room chasing

babyruth

for the first time in forever
Joined
Jan 24, 2008
We are looking at a June 2019 cruise, which I know we are very late to the party on. Room choices are slim at the moment. Wondering if I pay the deposit and keep checking what the chances are of changing rooms closer to the cruise date? Does this work like ADRs where if I stalk the reservations daily I might get what I want as people drop out LOL?

To be clear they do have acceptable rooms. We won't be miserable. But, ya know, being a DISer we are always on the hunt for the "best" or "better" :magnify:
 
I'm not sure we can say what the chances are, but it did work out for me once. Good luck!
 
We are looking at a June 2019 cruise, which I know we are very late to the party on. Room choices are slim at the moment. Wondering if I pay the deposit and keep checking what the chances are of changing rooms closer to the cruise date? Does this work like ADRs where if I stalk the reservations daily I might get what I want as people drop out LOL?

To be clear they do have acceptable rooms. We won't be miserable. But, ya know, being a DISer we are always on the hunt for the "best" or "better" :magnify:

What type of cabin are you looking for? If you have a specific cabin in mind and don't see it on the website, that does not necessarily mean that it is not available. You can certainly call and ask for specific cabin availability or even to get suggestions on something close to what you are looking for.
 


We have done this several times. Booked what was available (usually on board booking late in the game), as close to where we wanted to be, and then I stalked the site to see what rooms came available. I have always managed to move us up to the area of rooms where we wanted to be. It’s very easy to modify if you see your desired room pop up.
 
People let their rooms go around PIF dates. Figure them out and stalk the site on those dates. Of course, some itineraries, like in Europe and Alaska, usually require more planning so rooms will not be let go as much as cruises on Dream and Fantasy that are basically the same year round. We booked our upcoming NYE cruise on Fantasy very late and couldn’t get anything higher than a 4D. When PiF came around, rooms in all the categories up to 4A became available, even if it is a more sought after cruise.
 


best room is ON the ship. The worst room is NOT on the ship.

This! Even though I was not a huge fan of the Deck 5 balcony room I got from an 8B GTY a couple of years ago on the Fantasy (I know...I’m weird in that I don’t love those cabins), I would much rather have been on the ship than in the freezing NYC of February.
 
We booked late for our upcoming cruise in Feb and had to take a cabin location/deck I normally would not pick. My husband was okay with it but I kept hoping something better would come available. One day I decided to check (it had been a week or so since my last check) and a secret verandah cabin was available! I moved us so fast . I would have gone and had a good time on the ship either way but I’m glad I kept checking!! Much happier with our cabin now.
 
We booked late for our upcoming cruise in Feb and had to take a cabin location/deck I normally would not pick. My husband was okay with it but I kept hoping something better would come available. One day I decided to check (it had been a week or so since my last check) and a secret verandah cabin was available! I moved us so fast . I would have gone and had a good time on the ship either way but I’m glad I kept checking!! Much happier with our cabin now.

There is nothing liking scoring one of those rooms unexpectedly.
We had a 2019 Bermuda cruise booked on opening day in room 7620 and we needed to switch to an earlier cruise and I was shocked there were 2 available on the cruise we wanted to switch to. I was able to grab one and did a happy dance.
 
People let their rooms go around PIF dates. Figure them out and stalk the site on those dates. Of course, some itineraries, like in Europe and Alaska, usually require more planning so rooms will not be let go as much as cruises on Dream and Fantasy that are basically the same year round. We booked our upcoming NYE cruise on Fantasy very late and couldn’t get anything higher than a 4D. When PiF came around, rooms in all the categories up to 4A became available, even if it is a more sought after cruise.

I would recommend this as well. For Alaska and Med cruises, we had secret verandah cabins and wanted our teens across the hall. Both cruises I could only book across the hall and a couple doors down. Eventually the cabin across the hall became available. I did stalk like a lunatic and when it showed up I quick put a hold on it, transferred the held cabin res to our TA so she could make the change at her convenience. We eventually got the perfect set up.
 
when it showed up I quick put a hold on it, transferred the held cabin res to our TA so she could make the change at her convenience.

Hi. Can you maybe give a bit more info on how exactly this worked. I ask bc w our TA, I had to drop a desired room I held at a coordinated time for her to grab it as she was refreshing over and over. I’ve done this twice w her this way. Both times it worked out but in theory we could’ve lost it. If I recall she said something to the effect that a straight transfer might affect the max amount of shipboard credit I could’ve qualified for.
 
Hi. Can you maybe give a bit more info on how exactly this worked. I ask bc w our TA, I had to drop a desired room I held at a coordinated time for her to grab it as she was refreshing over and over. I’ve done this twice w her this way. Both times it worked out but in theory we could’ve lost it. If I recall she said something to the effect that a straight transfer might affect the max amount of shipboard credit I could’ve qualified for.

ANY time you go through the process of giving up a held room, whether it's simply on a free 3 day hold or you pay a deposit, there is a risk that it gets snatched up and cannot be captured again. It's a chance you take. There is a form you can fax or email to DCL that transfers power of a reservation to TA. I do this for the free hold on a room because I can't always get through to my TA immediately 24/7. Your TA will need to give you her complete info so that you can fill it out in full and send it to DCL. By the next day usually it's available to my TA. Still, this doesn't guarantee she will be able to capture it but so far it has worked and our coordinated timing method has failed.
It's a PDF file and I'm having a hard time posting it but I can email it to you if you like.
 
How do you keep checking for an available room when DCL doesn't post all the available rooms? Do you call daily?
I am looking for an accessible cabin on the almost sold put WBPC cruise sailing Feb 24, 2019. No luck calling or going online yet. PIF was today so I will keep watching and/or calling. It’s frustrating. Accessible cabins sold out on day 1 last Oct 2017..
 

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