Guarantee Cabin warning. Lesson learned, check the ship map first.

[birdie16]

My husband and I booked a balcony cabin guarantee.  I made the big mistake of not looking at the ship maps first.  On the Ovation of the Seas there are so many bad balcony cabins! I figured we would be perfectly safe booking a balcony, right?  They are usually up above all the obstruction crap.  Not so on this ship.  So, not only have they taken away a port (Kona) and a cruise along the Napoli Coast, I am going to be spending several days at sea in a ship with a view of the side of a lifeboat.  Lesson learned, never book a guarantee cabin.  At this point we would almost rather walk away from the cruise and take our loss.  I find myself feeling like I would rather stay home.  For those of you that want to know, our cabin assignment is 6222, fully obstructed.  I have a call in to my travel agent to see if it can be changed, however, at this time the person at the Loyalty Desk said there is nothing else available in that category.  

Edited April 2, 2019 by birdie16

[Clarea]

I'd qualify your statement a bit and say not to book a guarantee balcony on certain ships, like Ovation.  There are very few (if any) bad balcony locations on Voyager/Freedom class.

[Cruise Junky]

I'm so sorry. That would be so disappointing.  I just booked a b2b with guaranteed balconies but realized I just couldn't take the chance and upgraded to pick my own.   Hopefully something clears for you before sailing.

[Biker19]

10 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

  For those of you that want to know, our cabin assignment is 6222, fully obstructed. 

Depends on your definition of fully obstructed - the lifeboat in front of that cabin comes up to about the bottom of the balcony railing - you can still see above it.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Biker19

[birdie16]

Yeah, not my idea of a great balcony.  I would rather have an ocean view with no obstruction.

 

[birdie16]

12 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

I'd qualify your statement a bit and say not to book a guarantee balcony on certain ships, like Ovation.  There are very few (if any) bad balcony locations on Voyager/Freedom class.

That is why I didn't hesitate to book a guarantee balcony.  I had never heard of a ship with an obstructed view balcony cabin.  That is why I said I should have looked closer at the ship map.

[OACAggie]

That's the gamble with guarantees. We booked guarantee on Anthem last year and got deck 11, midship(11204). We were totally ok and prepared for deck 6 obstructed though. As you mentioned, lesson learned. I have heard that they are not that bad. Guarantees...hope for the best, expect the worst.

[cruisinfanatic]

16 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

My husband and I booked a balcony cabin guarantee.  I made the big mistake of not looking at the ship maps first.  On the Ovation of the Seas there are so many bad balcony cabins! I figured we would be perfectly safe booking a balcony, right?  They are usually up above all the obstruction crap.  Not so on this ship.  So, not only have they taken away a port (Kona) and a cruise along the Napoli Coast, I am going to be spending several days at sea in a ship with a view of the side of a lifeboat.  Lesson learned, never book a guarantee cabin.  At this point we would almost rather walk away from the cruise and take our loss.  I find myself feeling like I would rather stay home.  For those of you that want to know, our cabin assignment is 6222, fully obstructed.  I have a call in to my travel agent to see if it can be changed, however, at this time the person at the Loyalty Desk said there is nothing else available in that category.  

so upgrade to a 2D for some more $ and call it a lesson learned

[jenniferop]

15 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

 At this point we would almost rather walk away from the cruise and take our loss.  I find myself feeling like I would rather stay home.  For those of you that want to know, our cabin assignment is 6222, fully obstructed.  

 

That seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face? Any day at sea is better than staying home even if I have to look at a life boat outside my cabin...Hopefully the fun time had will out weigh the view.

[birdie16]

4 minutes ago, cruisinfanatic said:

so upgrade to a 2D for some more $ and call it a lesson learned

I have a call into my travel agent to see if that is an option still available.  I think with the new RCCL "Royal Up" program guarantees are not going to be a very good deal anymore.

 

Edited to add:  I called the Loyalty Desk, they could not help me because I went through a travel agent.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by birdie16

[Ourusualbeach]

It would be nice on Quantum class if they separated the guarantees much like they do on Oasis having the neighbourhood or Oceanview guaranteee.  They could do an Oceanview or obstructed view guarantee obviously charging more for the unobstructed view. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[birdie16]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It would be nice on Quantum class if they separated the guarantees much like they do on Oasis having the neighbourhood or Oceanview guaranteee.  They could do an Oceanview or obstructed view guarantee obviously charging more for the unobstructed view. 

I totally agree~! 

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It would be nice on Quantum class if they separated the guarantees much like they do on Oasis having the neighbourhood or Oceanview guaranteee.  They could do an Oceanview or obstructed view guarantee obviously charging more for the unobstructed view. 

 

That would go against Royal's corporate policy of maximum obfuscation.😉

[birdie16]

18 minutes ago, jenniferop said:

 

That seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face? Any day at sea is better than staying home even if I have to look at a life boat outside my cabin...Hopefully the fun time had will out weigh the view.

We love sitting on our balcony looking down at the ocean, that is one of our favorite reasons to cruise.  I have a great life at home and live on a "preserve", sitting on my patio looking at nature is much more appealing to me than looking at a lifeboat.  I will do my best to work with my travel agent to fix it, aside from that there is not much I can do about it but learn from my mistake.

[AnnaNicole]

How bad are the balcony guarantees on Anthem?   It seems as there are a fair amount of obstructed balconies on deck 6.  

 

We are booked for a balcony guarantee (XB) because there were almost no balcony cabin selections available when we booked our NE/Canada cruise.   And that is still the case.    They are selling Obstructed Balcony cabin guarantees, too.

