Guarantee bookings , any experience with SS overbooking?

[bobolz]

I currently have a gty vista reservation for which I am making a final payment in less than 2 weeks. I know that some have posted that it can take almost to the day of boarding to be assigned a room. I have, however,  never read anyone say that there was no room available. I know airlines overbook, was wondering if anyone has ever experienced that with SS ? I only ask since only once did I have a situation where the cruise line sent passengers very generous refund or change offers to free up space on an apparently overbooked cruise.  
 

i just want to feel confident that I will get a room. Thanks in advance for any comments. 

[nav1027]

A "Guarantee" means that they promise to find a suitable accommodation for you (and more often than not they will upgrade your cabin). So you will always get a room. SilverSea also has waitlisting on some itineraries which means that you might miss the boat so to speak (if you are waitlisted, but not guaranteed). 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by nav1027
clarification

[bobolz]

Thanks Nav . I thought as much , I see some of the room categories  are now waitlisted , including the category  we booked. So if people booked a waitlisted room, I assume they pay per the std deadline and get there money back if they are unable to find a room for them? 
 

We have done only 2 gtys before, but that was right after Covid so these ships were not full, so very low risk and high reward. 
 

cross fingers get a halfway decent location.

 

 Thanks again for your response 

[nav1027]

Based on my limited understanding they have pretty good statistical models, so they waitlist only when the existing reservations are below or at the ship's total capacity. Several days (sometimes weeks for certain categories) they start offering upgrades to certain passengers (such as those having 100+ days on SS) thus freeing up space in waitlisted lower categories. Never heard of people not clearing a waitlist on SS (of course this does not mean that it never happens).

 

[sea bright]

On our upcoming Nova cruise we booked an aft Medallion suite and waitlisted for a Silver Suite, but did not get the Silver Suite. First time we have  ot cleared a waitlist for  Silver Suite. I suspect it is because our cruise is a leg of a Grand Voyage.

[Port Power]

18 hours ago, bobolz said:

I currently have a gty vista reservation for which I am making a final payment in less than 2 weeks. I know that some have posted that it can take almost to the day of boarding to be assigned a room. I have, however,  never read anyone say that there was no room available. I know airlines overbook, was wondering if anyone has ever experienced that with SS ? I only ask since only once did I have a situation where the cruise line sent passengers very generous refund or change offers to free up space on an apparently overbooked cruise.  
 

i just want to feel confident that I will get a room. Thanks in advance for any comments. 

I also believe you are over thinking this.  As mentioned earlier, “gty” means you will be allocated an equal or better cabin.  I had booked a vista suite by on Silver Muse and was allocated a balcony cabin.  Yes, you might not know your suite number until boarding, but that doesn’t matter.   I didn’t think you could actually book a waitlisted category?  You book what is available but go on the wait list if your preferred suite becomes available.  People do cancel last minute for various reasons on occasion.  I have never known Silversea to book non-existing cabins such that airlines do with seats.

[dawntrdr]

I've only waitlisted for a cruise once, and no deposit was required.  (This was one of the ones cancelled during Covid so I don't know whether or when I would have become a confirmed reservation).  

[crusinbanjo]

On 12/23/2023 at 2:50 PM, Port Power said:

I also believe you are over thinking this.  As mentioned earlier, “gty” means you will be allocated an equal or better cabin.  I had booked a vista suite by on Silver Muse and was allocated a balcony cabin.  Yes, you might not know your suite number until boarding, but that doesn’t matter.   I didn’t think you could actually book a waitlisted category?  You book what is available but go on the wait list if your preferred suite becomes available.  People do cancel last minute for various reasons on occasion.  I have never known Silversea to book non-existing cabins such that airlines do with seats.

Mrs Banjo and I frequently book a gty on SS, never had an issue and almost always were upgraded to a high category than the Gty suite.

[bobolz]

Thanks everyone for your responses. So far.our gty experience has yielded us an upgrade as well, which is what we are hoping for with this next cruise, but when checking what  veranda rooms they still had open, the number was dwindling down so was curious  about others experiences. 
 

thanks again! 
 

 

[nav1027]

On 12/28/2023 at 5:40 PM, bobolz said:

So far.our gty experience has yielded us an upgrade as well

 

Congratulations! Would you mind sharing the result? 🙂

[zigtraveller]

I have booked GTY twice, and both times received the category I booked for - no upgrades.

Edited December 31, 2023 by zigtraveller
typo

[Carebeau]

I have booked guarantee vista suites on 2 occasions & have been allocated a verandah suite a couple of weeks prior to sailing - including our forth-coming cruise in January 2024 😊

[iticlaudia]

I booked the lowest cost cabin on an April sailing and am waitlisted.  There are many more expensive cabins available.  Will others be upgraded creating openings of the lower cost cabins or do I just have to hope that someone will cancel?  At what point should I just give up hope of getting the cabin category I put a deposit on?

[sammyboots]

10 minutes ago, iticlaudia said:

I booked the lowest cost cabin on an April sailing and am waitlisted.  There are many more expensive cabins available.  Will others be upgraded creating openings of the lower cost cabins or do I just have to hope that someone will cancel?  At what point should I just give up hope of getting the cabin category I put a deposit on?

We booked a lowest cost guarantee and just received a three category upgrade to a superior balcony. We are two weeks away from our sailing and the cruise has been waitlisted in all categories so we were surprised to get a higher allocation. 

