How to get a CC cabana when they are sold out?

[bigAWL]

I’ve heard two stories: either they may release available cabanas to book on the website in the days before the cruise, or that you have to wait to ask about availability on embarkation day. If you’ve seen them come available prior to the cruise, how many days out was it?

 

[Marc D]

They do not hold back cabanas for online booking. Any cabana online booking after the Concierge pre-book requests (and maybe one or two Platinum members) was made possible because someone cancelled their booking and someone else was lucky enough to stumble upon it. Since Concierge guests cannot cancel their cruise without penalty, they are less prone to cancelling around their PIF date.

Concierge hosts historically used to hold back cabanas 16 and 17 for onboard booking, offering them to Concierge guests without a cabana during their embarkation meet. Someone reported recently that the onboard team mentioned not holding back cabanas, but I would be curious to see if 16 and 17 show up in the port excursions list. My guess is that they do not want to advertise that they do, in order to pick who they offer them to.

If you are not sailing Concierge, you can go to guests services to add your name to the waitlist. Any free or cancelled cabana will be offered first to Concierge guests, then they move to the regular guest in order of inscription on the waitlist, regardless of CC status or cabin category. The list is managed by the onboard Concierge team.

 

[bigAWL]

They do not hold back cabanas for online booking. Any cabana online booking after the Concierge pre-book requests (and maybe one or two Platinum members) was made possible because someone cancelled their booking and someone else was lucky enough to stumble upon it. Since Concierge guests cannot cancel their cruise without penalty, they are less prone to cancelling around their PIF date.

Concierge hosts historically used to hold back cabanas 16 and 17 for onboard booking, offering them to Concierge guests without a cabana during their embarkation meet. Someone reported recently that the onboard team mentioned not holding back cabanas, but I would be curious to see if 16 and 17 show up in the port excursions list. My guess is that they do not want to advertise that they do, in order to pick who they offer them to.

If you are not sailing Concierge, you can go to guests services to add your name to the waitlist. Any free or cancelled cabana will be offered first to Concierge guests, then they move to the regular guest in order of inscription on the waitlist, regardless of CC status or cabin category. The list is managed by the onboard Concierge team.

Thanks for the info. We are now 21 days out, and I noticed 16 and 17 never showed up in the excursions list, but Cabana 1 never showed up either. That's the accessible one, right?

 

[Marc D]

Thanks for the info. We are now 21 days out, and I noticed 16 and 17 never showed up in the excursions list, but Cabana 1 never showed up either. That's the accessible one, right?

Right. 1 is never shown online. They give it to any Concierge guest staying in an accessible bedroom that requests a cabana. If there aren't any guests requiring it, they allocate it in the same way they do 16 and 17.

 

[yowcruiser]

They do not hold back cabanas for online booking. Any cabana online booking after the Concierge pre-book requests (and maybe one or two Platinum members) was made possible because someone cancelled their booking and someone else was lucky enough to stumble upon it. Since Concierge guests cannot cancel their cruise without penalty, they are less prone to cancelling around their PIF date.

Concierge hosts historically used to hold back cabanas 16 and 17 for onboard booking, offering them to Concierge guests without a cabana during their embarkation meet. Someone reported recently that the onboard team mentioned not holding back cabanas, but I would be curious to see if 16 and 17 show up in the port excursions list. My guess is that they do not want to advertise that they do, in order to pick who they offer them to.

If you are not sailing Concierge, you can go to guests services to add your name to the waitlist. Any free or cancelled cabana will be offered first to Concierge guests, then they move to the regular guest in order of inscription on the waitlist, regardless of CC status or cabin category. The list is managed by the onboard Concierge team.

That's interesting - as I was about to ask a question about Concierge blocking some inventory. I am on a sailing where, at a glance, there should be Cabanas available as the # of Concierge rooms currently booked is looking to be around 15, yet no Cabanas are showing as being available... This is good insight - thanks for sharing

 

[Marc D]

That's interesting - as I was about to ask a question about Concierge blocking some inventory. I am on a sailing where, at a glance, there should be Cabanas available as the # of Concierge rooms currently booked is looking to be around 15, yet no Cabanas are showing as being available... This is good insight - thanks for sharing

Well, if not all the cabanas available for online booking were requested by Concierge guests, they were available next to Platinum guests when their window opened and probably booked then. They do not limit availability to Concierge guests but the ratio of cabanas to number of staterooms makes it nearly impossible for Gold and Silver members to see one available online.

 

[yowcruiser]

Well, if not all the cabanas available for online booking were requested by Concierge guests, they were available next to Platinum guests when their window opened and probably booked then. They do not limit availability to Concierge guests but the ratio of cabanas to number of staterooms makes it nearly impossible for Gold and Silver members to see one available on

Well... and I guess then nearly impossible for Platinum nowadays, even on a cruise with very low occupancy (and what appears to be low Platinum tier guests) on one of the "small" ship... I know there was not much competition, but the site was acting up last night... so who knows...

 

[Douglas Dubh]

We were able to snag one because my wife had joined a Facebook group for our cruise and someone posted that they were giving their cabana up. My wife happened to be on Facebook when she posted and immediately logged onto the cruise line app and booked it.

