How many cabins are still for sale?

[kenzie]

I have been tracking cruise prices for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year for Getaway for the last 2 months, I have noticed no price drops but all sailings have 15 cabins in almost all inside & Balcony categories. Even the Thanksgiving sailing, in less than 5 weeks still has a high premium price with 15 cabins seen in every category both inside & Balconies. The Christmas and NY have even bigger premiums of 50% on top of the Thanksgiving price.

How many cabins do you think are not sold as you can only see a maximum of 15 in each category, will NCLdrop prices or let them sale empty, if they have a flash sale how do I find out? Does the usual supply and demand work in this market.

I do have alerts with an online site but that was not working very well as I was getting false emails advising me of drops that had not happened.

I want to book 5 cabins.

[Dcoy]

NCL will not sail with empty cabins, especially the higher priced ones. They will offer those during the bidding process and fill them that way. As passengers move up the pecking order through the bidding process, the lower priced cabins will become available which they may sell at a reduced rate.

 

Some people book lower priced cabins hoping to catch a "deal" through the bidding process.

 

Don

[kenzie]

NCL will not sail with empty cabins, especially the higher priced ones. They will offer those during the bidding process and fill them that way. As passengers move up the pecking order through the bidding process, the lower priced cabins will become available which they may sell at a reduced rate.

 

Some people book lower priced cabins hoping to catch a "deal" through the bidding process.

 

Don

Thanks for the response, I see your logic as the Thanksgiving cruise, which still has a load (15 I can see) of cabins empty in most categories are still going for IF $729, then I2/I1/ID/IC/IB/IE @ $879 and BD 1149 BB&BC $1199 B3/B2/B4 @$1349 and they havent reduced the prices in months. Same for the Christmas which starts at IF Gtee @ $1099 jumping to $1219 for IE + and BD @ $1699 then rest of Balconies from BC - B4 inclusive being $1799 again with 15 available in all.

So I am thinking its not worth waiting to see if the prices drop :(

[danak13]

Can I ask you how you see how many cabins are available-I have been checking for the cruise I am on (for upgrade bidding purposes) and while I can see that there are cabins open for booking, I have no clue how to see how many?

[kenzie]

Can I ask you how you see how many cabins are available-I have been checking for the cruise I am on (for upgrade bidding purposes) and while I can see that there are cabins open for booking, I have no clue how to see how many?

Just go onto the NCL site or other TA sites and do a mock booking, they will list the available cabins limiting them to a maximum seen of 15. I use a site called ****** (First half of this website name) dot com.

[kenzie]

If we booked an inside Guarantee Category IF and wanted to bid for an upgrade, if offered, do you chose what category you are bidding for or just an upgrade to any Guaranteed Balcony?

[AdGuyMG]

The Thanksgiving cruise, which still has a load (15 I can see) of cabins empty in most categories are still going for IF $729, then I2/I1/ID/IC/IB/IE @ $879 and BD 1149 BB&BC $1199 B3/B2/B4 @$1349 and they havent reduced the prices in months. Same for the Christmas which starts at IF Gtee @ $1099 jumping to $1219 for IE + and BD @ $1699 then rest of Balconies from BC - B4 inclusive being $1799 again with 15 available in all.

 

Can you tell us how many Guarantee reservations NCL has on the books for these dates?

 

And do you know whether those Guarantees that may have been booked in the last 30-60 days have been assigned or not?

 

Second guessing a cruise line's Revenue Management pricing strategy with a dot com consumer website is meaningless as all you have is an "available to book" open cabin list... and they have the entire big picture financials and trends.

[tallyho8]

The previous poster is right. You may see 15 available cabins in one category but they may have already sold 14 guarantee cabins in that category and in reality there is only one left. They are waiting for the last one to be sold before they assign the cabins.

 

There is no way to tell how many cabins are left.

[BirdTravels]

The NCL system will only show the 15 “best” cabins in a category. It does not how all available cabins in inventory

[kenzie]

Thank you for your enlightening responses, I never considered the Guarantee position, guess that's why people come on here to ask advice, sometimes given with a lecture and what appears a "telling Off". Whilst most of us are just trying to get the best deal for their hard earned money.

What I do know is that there are more than 15 cabins in each cat available as when I asked for connecting balconies recently NCL offered 3 different cabins to that shown and clearly they were better cabins. Also if you search for a cabin for 4 people, again a different 15 cabins are shown as available.

I am still looking for someone to provide advice on the upgrade system I asked, If someone can help I would appreciate it.

I am still hoping for a reduction, its a lot paying for 5 cabins, I am doing so as my mother passed away recently and we are going as a family, taking my children and my father, taking her ashes with us as we cannot do Christmas and New Year at home without her, especially since it would have been her 70th birthday on NYD - will wait a few more weeks before biting the bullet and exhausting all my savings.