Guarantee Only Available Question

[mcduck]

The 11 day Noordam cruise that we were considering booking is showing the SY suites as "guarantee only" and states that we are guaranteed to be assigned a stateroom in the category OR HIGHER.

 

The "or higher" would be the SS suites on the Navigation deck which is directly under the pool and Lido. We are concerned that there will be a lot of noise from the Lido deck above. Does anyone have any insight if noise is an issue?

 

I was wondering why a suite category would be closed to "guarantee" only. In our case, we will probably book a less expense VB instead, so HAL is out the larger fare even though they must have SY suites available. (But we are also looking at a 10 day Emerald Princess cruise as an alternative so HAL might lose out entirely.)

 

The SS suites are also now on a gurantee basis, so maybe there is little chance of being bumped up to the Navagation deck.

 

There does not appear to be a SY location that we would not like if we took the guarantee - it is the uncertainly of being assigned a suite on the Navigation deck that is the problem. Am I making an issue/concern where none exists?

 

Thanks.

B.

[Essiesmom]

If you can tell us what itinerary you are considering and when, we might be able to give you a better idea...EM

[mcduck]

It is the Jan 23/12 11 day Southern Caribbean Wayfarer. A little late, but life was getting in the way of being able to determine a date that would work. The alternative is the Jan 27 10 day Emerald Princess.

[Bearnaise]

We had an SY guarantee on the Oosterdam in May that ended us up in a midship SS on the Navigation deck. Absolutely no problems with noise from above and I'm a light sleeper.

[Essiesmom]

Your problem is that it is also being sold as a 21 day collectors' cruise, with either the cruise before or the cruise after. That limits the availability of cabins, trying to fit people in between the different lengths...If you had started a few months ago, you might have had a better cabin selection. EM

[kazu]

I would probably book the SY guarantee. i don't think you should have serious noise issues - we had SS and had no problems.

 

And, since you're on the whole thing, who knows? You could end up in an even better category ;) if the SY's and SS's are sold out.

 

To give you an idea if you pretend you are booking and go to the different segments of the cruise - you could check each one to see what SY's and SS's are showing available;)

[Randyk47]

I know there are folks who are really sensitive to noise but quite frankly we've never been bothered by noise from the Lido and 90% of our cabins, since we book the higher suites, have been directly under the Lido. We had a lot more trouble with "noise" on the Oosterdam winding up in between a group of friends with several cabins surrounding us who had loud and prolonged "goodnights" at 1 AM every night. :)

[3rdGenCunarder]

We were at the very back of Zuiderdam, just under the aft pool area and had no noise issues at all.

[mcduck]

Thanks Essiesmom - your explaination that the problem is because the cruise is part of a 21 day collectors cruise makes perfect sense.

 

Kazu - great suggestion to check out the cabin availablity of the other segment, although I am going to guess that I may get the same "unable to guarantee" messages.

 

As the consensus seems to be that noise from the Lido deck is not really an issue on the Navigation deck, it seems that the wise thing to do is to book the SY guarantee and see what happens - after all, no matter what we will be at sea for 11 days, nowhere near snow or the office! (maybe I should just figure out how to book the 21 day collectors cruise!!).

 

Thanks,

 

McDuck

[Essiesmom]

The funny thing is that I had the opposite situation with my Nieuw Amsterdam cruise. I first booked the 12 day Mediterranean Empires in a specific K cabin on Main deck. When I decided 'what the heck' and changed to the Magic of the Med. collector's cruise, I made sure my same cabin was available for the second segment...But HAL wanted to only book a gty...My TA had to talk fast to get us my preferred cabin for the 24 days. EM

[LindaM]

I don't know if this will work, but my TA marked my guarantee "do not upgrade".

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I don't know if this will work, but my TA marked my guarantee "do not upgrade".

I am pretty this cannot be done. It does not even come up in the booking engine to be able to do this for a Guarantee.

I am one to agree that for the most part the SY category is better but in HAL's eyes they see the SS as being a bit higher category but treat it the same as the difference between a HH or H or SA and SB. The main reason you no longer see the SS cabins on the Signature class ships up on Navigation Deck is because there is some occaisional noise.

Having a SZ/SY and SS though in HAL's eyes is still the same and when upgrades are offered all three of these categories will be offered upsells to a Deluxe Verandah SUite at the same time and each of these categories gets the Phone Conceirge.

To the OP I will say you might not have noticed there are two SY cabins on Deck 5 that are way far forward that you could be assigned. They are handicapped cabins. Because they have lots of space people who really need a handicapped cabin absolutely love them but if you do not then you may not want this location.

What I suggest is that you take the SY guarantee and keep watching for cabins that open up. Your Final payment is not for a few months so it is possible once final hits there will be some cabin numbers that appear. Keep watching this, it only takes a few seconds each day to just check. When the cabins appear and I am pretty sure they will about 4 days after final payment maybe sooner;). Then call HAL that you see a cabin you want and ask to have you placed into that cabin number :)