Guaranteed category

[lojay 2]

We are sailing on the Marina in November. 

 

I booked the cruise in March,  Concierge(A-2 guarantee),  all A-1 and A-2  were sold out and on waitlist and this was the only thing available in Concierge  and I was assured by the TA that it would not be a problem getting a room in either 2 or possibly moving up to 1. I understand that people book and change their minds before final payment is due so I did the Guarantee.  Final payment was due June 8.  To this date, 63 days out, I know no more about a room assignment then I did in March. I spoke to to customer service and it I was read a prepared speech that I am assured of a room etc.. I spoke to the TA, she was of no help either.

 

My question is how does a room magically appear when supposedly there are no rooms to sell or assign?  Do they try to convince people to take another cruise with the deal of a lifetime? 

 

We have been cruising for close to 40 years and this is our first time on Oceania and I would think for the money they charge, there would be a better system of communicating. This issue along with the midnight booking of the specialty restaurants are really soaring me before I even get on the ship. 

 

Can anyone shed any light on guarantee rooms......PLEASE 

[Woofa]

I am sure someone with this experience will chime in but it is my impression that O will make offers to people to make sure the guarantees are met but that this may not be finalized until very close to cruise time.  However with a guarantee you are assured of going so try not to sweat the specifics.

Also remember that while your final payment was due in June some people reserved prior to the changes and only had to to make payment 90 days out.  We are on Marina over Thanksgiving and just recently made our final payment.

Enjoy

[lj77346]

We booked guarantees on Oceania 3 times.  Twice we received cabin assignments weeks before the cruise in the category we booked.  Once we did not get our cabin assignment until the day before the cruise and on that occasion we received an upgrade from concierge to penthouse.  So from our experience having to wait until fairly close to the cruise for a cabin assignment seems to be par for the course.  It would be nice to get a cabin assignment earlier, but that's the trade off that comes with making a guarantee booking.

[Cruisedreamer1]

It's my understanding that you get "benefits" from a guaranteed cabin. You may pay more for the cabin.

[ronrick1943]

It's really simple, "O" has so many cabins to sell on a ship, when a category is sold out they may burn a guarantee on that category.  They know a few people will cancel and you'll get that cabin, or another category is open and "O" will move someone into that space giving additional space in your guaranteed category which you'll get or they may move you up a category.

They want to fill that ship before it sails.

[Cruising Maryland]

The way I understand guarantee bookings work is that you are guaranteed a cabin of the category you booked the guarantee or better, But you pay the fare of the cabin you booked. So if you booked a guarantee A2, you pay the price of an A2, But you could end up in an A1 or a Penthouse. Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, but that is how I thought it worked.

Edited September 4 by Cruising Maryland

[ORV]

8 hours ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

It's my understanding that you get "benefits" from a guaranteed cabin. You may pay more for the cabin.

Not sure where your “understanding” came from, and what you were told, but it doesn’t sound right. If you could expound on it maybe those that do have experience could help with the understanding. 

[Cruising Maryland]

8 hours ago, ORV said:

Not sure where your “understanding” came from, and what you were told, but it doesn’t sound right. If you could expound on it maybe those that do have experience could help with the understanding. 

It is a website called Emma Cruises. Emma cruises as cheaply as possible, I'm sure you aren't surprised that she doesn't do Oceania. She likes inside cabins because they are cheaper. Here is what she said about Guaranteed Cabins:

 

What are Guaranteed Cabins?

A guaranteed cabin is when you book the category of stateroom (inside, balcony etc), but not the location of the specific cabin. You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked. You can book guaranteed insides, guaranteed outsides or guaranteed balconies/suites.

Guaranteed Cabins are normally the cheapest option when booking a cruise.

 

You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked – if for example, you booked the lowest grade of inside cabin, you might find yourself upgraded to a better inside cabin or an ocean view at no extra cost.

[willidc]

Lojay 2,

 

Here is a copy of a response I have made several times in other similar threads previously.  It is about a year old, but still accurate, I believe:

 

"We have had three GTY bookings.

 

The first was on the third sailing of Riviera in 2012.  We were GTY Oceanview.  We were nervous and made several calls to Oceania since we had to leave for the airport and still did not have a cabin number.  When we got to the dock, they looked up our name and gave us the cabin number 10105.  Told them there must be some mistake since we had Oceanview GTY, but they tagged our bags with the Concierge cabin number three decks up and we boarded the ship.  

