Guaranteed balcony. When will it be assigned?

[Kybabe]

We will be on the Crown March 7th and have booked a guaranteed balcony. We have not be assigned a cabin yet. Just wondering what experiences others might have had with this. How close to the cruise will they assign one? Might we have better luck being upgraded the closer to our cruise date? Hoping for something REALLY great! ;)

[Loonbeam]

As noted on many threads including some on the current first page, GTYs can be assigned up to and until you arrive at the port. There is no correlation between time and upgrades, its all based on what cabins the yield management system thinks it can sell.

[Coveguy4]

Nothing is set in stone...Your cabin assignment can be weeks out or the day you embark. I booked a guaranty on my cruise leaving Tuesday and received my cabin about 2 weeks out. First balcony guaranty I ever booked, and paid for the cheapest balcony and received a BC catagory mid aft.

[whatcruiseisnext]

We are anxiously awaiting for our cabin to be assigned on our March cruise as well. Half the fun is checking daily.....or several times a day!

 

We did BtoB's in January that we booked as two cruises. We received our cabin assignment for the first leg on the Friday before the cruise left on Sunday. we were upgraded from an inside to a balcony. We received our cabin assignment for the second leg while we were on the first leg and were upgraded from a balcony to a deluxe balcony. We were happy.

 

This time we have a balcony guarantee and are hoping for an upgrade again but won't be disappointed if we are not upgraded.

 

Good luck!

[f-mattox]

On average the guarantee assignments are made 2-3 weeks out; but it COULD actually happen at check-in. I believe the later it is the better your chances of an upgrade--it means there is a lot of shuffling going on.

[paul929207]

I have never seen any figures on the chances of getting an upgrade with a guarantee vs. booking a specific cabin.

[f-mattox]

I have never seen any figures on the chances of getting an upgrade with a guarantee vs. booking a specific cabin.

 

I've never seen any figures either. But I read about it more from people with guarantees than from people who book specific cabins.

[jellyfish39]

We had two balcony guarantees booked for family members on our cruise that leaves Feb 15 2015 on Emerald Princess. We had originally booked Obstructed oceanviews about 6 months ago and we paid $20 per person to "upgrade" from OV obstructed to balcony guarantee, when there was a big price drop/sale a couple of days after final payment.

 

The cruise sold out about a month before departure date and our guarantees were assigned yesterday (9 days before departure).

Guarantees were assigned as adjoining BD cabins on Baja deck, aft. We weren't expecting spectacular upgrades on a sold out cruise, but are very pleased with the location of the cabins,

[Msail]

We had two balcony guarantees booked for family members on our cruise that leaves Feb 15 2015 on Emerald Princess. We had originally booked Obstructed oceanviews about 6 months ago and we paid $20 per person to "upgrade" from OV obstructed to balcony guarantee, when there was a big price drop/sale a couple of days after final payment.

 

The cruise sold out about a month before departure date and our guarantees were assigned yesterday (9 days before departure).

Guarantees were assigned as adjoining BD cabins on Baja deck, aft. We weren't expecting spectacular upgrades on a sold out cruise, but are very pleased with the location of the cabins,

 

The unknown is not worth the savings to me we prefer to pick our favorite cabins on each ship.

[f-mattox]

The unknown is not worth the savings to me we prefer to pick our favorite cabins on each ship.

 

I'm with you; I have certain staterooms on each class of ship that I really like. It is worth a little more to me to have something I know I'll like.

 

I did book a guarantee ME mini-suite on Royal once because in my opinion there are no bad minis on the ship. But I was upgraded to a MA on the bump and then got an upsell to an Owner's Suite, which turned out to be a disaster. I should have stuck with the mini.

[geoherb]

While I have my favorite cabins, I don't mind being somewhere else on the ship. For our back-to-back cruises at the end of December on the CB, I booked two balcony guarantees (Cat. BF). We ended up in a Cat. BB handicapped accessible on the Baja Deck the first cruise and a Cat. B1 on the Caribe Deck for the second. Switching cabins on the turnaround day wasn't much of a problem. I found out our first cabin assignment about three days before the cruise and the second one a day later.

[BJS]

I'm with you; I have certain staterooms on each class of ship that I really like. It is worth a little more to me to have something I know I'll like.

 

I did book a guarantee ME mini-suite on Royal once because in my opinion there are no bad minis on the ship. But I was upgraded to a MA on the bump and then got an upsell to an Owner's Suite, which turned out to be a disaster. I should have stuck with the mini.

Why was it a disaster?

 

We also like to choose our stateroom but when it comes to over $500 to do so will choose the guarantee.

Edited February 8, 2015 by BJS

[mhkanter1]

We are sailing on 3/4 and got our cabin assigned 2 days ago - 2 category upgrade (BF to BD)

[4cats4me]

We booked two days ago for the regal for 3/8 and the ship still had a lot of available cabins and checked today and we have been assigned a cabin already. Booked obstructed balcony and got upgraded to deluxe balcony non obstructed

On Caribe deck midship :)

 

We've also booked guarantees where we've waited until 9 days before sailing to find out, but received a very nice upgrade. We've also booked guarantees and received an assignment two months out and got exactly what we'd booked.

Anything can happen with guarantees

[LovetheSea]

The Princess rep on the phone told me when you book a GTY you are Guaranteed what you booked or BETTER. Many times we got just what we booked. But lately we have been upgraded. It is really a toss of the coin. I just expect what we booked and try not to be dissapointed when we don't get an upgrade. Last cruise we booked a Mini Suite (not a GTY) and were upgraded to a Full Suite.

[Kybabe]

We will be happy with whatever is assigned. I love having a balcony but also like the anticipation! :D

[FrannyK]

On January 23rd I booked the February 21st sailing of the CB. Booked a BE balcony guarantee. I was assigned a BA balcony cabin (so a bit of an upgrade there) midship on Aloha deck 3 days later. Kept checking my luggage to see. Very happy with the location! I was worried we would end up over the show room or under the buffet. This is only the second time I've booked a guarantee, I prefer booking a particular cabin but I just couldn't pass up the price of a guarantee this time. Nice way to start our first cruise with Princess :)

[Kybabe]

Our Cabin was assigned today. We booked a balcony guaranteed (BF) and were assigned a balcony (BB) on the Aloha deck. Kind of disappointed, not in the location but as I stated in an earlier post, I was enjoying the anticipation! Plenty to look forward too now that I know where I am laying my head at night!

[AZbeachboy]

Maybe not until you get to the pier.

[LovetheSea]

We just got our cabin GTY assignment today for our Crown Princess cruise Feb. 28th sailing. We got what we booked. No upgrade. We are in a nice area in the middle of the ship though.

Edited February 12, 2015 by LovetheSea