Switching from a cabin to a guarantee??

[worldsbestcandles]

I could really use some advice here. I'm going to apologize in advance if this ends up being long, but I want to share all the facts so I don't have to clarify too much later….

 

We booked our cruise with a TA back in January and she assigned to a cabin in the H category (Large ocean view stateroom) on Deck 3 of the radiance (see I can get sympathy already! :) ). We noticed that it was an adjoining cabin and when asked at the time, she said it shouldn't be a big deal and that all of the cabins left in that category were adjoining and there were no guarantees available. The RCCL website at the time confirmed this.

 

However, yesterday a thread surfaced where people were saying that the adjoining rooms are bad if you're not going to use them since smoke and voices come through loud and clear and its much worse than a hotel door. I travel a lot and am used to these types of rooms in a hotel and don't mind it, but those doors are often just as thick as the outside doors to the hallways.

 

In calling my TA today, she said that they now have a guarantee room for that category available that I could switch to, but she wouldn't recommend it since we may end up with another adjoining room. I'm inclined to say take the guarantee and hope for the best.

 

On the bright side I see:

 

We could get a non-adjoining room

 

We could get upgraded to a balcony room, or at least a higher up ocean view room

 

We can't go any lower on the ship because we are on the lowest deck our category is available in

 

We don't really care how close we are to the elevators, although right now we are the first cabin off the elevators which I think will be bad anyway…

 

My TA is recommending we stay put, and my BF isn't sure that it is worth the gamble with a guarantee room, but I figure we don't have much to lose?

 

Can anyone offer us a suggestion? To switch to an inside cabin now we would have to pay $200 per person more (we must have booked at the right time!) and to go to a balcony it would double what we have already paid…

 

Thanks in advance for helping me out anyway you can.

 

Steph

 

[xpcdoojk]

WBC, tough call. I am a book a particular cabin kind of guy. I like to know where I am going to be. I book it to be low and center in the ship because I like to have a refuge when seas get rough. This is because I do the big open water cruises like the Hawaii trip, and because I have been sick from motion in my life, and I do everything I can to avoid it. I don't know if you have a particularly sweet location on the ship from your description, but it doesn't really sound like it. So, I would think if you can get an H gaurantee that would not be a particularly bad thing. Of course if you do get an upgrade or not, you could end up with the worst cabin at whatever grade they put you in. So look at the H cabins and all of the better classes above H, and say if I got the worst of those cabins would I be happy. If the answer is yes, then this is truly a no-brainer. If the answer is no, I definitely don't want that cabin, then beware. :D

 

Good luck, I envy you your wonderful upcoming trip, I think you are in for a treat.:)

 

jc

[Host Jacquelyn]

I am not sure what the gamble is... If the actual stateroom location doesn't bother you, then why not go with the guarantee room? Like you said, the worst that can happen is that you'll end up in a similar room to what you have now. If it isn't costing you anything and you can only get a better room thatn what you have, then I say go for it.

 

By the way, please let us know what you choose, and what type of room you end up with :) !

[worldsbestcandles]

Thank you so much. I am going to call my TA and hopefully she won't put up too big of a fight regarding the guarantee room... I will let you guys know what happens, although I won't be able to let you know the cabin until we sail but I will update it! :D

 

I guess I wanted to make sure someone wouldn't think I was crazy for switching... sanity check...

 

Thanks again to both of you who have already replied, and to those who can still offer their advice or experiences with a gurantee room or adjoining rooms.

 

Steph

[worldsbestcandles]

Well according to the RCCL website the next available category is an E2 balcony on Deck 7... not much to check out... I think we will still gamble. At least we can't los since we will still be on a cruise.

 

I just wanted to double check that it is by category right? We are in a H category which is the oceanviews on deck 3. All of the oceanviews on deck 2 are category I so they couldn't put us there right? Even though they are both oceanview rooms?

 

just want to check that before we switch.

[xpcdoojk]

Well according to the RCCL website the next available category is an E2 balcony on Deck 7... not much to check out... I think we will still gamble. At least we can't los since we will still be on a cruise.

 

I just wanted to double check that it is by category right? We are in a H category which is the oceanviews on deck 3. All of the oceanviews on deck 2 are category I so they couldn't put us there right? Even though they are both oceanview rooms?

 

just want to check that before we switch.

