Guaranteed cabins

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, colourbird said:

 

We checked out this cruise the day it went on sale. It started with guaranteed cabins, so it wasn't even due to lowest fares already being sold out.

 

I've seen this before when i've booked on other cruise lines where the cabins are guaranteed once you get closer to sailing, but two years out is weird.

That's because Princess is no longer offering the lowest category cabins the way they used to. They are all reserved for guarantee bookings only so they don't appear when you are trying to select a cabin. This is some new and crazy idea that they have just implemented. It's very weird indeed. 

 

I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve. Certainly people who prefer to select their cabin will be forced into choosing a higher category than they would otherwise select. It could backfire on them though, as some people may look elsewhere if they can't book the cabin they want and are not happy risking a guarantee option.

 

I wonder what will happen when all the higher categories sell out? Will they open up those blocked categories for cabin selection sales? 

[arxcards]

Many of the 2025 world cruise cabins were only available as guarantees within that cabin type.

 

So it would seem though - if you want to book online, you get the guarantee option on the cheaper options of each cabin type, yet our T/A could pick our cabin for us. Princess PVP's work like T/As for just Princess, so it is natural to assume they can also choose specific cabins when they only show as guarantees online.

 

Previously when I have booked a guarantee with Princess, sometimes they allocate you a cabin straight away. If I don't like the cabin, I just ask the T/A to swap it to a different cabin within the same category and haven't been knocked back yet.

[colourbird]

48 minutes ago, arxcards said:

 

So it would seem though - if you want to book online, you get the guarantee option on the cheaper options of each cabin type, yet our T/A could pick our cabin for us. Princess PVP's work like T/As for just Princess, so it is natural to assume they can also choose specific cabins when they only show as guarantees online.

 

Previously when I have booked a guarantee with Princess, sometimes they allocate you a cabin straight away. If I don't like the cabin, I just ask the T/A to swap it to a different cabin within the same category and haven't been knocked back yet.

 

Our TA has been trying for three days to get specific cabins for us and has now given up. Hopefully it won't be too long till we get our cabins allocated and if they aren't any good, we may be able to change them then.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Many of the 2025 world cruise cabins were only available as guarantees within that cabin type.

 

So it would seem though - if you want to book online, you get the guarantee option on the cheaper options of each cabin type, yet our T/A could pick our cabin for us. Princess PVP's work like T/As for just Princess, so it is natural to assume they can also choose specific cabins when they only show as guarantees online.

 

Previously when I have booked a guarantee with Princess, sometimes they allocate you a cabin straight away. If I don't like the cabin, I just ask the T/A to swap it to a different cabin within the same category and haven't been knocked back yet.

What category of cabin did your TA pick for you? Was it under the new system which only started within the last couple of weeks or was it prior to that?

 

I'm not sure this new guarantee system works the same as the old one did as under the old system all cabins were available for selection until a particular category was (almost) sold out. Then you could book a specific cabin category guarantee such as BA - very important if you don't want to end up under the pool deck on some ships. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

51 minutes ago, colourbird said:

 

Our TA has been trying for three days to get specific cabins for us and has now given up. Hopefully it won't be too long till we get our cabins allocated and if they aren't any good, we may be able to change them then.

You may not know your cabin until the very last day. 

[colourbird]

9 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

You may not know your cabin until the very last day. 

 

Oh no! If that's the case, it means I'll be worrying about it for 22 months!

[MMDown Under]

19 minutes ago, colourbird said:

 

Oh no! If that's the case, it means I'll be worrying about it for 22 months!

We got our guarantee on last day on the wharf.  If location of your cabin is important to you I wouldn’t book a guarantee until after final  payment.  22 months is too stressful. Time to consider a plan B cruise.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, colourbird said:

 

Our TA has been trying for three days to get specific cabins for us and has now given up. Hopefully it won't be too long till we get our cabins allocated and if they aren't any good, we may be able to change them then.

Yes, is only possible to chase a different cabin number within that CAT once a number has been assigned. Good luck.

[MicCanberra]

Sometimes we have been notified straight away, others right at the dock but generally a few weeks out.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

What category of cabin did your TA pick for you? Was it under the new system which only started within the last couple of weeks or was it prior to that?

 

I'm not sure this new guarantee system works the same as the old one did as under the old system all cabins were available for selection until a particular category was (almost) sold out. Then you could book a specific cabin category guarantee such as BA - very important if you don't want to end up under the pool deck on some ships. 

Hi Julie, both old and new.

