Booked a guarantee

[cruisencrazy]

We almost always book a guarantee, and this cruise, leaving on December 28 is no exception. I always book the "least" I will be happy with. I have always been very happy with my cabin assignment. I'm not that picky in the Caribbean, but I am for Alaska, Europe.... Would love to hear about your experiences. We are still waiting for our assignment for our cruise leaving in 11 days....

[debcruising]

11 Days, not too far off. Maybe the Upsell Fairy will stop by. Let us know what cabin you were assigned and have a WONDERFUL Cruise!

[cruz chic]

When I book a balcony it's usually a guarantee. I've been happy with most of my assignments. It seems some folks think that the guarantees get the worst cabins on the ship. I find those comments usually come from those that don't book guarantees. Good luck.

[Cruizer Bill]

Be 100% certain there is not a cabin at the level you booked OR HIgher level that is unacceptable to you. The old S and R Class ships have some rooms way up in the bow that most people are unhappy with. In our instance, we booked a class H Ocenview on the Volendam and were assigned cabin G2500, all the way in the bow. We were very unhappy with that cabin and it made me seasick when we hit big waves. It adversely impacted our cruise, be careful.

[RMLincoln]

We cruised the eastern Med in Sept... had first booked a large Inside specific cabin to avoid being upgraded to something we didn't want, but late in the game we took an upsell to a guarantee VH balcony. Got a very nice assignment for a midship/aft VE... all together we paid less for that than our original booking... the Inside had a minor price drop in between.

 

Interestingly, our HAL PCC speculated that we would get a "good" assigned cabin on the VH guarantee because we are 3 Star Mariners. I have no idea if that was true or not but it worked out well for us.

 

In the past we have booked insides, including the very lowest, N, and gotten M or MM, but we've never had any really great OH WOW upgrades on HAL, just have to be happy with whatever we booked. We've also never had any seeming "downgrades" on guarantees.

 

It seems that if you start out with a higher category you may get better upgrades. I'll be interested to see others' notes on this. m--

[Krazy Kruizers]

I just don't like taking the chance of getting assigned a cabin in an area we may not like.

No matter where we have sailed, we have always selected the cabin in the location we want.

Do come back and tell us what cabin you are finally assigned to.

Good luck.

[cbr663]

We booked a balcony guarantee on our just completed cruise. We ended up with a 2-level upgrade to a steel railed balcony. We didn't mind the steel rail at all as the balcony is actually deeper than the standard sized balcony. The cabin seemed a little smaller and it was forward and with wind on the cruise, I would have preferred to have been more mid-ship.

 

As others have stated, you really do need to study the deck plans quite closely. On our Alaska cruise, we also booked a Vista Suite guarantee and while we did receive an upgrade, we were surprised that we went down a deck on the ship. It turned out great, but it taught us to really know where each category of cabin is located.

[cruz chic]

We cruised the eastern Med in Sept... had first booked a large Inside specific cabin to avoid being upgraded to something we didn't want, but late in the game we took an upsell to a guarantee VH balcony. Got a very nice assignment for a midship/aft VE... all together we paid less for that than our original booking... the Inside had a minor price drop in between.

 

Interestingly, our HAL PCC speculated that we would get a "good" assigned cabin on the VH guarantee because we are 3 Star Mariners. I have no idea if that was true or not but it worked out well for us.

 

In the past we have booked insides, including the very lowest, N, and gotten M or MM, but we've never had any really great OH WOW upgrades on HAL, just have to be happy with whatever we booked. We've also never had any seeming "downgrades" on guarantees.

 

It seems that if you start out with a higher category you may get better upgrades. I'll be interested to see others' notes on this. m--

 

I know they like to say higher star Mariners get better assignments I haven't found that to be true. On a Bermuda cruise a few years back we had a mixture of different level Mariners. Some were on their first Hal cruise, some were 4 star Mariners, some booked early, some booked early, some booked late. When the assignments came out everyone most up the food chain identically.

[jtl513]

I was slightly unhappy with one of our nine assignments - DW liked them all. I will no longer book Gty since the re-categorization flipped the VE:VA or VE:V upside down on the Vistas and Signatures.

[SilvertoGold]

I think assignments have a lot to do with how much you pay in fare.

[ZSandy25]

We also booked a guarantee on our Feb. Cruise. We have an SY guarantee, there are only two cabin in that category that I hope we don't get and they are the forward 5001 and 5002, they are both handicap accessible .

 

The other cabins in that category or the SS are all ok with us. If an upsell offer comes our way and we feel it is a good value we will jump on it. It's all a gamble and I have been pretty lucky lately:):) in other areas of my life so I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

We usually don't book a guarantee but once during a flash sale we did and were not disappointed. Our ship is sold out on our sailing 2/8 thru 2/29. Good luck to OP, will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[iancal]

We usually book verhandah/balcony gtys. We have always been satisfied with the outcome on several cruise lines, including HAL.

 

We have done 4 cruises in the Med this way, a TA, too many Caribbean to count, and an OZ/NZ. No issue with any of them. We were well pleased.

 

But...we also pay close attention to the ship. There are a number of ships on various cruise lines, HAL included, that we prefer not to bother with.

 

We have done 2 outside gtys over the past 20 years. One very last minute for Alaska and one for the Caribbean. Both were fine.

 

We are not prone to sea sickness. Our goal is to get our preferred cabin type and get on the ship. Condition of the cabin is as/more important to than location. If we achieve this we are happy campers.

