Have you ever booked a Guarantee?

[LindaandJeff]

We all know from reading these boards that you should never book a room that you won't be happy with while keeping your fingers crossed for an upgrade or upsell. But what I am interested in learning is ...

 

Have you ever booked a Guarantee?

 

If so, did you end up with the level you guaranteed at or did you end up with an even higher level cabin? I want to hear your guarantee stories, please!

[dinobja]

Once I ended up on a higher floor but same catagory (ie. balcony). I just booked on the GEM and did not get an upgrade. They assigned my room 3 days after I booked in the same catagory. I did book the lowest catagory that I would be happy with so not a big deal.

[TXRED10]

Booked an inside guarantee on Pride of America (Hawaii cruise) in Feb.06

When we checked in we had been upgraded to a balcony!!

We are latitudes and we did this hoping for an upgrade. Didn't expect that!

Now, you can't put all your hope that you will be upgraded, but it can happen!

I am sneaky and when I booked the inside guarantee it looked as though that category was sold out already. This was all in my plan. Get a guarantee and hope for an upgrade. We booked this cruise only 2 months in advance and were just happy to be going.

If you are really picky, you should choose your cabin.

It is exciting when you don't know! You just have to have a good attitude and decide from the get-go that you will have a great time no matter what cabin you get!

Best of luck, hope this helped!!:)

[riddle]

Twice we have been upgraded from an inside (cheapest) to an oceanview. The second time we were offered an upsell later but declined because it was not much of a deal.

 

We are GTY on an inside for the 4/11 Jewel sailing. We got a cabin # right away and it is marginally better than the lowest available (what we paid for). I am still hoping for an upgrade or an upsell offer but if not the type of cabin is not a big priority for us. Just surprised we got assigned a cabin right away with a GTY.

[bcs819]

Yes, we usually book guarantee. We tried for this cruise and were told we couldn't till AG was sold out. This is our first NCL cruise so we don't know if that was true or not. We booked guarantee on Carnival three times and were upgraded all three times. We were not upgraded or offered an upsell for our Jewel cruise on Friday.

[TXRED10]

Even when they assign you a cabin when you've guaranteed there is still a chance when you check-in that they have upgraded you.

This happen to us on that Hawaii cruise I mentioned.

Looked online and saw that we had been assigned an inside cabin, oh well.

When checking in they had changed our cabin #??

So exciting, went to our cabin and saw light coming through the door as we opened it.....a balcony! woohoo! So much fun!

We already had it in our mind we were in an inside cabin.

Very cool suprise. Had to track down our luggage though, they already had old cabin number on tags and were at that cabin door!

Didn't mind, all was good!!

[chrisbd1]

On our last cruise, I booked a balcony GTY. We were given a 2 catagory upgrade to BC. I was happy but now have preferences as far a cabin location is concerned.

[cruise4kicks]

I've booked a BE guarantee twice. First time we were upgraded to a BA. Second time we received a BE.

[newmexicoNita]

We all know from reading these boards that you should never book a room that you won't be happy with while keeping your fingers crossed for an upgrade or upsell. But what I am interested in learning is ...

 

Have you ever booked a Guarantee?

 

If so, did you end up with the level you guaranteed at or did you end up with an even higher level cabin? I want to hear your guarantee stories, please!

We have done the guarantee thing many times and never been truely upgraded like outside to balcony etc, but we usually get a catagory higher than booked, either a higher deck or good location. An example, we booked an obstructed view outside on HAL a couple of years ago and ended up in the far aft with the only obstruction being outside our window was the outsdie staircase, but it was the back of the ship so we only had to walk about 30 steps to the doorway and there were 3 lounges for us to use. It was private and we loved it, plus the cabin was a little larger than some of the other outside cabins. If you are not particular as to where your cabin is and know you are gambling it is worth it. I have had clients get upgraded from outside to mini suites, not often, but it does happen.

 

Nita

[bob&france]

I have heard that passengers are not considered for an upgrade unless paid in full.

 

Bob

[cmh]

Wow, these responses are making me happy. I just booked an inside guarantee and made the final payment last week for a cruise in May. The inside cabins have all been booked except for the 10th and 11th floors. I sure hope I get an upgrade to a balcony like others have. I cruised on NCL twice last year and hope that will help with my room assignment this year.

