"Guaranteed Veranda": Pros and cons

We decided to book a guaranteed veranda (for the first time - usually we take CC cabin) because the price was so great.

But... Is it too risky? Could you please share your experience, what you can get at the end of this "booking"? I know I will get a veranda stateroom for sure, but is it possible that it will be with obstructed view? BTW, the ship is Constellation. Should I go back and change to regular veranda and choose the room I want? I don't really care if it is Deck 6 or 9 mid ship or aft, but I don't want to have a boat on my balcony. Do you see what I mean? So, any thoughts and comments are welcome!:)

You are usually paying a price considerably lower than the lowest price cabin and that's the advantage. However, you may very well wind up getting the least desirable cabin and you should be prepared for that. I've had some good luck with guarantees. Once I had the "worst" cabin, but I once received a Suite. You are rolling the dice, but you are paying a bargain price. I would not take a guarantee if one of my favorite cabins was available, especially for longer cruises. Would book a guarantee if I wanted tosave some money and didn't really care about the cabin location.

I gave up on guarantees after a few very bad cabins. On a very popular cruise, you will probably be given the last of the cabins. And these are usually the worst for a number of reasons. Once we had a cabin so far forward that the balcony had a solid steel railing. You could only look out and see the water if you were looking over the railing. Once we were near a very busy and noisy elevator lobby. We were woken up every night at 1:00AM as noisy passenger returned to their cabins. The last time we were under the pool deck and heard the deck guys dragging chairs around at 5:30AM. So now we pay extra and carefully select our cabin.

What ship? Consider the deck plan and where the worst veranda cabins are located. Could you live with that location cabin? How much more would you pay to pick the perfect veranda, or is that cabin even available. Guarantees are used to fill ships so you must be inside final payment or very close. Are the best cabins booked already? All of these tings go into the decision to use a guarantee or not. But you do know that you will NOT have an inside cabin :).

What ship?

Constellation

Are the best cabins booked already?

No, but the prices are higher - much higher.

But you do know that you will NOT have an inside cabin :).

I won't even get oceanview - it's guaranteed a balcony :D

For my cruise this month I booked a Guarantee balcony cabin and was given a two catagory upgrade but the cabin was very far forward over the theatre. I watched prices and a couple weeks later a senior rate appeared that was only $169 more for a higher catagory so I called and had them move me up. Even if you don't like the cabin they assign you, you can call them and ask if there is anything else available in the same catagory. If so, they will move you to the cabin you want. Or you can upgrade yourself like I did!