Stateroom Guarantee

[natty157]

I am traveling to Alaska, northbound on the Island Princess in August this year. My travel agent assures me that only our cabin catagory (AD mini suite w/balcony) can be confirmed before boarding. It seems like many of you already know what cabin number you'll be in and yet I can't find out what deck, side, etc. Although my travel agent was asked by a couple members of our group aside from myself, she never did explain why we would spend 5000.00 + for a cruise and not know if we'll have a prefered side (starboard) or end or deck.

Can anyone explain cabin assignments to me? And why we shouldn't be able to pick our cabin from a list of available? Or tell me if I'm being too particular?

 

Thank you so much for any help you can provide.

[spongerob]

You are booked in a guarantee, which means that you will get at minimum the category of cabin the guarantee is based on, but do not have a choice in the location of the cabin. Usually, a guarantee is cheaper for this reason, compared to booking a cabin of the type you want in a location you prefer. If you are paying the same price as someone who is selecting their cabin (you can check pricing on many on-line web sites) you might want to have a word with your TA.

 

Also, that price you quoted - does that include air, taxes, port fees, etc?

[mringenoldus]

You may chose to book into an available AD cabin or sit and wait with the guarantee. Waiting sometimes pays off in an upgrade to a higher catagory but you wont do any worse than an AD. I've have had upgrade luck with the gty cabin and other times been placed in the catagory I booked. I've never really had a bad experience with the gty reservation.

[WeBeGone]

If you want to choose your cabin, you may be able to upgrade by paying the difference between what you have and what you want. Be aware however that sometimes the price differences can be substantial. Check with your TA if you're willing to pay more for a cabin assignment to see if anything is left.

[Toto2Kansas]

Hummmm, I think for $5000 plus I would want to choose my cabin assignment. I think I would be contacting my travel agent and see what can be done.

 

Remember too, if you are unhappy with the way your travel agent is handling this, with Princess you can find another TA and switch your booking over to the new TA without a problem. It helps when the TA you have booked with just won't work with you or explain anything.

 

Best of Luck!

[LARGIN]

Hummmm, I think for $5000 plus I would want to choose my cabin assignment. I think I would be contacting my travel agent and see what can be done.

 

Remember too, if you are unhappy with the way your travel agent is handling this, with Princess you can find another TA and switch your booking over to the new TA without a problem. It helps when the TA you have booked with just won't work with you or explain anything.

 

Best of Luck!

 

Agree.. You can pick any cabin that is available and TA switching is real easy.

[peagreenid]

We sure are jumping to conclusions here. Largin on OUR 12/17/05 cruise, it shows 9 AC cabins available, the only assignment is one of the Handicapped cabins, the other 8 are GTY. Because you don't get a cabin assignment does not mean you have a BAD travel agent. Maybe, this is a popular sailing or a popular category and that is all that was left. All of the people that I book do not necessarily get cabin assignments. They get what is available. If people are really upset with having a GTY assignment, I check frequently to see if an assignment opens up before they get an assignment from Princess. Others like the idea of getting a possible upgrade. If a cabin assignment does open up, I've never had Princess charge for it when I call and say My client wants that cabin. NOW- The category AE mini-suites do NOT fall under this. Those are categories that Princess uses to sell vacant cabins at a reduced price. Generally people that book AE GTY NEVER get an AE.

Natty- If it makes you feel better, I went in and checked EVERY sailing of the Island Princess for the month of August. There isn't an AD on any of the Sailings with other than a GTY. Some Sailings are waitlisted. Be Patient you will get an assignment. Keep an eye on your Cruise Personalizer. If you booked this year, you were probably a little slow on the booking. Cruises are selling out quickly. We just went through WAVE season when most agencies had their cruise shows. I don't believe this is something that I would fire my agent over. Most reputable agencies won't take a booking that belongs to another agency. They will take them from the cruiseline if you booked directly with Princess.

smiles Patty

[LARGIN]

Peagreenid.. I think the OP's concern was why did the TA say that she could only have a gty AD and not pick the AD of her choice?? Perhaps the TA could have explained how Gty booking works better ...

