Site showing available rooms on ship
Nov 5th, 2007, 12:15 PM
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Site showing available rooms on ship
Does anyone know of a site where you can find out which rooms on a ship are available? I'm specifically looking at the Diamond Princess NB Alaska 5.24.08. I would like to get a feel for how full the ship will be.
Nov 5th, 2007, 11:27 PM
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That does not always give you available cabins. We have twice booked a cruise - went to cruiseline website and began room booking process. Then checked with on-line travel agent sites (Travelocity etc) and found more and different cabins available.
Nov 14th, 2007, 06:54 PM
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I don't believe that there is a website that lists all available staterooms on all future cruises operated by any cruiseline. However, as jmvp mentions, it is possible to go through the booking process with Princess (and possibly other cruise lines) to determine whether a SPECIFIC stateroom is available. If you prefer, it will also give one a subset of available staterooms, but as gail mentions, the subset of staterooms shown will vary by site.
Nov 15th, 2007, 11:41 PM
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For most Alaskan cruise, the ships will be almost 100% full when you sail. We were on the Diamond Princess last year and it was full. The ship does not seem crowded at all. One advise: go to the shows at least 20 minutes early as the theatre is small for the number of passengers and typically, people are standing at the back and side of the room for the "good" shows. The only other time that we kind of feeling being crowded were at deaprture time. Small lines up are unavoidable on any cruise ships.
If you want to know more about our experience on baord the Diamond, just ask. I left them a 2 page comment on things I think that they can do better and things that they did well. They even lost my wife's luggage on the way home (between ship and airport) which we didn't get back until 2 weeks later and I have to call Alaska 4 times to find out what's going on.
Despite all that, we are booked for another Princess crusie so it was a positive experience overall.
The reason why your travel agent may show cabins availabe and the cruise line web site doesn't is that there are "wholesalers" that have block bookings for "their clients" on "special offerings".
I am booked on Princess for Jan 20 deaprture and have my cabin pre-selected at the travel agent. I get a better deal from the travel agent than what Princess themselves are willing to offer to me direct.
Here is the deal: I originally wanted to travel on Jan 13. The price is the same between Princess and my travel agent. My travel agent has a "special deal" for the Jan 20 cruise but not on the Jan 13 sailing so I changed my deaprture date. For the same money, I get extra on board credits, bottle of wine, and category upgarde. When I ask Princess how come my travel agent can offer better deals than they could direct, the reply was my travel agent has "block bookings".
Cruise lines routinely use travel agents with "incentives" to fill the ship. I guess my travel agent has the Jan 20 sailing to fill but the Jan 13 belongs to another travel agent. Before I book, I ask my travel agent which sailings they have "incentives" around my travel dates.
As an aside, I am going to book on the Ruby Princess maiden crusie for Nov 15, 2008 (when I am on board for the Jan 20, 2008 cruise) and I have been told already by Princess that my travel agent has special deals on that particular voyage that they cannot offer to me direct. It works out to about $80 cheaper per person for the 7 days, and that is not including the free upgarde, extra on board credits and a bottle of wine as incentives. I checked the price with another travel agent and they are offering the same price as what Pricness has quoted to me direct, so the savings with my travel agent is real.
I have also found out (by accident) that if I "pre-book future crusies" with a paid deposit when I am on baord the ship, I will receive extra credits. When we were on board the Diamond last September at an Alaskan cruise, I paid $200 deposit and received credits worth $350 ($200 in cruise credits, $150 in on board credit). I did not have to commit to a date when I give them the depsoit. The credit is good for 2 years and I think it is refundable. As it is, we used the credit less than 6 months later. This is on top of the "extras" we will get from my travel agent. Talking about double dipping on "rewards"! I now have my $150 on board credit added on top of my travel agents' on board credit, and my $200 deposit applied towards my final payment.
If you want to know more about our experience on baord the Diamond, just ask. I left them a 2 page comment on things I think that they can do better and things that they did well. They even lost my wife's luggage on the way home (between ship and airport) which we didn't get back until 2 weeks later and I have to call Alaska 4 times to find out what's going on.
Despite all that, we are booked for another Princess crusie so it was a positive experience overall.
The reason why your travel agent may show cabins availabe and the cruise line web site doesn't is that there are "wholesalers" that have block bookings for "their clients" on "special offerings".
I am booked on Princess for Jan 20 deaprture and have my cabin pre-selected at the travel agent. I get a better deal from the travel agent than what Princess themselves are willing to offer to me direct.
Here is the deal: I originally wanted to travel on Jan 13. The price is the same between Princess and my travel agent. My travel agent has a "special deal" for the Jan 20 cruise but not on the Jan 13 sailing so I changed my deaprture date. For the same money, I get extra on board credits, bottle of wine, and category upgarde. When I ask Princess how come my travel agent can offer better deals than they could direct, the reply was my travel agent has "block bookings".
Cruise lines routinely use travel agents with "incentives" to fill the ship. I guess my travel agent has the Jan 20 sailing to fill but the Jan 13 belongs to another travel agent. Before I book, I ask my travel agent which sailings they have "incentives" around my travel dates.
As an aside, I am going to book on the Ruby Princess maiden crusie for Nov 15, 2008 (when I am on board for the Jan 20, 2008 cruise) and I have been told already by Princess that my travel agent has special deals on that particular voyage that they cannot offer to me direct. It works out to about $80 cheaper per person for the 7 days, and that is not including the free upgarde, extra on board credits and a bottle of wine as incentives. I checked the price with another travel agent and they are offering the same price as what Pricness has quoted to me direct, so the savings with my travel agent is real.
I have also found out (by accident) that if I "pre-book future crusies" with a paid deposit when I am on baord the ship, I will receive extra credits. When we were on board the Diamond last September at an Alaskan cruise, I paid $200 deposit and received credits worth $350 ($200 in cruise credits, $150 in on board credit). I did not have to commit to a date when I give them the depsoit. The credit is good for 2 years and I think it is refundable. As it is, we used the credit less than 6 months later. This is on top of the "extras" we will get from my travel agent. Talking about double dipping on "rewards"! I now have my $150 on board credit added on top of my travel agents' on board credit, and my $200 deposit applied towards my final payment.
