also be assigning cabins to those who booked a gty. EM

My cruise is Holland America July 31st sailing on the Zuiderdam. Haven't booked anything yet so not sure about payment schedule. I just found out I can have some time off. This would also involve my payment of a single supplement since no friends or family members can go (or want to go!) on this particular cruise. I do. I have always wanted to see Iceland. Thanks,

Call HAL or your travel agent directly and ask them to check for you.

One more comment ...

I assume you are referring to the 14-days Copenhagen roundtrip itinerary to Iceland. You are getting close to the 75 days payment deadline. If you really want to do this cruise and if the price is right for you now then go ahead to book it (talk to HAL or TA to get the cabin you want). But if you are still thinking, or if the price is still a bit high and you're willing to take some risk, then wait for a few more weeks and check back again once you are in the 75 days period.

Cruise lines generally update cabin availability constantly. Any time a cabin is booked it is marked unavailable. Anytime a person cancels a reservation, their cabin is put back in the available group. So what you are looking at today is what is available now. The only possible exception is if the cruise is sold as a lone cruise and as part of a longer cruise, ie. It is a 14 day cruise and also sold as 2 seven day cruises.

You could also check online travel agencies to see what cabins they have available. Sometimes TAs have holds on cabins that are not listed in the cruise line's available inventory until the TA holds are released.

Some lines (Royal Carib) seems to not show all the actually available cabins on the US site. People have found that the UK site is better for listing all the available cabins.

The OP also needs to understand the difference between assigned, committed and booked. There may be a great number of cabins booked, but not assigned. Guarantee (GTY) bookings are an example of this. For example, there may appear to be 15 cabins in a given category available. But there may be 14 GTY bookings, but not yet assigned. So while you are thinking about that category that looks pretty wide open, I come along and book, and select, a cabin. Immediately, all cabins in that category are committed, so the entire category may now list as sold out. People wonder how things can change rapidly based on what they see on line. This is one way.

Also, when someone goes online an picks a cabin to start a booking or to check prices, it will take the cabin off the inventory. And it will remain held for a period of time.