[peagreenid]

I'm not upset, but, it just seems lately Whenever someone questions something the travel agent did, the first thing everyone says is "FIND ANOTHER AGENT" And you and I both probably know that sometimes you can explain things until you are BLUE in the face and people just don't get it. Now this may not be the case with this person but........

From what I read in the OP,

"My travel agent assures me that only our cabin catagory (AD mini suite w/balcony) can be confirmed before boarding." She seems to understand this.....

But where bulletin boards can be a WEALTH of information they can also cause issues.....The problem is that she thinks We all have something that she doesn't. A cabin assignment. She knows that there are No cabin assignments, she said that her agent told her that, But she still thinks there is a list out there of cabins that she is not being allowed to choose from. It doesn't matter what she is paying. If there are no cabin assignments, there are NO cabin assignments. And a word of advice, only book what you will be happy with.

 

smiles Patty

[natty157]

Thank you all so much for the clarification. Spongerob, the price I quoted does indeed include everything, air, transfers, port fees, cruise. I am quite happy with the price, simply didn't understand why choosing staterooms didn't seem to be first come first serve. I guess I was comparing it to air fares where if you pay cheap you get whatever the airline feels like assigning you. I suppose we did book late for a cruise. Never having cruised before, I believed 7 months to be ample time, now I see that I was probably very far from "first come". :rolleyes:

 

I did in fact book the stateroom catagory I wanted. I would never take a chance that I "might" be upgraded when room size and balcony were so important to me. I think I was nervous that after being so careful about room selection, that I might still not get a room that was acceptable to me.

 

Toto2Kansas & Largin, I am not unhappy with my travel agent, she has been wonderful in all other respects aside from not clearly explaining this one issue. Also Largin, you are right, it was the fact that she didn't explain gty booking.

 

To Peagreenid: your comment "Natty- If it makes you feel better, I went in and checked EVERY sailing of the Island Princess for the month of August. There isn't an AD on any of the Sailings with other than a GTY. Some Sailings are waitlisted. Be Patient you will get an assignment" Did make me feel better. You put it so simply, I would have been content had that been my travel agents answer. Maybe she just forgot that not all of us had cruised before. We were armed with A LOT of information and she may have assumed because of that that we knew more than we did.

 

Again, thank you all for your replies. This board has a wealth of knowledge and advice and I'm sure I'll be reading right up till we leave for the airport!

[hoalahapa]

Hi Natty157,

I wanted to respond to your thread. I am also booked on the Island Princess to Alaska northbound 5-21-05. We too had a AD mini suite w/balcony guarantee. I checked tonight on the cruise personalizer and we have been assigned a cabin. Princess put us in a AB Mini Suite w/balcony on the Dolphin Deck. I am happy with that!

I am surprised that it happened so fast though!

Anyway keep checking!

[dutchess43]

Natty In all of my 16 cruises I have never booked a guarantee cabin & have received upgrades, I guess we have been lucky. FYI there is another thread titled Golden Overbooked - What happens, scroll down to the ninth posting & click on Here's an Article. This was an article printed in the LA Times on 9/26/04. After reading that & knowing that cruising has surpassed bookings from where they were before 9/11 it has made me realize that I will never book without having my cabin #. I would be making a lot of calls to get my cabin #

Dutchess

[trudzie]

Natty, I've just had 2 great experiences with the Guarantee category, that I thought I'd share. We just came back from Caribbean Princess. We originally booked Cat GG obstructed GTY. Upon getting our tickets we had been upgraded an assigned an unobstructed view cabin. Then we arrive for embarkation to find we had been upgraded again! This time a cabin with a balcony! Don't know why we were upgraded twice. Maybe because we were returning customers to Princess. this was our 6th cruise, but second on Princess).

 

My other pleasant experience with a Guarantee booking is for a Celebrity cruise I have yet to take. When we booked the cruise last November there were no balcony cabins available according to Celebrity's website. We were able to find a Guarantee cabin through an internet TA who had purchased them in blocks early on when the cruiseline first annouced the itinerary. After thinking we could not get a balcony at all, we are now "guaranteed" a balcony cabin or better. And because it was a GTY, we got a very reasonable price on the cabin. And since the cabins in our category are sold out, it seems quite possible we could be upgraded for this cruise. But either way, we now have a balcony! So don't worry, you'll have a great time no matter what your cabin# is!