 

[bigAWL]

We were able to snag one because my wife had joined a Facebook group for our cruise and someone posted that they were giving their cabana up. My wife happened to be on Facebook when she posted and immediately logged onto the cruise line app and booked it.

Then it's pretty clear that cancelations are not held up in any way.

 

[NephieRN]

Then it's pretty clear that cancelations are not held up in any way.

I’m pretty sure concierge keeps some if not all of the cabanas when they get cancelled and allocates them to their waitlist. We had 2 concierge cabins on our 9/5 Wish sailing and did not get a cabana for either one when we put in our 130 day requests. At 30 days both of my rooms got cabanas off of the waitlist. And they weren’t ones that used to be held back. They were 7 and 9. I ended up cancelling one of them and it never showed up online after cancelling. But when we were at castaway it was another concierge cabin who had the cabana we cancelled. Not sure how long ago the previous poster was able to snag one when someone cancelled but this is my most recent experience.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Not sure how long ago the previous poster was able to snag one when someone cancelled but this is my most recent experience.

It was on a Dream cruise in October so fairly recent. It was a Serenity Bay cabana, so maybe no one had waitlisted one of those.

 

[NephieRN]

It was on a Dream cruise in October so fairly recent. It was a Serenity Bay cabana, so maybe no one had waitlisted one of those.

Ah yes I can see this working for serenity bay. Family beach is a different animal. Glad you got one. Someday when my kids are grown I’ll get to experience serenity bay.

 

[JWG]

Ah yes I can see this working for serenity bay. Family beach is a different animal. Glad you got one. Someday when my kids are grown I’ll get to experience serenity bay.

We spent good time at serenity bay on our honeymoon and 5th anniversary cruise (I don't think there were cabanas back then, but I could be wrong and just don't remember them). Our DD will be 17 on our next cruise so we will be able to go there and hide form her if we want to , or will be able to get a cabana there in close in out years as she'll be 18 or not traveling with us. Look forward to it.

We had lunch at serenity bay on our last cruise as our DD was off with her Vibe crew, but didn't get to spend much time there.

 

[bigAWL]

So my original question remains. There some are who say cabanas are made available to everyone. Others insist they are held for concierge waitlist.
I guess both can be true is there is no waitlist?
I’ll keep checking back in case one pops available online for me.

 

[AquaDame]

It could also be true that if concierge has a waitlist they snatch them up, but if they don't, then they go to everyone else.

12 cruises, never have even seen a cabana available on the website including when booking opened for our 13th. I imagine we're unlikely to ever get one unless we sail concierge on a CC itinerary some day.

 

[CeCe0906]

How do the cabanas work once you get to Castaway. We are sailing consierge, so fingers crossed we will be able to get one, but there's quite a few consirge cabins on the Wish, so who knows. I'm sailing with my Granddaughter and Niece, ages 10 and 13. If they've made a friend, they could come hang out, correct? We aren't planning on doing any excursions that day, just beach, and maybe bike around a little, probably plan on getting off fairly early, and returning to ship no later than 3, as we have 1st time MDR, and may want to hit aquamouse or something else before then, clean up etc.

 

[Pixie Dust Believer]

How do the cabanas work once you get to Castaway. We are sailing consierge, so fingers crossed we will be able to get one, but there's quite a few consirge cabins on the Wish, so who knows. I'm sailing with my Granddaughter and Niece, ages 10 and 13. If they've made a friend, they could come hang out, correct? We aren't planning on doing any excursions that day, just beach, and maybe bike around a little, probably plan on getting off fairly early, and returning to ship no later than 3, as we have 1st time MDR, and may want to hit aquamouse or something else before then, clean up etc.

Every person who comes has to have their own wristband. Each family cabana (except for the grand cabana) comes with up to 6 wristbands and then you can add up to an additional 4 folks for $50/each.

The times we have booked a cabana it is normally just two or three of us. We often make friends during the cruise and we will invite along to join us. We just let the hosts know the names of the folks and the number of wristbands we need. You would just want to make sure that your granddaughter and niece’s friends get a wristband so that they can join you all in the cabana section.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

It could also be true that if concierge has a waitlist they snatch them up, but if they don't, then they go to everyone else.

12 cruises, never have even seen a cabana available on the website including when booking opened for our 13th. I imagine we're unlikely to ever get one unless we sail concierge on a CC itinerary some day.

I believe this is true-at least it was on our September Dream cruise. Available cababnas were posted in the ounge for any concierge memebers that wanted to snag one. I am pretty positive if they were not taken there , it would have been on to the guest services list

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I believe this is true-at least it was on our September Dream cruise. Available cabanas were posted in the lounge for any concierge memebers that wanted to snag one. I am pretty positive if they were not taken there, it would have been on to the guest services list

 

[bigAWL]

So here's what I'm hearing as a plausible process:

• 120 days prior to the cruise, Cabanas are booked up by concierge guests. If there are not enough cabanas to meet demand, they form a wait list. Any cancelations prior to the cruise are given to the next on the waitlist. If a cabana becomes available, and the waitlist is empty, then it opens as available for anyone to book on the website.
• During the cruise, any canceled cabanas are again first offered to concierge guests, and then to any waitlist created by guest services from others requesting cabanas at embarkation.

Presumably, there is one waitlist system for family cabanas, and a separate one for Serenity Bay cabanas.