Pros and cons of a "guarantee" cabin

[Folk Singer]

:(:( Not Good. We did the guarantee and had been already assigned.

 

Talk to the Cruise line you booked with.

[serene56]

Its 3 weeks until our cruise, our ship is sold out, so when will we be assigned our cabin? We rolled the dice this time doing the guaranteed--never again. This is an RCL cruise anyone else experienced this?

 

 

you are parked somewhere-- so any day now you should be hearing.

[Friend100]

We booked an inside GTY (inside final payment) in our last cruise on the Eurodam. We were assigned an inside cabin mid-deck near forward. Then the next day, we saw price of the verandah GTY had dropped (plus OBC) so we called HAL and requested to upgrade. We completed the payment on the phone with the rep, and were asked if we have any preference on the location. A minute later we were assigned the exact location we requested and were moved from VH to VB category which has a larger balcony!

Edited April 15, 2015 by Friend100

[chillyinwisconsin]

We're booked on NCL Pearl for the May 17th sailing to Alaska and booked a guarantee mini-balcony because the price was better. However, this is our first time to cruise and we didn't have a clue at the time what a guaranteed room meant. :confused: Thanks to this forum, I now know. We did get our cabin assignment weeks ago though. Cabin 11134 which is deck 11, aft starboard. It's close to stairs and elevators (which we like) and below The Great Outdoors and Garden Café.

 

Anyone know anything about this location and if it if good? Also, is there any chance that the cabin # will change between now and sailing time?

Texan Sandy, we are going on the NCL Pearl to Alaska the week after you & we did the guaranteed inside room, but was then upgraded to oceanview. ONLY NOW, we have been assigned to an "upgraded" oceanview room for both our rooms which we found out have OV of lifeboats - Forward Port side Deck 8. Not sure how bad it will be but figured some natural sunlight will be better than an inside cabin! We figure we aren't going on an Alaskan cruise to sit in the cabin & look out the window anyway!

[West Coast Gal]

I booked a guaranteed balcony and just got upgraded to the highest category of balcony mid ship. And my cruise is not until November.

[texansandy]

Texan Sandy, we are going on the NCL Pearl to Alaska the week after you & we did the guaranteed inside room, but was then upgraded to oceanview. ONLY NOW, we have been assigned to an "upgraded" oceanview room for both our rooms which we found out have OV of lifeboats - Forward Port side Deck 8. Not sure how bad it will be but figured some natural sunlight will be better than an inside cabin! We figure we aren't going on an Alaskan cruise to sit in the cabin & look out the window anyway!

 

I agree Chilly.........I'd much rather have some natural sunlight, even if it is somewhat obstructed.

 

West Coast Gal, what's the difference in what you booked as a guaranteed balcony and what you're calling "the highest category of balcony"?

[bakersdozen12]

I booked a guarantee balcony cabin on the Carnival Breeze for a cruise leaving in three weeks. I've always had a balcony and never tried guarantee before. Honestly, I'm sorry I did - yes there was a $100/person savings but I still don't know my cabin #. Furthermore, I always stay on the 7th floor or above. When I booked - I wasn't thinking about the fact that the Breeze has cove balconies on the 2nd floor. I get wicked motion sickness - getting stuck on the 2nd floor of the ship at water's edge is the worst possible scenario for me. Wish I never did this - going to keep my fingers crossed that I don't end up in a cove - but I've read about people not getting their assignments until 2 days before the cruise departs. I won't even have time to get all the drugs I will need from my doctor to survive 8 days at the bottom of the ship. This is not worth it! Never again!

 

 

If you get motion sickness, wouldn't the cove balcony be a better option, since you feel more movement the further up you go?

[marimonroefan]

Well, my cruise leaves in 4 days and I still don't have my room assignment. I've called Carnival 2x (I'm gold level with them) and both times I've been told I'll hear by the day of the cruise. All balcony, suites and ocean view rooms are sold out on this cruise so they have to have parked my reservation somewhere. I can't print my luggage tags, or relax (I work in law and I KNOW things go wrong all the time) until I get my assignment, which I likely won't have until Saturday morning. Doesn't this seem crazy? Honestly, for the small savings - this really isn't worth it.

