adding a 3rd passenger last minute

[cherryharley]

A group of friends and I are taking a Carnival cruise after Thanksgiving. I am booked in a 3 bed cabin with my daughter and a friend. Another friend also booked a 3 bed cabin for herself and her granddaughter. My question is... since there is a 3rd bed in that cabin, can another person book into her room later on, and how late? The additional passenger is a caterer so she won't know her schedule until sometime in the Fall, to know if she will be free to join us. Our final payment is supposed to be made by Sept 28, 2016. Can the caterer pay the full amount for a 3rd person before that day and join us? How about if she doesn't want to commit until the beginning of November? Will Carnival still let us add her then?

[chengkp75]

A group of friends and I are taking a Carnival cruise after Thanksgiving. I am booked in a 3 bed cabin with my daughter and a friend. Another friend also booked a 3 bed cabin for herself and her granddaughter. My question is... since there is a 3rd bed in that cabin, can another person book into her room later on, and how late? The additional passenger is a caterer so she won't know her schedule until sometime in the Fall, to know if she will be free to join us. Our final payment is supposed to be made by Sept 28, 2016. Can the caterer pay the full amount for a 3rd person before that day and join us? How about if she doesn't want to commit until the beginning of November? Will Carnival still let us add her then?

 

The closer in to sailing date, you may find you have become a victim of the "3rd/4th passenger hold" syndrome. If your cruise is popular with families, and there are a lot of 3rd/4th passengers booked, they may place a hold on booking anymore. This is because there are more beds on the ship than the ship can legally carry because of lifeboat capacity. The ship can book guests until one of two things happens. One, they sell every cabin with 2 passengers in them, and then limit the 3rd/4th passengers to meet the lifeboat capacity, or two, they sell as many 3rd/4th passengers as the demand is, but this means that some cabins will have to be empty to keep within the lifeboat capacity. Since 3rd/4th passengers typically pay less than the first two in a cabin, the line wants to fill all cabins to double occupancy, and then limit the 3rd/4th passengers. By placing a hold on allowing 3rd/4th passengers to book, they try to force people to book two cabins instead.

 

This all means that the longer you wait to book, the more likely you won't be able to add a passenger.

[DallasGuy75219]

The closer in to sailing date, you may find you have become a victim of the "3rd/4th passenger hold" syndrome. If your cruise is popular with families, and there are a lot of 3rd/4th passengers booked, they may place a hold on booking anymore. This is because there are more beds on the ship than the ship can legally carry because of lifeboat capacity. The ship can book guests until one of two things happens. One, they sell every cabin with 2 passengers in them, and then limit the 3rd/4th passengers to meet the lifeboat capacity, or two, they sell as many 3rd/4th passengers as the demand is, but this means that some cabins will have to be empty to keep within the lifeboat capacity. Since 3rd/4th passengers typically pay less than the first two in a cabin, the line wants to fill all cabins to double occupancy, and then limit the 3rd/4th passengers. By placing a hold on allowing 3rd/4th passengers to book, they try to force people to book two cabins instead.

 

This all means that the longer you wait to book, the more likely you won't be able to add a passenger.

 

At least one person on these boards has even reported this happening to single cruisers. They've paid the single supplement then wanted to add to add a second person in the cabin. Even though they had effectively paid that second person's fare already, Carnival couldn't or wouldn't add them because they had already allocated that lifeboat space to someone else's third or fourth occupant.

Edited April 28, 2016 by DallasGuy75219

[RuthlessBoss]

At least one person on these boards has even reported this happening to single cruisers. They've paid the single supplement then wanted to add to add a second person in the cabin. Even though they had effectively paid that second person's fare already, Carnival couldn't or wouldn't add them because they had already allocated that lifeboat space to someone else's third or fourth occupant.

 

True. An empty bed is not a guarantee.

[cherryharley]

Thank you for the answers. I had no idea. Now, does it seem silly to anyone other than me that a cruise ship has more beds than they have lifeboat capacity? Basically you are saying that no ship can cruise at full bed capacity, right?

[IndyDenise]

There is full capacity and max capacity .. Most ships sale at full.

 

There will be enough lifeboat spots for max ( by law) .

 

Conquest has 6052 lifeboat spots for 3756 max guests plus 1180 crew. The normal guest capacity is 2974.

 

I don't think the lifeboat situation has anything to do with adding guests unless they are at max, not full.

 

Of course there will be more beds then lifeboat spots.. It gives the guest then option to pick that room if their party is larger. We had a GS that COULD sleep 4 but we were 3. A family of 4 could book that room if they wanted.

[RuthlessBoss]

Thank you for the answers. I had no idea. Now, does it seem silly to anyone other than me that a cruise ship has more beds than they have lifeboat capacity? Basically you are saying that no ship can cruise at full bed capacity, right?

