Does Princess only book cabins below Suites as a GTY?

[clojacks]

We are looking at a couple of Mexican Riviera cruises in November and all the sub-catagories in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite only show GTY available to book? Is this a new way of booking cabins with Princess? Are you unable to select specific locations? Sides? etc.... I find it hard to believe they have sold all the allotted specific cabins for cruises in next November already... 

[Yehootu]

39 minutes ago, clojacks said:

We are looking at a couple of Mexican Riviera cruises in November and all the sub-catagories in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite only show GTY available to book? Is this a new way of booking cabins with Princess? Are you unable to select specific locations? Sides? etc.... I find it hard to believe they have sold all the allotted specific cabins for cruises in next November already... 

Could just be another one of Princess's IT departments failures. Just try again later, hopefully not all sold out.

[skynight]

I looked at one November 7 day cruise on the Discovery. There were cabins to select, but not very many.

[Rick&Jeannie]

5 hours ago, clojacks said:

We are looking at a couple of Mexican Riviera cruises in November and all the sub-catagories in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite only show GTY available to book? Is this a new way of booking cabins with Princess? Are you unable to select specific locations? Sides? etc.... I find it hard to believe they have sold all the allotted specific cabins for cruises in next November already... 

If you are being very specific about deck/location/type of cabin then you very well can run into this situation.  Change up some of your search criteria and see if something doesn't open up for you.  I do not have any experience with that particular itinerary (with Princess) but the same thing happens with other cruises.

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, clojacks said:

We are looking at a couple of Mexican Riviera cruises in November and all the sub-categories in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite only show GTY available to book? Is this a new way of booking cabins with Princess? Are you unable to select specific locations? Sides? etc.... I find it hard to believe they have sold all the allotted specific cabins for cruises in next November already... 

Which ship and date? I see lots of cabins in November.  How many guests are you trying to book in one cabin?

[tonit964]

5 hours ago, clojacks said:

We are looking at a couple of Mexican Riviera cruises in November and all the sub-catagories in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite only show GTY available to book? Is this a new way of booking cabins with Princess? Are you unable to select specific locations? Sides? etc.... I find it hard to believe they have sold all the allotted specific cabins for cruises in next November already... 

Not sure how many people you're booking for in the cabin. This happens to me too when I put in 2 guests but when I change it to 3, the available rooms show up.

I'm not sure why this happens but it's very annoying. You may need to call to book the cabin you want.

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, tonit964 said:

This happens to me too when I put in 2 guests but when I change it to 3, the available rooms show up. I'm not sure why this happens but it's very annoying.

When availability is wide open, they don't want people booking 2 people into cabins that sleep 3 or 4 (i.e., they want to save those for people booking 3 or 4 guests).  Once all those 2-person cabins are reserved though, they don't always release (at least timely) the remaining 3- or 4-person cabins to be booked online by someone needing a cabin for 2, so the website will only offer guarantees when booking a cabin for 2.  That's when you have to call in so someone can see all open cabins (not just 2-person) and hopefully book you into a cabin that sleeps 3 or 4.

[tonit964]

18 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

When availability is wide open, they don't want people booking 2 people into cabins that sleep 3 or 4 (i.e., they want to save those for people booking 3 or 4 guests).  Once all those 2-person cabins are reserved though, they don't always release (at least timely) the remaining 3- or 4-person cabins to be booked online by someone needing a cabin for 2, so the website will only offer guarantees when booking a cabin for 2.  That's when you have to call in so someone can see all open cabins (not just 2-person) and hopefully book you into a cabin that sleeps 3 or 4.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

It makes complete sense why they do that but if just two people are going and want a premium deluxe balcony at the aft of the ship (my brother) it's a bummer not to be able to just book it. Some of those balconies as you may know are bigger than others. We're not fans of GTY cabins, but that's us.

[Steelers36]

35 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

When availability is wide open, they don't want people booking 2 people into cabins that sleep 3 or 4 (i.e., they want to save those for people booking 3 or 4 guests).  Once all those 2-person cabins are reserved though, they don't always release (at least timely) the remaining 3- or 4-person cabins to be booked online by someone needing a cabin for 2, so the website will only offer guarantees when booking a cabin for 2.  That's when you have to call in so someone can see all open cabins (not just 2-person) and hopefully book you into a cabin that sleeps 3 or 4.

Yahbut... all the Deluxes and Minis can sleep at least 3, correct?

[clojacks]

On 2/18/2024 at 6:05 PM, Steelers36 said:

Yahbut... all the Deluxes and Minis can sleep at least 3, correct?