 

As far as being lower on the ship (should I, in fact, end up in a cove balcony) being better for motion sickness - although I have heard this - I usually get really queasy in the dining room so I assumed you feel the motion of the water more when you are lower. I sound like such a cry baby and I'm really not - I just like to have my ducks in a row and the biggest duck of all right now is my flipping room assignment.

[Folk Singer]

I booked a guaranteed balcony and just got upgraded to the highest category of balcony mid ship. And my cruise is not until November.

 

 

Excellent enjoy.

[marimonroefan]

Pleased to report that on the evening of Day 4 pre-cruise, I finally got my stateroom assignment. Even more pleased to report that it wasn't a cove balcony but an 8E on the 9th Floor. So glad!!!

[christinalvt]

I just booked NCL Breakaway for July 2016, and chose an inside guarantee, but as my TA was booking it, it actually assigned a cabin! That was weird, I thought you didn't get a cabin assigned til later? Do you think NCL will change the cabin between now and departure? I'm happy with the cabin I got, anyway, I just thought it was weird.

[cjw928]

We're new to cruising and we booked GTY by mistake, NCL glitched and gave us an ocean view guarantee instead of a higher floor aft facing like we selected. We booked in April 2015 for Jan 2016 cruise for a brand new ship, long story short.. by the time we noticed what happened all the ocean views were sold out and NCL was telling us that there was nothing they could do but charge us an extra $400/person for an upgrade to a family Ocean view... blah blah blah, we tuned them out after that. Luck was on our side because the morning prior to this Cruise critic sent an email about '5 tips on how to get an upgrade' so I quickly asked for the supervisor and explained what happened and that we'd like some type of upgrade or at a guarantee of which room we'd be in. NCL handled this like a champ! I didnt even have to ask twice!! She said ''you're in luck, I have a room available. Are you ok with heights?'' Instead of some random ocean view on the 5th floor with a port hole or picture window we get a massive window, front of the ship, 14th floor next to the Haven suites & right under the Captains control room. It really couldnt have been any better.

 

Even though we lucked out I will NEVER book a gty ever again! The supervisor we spoke to gave us a loooooooong talk about the pros and cons and ensured us that getting bumped is almost impossible; although simply calling to have them place you in a room is common and suggested for people who are worried. In order to get our room upgrade someone canceled their room that same day and we just happened to call in before NCL posted it back on line for someone else to buy. Rarer then rare. She said gty is for people who not only dont care about where they're placed but for people who dont spend time in their rooms, other then for sleep. If you pay for a gty, you might as well just book an inside cabin because you could get stuck with a really really bad room. She said it was 80%:20% chance at a bad room vs good one and gty are used as wiggle room to make the other guests happy; so if someone isnt happy with where they're placed NCL can move them to a better room, and then the gty reservation will get that room instead. She said it's almost always obstructed or unfavorable in some way, like being right under restaurants who vacuum at midnight daily.

 

Book a gty if you dont sleep. If you book a gty for the price it's just not worth it. $100 extra to be able to sleep every night is worth it, to me anyway. I'm scared off for life.

[mrobstad]

Interesting.....I switched to a gty three days ago in a play advised by my PCC...but I haven't heard from him!!! Now I'm sweating bullets!!! I board tomorrow!

Edited October 17, 2015 by mrobstad

[Sea Hag]

I won't book a guarantee unless I'm absolutely sure that any cabin - any cabin at all - in that category or above is acceptable to me.

[wampuscat7]

I'm going on my first RCI cruise in a guarantee cabin. Just FYI, once you are assigned a cabin, you can call and move to a different cabin in the same category if it is available. So if they give you a D8, you can move to any open D8.

 

We moved from one side of the boat to the other.

[CineGraphic]

I've always done well with GTY....last year we booked an ocean-view GTY, and ended up with an A category balcony, mid-ship. This year we booked a GTY balcony and ended up with a B category balcony, again mid-ship. We've saved well over $1K in the last 2 years alone.