[ShillyShally]

2 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

We love sitting on our balcony looking down at the ocean, that is one of our favorite reasons to cruise.  I have a great life at home and live on a "preserve", sitting on my patio looking at nature is much more appealing to me than looking at a lifeboat.  I will do my best to work with my travel agent to fix it, aside from that there is not much I can do about it but learn from my mistake.

I get that, and completely understand your disappointment - fingers crossed the TA can make a change for no or little cost!

[gatour]

40 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Depends on your definition of fully obstructed - the lifeboat in front of that cabin comes up to about the bottom of the balcony railing - you can still see above it.

 

 

5 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

We love sitting on our balcony looking down at the ocean, that is one of our favorite reasons to cruise.  I have a great life at home and live on a "preserve", sitting on my patio looking at nature is much more appealing to me than looking at a lifeboat.  I will do my best to work with my travel agent to fix it, aside from that there is not much I can do about it but learn from my mistake.

If would not say fully obstructed, but definitely mostly obstructed.  To me partially obstructed would be the lifeboat is a lot lower.

 

Definitely would be disappointed with this cabin assignment.

 

Our backyard also abuts a conservation area.  Before purchasing the lot/house, I made sure that the conservation area was truly a conservation area, and not just a piece of land that the master developer can later develop at their whim, or even owned by a different entity.

[birdie16]

19 minutes ago, gatour said:

 

If would not say fully obstructed, but definitely mostly obstructed.  To me partially obstructed would be the lifeboat is a lot lower.

 

Definitely would be disappointed with this cabin assignment.

 

Our backyard also abuts a conservation area.  Before purchasing the lot/house, I made sure that the conservation area was truly a conservation area, and not just a piece of land that the master developer can later develop at their whim, or even owned by a different entity.

Yes, it is nice knowing our preserve will always be a preserve.  As for the cabin, my travel agent tried to get us another balcony for more money but it disappeared before our eyes.  It seems all the "Royal Ups" are moving fast today.  She is going to keep watching, maybe I will get the crumbs left.

[The Sunset Glow]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It would be nice on Quantum class if they separated the guarantees much like they do on Oasis having the neighbourhood or Oceanview guaranteee.  They could do an Oceanview or obstructed view guarantee obviously charging more for the unobstructed view. 

 

We booked on Ovation for the September Hawaii cruise and a 6D guarantee was available for a little more than just a XB GTY so we went that route. The 6D balcony guarantee will give us at least a deck 10 or higher balcony. I have not been on Quantum class before but from research I would never book an XB on this class because those life boats would really bother me.

 

I've noticed RCI is starting to offer more breakdowns in their guarantee categories lately, which is good as I usually don't book guarantees due to being picky about cabins.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by The Sunset Glow

[DaniDanielle]

We had an obstructed cabin on the Anthem. 75% obstructed and it really wasn’t that bad.  It was worth the money we saved. We wouldn’t book them unless there is a significant savings.  I think you will be good.

[birdie16]

4 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

We had an obstructed cabin on the Anthem. 75% obstructed and it really wasn’t that bad.  It was worth the money we saved. We wouldn’t book them unless there is a significant savings.  I think you will be good.

Thanks for that, I have such a bad taste in my mouth with this cruise already anyway because of the itinerary change. I am really wishing we had just booked a land vacation, too late for that now.

 

[cruisegirl1]

1 hour ago, birdie16 said:

I have a call into my travel agent to see if that is an option still available.  I think with the new RCCL "Royal Up" program guarantees are not going to be a very good deal anymore.

 

Edited to add:  I called the Loyalty Desk, they could not help me because I went through a travel agent.

 

I hope you can buy a better cabin.  Loyalty desk can't help you as guarantee assignments have NOTHING to do with C&A loyalty. 

 

Is it possible to go back to the guarantee pool to see if you might get a better cabin.   If the guarantee savings meant  the difference in booking a balcony  guarantee and selecting an OV, I still think you came out  ahead.

 

I hope it works our for you and hope you have an enjoyable cruise

m.

[birdie16]

1 minute ago, cruisegirl1 said:

I hope you can buy a better cabin.  Loyalty desk can't help you as guarantee assignments have NOTHING to do with C&A loyalty. 

 

Is it possible to go back to the guarantee pool to see if you might get a better cabin.   If the guarantee savings meant  the difference in booking a balcony  guarantee and selecting an OV, I still think you came out  ahead.

 

I hope it works our for you and hope you have an enjoyable cruise

m.

I didn't even look at the OV when I booked.  I personally would rather have an OV with no obstruction and save the money.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, birdie16 said:

I didn't even look at the OV when I booked.  I personally would rather have an OV with no obstruction and save the money.

Another thing to know about Quantum class - because of the very large proportion of balconies in relation to all cabins on the ship, OVs are sometimes more expensive than balconies. The price spread between insides, OVs and balconies is some of the lowest of any ship class.

[taglovestocruise]

23 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

Yes, it is nice knowing our preserve will always be a preserve.  As for the cabin, my travel agent tried to get us another balcony for more money but it disappeared before our eyes.  It seems all the "Royal Ups" are moving fast today.  She is going to keep watching, maybe I will get the crumbs left.

 just saw there are a couple of 1D's left on deck 12. I would definitely get a higher priced cabin. 11 days looking at a lifeboat, and 30 days thinking about it, is a little over my comfort level.  We are on the 18 night Ovation TP next April and a GTY was a little scary.