 

We have also been know to upgrade a balcony gty if the price dropped prior to final. We have also been know to cancel the booking just prior to final payment and re-book inside the final payment window if the ship is not selling well. This has resulted in a few nice upgrades and extra funds for our travel budget. Now that we are retired I would say that all of our cruises will be booked inside the final payment window and all will be verandah gtys or better.

Edited December 18, 2015 by iancal

[pbnjrockette]

We have booked a balcony guarantee for our January cruise and I've already decided to never do it again!! The "not knowing" anxiety is definitely not worth it to me! Will post when we are finally assigned our room!

[cptlapcat]

Just got back from the Nieuw Amsterdam on Sunday. For the first time in my life I rolled the dice and booked a Neptune Suite Guarantee. The real reason was I was traveling with my son-in-law (wife unable to travel do to illness) and saved a boatload of money. I figured the worst Neptune Suite for the money would be fine.

 

Seven days before the cruise I was really starting to get nervous since I had not received my cabin assignment and decided to call my travel agent to see what was going on. All of a sudden (I actually had the phone in my hand) an email hit from my travel agent with the upgrade to a Neptune Suite SA. I was a happy camper.

 

Pros:

1. Saved $700

2. Three doors from the Neptune Lounge

3. Cabin attendants were fantastic. The best I have ever had.

4. Smack dab in the middle of the ship and next to the elevator.

 

Cons:

1. Waiting for the cabin assignment. This could be a deal breaker for some people.

2. Unfortunately the cabin was a handicap and the bathroom was a little difficult for two

tall men. Not even close to a deal breaker. A couple we met were upgraded to a SA right

across the Neptune Lounge.

 

This was really a fun cruise with very few problems. I had not been on HAL for 8 years and for the money it was worth it. I will be back.

 

Oh by the way the Gala night dress controversy has not been solved in my mind. The first Gala dinner looked like 90% of the men were either wearing suite and tie or tux (lots of tux). The second Gala night we ate in Canaletto Restaurant and very few people had a jacket. Bottom line: I don't think anyone cared.

[iancal]

We have had gtys assigned anywhere from 2 days out to 60 days out.

 

You just never know.

[Tom O.]

On our Alaska cruise, we also booked a Vista Suite guarantee and while we did receive an upgrade, we were surprised that we went down a deck on the ship. It turned out great, but it taught us to really know where each category of cabin is located.

 

I have heard several people mention here on CC, that they were surprised that an upgrade ended up being on a lower deck. I think there is a bit of a "cruise myth" that cabins on higher decks always cost more. I find that the height of a cabin doesn't effect the price much one way or another. Some people prefer higher decks because they believe they get a better view, others prefer a lower deck where there is a little less motion.

I am sure that cruise lines determine the cabin categories by demand - the most requested locations would get the higher prices, while rarely requested ones would be cheaper. Assuming this is true, there must be an equal number of people who would like a higher location as ones who would like to be lower. This would result in prices being about the same.

[jtl513]

I think there is a bit of a "cruise myth" that cabins on higher decks always cost more.

Not a myth - historical fact. That used to be the case on HAL. V/VA were on decks 7 & 8, VE & VF were on decks 4 & 5. VB & VC were on 5 and 6. Then a couple of years ago a fleet-wide re-categorization turned everything upside down , based, as you said, on demand.

 

But, except for stern cabins, suites are still on higher decks.

.

Edited December 18, 2015 by jtl513

[iancal]

I also think that some of the categories have nothing to do with the cabin, the location etc. but everything to do with marketing.

 

We have booked a verandah gty on HAL. I think it is the balcony with solid metal panels. It is a separate category. VE I believe, or maybe VF. HAL sometimes advertises a low price for these. Last time I checked there were only 4 of them on the ship we were considering. Almost zero chance of getting one. Cruise line use this type of category to protect themselves when they need to lower prices but do not want to either upset people who have already booked at higher prices or those that will qualify for re-pricing at a reduced rate. We were fairly certain when we booked this gty that we would not end up in that category. But, we were prepared to live with it because of the substantial saving.

[jtl513]

We have booked a verandah gty on HAL. I think it is the balcony with solid metal panels. It is a separate category. VE I believe, or maybe VF. ... Last time I checked there were only 4 of them on the ship ...

The category with just 4 is VH, but all the balcony cabins from 4001 to 4042 have the metal railing panels.

 

HAL also uses SZ category suite (of which there are only two on each ship) the same way as the VH, as an entry price for the class.

.

Edited December 18, 2015 by jtl513

[iancal]

It was VH. Thanks.

 

I have no doubt that at some point we will be booking a VH gty again...assuming the marketing folks have dropped their shorts on that cabin category.

 

Princess and Celebrity have something similar of a number of their ships.

 

Our on line TA gave us a heads up on this category and suggested we go for it. We did...with positive results.

Edited December 18, 2015 by iancal

[jtl513]

It was VH. Thanks.

The only time we booked a VH Gty we got a stern VB!

[Kerry&LuAnn]

We booked a guaranteed obstructed view cabin and a couple of days before departure we were assigned a totally unobstructed view cabin. What a treat to have that full window!

[cruisetraveler44]

We have a guaranteed obstructed cabin and are hoping we get an upgrade to Oceanview or the chance to upgrade for a small fee to a balcony cabin. We sail in 5 weeks.

[lastlook]

Also leaving on the 28th, and just got our assignment this a.m. BB Guarantee, and ended up with an A, mid-ship. We've always been happy with our guarantee assignments - usually end up mid-ship, which is good for my husband since he's prone to mal de mer.

 

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

[cruisencrazy]

....still waiting..... I will know for sure in a week, 'cause that's when we sail....