Disappointed with allotted cabin

[Nancyquilts]

"We booked our 20 day cruise on the Noordam, months ago & were forced to accept a guarantee"

 

IMHO....when you book a cruise and are "forced" to accept a guarantee then you need to improve your planning skills and look ahead alittle bit better - Being forced on a GTY means you booked way too late for proper planning (and yes I am the first one to say im way too anal about planning ahead and as you can see, Ive already booked a 2012 sailing so you dont have to go there as I already know it! Its too important to me to know I have my cabin of choice and my dining time of choice but that is me)....going last minute and accepting what the cruiseline offers me isnt acceptable with the cost of cruising and all...I want to be in control! Further, the nature of GTY as I understand it means 'you get what you are assigned" period - you can't say, I dont like that cabin, assign me another and there is no whining about it later.

 

Actually, that isn't always true. We booked 39 days of the Prinsendam's cruise to Antarctica - booking it the very first day bookings were opened, in January for the next January's cruise. We had to take a guarantee, because the only assigned cabins were for those taking the whole cruise. It really hurt when people who booked the same part of the cruise six months later got a better cabin. We would love to have been able to book a cabin of our choice, even if it had cost more. Nancy

[RKF]

This note is for RuthC - I just noticed that you live in Warwick - I'm technically in Warwick but have an East Greenwich zip code. Recently retired from working at Brown. Really enjoy your postings. Thanks, --Ron

[RuthC]

This note is for RuthC - I just noticed that you live in Warwick - I'm technically in Warwick but have an East Greenwich zip code. Recently retired from working at Brown. Really enjoy your postings. Thanks, --Ron

Hi, Ron. Nice to meet 'cha! Thanks for the nice words.

Ah, down near "Garbage Park", eh? (actually, I love that park.)

[Hitcher13]

HELP!! We are embarking on our first cruise in many years in 2 weeks time. We have only just been allocated our cabin and are very disappointed. We are booked on ms amsterdam and requested HH as the cabins are no lower that Promenade deck. We received our allocation and we have been what I think would say is "Upgraded" however we do not see it that way as we are now down on Main Deck.

Does anyone have any idea on what we can do as I have emailed HAL and they chose to totally ignore our plea for a cabin in the class that we booked saying that all monetary matters are to go through our agent. At no time did we say anything about money...we just want what we booked. When I tried to email them back to clarify what I was saying they deleted my email without even opening it.

Can anyone also tell me (they chose to ignore this as well) if we have been booked for a set dining time does this mean that we have to eat in the dining room every night or can we go to other eating areas if we choose?

We just returned from our very first cruise, and we were on the Westerdam. We also did a gaurantee of category HH and were upgraded to DD on the maindeck. We were really happy with our cabin and had a fully unobstructed view of the beautiful ocean. We were right near the elevator that brought us straight up to the Vista Main Dining Room and it was nice passing the office every day and being greeted with a smile. Our room was very comfortable.

 

We chose "dine as you wish" and loved it. We never waited for more then a couple of minutes, and most times were seated right away. You do not have to eat in the MDR with a set dining time, you are free to eat wherever you like.....

 

Enjoy your cruise!:)

[ariawoman]

You know what i think the main issue is here, aside from the OPs TA would obviously didn't explain the process to the OP very well, is the fact that this category stuff, if you are a newbie, can be VERY confusing.

 

To a person who's never sailed on a given cruise line, it's impossible to really summize what category is better than your guarantee category.

 

For example, I booked a VF, and had I not done a lot of asking on cruise critic, I might have assumed a VH was a better category room, rather than the lowest category in the Vs because H is higher than A. :-) That was my logic at first before asking questions of all the informed here on CC.

 

So honestly, I think part of the issue here is that the cruise lines (not just HAL) don't really make it abundantly clear (unless you go by pricing in which case you can sometimes guess) which categories are "Better" than the one you're booking for a GTY.

 

I booked an assigned room, so I ended up in my assigned room, but had I booked a GTY at the time, I'd have had no idea where I could have landed. Since I didn't understand the process, and knew I didn't want to end up in one of the VFs in the front of the ship, I went for an assigned.

 

So, maybe this is a take away for the cruise lines, make your categories more easily understood! :-)

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise in 2 weeks!

[cruz chic]

I just returned from a cruise on the Ryndam and I was upgraded to a room on the Lower Promenade. I used to love being on this deck but forgot how noisy it can be. While I was happy to have the upgrade I wouldn't have paid for that cabin. I would much rather have a cabin on the main deck.

[BumperII]

We are great fans of the main deck, and I don't mind at all being told that we go on the cheap. We always try to book an inside cabin on the main deck because that is what we need. We are not allowed out in the sun, so it is the only thing that makes sense. The Main Deck inside cabins are pretty much like every other cabin on the ship sans a bath tub and a balcony.

Like everyone else here, we have unlimited wants and limited resources. By booking the inside cabin on the main deck, we have some extra money to spend on excursions. We still go home as broke as anyone else, it is just a matter of where you want to spend your money.

Until we got the lay of the land, we always booked GTY cabins, and we were lucky on all but one time when they upgraded us to a closet with a porthole. All in all, it turned out to be a very good experience, and now that we have seen different parts of the ship, we know what we like best, and are willing to pay extra to pick out a cabin. But until we knew what was what, the guraentees worked just fine.

This is Holland America. Even the cheap seats are pretty nice, in fact, much nicer than the competetion.

I'm hoping to come back to this thread and hear that you had the time of your life and found the main deck cabin to be very comfortable.

Bon Voyage

[janmcn]

We love the Main Deck and usually book our rooms there. BUT, we also, ALWAYS pick a cabin and request NO UPGRADES. That way there are no "upgrades" to what we might consider a poor cabin choice for us.

I think you will find you like being on the Main Deck. Especially when there are rough seas!