Cabin availability after final payment date

[caribill]

11 hours ago, Gretchendz said:

I'm not saying last minute deals are not there, because obviously they are. However, many lines are now offering their very best deals a year or more out. I think that the best last minute deals are slowly disappearing--especially for those wanting suites or mini suites (which can sell out quickly). We tend it  to book far out as we can.

 

Not just Princess, but all the major cruise lines are trying to maintain "price integrity" and trying to encourage early booking by having as few as possible fire sales on cabins as the embarkation day nears. Overall, the idea is that it is better to sail with a few cabins unsold than to have made a high number of sales at a reduced price. Some cruise lines are following this plan better than others.

 

Note that most "sales" these days do not involve significant reductions in the pricing, but instead have an effective reduction from the list price by adding amenities that have value such as a beverage package or free gratuities.

[vampiress]

i've never had a problem finding a room i like after final payment, but i'm also not super picky. i've managed to get a decent balcony every time. but i'm also choosing last minute cruises on purpose and i'm generally flexible about it because i live near a port.  and if i leave out of florida, i have family there, so getting there a day or two early isn't an issue either. 

Edited September 22, 2019 by vampiress

[2 cruises a year]

On 9/20/2019 at 7:34 PM, Tucker in Texas said:

Unfortunately, there are those that book as soon as a cruise becomes available to get the choice cabin locations without firm plans to go on the cruise as it is over a year or more out.   They just want the camel's nose in the tent..  They may have bookings on several cruises at the same time.  A lot of times, the cabins are cheaper at that time because capacity management hasn't kicked in yet to indicate if it is a good seller and they can charge more.  Then the people wait until shortly before final payment is due to "sort their potatoes" and start cancelling those they don't want.  The cruise line finds they have more cabins than they would like unfilled and may come down on the fare to fill them.  Plan B is work on upsales.    On the other hand, the opposite can happen.  They overestimate cancellations and find they are overbooked.  Then they start on Plan C,  move-overs..  If they don't work, they will go to Plan D, start free upgrades to free up the cheaper cabins in hopes of last minute sales. That doesn't happy too often these days as they can usually accomplish what they want with upsales.

 

One cruise line, I can't remember which, required double deposits on suites and sometimes made them non-refundable because they were tired of them being tied up and having to turn away potential bookings who go elsewhere only to find they have them unfilled after final payment and harder to sell as most last minute bookings want the cheaper cabins.  Of course, those that play that game will get refundable deposit cabins so they have to "guess" how many will jump ship and then, if they are wrong, find themselves overbooked.  

 

I have booked three cruises during their June 3 day sale for cruises over a year out because it is $100 pp deposit, free drinks, free grats, some obc, and good cabin location.  In every case, when the time has come to take them, the price has been up without those perks.  On the one I have booked for January 2021, the basic fare is now up over $300 pp.  It may go down, but would have to go down a whole lot to offset free grats and drink package.  If I don't like it, then I am only out the $200 tied up in the deposit for 18 months which I can get back by cancelling (lol).

 

 Bottom line is that it is a crap shoot which direction it will go.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the booking department.  I do wonder if there is a method to their madness. 

[Id rather be diving]

I don’t like the idea of FCC being non refundable.  We HAVE to book our cruises between one and two years ahead of time.  We require a handicap room that sleeps three people.  There are limited HC rooms on each ship and even less that will sleep three.  Lots of things can change in that time frame that may not allow us to cruise. I’m already somewhat “penalized” by having to book so early that many times we don’t get in on the deals and can’t reface because the same category is no longer available. A non refundable deposit would be a hard pill to swallow.  

 

Kari

[KevintheIrishDJ]

Is the final payment date 75 days for US cruises?

[friendswithdave]

On 9/21/2019 at 3:05 PM, friendswithdave said:

One reason we are OK with waiting to the last minute to book - we are OK with any one of three ships leaving on the same date and port. Two of these are HAL which I KNOW from past research in previous years has a lot of unsold cabins in December as the date approaches. I guess you could also say I'm a gambler - OK with the likelihood the price will go down but also willing to accept a higher price if that's the way the cards fall. I also check prices daily on a few websites. I'll try to return to this thread and share if I did well or regret my decision to wait to book our Dec 15 cruise.

We decided to book on the Dec 15 HAL Koningsdam after getting an incredible deal - best we have ever gotten. Yes, I'm very happy we waited until 11 weeks out to book our cruise.

[geoherb]

On 9/20/2019 at 11:14 PM, Thrak said:

Wow. Just checked our upcoming TA. 14 days Barcelona to FLL. It's well after final payment and I thought it might be really cheap now. As it turns out there are almost no cabins showing as available on the ship. There is only one mid-forward OV left on Plaza and it's almost right across from the one we booked. It's listed for $1,133 per person more than we paid! Obviously this is one cruise where waiting for a killer deal after final payment wouldn't have worked. I was shocked as I know sometimes a TA can be a very good deal.

 

There have not been as many deals on TAs lately as there used to be on Princess. Experienced cruisers tend to love them. I'm currently on the Crown's TA. The passenger mix is the opposite of what I had on my Alaskan cruises on the Island this summer. On that one, there were fewer than 50 Elites. Nearly a third of the passengers are Elite on the Crown right now: 994 out of 3,010 passengers. Another 909 are Platinum.

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

 

There have not been as many deals on TAs lately as there used to be on Princess. Experienced cruisers tend to love them. I'm currently on the Crown's TA. The passenger mix is the opposite of what I had on my Alaskan cruises on the Island this summer. On that one, there were fewer than 50 Elites. Nearly a third of the passengers are Elite on the Crown right now: 994 out of 3,010 passengers. Another 909 are Platinum.

 

That's to be expected. Alaska cruises (I think) have the highest percentage of blue cards out of all cruises. Not necessarily first time cruisers but a very high percentage of first time Princess cruisers. Glacier Bay is a big draw. TA cruises have more sea days and an older demographic seems to like sea days. I know we love sea days but we (of course!) are not old. 😁