 

I have never booked a gaurantee in my life, I just read about em here:D , but it is my understanding, and your TA can confirm this, that they can not give you a lower category than the lowest level of the gaurantee.... IE if they give you an H gaurantee, you can get any category better or equal to H which would be H and E2, E1, etc. Just make sure that the gaurantee is a H gaurantee, and not just a ocean view gaurantee. Just don't expect the Royal Suite. Unless your CC name is Royalsuite! ;) :D Sorry a little CC humor!

 

jc

[worldsbestcandles]

jc,

 

thanks, again. I got the humor BTW.... I won't expect anything except to have a good time... last time I was down next to all the crew members with an inside cabin and four girls in it so I'm sure it won't be any worse than that. LOL....

 

Steph

[billsgal]

Steph, when final payment is due check the RCi website and see what rooms have become available in your category which are not adjoining rooms. Ask at that time to change to one of those rooms. I agree with other posters about adjoining rooms. They can be very noisy. Regarding smoky rooms - we had a non-adjoining room on Brilliance and the folks next door were heavy smokers. The smoke smell permeated our room. I aske dour room steward if she could do anything about it. She sprayed something in the room, and we never had that smell again. BTW, being next to the elevators on Radiance class is very quiet and convenient. It is not noisy at all.

[Host Jacquelyn]

I agree with JC... make sure it is a 'Cat H guarantee' and not just a 'Cat Y' or 'Ocean View guarantee'. If it is a Cat H guarantee, then you cannot be assigned anything less than Cat H.

[worldsbestcandles]

I'm not worried about the noise near the elevators so much. Maybe its weird, but I don't like people looking into my room when they are cleaning it and since it is a high traffic type of area, I don't know. Not that I don't trust the room stewards, but I just don't like people looking and seeing my stuff as they are and hopefully they wouldn't be able to go in and grab something really quick. Not that I leave a ton of stuff out anyways... ok so its a bad argument, but it still kind of creeps me out.

[worldsbestcandles]

OK, we are switched to a guarantee cabin. It is a Category H guarantee so we won't be worse off than we are I guess. I will keep you posted.

 

For the record, our TA still didn't like what we were doing... oh well. She did say she would keep her fingers crossed for us.... *sigh*...

 

Has anyone been bumped up more than one category?

[Babs66]

OK, we are switched to a guarantee cabin. It is a Category H guarantee so we won't be worse off than we are I guess. I will keep you posted.

 

For the record, our TA still didn't like what we were doing... oh well. She did say she would keep her fingers crossed for us.... *sigh*...

 

Has anyone been bumped up more than one category?

 

Can't your TA tell you which room numbers are available and based on the ships floor plan decide which one you want. I'm a first time cruiser so I may be naive, but when we booked (along with other family members) I requested to be near my sister (same class) and she got us the cabin right next door, guaranteed. Also my brother was able to get an inside cabin across the hall from us, guaranteed. Maybe your TA isn't working hard enough?

[HB Cruiser]

We were booked on the Enchantment back in '02 for a cat D (their cat have changed even before the stretch). About two weeks after booking, I found a balcony guarantee for $200 less per person. D was the lowest cat with a balcony so we quickly changed the booking to a balcony guarantee. About four weeks before sailing we noticed on the embarkation forms that we had been assigned a cabin, a cat C. WE GOT AN UPGRADE. So yes it does happen.

 

It was wonderful.

 

We think you made the right choice.

 

Tim & Crystal

[Host Jacquelyn]

For the record, our TA still didn't like what we were doing... oh well. She did say she would keep her fingers crossed for us.... *sigh*...

 

Has anyone been bumped up more than one category?

 

Did your TA say why she does not like what you are doing? Sounds odd to me.

 

We booked Cat I guarantee on Explorer and got upgraded to a Cat E. We met many people who were upgraded to a D (balcony) room from an I guarantee.

[hermang]

We have had mixed luck -

First time on the Monarch - we booked OV Guarantee and expected deck 7

both ourselves and our companions got a 4 category gpgrade to Balcony on deck 10.

 

Second time we were with a large group - Balcony Guarantee on the Voyager

I was the guy who arranged it all and only one of us got an upgrade and originally it was not me. MY T/A got reamed for that one but in truth the upgrade was from deck 7 -8 same cabin.

 

Third time was on the Serenade - Got a Balcony Guarantee - super price - no upgrade.

 

last time I was upgraded from Deluxe to Superior with out the guarantee

[worldsbestcandles]

Did your TA say why she does not like what you are doing? Sounds odd to me.