Some of the explanations, or "opinions" in here seem way less than plausible. I contacted my TA, he said the Balcony, and Deluxe Balcony, and Mini-Suite cabins on the 2 Mexican cruises we are looking at...on the Discovery or Majestic in early/mid November, were all listed as GTY as well. I don't get how having people call reservations to inquire about cabin availability can be more cost effective than having a TA handle reservations.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

Just looked at Enchanted in March 2026 for 10 days in Caribbean and for deluxe balcony no rooms are available to select. All GTY. Very frustrating.

[wineforhealth]

Just now for November 4th on Discovery

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

Just looked at Enchanted in March 2026 for 10 days in Caribbean and for deluxe balcony no rooms are available to select. All GTY. Very frustrating.

Lots if you use 3 guests in the search.  This seems to be some sort of "plot" by Princess for many months now and no one has posted a reason provided by Princess (not sure if anyone has asked a CVP why they are doing this).  Certainly, the System can be beat by booking a fake 3rd person and then cancelling them.  Or, a CVP or TA can get it overridden in some way.  It is not only frustrating, but stupid of them to be doing this.  I presumed it was a system bug at first, but since it has persisted, there must be a reason.

 

A TA should ask Carmen Roig WTH Princess is doing.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, clojacks said:

I don't get how having people call reservations to inquire about cabin availability can be more cost effective than having a TA handle reservations.

It will never be the case.  An outside TA is never going to sell for more than Princess list price and you can find many US-based TA's that offer discounts off the cruise fare.

[M&L-Colorado]

Do mock booking for 3 and see 2 or 3 cabins that you would want and call in. They may say not available but insist and have them step it up the chain if you have to, to get it. Did that couple of months ago for a July 7-day. Deluxe balcony on Enchanted.

[clojacks]

On 2/20/2024 at 10:27 AM, M&L-Colorado said:

Do mock booking for 3 and see 2 or 3 cabins that you would want and call in. They may say not available but insist and have them step it up the chain if you have to, to get it. Did that couple of months ago for a July 7-day. Deluxe balcony on Enchanted.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand what kind of crap Princess is using for cabin releasing. I decided to look at a cruise in NZ for January 2026. I checked on my TA's website for cabin availability for 2 in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini Suite sub-categories. For plain balcony categories BF thru BA, my TA showed 19 available in every category. When I counted in the Deluxe Balcony categories, EVERY ONE...DF thru DA , were listed as Guaranty. When I checked Mini-Suites for 2 it was back to 19 available in ME thru MA. Then I decided to check Princesses own website. The first couple of sub-categories in Deluxe Balcony's for 2 showed GUARANTY only again. So, I decided to change the criteria to 3 in a cabin, and checked just Deluxe Balcony category DB, and over 80 cabins appeared as available? What possible logic or reasoning could be at play here?  

[Rick&Jeannie]

3 hours ago, clojacks said:

I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand what kind of crap Princess is using for cabin releasing. I decided to look at a cruise in NZ for January 2026. I checked on my TA's website for cabin availability for 2 in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini Suite sub-categories. For plain balcony categories BF thru BA, my TA showed 19 available in every category. When I counted in the Deluxe Balcony categories, EVERY ONE...DF thru DA , were listed as Guaranty. When I checked Mini-Suites for 2 it was back to 19 available in ME thru MA. Then I decided to check Princesses own website. The first couple of sub-categories in Deluxe Balcony's for 2 showed GUARANTY only again. So, I decided to change the criteria to 3 in a cabin, and checked just Deluxe Balcony category DB, and over 80 cabins appeared as available? What possible logic or reasoning could be at play here?  

As you can see from all of the prior replies, nobody outside of Princess appears to know. 

[DallasGuy75219]

7 hours ago, clojacks said:

IWhat possible logic or reasoning could be at play here?  

They are trying so save cabins that sleep 3 or 4 for people actually booking 3 or 4 people into them. But people booking 2 to room are being forced into guarantees (at least when.boolimg online) because there's apparently no mechanism to release those cabins to people booking 2 to a cabin once all the 2-person cabins are full.

