Guaranteed Rooms

[trotzoll]

Hey all. We’re about to book a 7-night on Explorer of the Seas and trying to decide if we want to take a chance and book guaranteed balcony for the substantial savings. We know that there’s just no way to tell what we’ll get, and truthfully, we can make the best of whatever we get…. But…please let me know your thoughts. Have any of you done this and completely regretted it? 
 

Share away….

[Another_Critic]

I've booked GTY (inside, OV, balcony) many many times ... never regretted it.  YMMV.

 

If you care about location, don't book a GTY.

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:41 AM by Another_Critic

[mel76]

Done balcony GTY four times. Two of them we got connecting rooms. On older ships these doors are not double-doors and you may heard some noise from other room. But we do not regretted it. It's the risk for better price.

[Mum2Mercury]

We almost always choose a guarantee.  As you said, the price difference is substantial, and we'll take that over choosing our location.  We've never once been unhappy.  Specifics about our experiences: 

 

- We almost always end up on the 6th floor, which isn't particularly popular -- but it's become our favorite.  We like being one set of steps up from the Promenade /from a drink or pizza.  

- We almost always end up being mid-ship.  We think it's because people don't want to pay extra for that favorite location. 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an obstructed Oceanview. 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given a Promenade cabin -- really liked that! 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an Inside Handicapped Room -- the space was great.  

[OldCaver]

We always do GTY cabins, as cheap as possible.
I suppose if you plan to spend a lot of time in the cabin instead of enjoying the ship, you'd want to pay more. Or if the location matters for some reason, you'd want to pay more. And if we were to give the mega-ships a chance, we might want to make sure we're somewhere near the middle, since we prefer long walks on the beach to long walks in the hallway...
We once got an interior GTY and ended up in a tiny cabin, and I do mean tiny, but did we regret it? Not at all. Cheap cabin means more cruises. It's the single best way to reduce the cost of the cruise.

[neverbeenhere]

If the savings is substantial* then absolutely go for the GTY stateroom. Then as soon as it's assigned look to change to a better stateroom in the exact same category.

 

 

 

Note:

* Substantial means something different to every cruiser.

[leaveitallbehind]

As suggested by @neverbeenhere, once your stateroom is assigned, if you want to change to a different location all you have to do is contact whomever you originally booked through and they will confirm available staterooms to which you can move.  As long as there is availability within the same sub-category as the originally assigned stateroom they will move you at no charge to your preference of a different location.

 

We have booked GTY's a number of times over the years based on stateroom category and associated offered fares and have not had any issues with assigned staterooms.  We also have moved locations on a few occasions, most recently with a booking a few weeks ago.  

Edited Tuesday at 03:24 PM by leaveitallbehind

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an obstructed Oceanview. 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given a Promenade cabin -- really liked that! 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an Inside Handicapped Room -- the space was great.  

 

I've also had some nice upgrades among my 20 GTY bookings.  🙂

[trotzoll]

15 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

I've booked GTY (inside, OV, balcony) many many times ... never regretted it.  YMMV.

 

If you care about location, don't book a GTY.

 

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the feedback. 

[trotzoll]

14 hours ago, mel76 said:

Done balcony GTY four times. Two of them we got connecting rooms. On older ships these doors are not double-doors and you may heard some noise from other room. But we do not regretted it. It's the risk for better price.

Good to know. Thank you so much. 

[trotzoll]

7 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

We almost always choose a guarantee.  As you said, the price difference is substantial, and we'll take that over choosing our location.  We've never once been unhappy.  Specifics about our experiences: 

 

- We almost always end up on the 6th floor, which isn't particularly popular -- but it's become our favorite.  We like being one set of steps up from the Promenade /from a drink or pizza.  

- We almost always end up being mid-ship.  We think it's because people don't want to pay extra for that favorite location. 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an obstructed Oceanview. 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given a Promenade cabin -- really liked that! 

- Once we paid for an Inside Guarantee and were given an Inside Handicapped Room -- the space was great.  

This is great. Thank you so much. 

[trotzoll]

6 hours ago, OldCaver said:

We always do GTY cabins, as cheap as possible.
I suppose if you plan to spend a lot of time in the cabin instead of enjoying the ship, you'd want to pay more. Or if the location matters for some reason, you'd want to pay more. And if we were to give the mega-ships a chance, we might want to make sure we're somewhere near the middle, since we prefer long walks on the beach to long walks in the hallway...
We once got an interior GTY and ended up in a tiny cabin, and I do mean tiny, but did we regret it? Not at all. Cheap cabin means more cruises. It's the single best way to reduce the cost of the cruise.

