Guaranteed cabins - when are they assigned?

[mek]

About 4 weeks ago I booked a guarantee on Grand Princess sailing on 9/13. So far no news.  It's been years since I booked a guarantee and was wondering how close to sailing they are assigning cabins?  Is there a system or does it still appear to be hit or miss?

[paul929207]

It can be anytime from when you book to when you arrive at the pier.

 

Someone on our August 29th Roll Call got their assignment a couple of days ago.

[CineGraphic]

Every sailing is different.

I've seen them assigned within minutes of booking, and also as late as check-in at the port.

We're sailing this Saturday, and a few people are still waiting for balcony assignments, while other's who already have a balcony assigned are getting offers of free cruises if they take an inside instead.

[Jeter02]

As mentioned you can get a cabin assignment up to the moment you arrive to port. When I use to do guarantees, I usually found out prior to the cruise. Guarantees can be exciting, and also make you anxious at the same time. This is why I will no longer do guarantees, and will pay a little extra to hand select my cabins, as I preferred deck.

[weedpindle]

As stated in many threads on this forum, it can be anywhere from date of booking to arrival at the pier. search is your friend.

 

[mek]

1 hour ago, weedpindle said:

As stated in many threads on this forum, it can be anywhere from date of booking to arrival at the pier. search is your friend.

 

Sigh - you think after all these years I don't know how to search a subject?  I really wanted to know what the current situation is which someone addressed.

 

[mek]

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Every sailing is different.

I've seen them assigned within minutes of booking, and also as late as check-in at the port.

We're sailing this Saturday, and a few people are still waiting for balcony assignments, while other's who already have a balcony assigned are getting offers of free cruises if they take an inside instead.

Thanks - this is the kind of information I was looking for.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I sail on August 4 on the Grand and had an S7 guarantee.  It was the only thing available for booking when I made my reservation.  I got my room assigned July 14th.  At least that is when I noticed it. I did not get an  email, I just noticed it when I went to my personalizer.  

[Mary Ellen1]

We sail on Saturday, on the Royal.  3 guarantee balcony cabins.  We got our cabin assignments on Monday, 5 days before sailing.

[Colo Cruiser]

5 hours ago, mek said:

Thanks - this is the kind of information I was looking for.

Cabins are not assigned at the pier.

The check in folks are contract employees and have no power to assign cabins or anything like that.

It is a simple fix to check the personalizer right up to check in.

If that is not possible they will advise you at the check in desk.

As far as your bags if you don't have your cabin # upon arrival the porters have a current passenger list and blank bag tags you can fill out when you give them your bags.

Some think they are assigned at the pier because they did not check the personalizer prior to boarding and the cabin number was already in the system, although it could be assigned right up to the evening before..

Bag tags and travel summary are accessible and will reflect the assigned cabin number.

[lbfluffy]

We sail on November 17th. I noticed my cabin assignment about a week ago.

[geoherb]

For my back-to-back cruises in June, which I booked May 26, I received my cabin assignments on June 7--which was 12 days before the first cruise and 19 days before the second one. The latest we've received a cabin assignment is three days before a cruise, which ended up being after we left home to fly to the port. We didn't bother to print out luggage tags but picked them up from the porter's desk at the pier.

[Steelers36]

Nothing new on this topic.  Same as ever.

 

[voljeep]

16 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Nothing new on this topic.  Same as ever.

 

bookmarked ... will repost after 10 posts on 86.4% of all threads

 

 

[rugerdog]

Currrent information as follows: 

 

Cruise is Saturday, 7-27-19.  Received my cabin assignment (via checking personalizer a million time every day) Monday, 7-22-19.

 

PS:  Thanks for posting this question.  I was curious as well, but afraid to ask for fear of snarky comments 😲

Edited July 25, 2019 by rugerdog

[mek]

On 7/25/2019 at 5:12 PM, rugerdog said:

Currrent information as follows: 

 

Cruise is Saturday, 7-27-19.  Received my cabin assignment (via checking personalizer a million time every day) Monday, 7-22-19.

 

PS:  Thanks for posting this question.  I was curious as well, but afraid to ask for fear of snarky comments 😲

LOL - I learned long ago to just wear flame retardant clothing and not be overly concerned about people who have nothing better to do with their time to be less than helpful.

