Is a “Guarantee” Really a Guarantee?

[jcolley]

So, it’s been many years since I’ve sailed on RCI. I have a Spring Break cruise booked next week on the Brilliance. When I booked the only option was a Guarantee. The ship has been sold out for at least 3 weeks and I still haven’t been assigned a cabin. I understand that they might assign a day or 2 before, or even at the port. Does RCL “oversell” the ship with the assumption that some will cancel? If the ship is sold out, I don’t understand why they would wait to assign a cabin. I know they will try to upgrade others etc and see what’s left. I just don’t want to wait to the last minute without any options. So I guess my question is ..... is a guarantee REALLY a guarantee or not. RCL says they will definitely have a room etc. I’ve just seen on the boards where some folks have been bumped or scenarios like that. Thanks for some insight.

[Clarea]

I've only seen one report of someone being bumped, and even in that case, Royal (finally) made it right.

[Starry Eyes]

Try to relax. “Sold out” means they are not selling cabins to more people; it does not mean they have no cabin for you or others holding gty bookings.

 

By booking gty, you agreed to wait as long as necessary to discover your cabin category, so all you can do is wait and hope for the best.

 

Why are they waiting? Who knows. As you said, they might be keeping their options open to allow upsell or such. Or maybe they want to do some work on cabins and will assign as they see how that work progresses.

 

There is no reason to assume they oversold the cruise and will not honor the gty. People frequently express such concerns, then later learn their assignment.

[Colorado Babe]

Following. I also have a w guarantee and been waiting 5 months for assignment.

 

 

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[Andyinmacksville]

I think you are misunderstanding context in which the word guarantee is being used, the guarantee relates to the minimum cabin category you can be assigned. It is not a guarantee you’ll definitely get a cabin.

 

While it doesn’t seem to happen often let’s face it those that pay the least for a cabin category would be first on the chopping block.

 

 

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[blackshirt]

It is not a guarantee you’ll definitely get a cabin.

 

I sure hope that is not true. I’ve never heard of anyone reporting not getting a cabin at all. Have you?

[Clarea]

I sure hope that is not true. I’ve never heard of anyone reporting not getting a cabin at all. Have you?

Just once here on CC, but Royal eventually got them a stateroom.

[Andyinmacksville]

I sure hope that is not true. I’ve never heard of anyone reporting not getting a cabin at all. Have you?

 

 

 

I’ve seen posts about it a couple of times, I imagine it’s something they would hope to avoid at all cost but as I said you would expect if it did happen those that pay the least would be the ones getting bumped

 

 

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[happicruzer]

Two days before sailing, our Oasis guaranty deluxe balcony became an inside promenade, originally for $462 more. We refused to pay.

 

Ended up with you can take the inside cabin for taxes and tips or pay more to change to a basic balcony for more money on a different date. At least we were comped the difference in nonrefundale on board credit. Not happy to say the least.

 

Haven’t booked another RCI cruise since February 2017. Thoroughly enjoying Celebrity, Princess and HAL. Princess has come through with two upgrades and one up-sell.

Judy

[jcolley]

I think you are misunderstanding context in which the word guarantee is being used, the guarantee relates to the minimum cabin category you can be assigned. It is not a guarantee you’ll definitely get a cabin.

 

While it doesn’t seem to happen often let’s face it those that pay the least for a cabin category would be first on the chopping block.

 

 

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Thanks for your reply. However, I would think a minimum cabin category guarantee would also mean you are guaranteed a cabin?

And to assume those that book a guarantee are paying the least isn’t entirely accurate. I can assure you I didn’t pay the least. :) It’s was the only option available, due to it being a last minute booking of Spring Break.

Sounds like I should be good and they will assign at the last minute.

 

 

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[Andyinmacksville]

Thanks for your reply. However, I would think a minimum cabin category guarantee would also mean you are guaranteed a cabin?

And to assume those that book a guarantee are paying the least isn’t entirely accurate. I can assure you I didn’t pay the least. :) It’s was the only option available, due to it being a last minute booking of Spring Break.

Sounds like I should be good and they will assign at the last minute.

 

 

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I’ll qualify the pay the least bit, the guarantee cabins are offered at a lower rate than those where you choose your cabin. As a business decision you would bump the lower paying customer who doesn’t have a cabin assigned should the situation arise.

 

As I said it seems quite rare for it to happen with cruise lines, so you should be fine.

 

 

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[theSHAH]

Do cruise lines utilize overbooking like airlines do?

[LizzyDragon]

Do cruise lines utilize overbooking like airlines do?

 

It doesn't appear so. Some folks have reported with some lines of getting "move over" offers to change ships or sailings.

 

 

But as cruise line bookings are way different from airline bookings (since most people need to plan their travel to the ship, take time off, etc) and are much more likely to make their sailing vs. a business person who's changing flights frequently at the last minute due to business needs (and may book flights they miss). The rate of people actually showing up for the ship is significantly higher than people showing up for their flight. So overselling is a much riskier move for the cruise lines.