Thank you so much. I spectate the feedback. 

[trotzoll]

4 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

If the savings is substantial* then absolutely go for the GTY stateroom. Then as soon as it's assigned look to change to a better stateroom in the exact same category.

 

 

 

Note:

* Substantial means something different to every cruiser.

Didn’t think about that! Thanks!

[trotzoll]

4 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

As suggested by @neverbeenhere, once your stateroom is assigned, if you want to change to a different location all you have to do is contact whomever you originally booked through and they will confirm available staterooms to which you can move.  As long as there is availability within the same sub-category as the originally assigned stateroom they will move you at no charge to your preference of a different location.

 

We have booked GTY's a number of times over the years based on stateroom category and associated offered fares and have not had any issues with assigned staterooms.  We also have moved locations on a few occasions, most recently with a booking a few weeks ago.  

Great to know! Thank you so much!

[TheBeardedCruiser]

Has anyone had success with booking two guarantee cabins on the same voyage? I've been tempted to do that when we travel with friends. We want to be near each other, obviously. I'm afraid that we'd be assigned rooms at far ends of the ship from one another...

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, TheBeardedCruiser said:

Has anyone had success with booking two guarantee cabins on the same voyage? I've been tempted to do that when we travel with friends. We want to be near each other, obviously. I'm afraid that we'd be assigned rooms at far ends of the ship from one another...

 

The one time we booked two guarantee cabins when travelling with family on Royal we were assigned one on deck 7 at the very front of the ship and the other midships on deck 3! Luckily we didn't need to be near each other. 😂

 

On MSC, we were assigned adjacent cabins.

 

You might get lucky or you might not, so if proximity is something that could make or break your cruise you really should pick your staterooms.

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, TheBeardedCruiser said:

I'm afraid that we'd be assigned rooms at far ends of the ship from one another...

That could happen. With GTY cabin assignments coming fairly late in the selling cycle, you may not have any cabins to move to.

[Another_Critic]

11 hours ago, TheBeardedCruiser said:

Has anyone had success with booking two guarantee cabins on the same voyage? I've been tempted to do that when we travel with friends. We want to be near each other, obviously. I'm afraid that we'd be assigned rooms at far ends of the ship from one another...

 

You may (or may not 😄 ) have a better chance of being nearby if you link your reservations.  However, linking reservations does allow all parties to see some parts of the other party's reservation.

[Mum2Mercury]

With a guarantee, you'll have zero control over whether you're near your traveling companions -- and the chances of your assignments falling near one another are slim-to-none. 

 

If it really matters to you -- like, if you have children -- a guarantee probably isn't your best option.  On the other hand, if you're traveling with several couples, does it really matter whether you're next to one another?  

[Another_Critic]

8 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

With a guarantee, you'll have zero control over whether you're near your traveling companions -- and the chances of your assignments falling near one another are slim-to-none. 

 

I've usually faired better than slim.  🙂

 

Nordic Empress a few doors away.

Quantum - 3 doors away

Anthem - both forward, but 1 deck apart

Grandeur - side by side cabins

Anthem - 1 cabin between us

 

YMMV.

[cruisemiser1]

14 hours ago, TheBeardedCruiser said:

Has anyone had success with booking two guarantee cabins on the same voyage? I've been tempted to do that when we travel with friends. We want to be near each other, obviously. I'm afraid that we'd be assigned rooms at far ends of the ship from one another...

 

The 1 time we did this on the Ovation for an Alaska sailing, we must have lucked out because we were assigned 2 unobstructed Balcony cabins on deck 9, 5 cabins apart. This is a huge YMMV of course.

[Jasukkie]

Royal handles GTYs well in my experience. I've never not had it assigned at least 72 hours ahead of time, though there is not a GTY of that. Just approach this with an open mind as the savings can be significant.

[rjrpar]

Do gty balconies often end up having obstructed views?

[FionaMG]

2 minutes ago, rjrpar said:

Do gty balconies often end up having obstructed views?

 

There's a much higher chance on Quantum class ships where a large number of balcony cabins on deck 6 are obstructed by lifeboats.

[OldCaver]

On 9/26/2024 at 1:04 PM, Mum2Mercury said:

With a guarantee, you'll have zero control over whether you're near your traveling companions -- and the chances of your assignments falling near one another are slim-to-none. 

 

If it really matters to you -- like, if you have children -- a guarantee probably isn't your best option.  On the other hand, if you're traveling with several couples, does it really matter whether you're next to one another?  

Zackly. After all, they have phones so you can call the other cabin(s) and say things like "y'all ready yet?" or "Meetcha in the Schooner Bar."