Anyone know why RCCL doesn't list all categories?

[Lollipop's Mom]

I am soon going to book the Harmony and I know its not a full ship/date - the cruise is a lower cost compared to other dates -but all they show for balcony is a D5 - I don't like any of the stateroom locations coming up (all next to the kids stuff/nursery -and I don't have little ones so would rather not listen to that in the halls constantly as they go in and out). I have put in dozens of other D5 numbers and its all unvailable. I am willing to spend an extra $ to go to a D6/7/8 - but I can't get anything but a D5 to come up on their site. When I go to a cruise outlet type place, they show availability in other categories, but the actual RCCL site doesn't.
Anyone know why?

 

[bumbershoot]

Are the rooms specific to more people than you have?

For some reason Royal went, about 2 years ago, to a model where if there's a room that sleeps 3 you cannot book it if you have 1 or 2. So some aft rooms, like 1700 on Freedom, cannot be seen or booked if you don't have 3 people. For my family, this is fabulous. No just-couples booking OUR room. For others it's bad; when DS is 18+ and doesn't want to travel or room with us anymore we won't be able to get 1700, either.

I book through costcotravel.com; if you are willing to book through the other sites where you're seeing the rooms, why not just do that?

 

[karmacats]

I am soon going to book the Harmony and I know its not a full ship/date - the cruise is a lower cost compared to other dates -but all they show for balcony is a D5 - I don't like any of the stateroom locations coming up (all next to the kids stuff/nursery -and I don't have little ones so would rather not listen to that in the halls constantly as they go in and out). I have put in dozens of other D5 numbers and its all unvailable. I am willing to spend an extra $ to go to a D6/7/8 - but I can't get anything but a D5 to come up on their site. When I go to a cruise outlet type place, they show availability in other categories, but the actual RCCL site doesn't.
Anyone know why?

short story - because royal's website stinks!

long story - when they upgraded their website a few months ago they made it impossible to choose by category (D1, D8, etc). there is a way around it, though it's kind of a pain (though if you're looking at cruise outlets already, you're halfway there). when you start a booking and get to the choose-another-room-location option, there's a place to put in a room number (probably where you've been trying to enter other D5s) - if you find an available room on a cruise outlet site and type that room number into the box on the royal website, it will show you that room, and then when you tell it you want to choose another location, the other rooms that come up will be in the category of the room you typed in. right now it's the only way to switch between D3-8 (D1 and 2 are generally a different category).

btw, the higher the number, the cheaper the room is, so a D8 is cheaper than a D5, and a D1 or 2 is generally the most expensive D room.

as molly said, they also sometimes restrict rooms that hold more people to bookings for 3 or more. for example, D1 and D2 rooms are in the same general location, but D1s are usually saved for 3+ people and D2s can be booked by two people.

worst case, you can call royal, tell them approximately where on the ship you want to be, and they can look up rooms for you. they are generally pretty good on the phone. If you do that, i'd have the deck plans open in front of you so you can see what they're talking about.

 

[Prose]

I've found that the Royal UK site actually shows much more info on available stateroom numbers - I used that site to find the room I wanted and then called RC directly to book it.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

short story - because royal's website stinks!

I could not agree more!

On the US site, the only way I have found around it is to pick the right general category for the room type (i.e. Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony or Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Large Balcony) and then once the room comes up, I say change the stateroom and enter in a room number for the specific cabin category I am looking for. It should then show you other options for that category if the one you entered is not available.

It is a pain though!