 

Second time, we ended up about two months prior to sailing with the same category we had booked.  But as previous posters point out, we were very happy to just be on the sailing.

 

Most recently was November 2022 on a MidEast sailing that was 'full' for months with a backlog of people who had been cancelled during pandemic.  We cleared the GTY into cabin 7000 on Nautica which had a balcony with no roof.  Great if you want direct sunlight with lots of motion facing forward, but it was not the cabin we would have chosen.  We watched the booking daily until we saw another cabin open up in the same category in a location more to our liking and called immediately to have it changed.  So, the GTY got us on the ship so we could plan, but persistence paid off in moving to a more desirable location.  

 

My point is, we have had three GTY bookings with three different outcomes.  But all were happy endings.

 

Enjoy your cruise!"

[PhD-iva]

21 hours ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

It's my understanding that you get "benefits" from a guaranteed cabin. You may pay more for the cabin.

Oceania does not charge more for a guarantee booking. The price will be the going rate being charged at that time. 

[clo]

This isn't the article I read but that "guarantee" doesn't mean you can't get denied boarding right at the time of embarkation.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/11/30/royal-caribbean-passengers-denied-boarding/71749345007/

 

We were on a "guaranty" and I honestly kinda freaked out. Our TA appears to have status and got us confirmed. I'll never accept a guaranty again. All of our travel, cruise and other, involves our flying intl long and very long distances. Just my NEVER humble opinion.

PS: I can't find my post about this but I got a lot of grief about it .

[PhD-iva]

22 minutes ago, clo said:

This isn't the article I read but that "guarantee" doesn't mean you can't get denied boarding right at the time of embarkation.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/11/30/royal-caribbean-passengers-denied-boarding/71749345007/

 

We were on a "guaranty" and I honestly kinda freaked out. Our TA appears to have status and got us confirmed. I'll never accept a guaranty again. All of our travel, cruise and other, involves our flying intl long and very long distances. Just my NEVER humble opinion.

PS: I can't find my post about this but I got a lot of grief about it .

This article is not about Oceania. Do you have any information relevant to cruising on Oceania? 

[clo]

57 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

This article is not about Oceania. Do you have any information relevant to cruising on Oceania? 

A "guaranty" is system wide. And it isn't truly a guarantee. Rare? You betcha. But people should be aware.

[cruiserchuck]

On some lines like Celebrity or HAL, I have seen guarantees priced less than a specific cabin in the same category.  However, on Oceania, I have only seen guarantees sold when no cabins are currently available in a specific category.  So I was not able to compare pricing, but it appeared that the guarantees were being offered at the standard price on Oceania's website, and were not being discounted.

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/3/2024 at 5:40 PM, lojay 2 said:

My question is how does a room magically appear when supposedly there are no rooms to sell or assign?  Do they try to convince people to take another cruise with the deal of a lifetime? 

 

Rooms don't 'magically appear.' The systems are supposed to hold back a certain amount of staterooms from inventory to meet the GTY needs. That's why the GTY category will sell out as well. They also fill in GTY based on cancellations.  

 

Your room will be assigned anytime between booking and boarding the ship, though Oceania tends to set your stateroom at least a few weeks in advance. But we've had friends on other cruise lines who didn't know their room assignment until they were told at the terminal on embarkation. We never book GTY because we like to select specific cabin locations on the ships. 

[Cruisedreamer1]

I spoke to a gentleman who had to cancel due to family issues that later resolved so he and his wife could cruise with their friends. They DID NOT get the same deal as when they first booked. So in my thinking, unless you are willing to take a chance on getting a cabin and are willing to book and pay "the going rate" (which in my mind means more) go ahead.

[ORV]

22 hours ago, Cruising Maryland said:

It is a website called Emma Cruises. Emma cruises as cheaply as possible, I'm sure you aren't surprised that she doesn't do Oceania. She likes inside cabins because they are cheaper. Here is what she said about Guaranteed Cabins:

 

What are Guaranteed Cabins?