 

This is different from chartering a cruise. You'll see a few reports here of people having their sailing cancelled due to a full-ship charter. But chartering happens a few months out- not last-minute.

Edited March 5, 2018 by LizzyDragon

[gt_mustang_gal]

I am currently in this situation. Our cruise is in 11 days. We booked a "W" suite guarantee months ago. Still no assignment. I have called Royal Caribbean, my TA, and also talked to Crown & Anchor since we are Diamond members.

 

I have been informed that our ship IS INDEED sold out (and yes, it also appears that way online), with the exception of the 4-bedroom Presidential suite.

 

I have been informed that there is NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room and that the assignment can take place UP TO THE TIME THE SHIP SAILS. They made it sound like we could be standing at the port waiting for a "no show" and then take their room.

 

As a side note - I have booked at least 4 or 5 guarantee suites on past cruises and never had this issue. I received some very cool assignments and was happy. After this experience, I will never book a guarantee room again because it honestly has caused me to be stressed for weeks.

[Clarea]

Do cruise lines utilize overbooking like airlines do?

I could be wrong, but I suspect they overbook only by mistake, not as a regular matter of policy.

[travelberlin]

I am currently in this situation. Our cruise is in 11 days. We booked a "W" suite guarantee months ago. Still no assignment. I have called Royal Caribbean, my TA, and also talked to Crown & Anchor since we are Diamond members.

 

I have been informed that our ship IS INDEED sold out (and yes, it also appears that way online), with the exception of the 4-bedroom Presidential suite.

 

I have been informed that there is NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room and that the assignment can take place UP TO THE TIME THE SHIP SAILS. They made it sound like we could be standing at the port waiting for a "no show" and then take their room.

 

As a side note - I have booked at least 4 or 5 guarantee suites on past cruises and never had this issue. I received some very cool assignments and was happy. After this experience, I will never book a guarantee room again because it honestly has caused me to be stressed for weeks.

I am sorry to hear about this. On the Azamara forum, there were also passengers informing that they were going to be bumped of the cruise they had booked under guarantee cabin. Fortunately and probably due to the intervention of many cruise critic members and the appointed blogger from Azamara, the situation found a happy end. Azamara is part of the Royal Caribbean family.

Ivi

[birdylady]

I have been informed that there is NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room and that the assignment can take place UP TO THE TIME THE SHIP SAILS. They made it sound like we could be standing at the port waiting for a "no show" and then take their room.

 

As a side note - I have booked at least 4 or 5 guarantee suites on past cruises and never had this issue. I received some very cool assignments and was happy. After this experience, I will never book a guarantee room again because it honestly has caused me to be stressed for weeks.

Sooooo, if someone books this and doesn't live 5 minutes from port, what? The customers has to buy airfare and hang out at the port to potentially be turned away? That sounds like horrible customer service.

 

Erika

[Starry Eyes]

I am currently in this situation. Our cruise is in 11 days. We booked a "W" suite guarantee months ago. Still no assignment. I have called Royal Caribbean, my TA, and also talked to Crown & Anchor since we are Diamond members.

 

I have been informed that our ship IS INDEED sold out (and yes, it also appears that way online), with the exception of the 4-bedroom Presidential suite.

 

I have been informed that there is NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room and that the assignment can take place UP TO THE TIME THE SHIP SAILS. They made it sound like we could be standing at the port waiting for a "no show" and then take their room.

 

As a side note - I have booked at least 4 or 5 guarantee suites on past cruises and never had this issue. I received some very cool assignments and was happy. After this experience, I will never book a guarantee room again because it honestly has caused me to be stressed for weeks.

Wow.

 

As you have spoken to many people about your booking, which one(s) said there is “NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room”? I truly hope it is either an exceptional circumstance (see below) or the person was wildly incorrect. Depending who said the above I’d ask my TA escalate this concerns? Depending upon who said it, I’d contact the top gun.

 

 

 

 

I have always believed that a gty booking was a wonderful indeed a promise of a cabin would be provided on that ship and sail date and further that assigned cabin would be at least the gty category or higher. If the cruiseline can just turn you away if space is unavailable, they should be selling it as “stand-by” not as a guarantee.

 

 

I certainly can understand that a cruiseline could sell in good faith an appropriate number of cabins (including gty), then shortly before the cruise, discover a problem causing an oversold situation. For example, they could be forced to remove cabins from inventory due to unexpected mechanical/physical problem making cabins uninhabitable. Personally, if that happened, I would want the cruise line to contact local cruisers to offer a sweet “move over” deal to an alternate ship or alternate date. Having recently retired to Florida with a much more flexible schedule, I’d be happy to entertain such an offer.

[gt_mustang_gal]

Sooooo, if someone books this and doesn't live 5 minutes from port, what? The customers has to buy airfare and hang out at the port to potentially be turned away? That sounds like horrible customer service.

 

Erika

 

Exactly. We are in Tennessee, planning to fly down in advance. We have already paid for round-trip flights and a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale prior to AND one night after the cruise. It's just irritating to me because I'd rather know in advance so that we could make new plans. This isn't a nice way for Royal Caribbean to tell me Happy Birthday. :(

[gt_mustang_gal]

Wow.