[iticlaudia]

25 minutes ago, sammyboots said:

We booked a lowest cost guarantee and just received a three category upgrade to a superior balcony. We are two weeks away from our sailing and the cruise has been waitlisted in all categories so we were surprised to get a higher allocation. 

When I go to my bookings on the Silversea website it says booked, the cabin says WL but I've noticed that it allows me to book excursions, restaurant reservations and such.  Should I go ahead and choice all that or would you think that might jinx me?

[sammyboots]

7 minutes ago, iticlaudia said:

When I go to my bookings on the Silversea website it says booked, the cabin says WL but I've noticed that it allows me to book excursions, restaurant reservations and such.  Should I go ahead and choice all that or would you think that might jinx me?

I’d go ahead and book your excursions, restaurant reservations etc. I can’t see them cancelling your trip due to a lack of a cabin, if they’ve taken a deposit, I’m pretty sure you’ll be on that cruise, there are always cancellations. 

[bobolz]

4 hours ago, iticlaudia said:

When I go to my bookings on the Silversea website it says booked, the cabin says WL but I've noticed that it allows me to book excursions, restaurant reservations and such.  Should I go ahead and choice all that or would you think that might jinx me?

I’m curious did you book it as “waitlisted” ?  Did you only provide a deposit or did you pay in full ?
 

 My booking  in MySS account still says GTY, not waitlisted, although the bottom 3 categories  no longer show waitlisted if researching availability. , they are still offering the D2D and Discounted P2P pricing for these category rooms, but if you go thru the “booking” process you receive the msg “rooms to be assigned by SS prior to boarding” . Only categories that allow you to select rooms are the superior and deluxe  veranda and one owners suite . Very few rooms display in these categories. I’m not sure why they still offer bookings for  the lower categories that show no rooms available , maybe they set aside some rooms based on the number of GTY guests, or they have an algorithm that assumes a certain amount will cancel even though we are within the 120 day  window and full payment should have been received by all guests by now. We paid in full Last week 
 

although I could dream , assume there’s is no chance in …. That we would be lucky enough to get the owners suite as an upgrade 😝…..NOT….frankly would just be happy to get a room assignment soon..

 

Good luck ! 

Edited January 11 by bobolz

[Port Power]

9 hours ago, iticlaudia said:

When I go to my bookings on the Silversea website it says booked, the cabin says WL but I've noticed that it allows me to book excursions, restaurant reservations and such.  Should I go ahead and choice all that or would you think that might jinx me?

Book your shore excursions.  You have a confirmed booking on your cruise.  You just have not been allocated a particular cabin as yet.  You are not waitlisted for the cruise itself, just the cabin category.

[Archipelago]

I had a guarantee cabin on the Nova and looked yesterday and I am upgraded two categories for my upcoming voyage !!! This will only be my third voyage and I have another booked for later . If it ain't Silversea it ain't for me ! 🙂

[riandei]

On 12/31/2023 at 1:08 AM, nav1027 said:

Congratulations! Would you mind sharing the result? 🙂

I can let you know my experience on Feb 5

 

😉

[bobolz]

Just received our room assignment about 3 months out. Got upgraded to a  superior veranda from a vista on the Dawn, so I’m happy. 
 

I hope everyone else with gtys also gets upgraded and receives their assignments in advance. I don’t think I would have been happy waiting until we boarded, especially since looks like cruise is filling up, almost all rooms are waitlisted. 
 

good luck to all and happy sailing! 

Edited January 24 by bobolz

[riandei]

On 1/24/2024 at 5:52 PM, bobolz said:

Just received our room assignment about 3 months out. Got upgraded to a  superior veranda from a vista on the Dawn, so I’m happy. 
 

I hope everyone else with gtys also gets upgraded and receives their assignments in advance. I don’t think I would have been happy waiting until we boarded, especially since looks like cruise is filling up, almost all rooms are waitlisted. 
 

good luck to all and happy sailing! 

We leave in a week.  No notification yet.

[bobolz]

7 hours ago, riandei said:

We leave in a week.  No notification yet.

Riandel, did you happen to reach out to your SS agent? I had contacted him just to inquire and that is when he responded with my updated reservation w room assignment. I can’t guarantee contacting them will yield a similar response, but does not hurt to try. 

 

as others have stated it is a guarantee room, so you should have a room, so hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised soon. By the way is your cruise waitlisted? Are you flying (using SS air) to the departure city or is port in driving distance to your home? At this time, our cruise has no available rooms, all are waitlisted, but are offering the lower level rooms as guarantees (when they had been previously waitlisted). Hope you will share  your outcome when you return.
 

enjoy your cruise! Safe journey 

Edited January 28 by bobolz

[riandei]

7 hours ago, bobolz said:

 

 

enjoy your cruise! Safe journey 

I reached out today, still no assignment.  We depart next Monday.

 

cruise is waitlisted 

 

We are driving to the port.  We will have a nice surprise when we get there 

 

fingers crossed

 

 thank you

[bobolz]

49 minutes ago, riandei said:

I reached out today, still no assignment.  We depart next Monday.

 

cruise is waitlisted 

 

We are driving to the port.  We will have a nice surprise when we get there 

 

fingers crossed

 

 thank you

Looking forward to hearing about your nice surprise! Have a great trip!