New Passengers

Hong Kong started the “3rd segment” of the base world cruise. We had about 100 passengers leave the ship, and 180 new ones come on. Some of the cabins had been empty on the 2nd leg, so this filled them up.

We heard that Princess was offering huge discounts, up to 60% off, for last-minute bookings in order to fill up the cabins. Apparently the ship had been mostly booked several months prior to sailing, but as the economy weakened and the final payment became due 90 or 120 days prior to the cruise, there were a greater the normal cancellation rate.
This shows that if you are willing to be flexible on type of cabin, you can look for opportunities to book at the last minute and save a lot of money.