 

As you have spoken to many people about your booking, which one(s) said there is “NO GUARANTEE that we will get a room”? I truly hope it is either an exceptional circumstance (see below) or the person was wildly incorrect. Depending who said the above I’d ask my TA escalate this concerns? Depending upon who said it, I’d contact the top gun.

 

 

 

 

I have always believed that a gty booking was a wonderful indeed a promise of a cabin would be provided on that ship and sail date and further that assigned cabin would be at least the gty category or higher. If the cruiseline can just turn you away if space is unavailable, they should be selling it as “stand-by” not as a guarantee.

 

 

I certainly can understand that a cruiseline could sell in good faith an appropriate number of cabins (including gty), then shortly before the cruise, discover a problem causing an oversold situation. For example, they could be forced to remove cabins from inventory due to unexpected mechanical/physical problem making cabins uninhabitable. Personally, if that happened, I would want the cruise line to contact local cruisers to offer a sweet “move over” deal to an alternate ship or alternate date. Having recently retired to Florida with a much more flexible schedule, I’d be happy to entertain such an offer.

 

I was told "ship is sold out" and "no guarantee" and "room assignment can take place up to the time the ship sails" by Royal Caribbean Customer Service AND by Crown & Anchor Customer Support. I do have the names of the individuals written down in case I need to reference them.

 

I agree 100% with the rest of your post.

[Biker19]

Personally, if that happened, I would want the cruise line to contact local cruisers to offer a sweet “move over” deal to an alternate ship or alternate date.

That's what they do and there have been examples here on CC of that.

[ptf2009]

Two days before sailing, our Oasis guaranty deluxe balcony became an inside promenade, originally for $462 more. We refused to pay.

 

Ended up with you can take the inside cabin for taxes and tips or pay more to change to a basic balcony for more money on a different date. At least we were comped the difference in nonrefundale on board credit. Not happy to say the least.

 

Haven’t booked another RCI cruise since February 2017. Thoroughly enjoying Celebrity, Princess and HAL. Princess has come through with two upgrades and one up-sell.

Judy

How unfortunate for you! I thought that a guarantee meant that you would be put in a cabin that was at least what you signed up for and wouldn’t have to pay any more money....so I’m confused that you were expected to pay more for the guarantee that you paid for! Or am I missing something? We reserved a guarantee once for an OVB and we were put in a JS which unfortunately was a very noisy cabin because it was right under the Windjammer. We know reserve the cabin we want to avoid unwanted noise:)

[jcolley]

OP here .... I think it would be so much better if RCI were transparent in these situations and explained the process. I called RCI (booked directly) and was told that there were no triples/quad available in any category. So I asked, “are we essentially waiting to see if someone cancels,” and I was told yes, if someone cancels you would be assigned a room. In the same breath she also said that I am “guaranteed to have a stateroom.” So after explaining that I was confused, either we are waiting on someone to cancel or do they have all guarantees factored in? Of course she didn’t know. She again said I was guaranteed a stateroom. I just wanted clarification as to if the guarantees (surely I’m not the only one) are factored in to the overall capacity. So we shall see. Thanks for everyone’s responses!

 

 

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[happicruzer]

How unfortunate for you! I thought that a guarantee meant that you would be put in a cabin that was at least what you signed up for and wouldn’t have to pay any more money....so I’m confused that you were expected to pay more for the guarantee that you paid for! Or am I missing something?

 

The website showed we owed more and can only assume the last available cabin had a higher price than the cabin we booked eight weeks earlier. I watched our cabin category slowly fill up but never anticipated being downgraded.

 

We reserved a guarantee once for an OVB and we were put in a JS which unfortunately was a very noisy cabin because it was right under the Windjammer. We know reserve the cabin we want to avoid unwanted noise:)

 

We’ve done several guaranty booking on RCI and been pleasantly surprised with both the cabin location or a slight upgrade.

 

Customer service just kept saying that to move my booking cabin category to a future cruise was costing RCI too much money. For what it’s worth, price actually dropped closer to sale date rubbing salt in the wound.

 

There was definitely no loyalty given to a past passenger, something my husband kept yelling throughout our three hours worth of phone calls.

 

Princess has the overbooking issue down well. Called move overs. Several folks get an email offer and you call if interested.

 

Our Princess table mates got a 50% offer if they moved to the following cruise. Many times your fare is provided as refundable OBC on the next cruise. That was one offer I wish I’d received.

Judy

[tennislvr8]

We booked a guarantee at the end of Jan. for a cruise in Mar. I do not understand the process either. I'm alittle anal, read as crazy. I had my TA, a friend who is a TA and I was calling daily because we didn't get an assignment. We all got the same response, there were only two rooms left.....a grand suite and a sky loft suite and everything else was sold out. We got our assignment mid to late Feb. Once again I'm crazy, and those two suites were still available. I still don't understand the guarantee process.

 

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