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Waitlisted/Guarantee Cabin Any Experience


PatriciaF
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I am in New Zealand and I have never seen a guaranteed cabin advertised. We have too book through the Australian office. I have only seen wait listed cabins, and I enquired about these but the answer was that there was not a list????

 

We are in a guaranteed cabin. It was not posted on the website, only waitlists were posted. But the agent I talked to upsold me from the waitlist, so that we would be guaranteed to sail.

 

Mia

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Would you please explain 'upsold from waitlist' Mia? I am curious what the difference in your commitment is to Viking for this? Thank you

 

We were interested in the cruise but because of our commitments to other people (we babysit our grandson), we didn't feel we could ask my daughter to arrange for holiday time on the basis of "maybe we will get off the waitlist for a V2". The agent told us that guarantees were available for a V1, but with no guarantee of where we might end up. This way there would be a certainty that we would be sailing. So we were "upsold" from a V2 to a V1. The availability of guarantees was not mentioned on the Viking website.

 

Mia

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For those with guaranteed bookings, did you have any trouble getting the excursions you were interested in? Can the excursions only be booked with a cabin number, not a booking number? As we have a V1 GTY, I assumed we would be able to reserve excursions with the other veranda passengers, even if our cabin was assigned at the pier.

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For those with guaranteed bookings, did you have any trouble getting the excursions you were interested in? Can the excursions only be booked with a cabin number, not a booking number? As we have a V1 GTY, I assumed we would be able to reserve excursions with the other veranda passengers, even if our cabin was assigned at the pier.

 

Yes, you can book when reservations open up for the class of cabin you have the guarantee for.

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Yes, you can book when reservations open up for the class of cabin you have the guarantee for.

Thanks PatriciaF. I was beginning to think we might have made a mistake with the guarantee. It would be a little late to try to arrange private excursions if we had to wait until we are on the ship. We're fine with whatever cabin we get, just want to do the excursions from home.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Booked guarantee V1 cabin with Viking for 10/29 sailing. We are extremely excited. Sailed on Celebrity twice, out of concern for husband and possible motion sickness, booked midship/deck 8. Shared concern with Viking agent who suggested guarantee V1. Do to stabilizers, he had not heard of any guests have any issues. Viking is a dream cruise but as retirees, we have to practice fiscal responsibility. Can afford to upgrade to V2 but not clear it would be enough to make a difference in cabin location. 1. Should we keep Guarantee V1 and hope for the best. 2. Upgrade V2 with the hope we can book midship cabin. 3. Or switch booking to TA with the hope he/she could book V1 or V2 in midship location. Hope this lengthy post is clear.

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Booked guarantee V1 cabin with Viking for 10/29 sailing. We are extremely excited. Sailed on Celebrity twice, out of concern for husband and possible motion sickness, booked midship/deck 8. Shared concern with Viking agent who suggested guarantee V1. Do to stabilizers, he had not heard of any guests have any issues. Viking is a dream cruise but as retirees, we have to practice fiscal responsibility. Can afford to upgrade to V2 but not clear it would be enough to make a difference in cabin location. 1. Should we keep Guarantee V1 and hope for the best. 2. Upgrade V2 with the hope we can book midship cabin. 3. Or switch booking to TA with the hope he/she could book V1 or V2 in midship location. Hope this lengthy post is clear.

 

From our experience last Summer on the Star doing Viking Homelands the ship is very stable. Even when we were steaming along at what seemed like a good clip in the North Sea from Stavanger to Ålborg, the ship was steady. No noticeable ship motion. My hubby is prone to sea sickness and felt nothing. We were on the 5th deck port side toward the bow (could see the bridge from our veranda). There are quite a few DV cabins on deck 5 that might cost less whereas there are only 4 on deck 8, which I would guess cost more. Hope this helps!

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I booked our cruise having read an advertisement in a paper. I was told that the price quoted had sold out and would have to fork out £800 for the next available cabin. No mention made of 'guarantee' bookings. I played hardball and said that the price I'd read was all I'd be prepared to pay. There was a pause while the operator I was talking to 'spoke to his manager'. Then, big surprise, I could have an upgrade cabin at the original price and with the silver drinks package and gratuities included.

I suppose they are in business and just need to get customers one way or another. It was still quite a lot of money.

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I am curious as to how you get on a waitlist. Did you purchase one class of cabin and then call and ask specifically about the possibility of upgrades? I've never seen a guarantee cabin offered by Viking Ocean, not on travel agent sites or theirs.

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We are on a GTY wait list with Viking. We booked a cruise and then it was cancelled. Another cruise, same itinerary, was scheduled for two weeks earlier and we were asked and moved onto the earlier date but our room was already booked - thus GTY. Now just awaiting room assignment

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Why was your first cruise canceled? Just curious. Saling on 10/29. Appear to be several available cabins. Anyone aware of a cruise being canceled because of too few bookings.

The Atlantic repositioning cruise of the Viking Sky for April 2018 was cancelled in Dec 2016.

We then rebooked on the Viking Sea for same itinerary leaving March 27, 2018.

It was not due to undersold cabins, but Viking was tweeking the Sky new schedule. The ship was still being built in 2016. In the end the Viking Sky will do a repositioning cruise after all but now it will be in Feb. 2018.

First time I have ever had a itineary cancelled, but it all worked out for us in the end.

Looking forward to my first Viking sailing of 15 days next year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We just booked our first Viking Ocean cruise and were offered the GTD V1 for our TA on Sky from San Juan to Barcelona on March 4, 2018. Like most all the PPs, I will be happy with any cabin but ecstatic if we get an upgrade....can you say Explorer Suite? LOL

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We just booked our first Viking Ocean cruise and were offered the GTD V1 for our TA on Sky from San Juan to Barcelona on March 4, 2018. Like most all the PPs, I will be happy with any cabin but ecstatic if we get an upgrade....can you say Explorer Suite? LOL

 

Now that's a real pipe dream!

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I specifically asked Viking about the difference between a waitlist and a guarantee. The answer was that a guarantee was just that. It guaranteed you space on the ship but not an actual cabin or category. A waitlist is a just a list of people who want to sail on a specific cruise but there is no guarantee that they will get on the ship.

I asked about the chances of graduating from waitlist to guarantee and he said that it was not very likely.

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  • 4 months later...

I booked a guaranteed cabin and it really didn’t make a difference, as they assigned me a cabin in v2 from the beginning. I should have not booked the guaranteed cabin and just chose my own . I learned my lesson and chose my own cabin on the river cruise in April. Oh well, a lesson learned, still looking forward to having a great time.

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