 

[suzyed]

On 7/24/2019 at 8:51 AM, mek said:

About 4 weeks ago I booked a guarantee on Grand Princess sailing on 9/13. So far no news.  It's been years since I booked a guarantee and was wondering how close to sailing they are assigning cabins?  Is there a system or does it still appear to be hit or miss?

We have a guarantee cabin for our November cruise.  All but the insides are showing "sold out", so I'm hoping after final payment for this cruise that will open availablitlty of those cabins and we would be assigned after.  But I wouldn't be surprised if it was within weeks of sailing.  Who knows?

 

[Colo Cruiser]

4 hours ago, mek said:

LOL - I learned long ago to just wear flame retardant clothing and not be overly concerned about people who have nothing better to do with their time to be less than helpful.

 

It is pretty easy to spot the imposters. One in particular.    🙄

[mek]

Update - We returned home last week from our 10 night Grand Princess cruise to Alaska.  We booked a guarantee obstructed OV because, #1 the price was too good to pass up - $500 pp less than a balcony, #2 - we have previously cruised Alaska in September and know what to expect with the weather - we seriously doubted we would get much use from having a balcony and even if we did, we like to be up on the open decks to enjoy the scenery. #3 we were willing to take a chance - this was our 5th time to Alaska, so if we ended up with a totally obstructed view we could have lived with that.

 

We finally got our assignment 4 days before sailing and I think we hit the jackpot.  Grand Princess has 6 Premium OV cabins and we got one of them.  These cabins are located on Lido deck and are extra large, with the space normally allocated for the balcony inside the cabin.  Additionally, the cabin has floor to ceiling windows offering spectacular views while staying warm and dry - we did have many days with dicey weather, so in our opinion this cabin was so much better than a balcony for this particular cruise.

 

We generally book OV's on cold weather or port intensive cruises and I would book this cabin again in a heartbeat.

 

Would we book one of these guarantees again?  Well, that depends on the itinerary and price - but we were more than happy with our decision this time.

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, mek said:

Update - We returned home last week from our 10 night Grand Princess cruise to Alaska.  We booked a guarantee obstructed OV because, #1 the price was too good to pass up - $500 pp less than a balcony, #2 - we have previously cruised Alaska in September and know what to expect with the weather - we seriously doubted we would get much use from having a balcony and even if we did, we like to be up on the open decks to enjoy the scenery. #3 we were willing to take a chance - this was our 5th time to Alaska, so if we ended up with a totally obstructed view we could have lived with that.

 

We finally got our assignment 4 days before sailing and I think we hit the jackpot.  Grand Princess has 6 Premium OV cabins and we got one of them.  These cabins are located on Lido deck and are extra large, with the space normally allocated for the balcony inside the cabin.  Additionally, the cabin has floor to ceiling windows offering spectacular views while staying warm and dry - we did have many days with dicey weather, so in our opinion this cabin was so much better than a balcony for this particular cruise.

 

We generally book OV's on cold weather or port intensive cruises and I would book this cabin again in a heartbeat.

 

Would we book one of these guarantees again?  Well, that depends on the itinerary and price - but we were more than happy with our decision this time.

Awesome! Love those cabins!

[Coral]

1 hour ago, mek said:

 

 

We finally got our assignment 4 days before sailing and I think we hit the jackpot.  Grand Princess has 6 Premium OV cabins and we got one of them.  These cabins are located on Lido deck and are extra large, with the space normally allocated for the balcony inside the cabin.  Additionally, the cabin has floor to ceiling windows offering spectacular views while staying warm and dry - we did have many days with dicey weather, so in our opinion this cabin was so much better than a balcony for this particular cruise.

 

What was hilarious was that when the Golden and Star came out (I think it was those ships), those cabins had balconies but Princess still had them listed as ocean view in their categories! So they were cheap!

[PoohUnderstands]

On 7/24/2019 at 11:55 AM, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I sail on August 4 on the Grand and had an S7 guarantee.  It was the only thing available for booking when I made my reservation.  I got my room assigned July 14th.  At least that is when I noticed it. I did not get an  email, I just noticed it when I went to my personalizer.  

Did you get a WS or were you assigned a suite itself?  I also have an S7 guarantee on the Grand for a sailing way out, but already there are no WS's available to book!

 

Pooh