Does anyone know how the cabins are issued to the various on-line web sites. I refer to about 2 to 3 different sites to price a particular cruise & most of the time I see the same cabin numbers to select from although the prices might be different. I can't believe that I'm see ALL the cabins that are truly available or am I? Is it possible that Princess issues them in a trickle to be sold or do different TA have the options on different cabins?

I think that there is a link between the websites and the cruiseline so that everyone has access to available rooms. I notice the same thing when I booked my cruise but Princess had the same rooms available.

I suppose that's true but there're are so many rooms that aren't shown as being available & I can't believe there all filled. No matter how far out I check there are only a select number to choose from & all the TA's seem to have the same ones to offer. Strange. I also guessing that many are allotted in blocks to individual TA's & that's why they aren't shown.

I think you are right RichC; agencies reserve blocks of cabins for their own promotions. And Princess releases them in a trickle, as you say.

I haven't looked at other on-line agencies, but on the Princess site you have the option of entering a specific cabin number and it will tell you if it is available or not. That's how I've booked my last three cruises.

And sometimes I will just spot-check to get an idea of how full the ship is. There are usually lots of cabins availabe in addition to the ones they put up on the screen.

I tried to check Princess's cabin selections but it's either not working right now or I'm doing something wrong. I'll try again later.

Yes, The cruise line will allow a certain amount of space to be held by group space. Any cabins not sold by that agency by a given date will then go back into the inventory. The cruise line also reserves a certain amount of cabins in each category for the "Guarantee" space.