Guarantee suites

We are 1128, Stefan.

According to my TA, Seabourn has changed their rules.if you buy a guarantee, you have to buy it for V1, 2, 3 etc. They will no longer accept a guarantee open booking of veranda and move you to a V6.

We will be on Encore so all suites have veranda. We bought a V1 guaranteed to a V4.

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According to my TA, Seabourn has changed their rules.if you buy a guarantee, you have to buy it for V1, 2, 3 etc. They will no longer accept a guarantee open booking of veranda and move you to a V6.

Not true, it depends upon the promotion offered by Seabourn. Sometimes it's a 3 category upgrade and for other promotions an OB guarantee. We received an OB offer with a flight credit for our July cruise, so it just depends.

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Yes that was the promo when we booked. V1 guarantee to V4.

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I think it means Suite Unassigned - unquote]

 

Don't think so FJ. We are on Quest in August and chose our suite at the outset of the booking. Ours shows as SU on the Reservations page of My Seabourn. So who knows...?

Why would you book a guaratee if it only applied to that grade, best then to choose the best cabin. You book a guarantee on the chance, not expecting an improvement. This gives Seabourn flexability on selling , so you both have more options. Lets face it there are no bad cabins.:)

I could see booking a V2 guarantee to avoid getting the metal balcony railings, if that's an issue. It still means you'll get at least a V2. Doesn't preclude an upgrade to a higher category. Out TA suggests if you don't book a specific cabin you should book the lowest category you'd be happy with. She's also implied that a V6 guarantee might generate a better chance of an upgrade to the next tier (e.g., penthouse) than a V2 guarantee would. But overall I don't see how a V1 guarantee differs from an OB.

Why would you book a guaratee if it only applied to that grade, best then to choose the best cabin. You book a guarantee on the chance, not expecting an improvement. This gives Seabourn flexability on selling , so you both have more options. Lets face it there are no bad cabins.:)

When we booked this promo it was $500 per person less than booking a V1 and selecting our suite. Well worth it to us!

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I could see booking a V2 guarantee to avoid getting the metal balcony railings, if that's an issue. It still means you'll get at least a V2. Doesn't preclude an upgrade to a higher category. Out TA suggests if you don't book a specific cabin you should book the lowest category you'd be happy with. She's also implied that a V6 guarantee might generate a better chance of an upgrade to the next tier (e.g., penthouse) than a V2 guarantee would. But overall I don't see how a V1 guarantee differs from an OB.

V2 has a half metal balcony too so to avoid that you have to book at least a V3, at least on the three O ships.

I could see booking a V2 guarantee to avoid getting the metal balcony railings, if that's an issue. It still means you'll get at least a V2. Doesn't preclude an upgrade to a higher category. Out TA suggests if you don't book a specific cabin you should book the lowest category you'd be happy with. She's also implied that a V6 guarantee might generate a better chance of an upgrade to the next tier (e.g., penthouse) than a V2 guarantee would. But overall I don't see how a V1 guarantee differs from an OB.

Hope you will be luckier than we were! We ended up in an interconnected room and there are only 4 of these, having requested anything except interconnecting. They really don't care and won't change any thing

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Yes, you're right. Was thinking of how to avoid the smaller balconies in the low 500s, not the metal.

V2 has a half metal balcony too so to avoid that you have to book at least a V3, at least on the three O ships.

Why would you book a guarantee if it only applied to that grade, best then to choose the best cabin. You book a guarantee on the chance, not expecting an improvement. This gives Seabourn flexability on selling , so you both have more options. Lets face it there are no bad cabins.:)

Unfortunately we found a "bad" cabin. Couldn't get the same cabin all the way for a B2B so ended up with a GTY for the second leg of 18 days. 739 was a shocker. We aren't normally afternoon rest people, but we had a lot of sea days on this trip and used the time for reading, emailing and the occasional nod of the head (it was following 22 days already on board:D).

It's not obvious on the deck plans, but there is a stairwell connecting to the patio bar that runs somewhere through the wall. So, from the time the bar gets going from lunchtime until nearly dinner there are running footsteps up the metal stairs. Throughout the afternoon there is banging, thumping and dragging noises as eskies/cool boxes are moved around the bar area, rubbish is stacked and doors open and close. If there is a sail away or other function it's worse. A couple of complaints led to quieter thumping and running, but it can't be totally prevented for obvious reasons - we understand.

It was annoying generally, and woke us on a few occasions, but as mentioned this wasn't normal afternoon behaviour for us. If you like a nap, are a light sleeper, or easily annoyed with noise like this, the cabin should be avoided. Otherwise, it's the same as all the others on deck 7.

We tend to avoid these runway rooms as it's awful having doors open direct to passersby. Also, the room attendants have a tendency to crank the doors open while cleaning, laying your worldly goods bare for all to see.

Generally, all the cabins are excellent.