 

I guess it sounds silly, but true. If say 3 cabins in a row each have 2 in it, that's 6 passengers. If there is 3 in a row with 4 in it, that's 12 passengers for the lifeboat. So sometimes you may see an empty cabin, not because it's not booked, but capacity has been reached and they can't book it.

[DallasGuy75219]

Another complication is that your muster station is determined by your cabin location. There must not only be lifeboat capacity available but also at the correct muster station.

Edited May 6, 2016 by DallasGuy75219

[chengkp75]

There is full capacity and max capacity .. Most ships sale at full.

 

There will be enough lifeboat spots for max ( by law) .

 

Conquest has 6052 lifeboat spots for 3756 max guests plus 1180 crew. The normal guest capacity is 2974.

 

I don't think the lifeboat situation has anything to do with adding guests unless they are at max, not full.

 

Of course there will be more beds then lifeboat spots.. It gives the guest then option to pick that room if their party is larger. We had a GS that COULD sleep 4 but we were 3. A family of 4 could book that room if they wanted.

 

Well, there may be combined lifeboat and liferaft capacity for 6052 (though by your numbers, to reach 125% you would need 6170), there is not 6052 lifeboat capacity. Passenger capacity (max) is based on lifeboat capacity, as passengers are not allowed to be assigned to rafts unless there is an emergency.

 

As I've said, the hold on 3/4th guests is based on trying to fill all cabins at double occupancy, rather than allowing more 3/4th guests and needing to leave a cabin empty.

[hirent]

There is full capacity and max capacity .. Most ships sale at full.

There will be enough lifeboat spots for max ( by law) .

Conquest has 6052 lifeboat spots for 3756 max guests plus 1180 crew. The normal guest capacity is 2974.

I don't think the lifeboat situation has anything to do with adding guests unless they are at max, not full.

 

 

Thanks.

Never knew this.

[winddawn]

IMO the chance of you getting bumped from that cabin that holds more passengers than you have booked in it is greater than Carnival denying you adding a 3rd passenger in that cabin later on. Cabins with 3rd or 4th capacity are limited in number, and if someone wants to book 3 or 4 in a cabin and a cabin with that capacity isn't available, Carnival will bump the one or two people in that cabin to a cabin for 2 to free up that cabin that holds more people to accommodate the new booking.

 

But if you don't happen to get bumped from that cabin and later decide to add another person, you shouldn't have any problem and can likely take advantage of the reduced 3rd/4th person rate should you decide to add another passenger in the future. In my experience, being denied adding a passenger is far less likely than getting bumped from a cabin that holds more passengers than are currently booked in it.

 

I hope it works out like you want it to.

Edited May 7, 2016 by winddawn

[IndyDenise]

Well, there may be combined lifeboat and liferaft capacity for 6052 (though by your numbers, to reach 125% you would need 6170), there is not 6052 lifeboat capacity. Passenger capacity (max) is based on lifeboat capacity, as passengers are not allowed to be assigned to rafts unless there is an emergency.

 

 

 

As I've said, the hold on 3/4th guests is based on trying to fill all cabins at double occupancy, rather than allowing more 3/4th guests and needing to leave a cabin empty.

 

 

I agree.

 

Yet the 3rd and 4th person are usually discounted .. I wonder why. They use up the same resources ( food, water , etc) .

 

It would be smarter for the cruiselines to not discount except in the case of young children.

[Denversail]

U might want to ask Carnival what their 3rd passenger penalty is. We were considering cancelling a 3rd passenger on Royal and were told we would have no penalty after final payment because the cabin still had double occupancy.

 

 

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[DebbieMo]

I agree.

 

Yet the 3rd and 4th person are usually discounted .. I wonder why. They use up the same resources ( food, water , etc) .

 

It would be smarter for the cruiselines to not discount except in the case of young children.

 

 

If 3rd and 4th guests paid full price what's to stop them from just booking their own cabin rather than having to share a bathroom with others or share a small room with 2 other people? 3-4 person cabins probably won't be selling as well which would hurt profits.

 

 

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[SadieN]

Well, there may be combined lifeboat and liferaft capacity for 6052 (though by your numbers, to reach 125% you would need 6170), there is not 6052 lifeboat capacity. Passenger capacity (max) is based on lifeboat capacity, as passengers are not allowed to be assigned to rafts unless there is an emergency.

 

 

 

As I've said, the hold on 3/4th guests is based on trying to fill all cabins at double occupancy, rather than allowing more 3/4th guests and needing to leave a cabin empty.

 

 

Correct if I'm wrong....

My understanding is that cabins are assigned to certain lifeboats.

It's entirely possible for one lifeboat section to be at max and another to still have room.