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, clojacks said:

I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand what kind of crap Princess is using for cabin releasing. I decided to look at a cruise in NZ for January 2026. I checked on my TA's website for cabin availability for 2 in Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, and Mini Suite sub-categories. For plain balcony categories BF thru BA, my TA showed 19 available in every category. When I counted in the Deluxe Balcony categories, EVERY ONE...DF thru DA , were listed as Guaranty. When I checked Mini-Suites for 2 it was back to 19 available in ME thru MA. Then I decided to check Princesses own website. The first couple of sub-categories in Deluxe Balcony's for 2 showed GUARANTY only again. So, I decided to change the criteria to 3 in a cabin, and checked just Deluxe Balcony category DB, and over 80 cabins appeared as available? What possible logic or reasoning could be at play here?  

An FYI for you and curious others.  Many agencies use a similar booking engine (background function/feature identical) and the listing of cabins is limited as you saw.  Most likely many more available as would be evident if shopping on Princess.com.  That booking engine will accept a specific cabin number input if you do not see it on the list but see it available at Princess.com. 

 

Lastly we ALL on this forum are wondering what is in PCL marketing head as to why this situation has been occurring at least since sometime early last year (not sure when it started).  I wish a TA would ask Carmen Roig or one of her direct reports what is going on there.  Is there a CVP that knows WHY this is happening? 

 

Anyway, you can do one of two workarounds as has been mentioned in this thread topic.

[startedwithamouse]

Our luck continues with another GTY booking resulting in an "A" location. 

 

The lowest we've been assigned with GTY is a "B" just once. 

 

Not sure how the cabins are chosen?  All our bookings have been Plus since it was introduced, only once have we went with standard with a port intensive cruise. 

 

I'm going to start taking screen shots of cabins available when we book to see if we've been assigned one of the cabins shown, or maybe Princess is holding them back (or TA block released).

 

 

Edited February 25 by startedwithamouse

[clojacks]

12 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

They are trying so save cabins that sleep 3 or 4 for people actually booking 3 or 4 people into them. But people booking 2 to room are being forced into guarantees (at least when.boolimg online) because there's apparently no mechanism to release those cabins to people booking 2 to a cabin once all the 2-person cabins are full.

But don’t all the Deluxe Balcony cabins sleep 3 or 4 because of the sofa bed? Why would all the Deluxe Balcony be listed as GTY then? I’m not sure your “guess” is correct..

[clojacks]

Taking some of the suggestions in mind, has anyone had any luck calling Princess with a cabin # that shows as available to book as a triple and ask to book it as a double? Has anyone booked a room for 3 with the intent of getting a specific cabin or location and tried to change it to a 2 person cabin? I know somebody is going to say, "you're going on a cruise, enjoy it wherever you are on a ship" but that's not the point. I know of no other cruise line blocking a double booking like this when there are cabins available for 2. I'm just really really curious why Princess started doing this?

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, clojacks said:

Taking some of the suggestions in mind, has anyone had any luck calling Princess with a cabin # that shows as available to book as a triple and ask to book it as a double? Has anyone booked a room for 3 with the intent of getting a specific cabin or location and tried to change it to a 2 person cabin? I know somebody is going to say, "you're going on a cruise, enjoy it wherever you are on a ship" but that's not the point. I know of no other cruise line blocking a double booking like this when there are cabins available for 2. I'm just really really curious why Princess started doing this?

I have read posts for both.  Folks who book 3 and later cancel 1.  And folks who have their TA or CVP make the booking stick.

[clojacks]

This little pet peeve of mine has led me to some interesting info regarding how Princess handles certain cabin class bookings.. I went through the particular cruise I just booked for this fall and calculated the number of cabins available in my preferred categories as if I was booking for 2 and as if I was booking for 3. I also totaled up how many of each category there are on the Discovery, which is the ship I just booked. We prefer either the Deluxe Balcony or the Mini-Suite since we like to have a sofa or seating area to relax on, instead of sitting at a desk chair or on the bed. On our simple little 7 day cruise down the Mexican coast and back, all Deluxe Balcony cabins are available only as a GTY booking if you are booking for 2. However, if you are booking for 3, every single Deluxe Balcony cabin is available to book. I prefer a DB category, because it is either located mid-forward or mid-aft. There are 83 of that category on the Discovery. Currently, I could have booked any one of 67 different DB category cabins out of 83, if I was booking for 3, but if booking for 2, I can only book a GTY, even though, as I said, there are 67 out of 83 DB still unoccupied. Ironically, 40 of those available DB cabins sit a deck above the life boats, so, while not technically obstructed, my chances of getting one with a view that I would say is obstructed as a GTY, are unfortunately pretty good. I am just going to call my CVP, and I'll see what they say...

[upwarduk]

I have been given a cabin number ( at the back of the ship).

Is this unusual?

Edited February 26 by upwarduk