Available rooms glitch when booking direct.

[onesam319]

So this time when I was looking to book my next cruise, I wanted a starboard side room, but none in the category I wanted showed as available. I couldn't believe that they were all booked more than a year ahead of time. I was using a placeholder, so I had to book over the phone anyway. The agent I spoke with said only three of the starboard side rooms in that category were booked. She said it must be a glitch with the site. Anyone else experience this?

P.S. This one will be our grand slam on the Dream!

 

[Marc D]

By default, the DCL site shows only a portion of available rooms (10 or 12 I think) in your selected category, and they display them based on room number. Therefore, port side rooms always show up unless there are not 10 of them left. If you wish to book a starboard side room in that situation, you need to call DCL.

 

[Numtini]

I don't think I've ever seen a starboard room offered to me on the DCL site. It seems to have a built in favor for port.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I don't think I've ever seen a starboard room offered to me on the DCL site. It seems to have a built in favor for port.

They are shown, but for whatever reason, DCL seems to start with the port rooms first and only start showing the starboard rooms once most of the port rooms are booked. I wish they would be like other cruiselines and show all available staterooms online.

 

[onesam319]

Thanks for the responses. I can see now if they only show a certain number of rooms at a time that the computer starts with the low numbers first (which are on the port side). I always book early to get the best price and I want starboard side so my cabin faces Castaway Cay, so I'll just have to book over the phone from now on.

 

[lklgoodman]

Thanks for the responses. I can see now if they only show a certain number of rooms at a time that the computer starts with the low numbers first (which are on the port side). I always book early to get the best price and I want starboard side so my cabin faces Castaway Cay, so I'll just have to book over the phone from now on.

I always book our cruises myself online. I usually just pick one of the cabins in the category I want(always on the port side). Then a day or two after booking for newbies opens, I call and change it to a starboard side cabin. I don't call on the day I can book because I don't want to be on hold for a long time. I've never had a problem getting the exact cabin I want(price stays the same when changing cabin). Just thought I'd mention this in case you don't have time to wait on the phone for a cm. Of course if you have a placeholder, you have to call to book, but works if no placeholder.

 

[iloveeeyore]

I booked 2 weeks ago for a January 2020 cruise, so it was only about 45 days out. I was trying to find availability on-line for pretty much any verandah and I wasn't able to book one at all, it said nothing was available for my party size. When I pretend-added 2 people to the party, I would have been able to book, so I knew there were rooms available. I e-mailed our TA and she was able to find multiple categories of available verandahs just for the 2 of us so...

Yeah, we're booked on our first DCL cruise! So excited!

I have found these kind of issues with several cruise lines. For example, RCCL has a UK website that shows "all" available rooms, but the US one doesn't. It definitely pays to call! And if you book a cruise on a different line, find an on-line discussion group that offers tips for booking on that line.