 

 

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[cherryharley]

I guess it sounds silly, but true. If say 3 cabins in a row each have 2 in it, that's 6 passengers. If there is 3 in a row with 4 in it, that's 12 passengers for the lifeboat. So sometimes you may see an empty cabin, not because it's not booked, but capacity has been reached and they can't book it.

 

I do understand that but it would just seem to me that there should be enough lifeboat space for everyone - the mathematician in me says the number of lifeboat spaces should equal the number of beds. If anything there should be more lifeboat spaces than there are beds. A ship should potentially be able to sail with every bed filled, rather than saying "nope, no more passengers because we have run out of lifeboats to accommodate any more". IMO

[cherryharley]

I do understand that but it would just seem to me that there should be enough lifeboat space for everyone - the mathematician in me says the number of lifeboat spaces should equal the number of beds. If anything there should be more lifeboat spaces than there are beds. A ship should potentially be able to sail with every bed filled, rather than saying "nope, no more passengers because we have run out of lifeboats to accommodate any more". IMO

 

Ok, after doing some more reading (older cruise critic posts) I have learned that lifeboats, staff, etc are more costly than the profit from filling pullmans, therefore it is more cost effective to cut off the number of passengers rather than adding more resources.

 

Thank you everyone for taking time to respond.

[RuthlessBoss]

I do understand that but it would just seem to me that there should be enough lifeboat space for everyone - the mathematician in me says the number of lifeboat spaces should equal the number of beds. If anything there should be more lifeboat spaces than there are beds. A ship should potentially be able to sail with every bed filled, rather than saying "nope, no more passengers because we have run out of lifeboats to accommodate any more". IMO

 

You missed the point trying to come up with your own logic. There are plenty of lifeboats. They cannot sail with every bed filled or the ship would be over capacity. Each area of cabins are assigned a certain muster station that matches those cabins. If the number of people booked in that area fills up a lifeboat, then no new people can be booked there. There is no such thing as moving extra people to another lifeboat. Read my other post and post #8.

[IndyDenise]

Number of beds do and should be more than lifeboat spots.

It gives the guests an option to book in a particular room. Just because a room could berth 4 doesn't mean that Carnival will allow 4 if the ship is full.

 

If they cut down on the number of beds then guests with parties of more than 2 would have so few options. I would also think that they monitor guest capacity also by floor/ muster station . You can't have 250 guests at station 5 and 8 at station 7.

[katiel53]

At least one person on these boards has even reported this happening to single cruisers. They've paid the single supplement then wanted to add to add a second person in the cabin. Even though they had effectively paid that second person's fare already, Carnival couldn't or wouldn't add them because they had already allocated that lifeboat space to someone else's third or fourth occupant.

 

 

That is exactly what happened to my father. He had a balcony cabin and was sailing alone. He decided to have a friend come along as Pop had paid the fee for 2 people minus the port charges. He was told by Carnival that he couldn't add a person because they had too many 3rd/4th passengers in cabins.

 

I felt this was unfair, but nothing could be done. He tried to add his friend about 3 or 4 months before sailing.

[cb at sea]

There are more beds than passengers allowed, as some folks (think 2 adults and 2 kids), may book adjoining cabins, rather than be in one cabin)...there are many different cabin types, but they KNOW they can't fill each berth.

 

 

It would be better to ADD the "iffy" person upfront, then cancel them before final payment is due.

[cajun-crazy]

I feel your question has been answered, but I wanted to share my recent experience. When I booked our late April cruise in january, I reserved a room that would accommodate 3 because I thought I might want/need to take a grandchild with us. 2 weeks prior to sailing, it was still unclear if the child was going to need to come. I called our pvp to see what the booking status looked like as I still didn't know. She said at that point the ship was sailing at full capacity and she would have to get special permission to add her. She got back with me that permission was granted, but we had to do something by 5:00 the next day if we were to add.

 

We decided to go ahead and add her instead of risking us needing to take her and not being able to. The day before we were to sail, we found out the court papers wouldn't be signed (custody issues) and she would not be coming. We were advised to just state at check in that the 3rd person was not able to make it. We lost the fare of 129.00, but gratuities and port charges are to be refunded to our original method of payment.

 

Long story, I know but the 129.00 was worth it to us to secure a spot for the child if it was needed.

[suzycruiser2]

In a case like this, it may be worth looking into booking a 3rd or 4th passenger as TBD when they have a $49 deposit sale. Then, if they decide not to go, someone would only be out the deposit or anyone's name could fill that spot since it was listed as to be determined.

[cherryharley]

My question was answered and I really appreciate it. I have told my friend she needs to see if she can add a 3rd passenger to her cabin asap.

[Manatee Mom]

The other thing you could do is add her and take out private insurance that allows you to cancels for any reason for 100% refund then she is only out the price of insurance if she cancels.