More recently, it was for Majestic last October which was booked in April. When Royal was taken away, our specific cabin became a guarantee on Majestic, the worst possible cabin was allocated, and our T/A was able to just select a different cabin number at the other end of the block.

 

World cruise 2025, especially the sectors, has lots of guarantees in the lower categories, particularly noticed by us in BF & BE categories. This was only in the past couple of weeks, but a different scenario. When looking at availability online for a BE cabin in our preferred location, the block of cabins was guarantee only, yet our T/A had a number of specific cabins he could book for us out of that block - so we chose one of those cabins instead of booking a guarantee.

[Womble99]

We come across this issue and the problem of cabins being unavailable a fair bit due to port of embarkation. When a cruise has multiple ports of embarkation as part of a longer/multiple leg cruises then the selection for each embarkation port is limited.

 

We have had success using a PVP to contact Inventory control to release specific cabins from other sectors to make them available from our location. It can be done but it does take some effort on their part.

[MMDown Under]

33 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

We come across this issue and the problem of cabins being unavailable a fair bit due to port of embarkation. When a cruise has multiple ports of embarkation as part of a longer/multiple leg cruises then the selection for each embarkation port is limited.

 

We have had success using a PVP to contact Inventory control to release specific cabins from other sectors to make them available from our location. It can be done but it does take some effort on their part.

That is interesting. You must have a good PVP.

[Womble99]

1 minute ago, MMDown Under said:

That is interesting. You must have a good PVP.

Over the years i would say yes, others have needed some hand holding to get them pointed in the right direction. It helps when you know where you have to point them though.

[chriskot]

I contacted our Princess PVP the week before the 24/25 release and asked if she could reserve a cabin deck 10 forward balcony for us when the new release became available on a relocation cruise. She did all of that at a great price and we have our cabin number. Maybe it helps to use a regular PVP?

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

World cruise 2025, especially the sectors, has lots of guarantees in the lower categories, particularly noticed by us in BF & BE categories. This was only in the past couple of weeks, but a different scenario. When looking at availability online for a BE cabin in our preferred location, the block of cabins was guarantee only, yet our T/A had a number of specific cabins he could book for us out of that block - so we chose one of those cabins instead of booking a guarantee.

That's very interesting. That would indicate that Princess is doing some very weird things. Are they trying to drive customers away? Don't they realise that word soon gets around on social media and people will get very annoyed when they hear some people are getting "special treatment" by using a TA. And does it apply to all TAs - colourbird isn't having much luck with their TA so maybe not all. Very strange indeed!

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's very interesting. That would indicate that Princess is doing some very weird things. Are they trying to drive customers away? Don't they realise that word soon gets around on social media and people will get very annoyed when they hear some people are getting "special treatment" by using a TA. And does it apply to all TAs - colourbird isn't having much luck with their TA so maybe not all. Very strange indeed!

Buyer beware.  Don’t let TAs push you to change from your preferred cruise booking!!

[OzKiwiJJ]

49 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Buyer beware.  Don’t let TAs push you to change from your preferred cruise booking!!

Huh?

 

My comment wasn't anything about TAs pushing people away from their preferred cabins. It was commenting on the new Princess booking trick where ?F, and possibly ?E, cabin categories are no longer able to be booked by selecting your preferred cabin so are guarantee bookings only UNLESS you happen to be one of the lucky people whose TA can circumvent this new, crazy system.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's very interesting. That would indicate that Princess is doing some very weird things. Are they trying to drive customers away? Don't they realise that word soon gets around on social media and people will get very annoyed when they hear some people are getting "special treatment" by using a TA. And does it apply to all TAs - colourbird isn't having much luck with their TA so maybe not all. Very strange indeed!

It isn't about the T/A. When you book a guarantee, you can't change a cabin that hasn't been assigned. Once assigned, a T/A or PVP has the ability to change the cabin, depending on availability. It isn't special treatment to be using a PVP or T/A. If doing a DIY booking, you still have the ability to find specific cabins that aren't showing online by simply picking up the phone.

 

And whenever the word gets around social media - umm, this is nothing new.

[OzKiwiJJ]

31 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It isn't about the T/A. When you book a guarantee, you can't change a cabin that hasn't been assigned. Once assigned, a T/A or PVP has the ability to change the cabin, depending on availability. It isn't special treatment to be using a PVP or T/A. If doing a DIY booking, you still have the ability to find specific cabins that aren't showing online by simply picking up the phone.

.

