Choosing Your Own Cabin/Suite

[Terry Bill]

I have tried booking a couple of different cruises, one with Cunard and one with Silversea, and on both occasions, I was offered a single suite in the relevant class or an unspecified cabin in a higher class.

 

Is this normal these days?  The last time I booked (some years ago), I chose my cabin/suite.

 

Thanks.

[Woody14]

lots of factors will go in to that.   Generally if you only have that option you are booking at a time when the ship is mostly full and they have not started there move up / upgrade time yet so they are opening a number of guarantees so once people are upgraded they know what they have left to assign.    

 

If you are booking early you can often get a guarantee cabin as well but there is usually the option to bool the cabin you want as well.

 

You are correct it happens a lot more nowadays with all the upsell/move up programs in the old days when the true upgrade ferry was around it was way less common.

[Terry Bill]

16 minutes ago, Woody14 said:

lots of factors will go in to that.   Generally if you only have that option you are booking at a time when the ship is mostly full and they have not started there move up / upgrade time yet so they are opening a number of guarantees so once people are upgraded they know what they have left to assign.    

 

If you are booking early you can often get a guarantee cabin as well but there is usually the option to bool the cabin you want as well.

 

You are correct it happens a lot more nowadays with all the upsell/move up programs in the old days when the true upgrade ferry was around it was way less common.

Yes - it's almost as though the ships are run for the convenience of yield managers rather than passengers.  Thanks for the response.

[leaveitallbehind]

20 minutes ago, Terry Bill said:

Yes - it's almost as though the ships are run for the convenience of yield managers rather than passengers.  Thanks for the response.

This is actually quite common these days with many cruise lines.  But, in my experience, it remains your choice to allow the cruise line to select a stateroom location or have you do it.  I am not familiar with a cruise line that only accepts bookings where they assign the staterooms. 

 

The offers, when they do this, are typically at a reduced fare as an option, such as a guarantee stateroom.  They apparently may also do so in reverse - as your example suggests - where if you let them select the stateroom they will give you an upgraded stateroom category at the lower category fare. But if you opt not to do this, you then would select your own stateroom.  

 

This can also occur with upsell, or bid, programs as @Woody14 suggests where after you have secured a booking and selected a stateroom, you can bid on upgraded staterooms if you wish, which the cruise line will assign if your bid is selected.  But this is a different program option to the "standard" option to either select your own location or let the cruise line do so at the time of the initial booking.

Edited February 8 by leaveitallbehind

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Terry Bill said:

I have tried booking a couple of different cruises, one with Cunard and one with Silversea, and on both occasions, I was offered a single suite in the relevant class or an unspecified cabin in a higher class.

 

Is this normal these days?  The last time I booked (some years ago), I chose my cabin/suite.

 

Thanks.

 

Did you request a specific cabin/suite (or one of several you preferred) and they refused?

If so, that's a real surprise, unless they were sold out of what you preferred.

 

We've always been very specific about the suite we prefer, and we even specify NO upgrades.  That's because what "they" consider an "upgrade" may well not be an upgrade in our opinions.  For example, we love forward views.  If someone moved us from our selected forward-view suite to, say, a larger side-view suite, that would definitely *not* be an upgrade; it wouldn't even be equivalent.  (Well, I suppose if it were to something "super special", then perhaps, but we'd still want to make the decision in case it wasn't "super enough" for us to forgo the view. 😉 )

GC

[jsn55]

1 hour ago, Terry Bill said:

I have tried booking a couple of different cruises, one with Cunard and one with Silversea, and on both occasions, I was offered a single suite in the relevant class or an unspecified cabin in a higher class.

 

Is this normal these days?  The last time I booked (some years ago), I chose my cabin/suite.

 

Thanks.

Cruiselines don't like booking solo travellers.  I go looking as 2 pax.  When I find what I want, my travel agent has no trouble booking he exact cabin I choose.  But I pay double fare, or close to it, to get that.  

[GeezerCouple]

38 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

Cruiselines don't like booking solo travellers.  I go looking as 2 pax.  When I find what I want, my travel agent has no trouble booking he exact cabin I choose.  But I pay double fare, or close to it, to get that.  

