How early do we need to book to get a suite?

[bakery]

We just got back from the Baltic cruise on which we were upgraded to a suite. Needless to say, we loved it, and I'd love to stay in a suite again. I was looking into another cruise for next March, and wasn't surprised to see that the suites were already sold. So how early should we book if we want to stay in a suite again?

[Pam in CA]

Toto can answer this a lot better than I can but generally, suites book early. That may vary by cruise and by suite. Some are more desirable than others.

[kuldalai]

There is little or no penalty in booking early and getting the Suite of your choice should you not be able to travel . So its best to do your homework, sus out the Suite you want and request/book that Stateroom and pay the deposit .

[Luxurious]

Toto can answer this a lot better than I can but generally, suites book early. That may vary by cruise and by suite. Some are more desirable than others.

 

Generally Suites DO NOT book early...you should have a plenty of Suites to choose from. The only exception to this would be Xmas/New Years and Easter and March Break other than that no need to panic!

[geoherb]

There are still suites available (PH) for our upcoming cruise on the Crown Princess in December. The insides and obstructed views are waitlisted. The lowest level of cabin that's not waitlisted is the highest level of ocean view (Cat. C). We're still five weeks from the final payment date.

 

The prices of suites generally don't come down, so you might as well book whenever you decide that's the cruise you want to take.

[Hunter22a]

I'm booked on a Austrailia/Asia cruise in Feb 2013. The GS, OS and VS suite catagories are now all wait listed. Not sure how many of the PS or PH suites are left but we are still more than 18 months out and they seem to be going fast on our cruise at least.

[Whimsy]

In the past I have seen the suite categories sell out early. Our upcoming cruise in January still has some suites left. I think your best bet is to reserve the suite you want now. If I ever was going to get one I would want the ones in the aft and those seem to go first.

[Toto2Kansas]

It seems to depend on the ship, length of sailing, time of year and itinerary, as to how early full suites book up, from what we have seen. In the past, shorter (7-10) day Caribbean sailings don't seem to have those suites sell out so quickly. Many cruises (even around Europe) that are very port intensive also have suites available right up until sailing. But sailngs such as our 28 day cruise this October, the suites disappeared within about 12-24 hours of the cruise opening up for booking (almost 18 months before). Also, the smaller ships such as the Ocean and Pacific seem to sell those OS and PH suites (only ones available on these smaller ships) right from a few hours of the cruise opening up for booking.

BUT, many times if you monitor the cruise you are interested in, suites have cancellations and you can jump on them at different times. Recently a friend couldn't book a suite on our upcoming cruise and was forced to book a balcony cabin, then a mini suite when one opened up, they were all waitlisted. She finally found a VS available early one morning about 6 months prior to sailing, so she grabed it up. Shortly after final payment the OS she wanted popped back up as available, so she switched to the OS.

Remember, with FCC's available for booking and such a low deposit associated with them, many will book those suites when the cruise first opens up, only to cancel later on down the road.

So, there is no actual answer on which cruises full suites will book up right from the start and which cruises that Princess will end up giving complimentary upgrades to full suites because they didn't sell. ;)

[Sunviking]

The last 3 cruises we have booked (all transatlantics) the OS suites sold out the day the bookings opened (there are only 2 on the Ruby class). In one instance we were waitlisted for an OS and told that we would "absolutely" get it. We didn't and wound up in a PH on Riviera. We were not bothered by noise from the deck above, but as others have mentioned the balcony is very narrow. We didn't like the cabin for that reason. As a result if we can't get an aft suite, we just book a different cruise. The prices of those cabins never seem to drop(at least in our experience they haven't) therefore booking early is not an issue for us. We plan our vacations very early so my DH can arrange his work schedule around them.

[Toto2Kansas]

Yes, those cruises with lots of sea days involved seem to have the best suites booking up shortly after the cruise is available.

 

BUT, my friend I mentioned in the previous post was told by Princess there were over 50 on the full suite waitlist for our upcoming cruise, and that there would not be a chance of any suites opening up. In the end, there were three, two VS suites aft and the OS suite she grabbed when she saw it open up. So, there is always hope! :)

[Whitnee1]

I am on the CB repo on 10/29 which has a lot of sea days and according to the Princess web site there are still a lot of suites available.

[bakery]

Thanks for all your comments. The cruise I'm looking at is during March Break (we still travel with our kids), so I'm sure that's why the suites are booked up. We might go on the waitlist and see what happens.

[DrivesLikeMario]

On our first Princess cruise in May of 2000, we booked 14 months in advance and were really disappointed that all the quad suites were sold out. So, we learned the hard way. We booked for the very next May, but this time, 17.5 months in advance to get a quad suite. (The quad suites seem to go faster and there are fewer of them too.)

 

According to Princess, the inside cabins & suites sell out first, then usually the outside obstructed cabins. There are SO many variables you have to take into the equation though - time of year, length of cruise, ship, itinerary, number of passengers in a cabin, other ships doing the same basic route at that time, etc.

 

Good luck! Hope you get what you want next time! :)

[paul929207]

Our cruise around South America for January, 2013 (yes, 2013) has been completely waitlist since about the first of June 2011.