Alaska in 2024

[dreaminofcruisin]

Starting to plan for summer 2024. I was thinking maybe we would hop on an Alaska cruise. I went to look at July 2024 on the Sapphire. There are basically NO balcony cabins available!. In usual Princess thought process, I figured I would wait a few days and see if they were messing with the pricing or something and things would change. It has now been about a week. Still NO balcony cabins (except a couple of premium ones).

 

It's been a long time since we've booked Alaska. Is it normal that they book up well over a year in advance?

Or....is this Princess messing around?

Any ideas?

TIA

[deliver42]

For an Alaska cruise, it's not unusual at all. Limited time frame for those cruises. I usually book Alaska as soon as they are available. I already have a 2025 cruise booked. You may try calling and see if there's any availability not showing on the web site.

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

Starting to plan for summer 2024. I was thinking maybe we would hop on an Alaska cruise. I went to look at July 2024 on the Sapphire. There are basically NO balcony cabins available!. In usual Princess thought process, I figured I would wait a few days and see if they were messing with the pricing or something and things would change. It has now been about a week. Still NO balcony cabins (except a couple of premium ones).

 

It's been a long time since we've booked Alaska. Is it normal that they book up well over a year in advance?

Or....is this Princess messing around?

Any ideas?

TIA

Whether they go out full or not is another story.  They do book up early, but of course you don’t know for sure until closer to FP.

 

I would call your CVP or TA and have them check for cabin availability.  They can see cabins that we can’t see, sometimes.

 

 

[hop2it]

Just got a Princess marketing e-mail pitching Alaska cruises. Assumed it was for next summer, but looking again I see it's actually Summer of 2025.

[no1racefan1]

If you want to go to Alaska in 2024, I would book ASAP. In planning our 2024 Alaska trip, all of the vendors I have talked to have said their 2024 bookings are already through the roof, and most have just barely opened up availability online. Going to be very busy in Alaska next year!

 

That being said, our cruise on Sapphire in May was showing tons of cabins of all types available up until a couple of weeks ago, and then all of a sudden all but a few cabins were unavailable--and it has stayed that way. I have a hard time believing that all of a sudden 90% of the ship got booked within just a few days, so I do think Princess is manipulating availability. Maybe to see if they can get bookings at higher prices? I have no idea. We booked in February when they first opened up.

[memoak]

Alaska is one of the most popular destinations for Princess. For many people it is a once in a lifetime cruise. We cruised in June for 14 days and most of the passengers were blue cards. We have around 450 days cruising and we were in the top 10 for MTP

[PacnGoNow]

45 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

If you want to go to Alaska in 2024, I would book ASAP. In planning our 2024 Alaska trip, all of the vendors I have talked to have said their 2024 bookings are already through the roof, and most have just barely opened up availability online. Going to be very busy in Alaska next year!

 

That being said, our cruise on Sapphire in May was showing tons of cabins of all types available up until a couple of weeks ago, and then all of a sudden all but a few cabins were unavailable--and it has stayed that way. I have a hard time believing that all of a sudden 90% of the ship got booked within just a few days, so I do think Princess is manipulating availability. Maybe to see if they can get bookings at higher prices? I have no idea. We booked in February when they first opened up.

It could have been block space also by TA’s that just happened.  So, now limited availability until those are released, if not sold.

 

 

[Random Cruizer]

2 hours ago, memoak said:

Alaska is one of the most popular destinations for Princess. For many people it is a once in a lifetime cruise. We cruised in June for 14 days and most of the passengers were blue cards. We have around 450 days cruising and we were in the top 10 for MTP

 

Princess is one of the few cruise lines that has a permit for Glacier Bay--I assume that ups the demand.

[disneyochem]

I would not wait on booking a 2024 Alaskan cruise.  We have 3 cruises (including a 28-day HAL cruise) already booked for a total of 49 days and are thinking about squeezing in another one!  Just this past week we've started planning our 2025 summer....

 

July is also a pretty popular month to cruise in Alaska.  If you really want a balcony, I would look at "shoulder' cruises--May/September.  There may be more balcony availability.   We love to cruise in Alaska in May--we've have the best weather on those cruises.  I don't have too much experience with September cruises (I teach at a university--our semester starts late August  every year!) but just take a look at some current  trip reports to get an idea of weather and what still might be open this late in the season.

[Italy52]

When it comes to Alaska, we never wait to book.  We have a May 2024, August 2024 and a May 2025 booked with Princess.  Realize that early booking is not everyone's choice but it works for us. 

[Ken the cruiser]

10 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

Starting to plan for summer 2024. I was thinking maybe we would hop on an Alaska cruise. I went to look at July 2024 on the Sapphire. There are basically NO balcony cabins available!. In usual Princess thought process, I figured I would wait a few days and see if they were messing with the pricing or something and things would change. It has now been about a week. Still NO balcony cabins (except a couple of premium ones).

 

It's been a long time since we've booked Alaska. Is it normal that they book up well over a year in advance?

Or....is this Princess messing around?

Any ideas?

TIA

If you’re looking at the July 20 cruise on the Sapphire, we’d be jumping on that last aft-facing premium balcony cabin, especially on an Alaska cruise. But, hey, that’s just us. 😁

[memoak]

9 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

When it comes to Alaska, we never wait to book.  We have a May 2024, August 2024 and a May 2025 booked with Princess.  Realize that early booking is not everyone's choice but it works for us. 

We already have a July 2024 and May 2025 for Alaska they were both booked as soon as they were available