Got a GTY. Where can I end up?

[lixogab]

I just upgraded to a BA on my upcoming cruise.

The BA has been showing up up as GTY for the last 2 weeks and now it's sold out.

I guess that they simply don't have a BA available and unless somebody cancels the very last moment, they will put us on some other room.

Can we end up on BB,BC,BD or if there is no BA, NCL will give us a B1,B2, B3 or better?

Edited January 18, 2020 by lixogab

[fshagan]

You get that category (BA) or better. But it could be anywhere on the ship.

 

We've gotten very lucky (mid ship balcony) and unlucky (forward inside on the lowest deck), so it really is a crap shoot. Look at all the BA category cabins on the ship and you could be in any one of them.

[Newleno]

Once we had an inside gty, finally got a room assigned a day previous, when we get on the ship and go to the room the key does not work, I was not very pleased, go down to the front desk and tell them our key does not work, they make another key and tell us a different stateroom number, BALCONY MIDSHIP, this was a 10 day cruise and what a great surprise.

[mking8288]

Categories like BB, BC & BD are/should be considered lower categories than your BA-GTY.  The next higher category is/should be B9 (Large Balcony) and those are mid-ship, Deck 8 and 9, if I recall - and considered equal or better to get assigned/upgraded into.  B6 is Spa Balcony.  

 

Good luck & do let us know once you find out.  If you just booked & paid in full, the GTY assignment might show up as soon as 12 to 24 hours, once the system finished playing processing any winning "Upgrade Advantage" bids & free up (possibly) a B1 cabin for your GTY reservation.  

[lixogab]

2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Categories like BB, BC & BD are/should be considered lower categories than your BA-GTY.  The next higher category is/should be B9 (Large Balcony) and those are mid-ship, Deck 8 and 9, if I recall - and considered equal or better to get assigned/upgraded into.  B6 is Spa Balcony.  

 

Good luck & do let us know once you find out.  If you just booked & paid in full, the GTY assignment might show up as soon as 12 to 24 hours, once the system finished playing processing any winning "Upgrade Advantage" bids & free up (possibly) a B1 cabin for your GTY reservation.  

Thanks.

We are on Jewel, so no SPA or Large Balcony. The only categories that are supposed to be better than BA, are the B1 (aft facing) and B2-B3 (the only advantage is that those rooms can hold 4 people).

17 days left and the inventory changes every time I check, but the only cabin available on BA+ is a B1 (shows up and disappears intermittently). I guess they will play the "Upgrade advantage" and if somebody is moved out of BA, B2, B3 I'll get one of those.

Will post an update.

[lixogab]

Now I see the B2 and B3 are showing up again but they are cheaper than BA, so I guess if they assign a B2/B3 it will be considered as  a downgrade.

[JamieLogical]

My understanding is that all numbered categories are considered "better" than lettered categories. So with BA being the highest lettered balcony category, any numbered category (B2? B3?) would be considered better.

[lixogab]

27 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

My understanding is that all numbered categories are considered "better" than lettered categories. So with BA being the highest lettered balcony category, any numbered category (B2? B3?) would be considered better.

 

Well, my common sense suggest that I will not get a cabin until they run the upgrade roulette.

Actually, my case suggests that they may prefer to grant an upgrade to somebody with a BA cabin rather than a more desirable B1 (aft facing) , just because they oversold it.

[ev98]

I can confirm I recently booked a BF balcony GTY for a sailing on Joy. We were assigned a BA within 48 hours of final payment, so not a bad upgrade at all. BD, BC and BA were all marked as GTY as well. There are still B8's available, but similar to the B2/B3s the only advantage seems to be connecting staterooms. 

 

Best of luck for an (actual) upgrade!

[esm54687]

7 hours ago, lixogab said:

Now I see the B2 and B3 are showing up again but they are cheaper than BA, so I guess if they assign a B2/B3 it will be considered as  a downgrade.