OK, I see what you mean now. Your previous post was a bit ambiguous.

 

However if people don't know that cabins that appear to be guarantee only can actually be selected by using a TA (and are all TAs able to do this?) then they may just say "stuff it, I'll look at a different cruise line". I just think what Princess are currently doing is very stupid and may have ongoing negative effects.

[arxcards]

29 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

OK, I see what you mean now. Your previous post was a bit ambiguous.

 

However if people don't know that cabins that appear to be guarantee only can actually be selected by using a TA (and are all TAs able to do this?) then they may just say "stuff it, I'll look at a different cruise line". I just think what Princess are currently doing is very stupid and may have ongoing negative effects.

Maybe so. I think many are still happy to book the cheapest cabin, even if aware of potential pitfalls, so are happy to book guarantees. 

 

Cheaper inflexible guarantee bookings have been a staple of most cruise lines since longer than I can remember, so their recent changes aren't massive in the scheme of things. It is very P&O'ish, so I would presume this is a Carnival Australia approach for local departures vs an all of Princess thing.

Edited April 14, 2023 by arxcards

[OzKiwiJJ]

23 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Maybe so. I think many are still happy to book the cheapest cabin, even if aware of potential pitfalls, so are happy to book guarantees. 

 

Cheaper inflexible guarantee bookings have been a staple of most cruise lines since longer than I can remember, so their recent changes aren't massive in the scheme of things. It is very P&O'ish, so I would presume this is a Carnival Australia approach for local departures vs an all of Princess thing.

Except I think what Princess are now doing is different. From what I recall other cruise lines offered cheaper guarantee bookings but all cabins were still available for selection for those who wanted to book that way. The guarantees were allocated from what was left close to embarkation day. We ended up with a minor upgrade when we booked an RCI guarantee cabin some years ago at a very good fare - lower than the cheapest cabin category and we ended up a category or so above that.

 

Princess are blocking out all cabins in the lowest category for some cabin types which stops people who want to book in those locations from doing so. Plus Princess aren't really offering a cheaper fare - the guarantee fare is essentially what you would have paid for an F category cabin if it had been able to be selected directly. 

 

I did a quick check on the pricing of a balcony cabin on a 2024 7 night cruise.

A BA cabin was $2404

A BB cabin was $2344, $60 cheaper.

A BC cabin was $2284, $60 cheaper again.

A BD cabin was $2224, $60 cheaper again.

A BE cabin was $21644, $60 cheaper again.

No BF cabins were available.

A guarantee cabin was $2344, $70 cheaper. So you'd save an extra $10  on the BF cabin that you would probably be allocated. Big deal!

 

Note: these sorts of price breaks are typical of Princess pricing but, of course, vary by length of cruise and maybe even by itinerary. 

[Normanville]

I have just been looking at some of the fares for next year to see what the difference of you picking your own cabin, including guaranteed and Princess picking for you. I have never seen this before. A cruise 13 nights in March costs $90 each for you to pick your own and in October $180 each!

I may be looking for other cruise lines.

Juls

[Jean C]

40 minutes ago, Normanville said:

I have just been looking at some of the fares for next year to see what the difference of you picking your own cabin, including guaranteed and Princess picking for you. I have never seen this before. A cruise 13 nights in March costs $90 each for you to pick your own and in October $180 each!

I may be looking for other cruise lines.

Juls

Ouch!

[Jean C]

Flicking through the Princess site (I regularly check the price of cruises I have booked in case cheaper fares come along) I noticed that if you opt to pick your own cabin, if the category has no more cabins to pick and you get the Princess will assign your cabin screen, it still wants to charge you the higher price!!

[Yaya_in_Oz]

45 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Flicking through the Princess site (I regularly check the price of cruises I have booked in case cheaper fares come along) I noticed that if you opt to pick your own cabin, if the category has no more cabins to pick and you get the Princess will assign your cabin screen, it still wants to charge you the higher price!!

The wording is different though. There seems to be two types of guarenteed cabin- one that Princess picks the location, cheapest and probably F category and the guarenteed cabin you can choose when there are no more cabins to pick in a particular location. That has a higher price point but if you can pick a guarenteed location then you will not end up in the F cabins, the worst in my opinion and I'd never book one. 

I think this new system will just confuse some people.

 

I find it a total outrage with all the fanfare of new releases etc. that you can't pick your cabin almost 2 years out! The ship would be largely empty. Lucky for me, earlier this week I booked a cruise over a year out and there were plenty of cabins to choose from.