Carolyn

[wonlife64]

I just booked a guranteed inside room last week for the Sun sailing on 3.22.08. It was a last minute decision so just to be cruising no matter what cabin will be great. However if we get an upgrade it might make it all the better. This is our first time on NCL.

[Lisa&Neb]

never booked a GTY for 1 reason (TA and PCC told us this is why you never book a GTY)

 

You could be happy with the Cat. of cabin, but you may not be hapy with the cabin itself (location). If you want mid-ship, book a cabin mid, cause if you book a GTY you could end up right outside the Fwd stairs.

Even without booking a Gty you can get an upsell!!!

 

Just my 2 cents!!

[bean24]

Booked a gty on our last cruise, it was during the pity the procrastinator and we paid the lowest for ov and wound up with a bc balcony, the only problem is the next time I want a balcony.

[wonlife64]

Do you need to ask for an upgrade? Does it do any good to politely ask as you embark?

[Lisa&Neb]

who are hyou going to ask... upgrade are handled by a completly diffeerent department then PCC and normal reservations. So you can ask.. but you will be asking hte wrong people.

[LindaandJeff]

Thanks everyone...great stories. We always pick our location but this time the only thing left other than the garden villa was a guarantee in a location I am not so thrilled about. BUT..I am still going on a cruise :D so I will be happy no matter what. Since it is an AG guarantee and there are only 4 AG cabins on the Jewel I was thinking there might be a good chance to land up in an AF which would be awesome. If you haven't shared your guarantee story yet...please do.

[Host Kewlguy]

We all know from reading these boards that you should never book a room that you won't be happy with while keeping your fingers crossed for an upgrade or upsell. But what I am interested in learning is ...

 

Have you ever booked a Guarantee?

 

If so, did you end up with the level you guaranteed at or did you end up with an even higher level cabin? I want to hear your guarantee stories, please!

 

We originally booked a BD balcony stateroom guarantee for our recent Gem cruise on 2/6. Shortly after the final payment date we were upgraded to a BA which we then changed to a BA aft balcony stateroom on deck 8. We were very happy where we ended up for the price we paid.

[snow1]

Wow....we just booked for July 20, on the Pearl to Alaska. We wanted a window (not a porthole). All the cabins in that category were booked, so we went with a DD/GTY. All your posts make me feel good about the decision. Maybe we'll get an upgrade to a balcony, or at least we know we'll have a window!!

[mtwingcpa]

Riddle, I also recently booked a GTY cabin when the class in question was apparently sold out. But my confirmation reflected a specific cabin assignment. I sure hope the confirmation is "wrong" because it is a pretty lousy location (next to the forward staircase). But, we'll see what happens...and I will be happy in any event because I knew what I was getting in for. :-)

[Host Kewlguy]

Riddle, I also recently booked a GTY cabin when the class in question was apparently sold out. But my confirmation reflected a specific cabin assignment. I sure hope the confirmation is "wrong" because it is a pretty lousy location (next to the forward staircase). But, we'll see what happens...and I will be happy in any event because I knew what I was getting in for. :-)

 

You can always call NCL and request they assign you a different stateroom. That's what we did and our request was granted.

[snorklinbarb]

I have booked gtys several times, especially when I cruise solo and have to pay the 200%. Most often I have been assigned a cabin rather quickly - one time it was the very next day. But also had one where I got assigned finally 2 days before the cruise.

 

Have booked inside gty and ended up deck 4 midship inside (which was an upgrade from lowest cat. inside) and another time up on deck 10 but also inside. Have never been upgraded "out of category."

 

Booked a BE gty one time for the Pearl and rcvd a BC which was later changed to a BA.

 

On the Dec. Gem crossing I booked a BA gty and ended up exactly in a BA ond deck 10. Even though on the website the balcony category seemed to be sold out, I was not bumped up further.

 

One time had an inside, upsold to OV and then upsold again to balcony. Funniest upsell offer was when they asked me if I was interested in the GV. Multi thousand $ "offer":D

[sallyg]

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[ohioNCLcruiser]

I have a GTY for my April 27th Bermuda cruise so I have my fingers crossed for an upgrade! Come on NCL!!!

[secretkobe]

You can always call NCL and request they assign you a different stateroom. That's what we did and our request was granted.

 

 

I called NCL about that and they asked me to call my TA. and my TA told me we cannot change now since we are already assigned a room after we book GURR.