B2 and B3 are definitely upgrades over BAs...... don't go by price as that is continually adjusted using algorithms from current sale trends and past trends to achieve the most attractive price a customer would purchase 

[BirdTravels]

14 hours ago, lixogab said:

 

Well, my common sense suggest that I will not get a cabin until they run the upgrade roulette.

Actually, my case suggests that they may prefer to grant an upgrade to somebody with a BA cabin rather than a more desirable B1 (aft facing) , just because they oversold it.

If there is inventory, a GTY could be assigned almost immediately. It won’t wait for upgrades. It is to the cruise line advantage to assign a “lesser” room to the GTY and resell a more expensive room that is freed up during upgrades. 

[Starry Eyes]

As others mentioned, you cannot consider it a downgrade based on fleeting prices.  NCL will consider your gty term met if they assign you a cabin in BA or better category, no matter what price they placed on those cabins at that moment or at some time in the past.  So, you could get a BA, B3, B2, B1.  NCL could have available cabin inventory (even if they are not posting on websites; they do not have to post them) so you may be assigned rather quickly.  Or, as you presume, you may wait until the upgrades are completed to get your assignment.  Either way, try to enjoy the anticipation and have a wonderful cruise!

[lixogab]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

If there is inventory, a GTY could be assigned almost immediately. It won’t wait for upgrades. It is to the cruise line advantage to assign a “lesser” room to the GTY and resell a more expensive room that is freed up during upgrades. 

24 hours after the upgrade and still no cabin assignment.

Balconies intermittently shows up  between 1-2 cabins available and  sold out, so I guess I will get assigned when the upgrade runs.

[lixogab]

2 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

  Either way, try to enjoy the anticipation and have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks. I guess the whole point of this topic is anticipation 🙂

[Starry Eyes]

22 hours ago, lixogab said:

24 hours after the upgrade and still no cabin assignment.

Balconies intermittently shows up  between 1-2 cabins available and  sold out, so I guess I will get assigned when the upgrade runs.

My NCL cabin assignments have generally come on weekdays.  Perhaps you should give NCL 2-3 weekdays....to me that is a still quick gty assignment.  Of course, you may indeed wait for upgrade runs.  

Edited January 20, 2020 by Starry Eyes

[sanger727]

Keep in mind that the fact that BAs are showing sold out doesn't mean that you won't get assigned one. They may be waiting on assignments as they do their upgrades. But they still very certainly could have pulled the BA guarantees once they had sold enough to fill up the remaining BA cabins. So they sold all but 20 BA cabins to people who chose their cabin, plus sold 20 BA guarantees. Then they pulled the BA cabins/guarantees to stop selling more. So there could be BA's remaining the unassigned pool while they wait for the upgrade lottery to see who upgrades and who ultimately ends up in what cabins.

[lixogab]

28 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

My NCL cabin assignments have generally come on weekdays.  Perhaps you should give NCL 2-3 weekdays....to me that is a still quick gty assignment.  Of course, you may indeed wait for upgrade runs.  

You were right!

Checked today morning and it was not assigned. Re-checked about 9am central and saw the room is assigned.

Got a B3 on the starboard side.

[lixogab]

19 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Keep in mind that the fact that BAs are showing sold out doesn't mean that you won't get assigned one. They may be waiting on assignments as they do their upgrades

Thanks! I ended up getting a B3.

However, I was monitoring the inventory for the last 2 weeks and that particular cabin disappeared some time ago.

 

[mking8288]

Congrats.  Sounds good & you are happy - B3 on Deck 9 or 10, near/mid-ship and sandwiched above & below. 

 

You can print out eLuggage tags & updated eDocs for pier check-in next.  Occupants of that cabin probably moved up to a mini or higher, releasing & freeing up the B3.  

 

We will never know, if this was via Upgrade processing ... NCL/vendor is doing some of the winning bids earlier than in the past.

[tmt3698]

I did a GTY balcony on my upcoming cruise and got a BA deck 9.