 

If the problem OP is referring to has to do with requesting solo accommodations, is there any (or much?) problem booking as a double (any name/info will do temporarily), and then calling back, maybe even the next day, and "Oh what a shame... I'm going to have to take this trip without my traveling partner" or whatever?  Or give no reason for the change.

 

GC

[Terry Bill]

Thanks for all your replies - I just got unlucky with my first two bookings - I shall look further ahead when there will hopefully be more availability.

[GeezerCouple]

32 minutes ago, Terry Bill said:

Thanks for all your replies - I just got unlucky with my first two bookings - I shall look further ahead when there will hopefully be more availability.

 

I just noticed:  Welcome to CruiseCritic!

 

I'll share the "experience" from our first cruise, eons ago.  Well, 1974.

For some unknown reason (but we are forever grateful!), my parents decided to take 3 generations on a short cruise.  We were all clueless about what to expect, but... dare I mention that my parents were probably more "clueless in general" than most people (but I digress! 😉).

 

We had some cheap cabins, which was not a problem at all.  My parents had one with a porthole or two.  My children joined them in the upper bunks.  My brother and I shared a cabin with a single bunk bed, built into the wall; it had the *tiniest* bathroom ever.

 

And I LOVED EVERY MINUTE!

 

Alas, we were apparently right under the band, so we had to put up with those drums well into the wee hours.  And that definitely *was* a problem!  And we also had to put up with my father's major complaining about that the entire time. 😡

 

I still LOVED EVERY MINUTE!

 

The next year, we went again, with other family members, and I offered to select the cabins. That was back in the day of glossy brochures and paper deckplans.  We had similar cabins, but a few more, but NOT under or near anything noisy. 😄

 

But I sure learned to make a point of selecting our own cabins or suites and asking for "NO upgrades/changes".  We've never had a problem again, thank goodness.

 

I'm not sure what you didn't like about the suites you've been given before, but do study the deck plans, and try to get something with only passengers on each side and also above and below.  And lower deck near the middle of the ship IF the motion of the ocean was a problem.  Or might be.

 

GC

 

[SoloAlaska]

2 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

Did you request a specific cabin/suite (or one of several you preferred) and they refused?

If so, that's a real surprise, unless they were sold out of what you preferred.

 

We've always been very specific about the suite we prefer, and we even specify NO upgrades.  That's because what "they" consider an "upgrade" may well not be an upgrade in our opinions.  For example, we love forward views.  If someone moved us from our selected forward-view suite to, say, a larger side-view suite, that would definitely *not* be an upgrade; it wouldn't even be equivalent.  (Well, I suppose if it were to something "super special", then perhaps, but we'd still want to make the decision in case it wasn't "super enough" for us to forgo the view. 😉 )

GC

I’ll trade you. I can’t do forward cabins since I get seasick. I’m all about the midship and nothing too high. 3 cruises so far and all have had atleast one day of rough seas. With my cabin placement and Emeterm and meds I’m not bothered however. Now I can happily cruise but I will avoid guaranteed cabins.

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

If the problem OP is referring to has to do with requesting solo accommodations.....

I kind of glossed over that part initially, although my response would still apply.  But maybe in that case the offer to upgrade to an "unspecified cabin in a higher class" was for inventory purposes.  There may have been limited solo suites in the desired category so they were offering to upgrade to the higher category to preserve the solos for other bookings. 

 

Probably asked of other passengers as they booked as well, but I would have to believe it was offered as an option and since there apparently was availability in the desired category, the OP should be able to request that and choose a location.

[clo]

6 hours ago, Terry Bill said:

Thanks for all your replies - I just got unlucky with my first two bookings - I shall look further ahead when there will hopefully be more availability.

I've looked at a cruise on Silversea for January 2025 and every cabin is "guarantee." That's just one reason I'm unlikely to book.

[jsn55]

12 hours ago, clo said:

I've looked at a cruise on Silversea for January 2025 and every cabin is "guarantee." That's just one reason I'm unlikely to book.

I'm with you ... let me chose my cabin or I'll move on with my research.

[leaveitallbehind]

1 minute ago, jsn55 said:

I'm with you ... let me chose my cabin or I'll move on with my research.