That was bad luck, BasandSyb. If choosing, I would not choose a suite anywhere under the pool deck, but I think generally it is only noisy when things are being moved around early in the morning. Obviously you were just under the bar area and right by these stairs, not, as you say, shown on the plan. Sounds as if you had no choice but to take a guarantee, which normally works out well, so that is a shame.

Thanks Lincslady. Yes we would avoid anything under the pool or deck area for that reason and would not have accepted the room (others were available) if we thought that was the case. However, this room isn't underneath the public or pool areas. That was our first thought, that we had misread the deck plans, but we were taken on a tour and it's back well within the accommodation structure but is just under the frame of the pool bar wall and has a staff stairwell cleverly slotted between the walls.

We have our perfect room and will stick to it. Happy cruising.

BasandSyb, what ship did you sail on? Perhaps I am missing something but 739 on the Odyssey class ships is under but to the starboard of the hot tubs on deck 8. This does not seem to be under the bar and I can't see a stairwell nearby.

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I have played the guarantee game a few times and have mostly had good outcomes, with V5 or V6 suite allocations. However I did get that unusual very small balcony suite next door to the Wintergarden suite once and thought I wouldn't survive as we use our balcony a lot. The balcony is really only big enough for one person, and even then it is a squeeze. But I did survive, we just spent more time on the outdoor decks than we normally would and it really wasn't a big problem after all. It has a great midship location. We also got an interconnecting suite for Antarctica and I was very concerned about noise transfer, having read lots of complaints on cruise critic. Once again, it turned out to be fine. We must have had good neighbours because I didn't hear a thing, and we in turn, made sure we were equally considerate! Having said all of that, I have booked specific cabins for my next two cruises, because I got good deals on an upgrade offer and being sure about where we will be located avoids the potential worry of the "guarantee lottery". I don't want to be located too far forward!

BasandSyb, what ship did you sail on? Perhaps I am missing something but 739 on the Odyssey class ships is under but to the starboard of the hot tubs on deck 8. This does not seem to be under the bar and I can't see a stairwell nearby.

 

 

 

Pretty sure it was Sojourn in 2012. Yup it stumped us as well. It's all internal access to the bar.

Is the cabin next to the Wintergarden suite larger than regular balcony cabins ? I understand the balcony is smaller.

It's a different shape. Look at the bedroom at the bottom. It is not quite as long as the usual suites and the closet goes into the Wintergarden suite. There is also an interconnecting door but there is a door from each suite so you don't hear anything. The balcony is small but it is OK - you can just about fit 2 on [emoji16]

https://www.seabourn.com/images/cruise-vacation-onboard/Seabourn-cruises-schematic-OSQ-Grandwintergarden-545PX_3.23.11.jpg

Thanks for that. Do you know the sq.ft ? We spend a lot of time on our balcony so I hope I don`t get that cabin. No complaints ! That`s the chance you take with GTY.;p;p

The information I read said 275 it seemed roomy enough inside. The bathroom opens up towards the bed and the closet is on the other side of the room rather than adjacent but the wider corridor area gave him somewhere to park the mountain bike ;). The balcony is cosy though so if that is important you may need to look at a 'normal' suite or go for the Grand Wintergarden and get the suite next door too (maybe as an upgrade :halo:) I may have posted some pictures last year so will look for a link.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2384990&highlight=Mountain+bike This is the link and the pictures are on post 14 or there abouts.

Thanks for that. Do you know the sq.ft ? We spend a lot of time on our balcony so I hope I don`t get that cabin. No complaints ! That`s the chance you take with GTY.;p;p

I can't help you with the specific size of the cabin next to the Wintergarden suite, but I can tell you that the overall size is fine, but the layout is different (see Techno's comments) and that wasn't an issue at all for us. In fact I liked the "make up" area next to the bed instead of in the passageway to the cabin door, as it is for other cabins. I also didn't mind the location of entry to the bathroom. However the balcony is almost unusable for a couple. Two people can stand up in the space, but there is only room for one chair and using the footstool required Olympic standard gymnastics to move out the door and get onto the balcony. We adapted by using the outside decks a lot more than usual, but I would never select that cabin if I had a choice. I suspect if you see any couple in it, they were likely to be in our situation - the recipients of a guarantee booking, or they booked very late when that is all that was left!

Found this thread as I was wondering about quarantee room assignments and sailing capacity for my November cruise in the Caribbean. This will be an interesting time for a first to cruise this region. How agressively do you think will Seabourn market staterooms in this cruise environment? Do they insist on sailing full?

Unfortunately we found a "bad" cabin. Couldn't get the same cabin all the way for a B2B so ended up with a GTY for the second leg of 18 days. 739 was a shocker..

I'm guessing our newly awarded GTY of 741 shares the same fate. The real crime being these are sold as V6. Imagine paying the V6 price and putting up with this.