A guaranteed cabin is when you book the category of stateroom (inside, balcony etc), but not the location of the specific cabin. You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked. You can book guaranteed insides, guaranteed outsides or guaranteed balconies/suites.

Guaranteed Cabins are normally the cheapest option when booking a cruise.

 

You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked – if for example, you booked the lowest grade of inside cabin, you might find yourself upgraded to a better inside cabin or an ocean view at no extra cost.

I was asking Cruisedreamer1. But there is a line or two in what you posted that doesn’t apply to Oceania. 
 

For other lines yes. 

[Iamthesea]

Will Oceania send an email when a GTY stateroom is assigned?  We booked a B2 GTY because there were no other staterooms available in any B category.  We are fully aware of what GTY means, and that we may end up with a stateroom location that is not ideal, but it would be nice to know the assignment in advance of sailing.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

On 9/3/2024 at 9:47 PM, Cruisedreamer1 said:

It's my understanding that you get "benefits" from a guaranteed cabin. You may pay more for the cabin.

We've taken GTYs at least 5 or 6 times, and don't hesitate to do so.  But there are no benefits other than possibly being placed in a better room category because that's what they have available by the time the cruise date is near. That has happened once or twice to us, but the rest of the time it hasn't. But on the plus side, we've never had a room we felt was inferior, so we don't mind losing the opportunity to choose our room.  And the price was the same whether we booked a GTY or a non-GTY room category.

 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

17 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

Will Oceania send an email when a GTY stateroom is assigned?  We booked a B2 GTY because there were no other staterooms available in any B category.  We are fully aware of what GTY means, and that we may end up with a stateroom location that is not ideal, but it would be nice to know the assignment in advance of sailing.

I currently have a GTY, but it's been a while since I have had one, so I don't remember whether they send an email or not.  But if you haven't heard anything a week or two pre-cruise, I'd probably check the My Reservation/Account section for your cruise to see if there's a room assigned.  (Or or course you could call Oceania or your travel agent, should you have one, to ask how you know when your room's assigned.  Or maybe someone will reply here, though it may not be what happens all the time.  I do know that there's a lot of activity with "upsells" the last couple weeks, so the notitication could come pretty late.  If that happens we'll just write in our room number on our O luggage tags and not worry about things. We've bought a GTY 5 or 6 and never had a bad experience with the room we got or anything else.)

[emd138]

On 9/8/2024 at 5:43 PM, Iamthesea said:

Will Oceania send an email when a GTY stateroom is assigned?  We booked a B2 GTY because there were no other staterooms available in any B category.  We are fully aware of what GTY means, and that we may end up with a stateroom location that is not ideal, but it would be nice to know the assignment in advance of sailing.

In our experience, we did not get an e-mail.  That was my first with Oceania, and I did not use a travel agent, so I think that made a difference.  I kept checking the website to see if it updated, and less than a week from the cruise, a cabin number appeared.  Cabin location was fine, but was not an upgrade.  We just got off a cruise, and had an offer for a significantly reduced upgrade (we booked a specific room, not a GTY) that we took.  It seems like they try to do upsells before flat out upgrades.  We spoke to a few people that had similar situations.  For reference, we also do short (10 day or less) cruises, so that may make a difference, too.  

[Chewbecca]

I think your expectations are a little unreasonable to be honest. 

 

We have booked guarantees on more than one occasion, the whole point is you do not know which exact cabin you are in at the point of booking, and potentially not until departure. Our GTY bookings have been at a good price, in return we accept that the cruise line has the flexibility to put us in whichever cabin is available, as long as it is the minimum booked. 

 

If you can't stand not knowing your cabin number in advance, GTY is not something you should be booking. 

[ORV]

On 9/10/2024 at 7:52 AM, Chewbecca said:

I think your expectations are a little unreasonable to be honest. 

 

We have booked guarantees on more than one occasion, the whole point is you do not know which exact cabin you are in at the point of booking, and potentially not until departure. Our GTY bookings have been at a good price, in return we accept that the cruise line has the flexibility to put us in whichever cabin is available, as long as it is the minimum booked. 

 

If you can't stand not knowing your cabin number in advance, GTY is not something you should be booking. 

Bear in mind that unlike most cruise lines, Oceania does not give a discount for booking a guarantee. You just are able to get a room in that category. 

Edited September 11 by ORV