That does seem odd that every stateroom would be a GTY.  Wonder why?

[clo]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

That does seem odd that every stateroom would be a GTY.  Wonder why?

I had an O cabin for an upcoming trip that was like that. I eventually got a confirmed space.

[ldubs]

13 hours ago, clo said:

I've looked at a cruise on Silversea for January 2025 and every cabin is "guarantee." That's just one reason I'm unlikely to book.

 

That seems a very harsh policy.  So you cannot even specify a deck, forward, mid, aft, or say "no changes"?  

 

We have never booked a GTY cabin.  We have been offered upgrades.  The couple we have had from our TA were good.  None of the few we have had from the cruise line were good. 

[clo]

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

That seems a very harsh policy.  So you cannot even specify a deck, forward, mid, aft, or say "no changes"?  

 

We have never booked a GTY cabin.  We have been offered upgrades.  The couple we have had from our TA were good.  None of the few we have had from the cruise line were good. And for it to be SS and O that makes it even worse for me..

It seems insane to me. Except for the top 'cabins' it was all GTY and now it's all waitlist. Our TA is in a pretty esteemed class of O TA and I don't know if she did anything. Oh, and we booked that last September.

 

"https://www.oceaniacruises.com/grand-voyage-cruises/amsterdam-to-stockholm-NAU240704A/

 

 

More more thing. Here's the Silversea quote from our cruise:

"Book by February 29th, 2024 to make sure you get the best fare and your preferred suite."

 

So if I booked by 29 they'll make sure I get my preferred suite. Except they won't.

 

I'm VERY disillusioned with the entire industry frankly.

[ldubs]

4 minutes ago, clo said:

It seems insane to me. Except for the top 'cabins' it was all GTY and now it's all waitlist. Our TA is in a pretty esteemed class of O TA and I don't know if she did anything. Oh, and we booked that last September.

 

"https://www.oceaniacruises.com/grand-voyage-cruises/amsterdam-to-stockholm-NAU240704A/

 

 

More more thing. Here's the Silversea quote from our cruise:

"Book by February 29th, 2024 to make sure you get the best fare and your preferred suite."

 

So if I booked by 29 they'll make sure I get my preferred suite. Except they won't.

 

I'm VERY disillusioned with the entire industry frankly.

 

Maybe the SS was close to full booking hence only GTY available?  

 

 

[Terry Bill]

Interesting comments.  I pay for certainty.  

 

If the industry decommissioned loads of ships during Covid and demand now outstrips supply, I guess they can offer a hyper-budget* experience at an ultra-deluxe price*. Good luck to them.

 

2026 is only just rolling out, so I shall continue my search as we loved our first two cruises.

 

*Three classes of travel are enough - these new made-up categories are the marketing department gone mad. 😂

[Terry Bill]

On 2/8/2024 at 5:28 PM, Terry Bill said:

I have tried booking a couple of different cruises, one with Cunard and one with Silversea, and on both occasions, I was offered a single suite in the relevant class or an unspecified cabin in a higher class.

 

Is this normal these days?  The last time I booked (some years ago), I chose my cabin/suite.

 

Thanks.

 

Update.

 

Cunard prefers to sell two-week and one-week cruises; therefore, if you want a three-week cruise, you will already be offered fewer cabins as they block out a limited number of three-week cruises!

 

The way around this is to book a two-week and then one-week cruise in your preferred suite. It will be interesting to see if we are required to disembark and reembark on the changeover day.

[*Miss G*]

On HAL, they sell only guarantees if you are booking a partial segment of a longer itinerary.  Once cabins are assigned to the full voyage passengers, they open up the rooms to others.  At this point you will be assigned, offered a paid upgrade, or will be able to choose from what’s available.

Edited March 7 by *Miss G*
Clarity

[jsn55]

What an interesting thing to learn!

[navybankerteacher]

On 2/8/2024 at 1:05 PM, Terry Bill said:

Yes - it's almost as though the ships are run for the convenience of yield managers rather than passengers.  Thanks for the response.

Of course.  The lines are in business to operate profitably -not to make bargain hunters happy.  If you want a particular kind of cabin, select it and pay for it;  if you want to save money, let the line assign you cabins that others do not want.