 

We booked Cat I guarantee on Explorer and got upgraded to a Cat E. We met many people who were upgraded to a D (balcony) room from an I guarantee.

 

She just figures that we may end up with an adjoining room anways and that given we are so close to the elevators, it is silly to give that up just because our next door naightbors might smoke. Personally, for me its also the noise factor because I don't want to feel like I have to tiptoe around my own cabin because I may be bothering someone else...

 

Babs,

As for her not working hard enough for me... I don't think that they can give you a guarantee room and say where on the ship it will be, isn't that the whole point? It sounds as if you picked actual numbers for your cabins. Here I am giving up an assigned cabin number and will get a new one once I get my docs or even at the pier. Since we are the only people in our group, our cabin can move about and we don't need to stay near anyone, so it's worth the gamble of an upgrade for us...

 

This is our first experience using a TA, we usually just do everything ourselves... We're still testing the waters on whether its worth it or not... guess we'll see what happens. I'm secretly hoping she does some of the other stuff I have read about on here, like surprising us with a bottle of wine once we get on board, etc... guess we'll see :)

 

We did have some drama in getting it switched though (happened after my post saying that I changed it...) with her but I handled it calmly and dind't get upset and it all worked out, which I'm glad it didn't have to escalate to that... later I'll post it on here and see if it makes sense to you guys, cause it still doesn't to me. Maybe someone who is a TA or those who have used one can shed some light on it. now I have a meeting to go to but I will check back later....

[worldsbestcandles]

Ok, so for those above who wanted to be updated, as well as those who have anythign to add. I did verify with my TA and the RCCL rep (3-way call) that I have an Category H Oceanview cabin for our cruise. However, I went on the RCCL website and under my reservation on there it says "Large Oceanview Guarantee", which could be a category lower (I) than I booked. My updated documents from my TA say Category H guarantee on them. Should I be worried that they don't match, or should I just show the documents at the pier (or whenever my cabin is assigned) and figure that it should work out because I have the Category H on the paperwork regardless of what the website says?

 

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Steph

[xpcdoojk]

Have I mentioned that I hate the whole gaurantee process, yet? :D I think if your TA says you have a category H gaurantee you probably do. However, the few times, and it has been a while, that I looked at gaurantee offers they were like inside, ocean view and balcony, with categories like x, y or z.... the concept of category H scares the bejeeves out of me....

 

good luck

 

jc

[piercetc4]

Hope you end up with a great cabin- good luck- may the upgrade fairy be good to you!

[worldsbestcandles]

I am not sure what the gamble is... If the actual stateroom location doesn't bother you, then why not go with the guarantee room? Like you said, the worst that can happen is that you'll end up in a similar room to what you have now. If it isn't costing you anything and you can only get a better room thatn what you have, then I say go for it.

 

By the way, please let us know what you choose, and what type of room you end up with :) !

 

Final Payment was due July 15th and we paid it. Still NO cabin assignment. Our TA said they are usually given at the pier and not before then. I still check the website almost everyday just to be sure though!

 

Up until about 60 days out there were only suites available so we were majorly crossing our fingers, but then they released a ton of rooms and now they even have guarantees again (anyone want to join us?) and prices dropped from where they were (still more than we paid).

 

So here we are still wondering, giddy with anticipation actually! I will still keep you posted.

 

WBC

[chotton]

WBC

 

We have done about 8 GTY cabins and haev always had our cabin number well inadvance of arriving at the pier. I think the latest was about 3 weeks out.

[Michuck]

Re a cabin on the Radiance right off the elevators - if you're talking about the Centrum elevators, they are not right next to the elevators, even if the drawing shows they are. We were about 2 doors in, and it's in a separate hallway.

 

M.

[mzplatinum24]

My boyfriend and I booked a oceanview guarantee for a Majesty cruise in September and we received our room assignment right after final payment. Based on what people have mentioned on these boards I think we have a pretty good room--Deck 3, mid ship, and near the elevators. So far we still have the same room and I was little disappointed when we received our documents last week b/c I assume its official now. The upgrade fairy may have already bypassed us. We're keeping our fingers crossed though.

[worldsbestcandles]

I don't believe it was the centrum elevators... are those the ones on the port side? It was the off of the ones that are in the center more towards the front of the ship.... but still no room assignment..... I'm sure it will be fine but we are less than seven weeks out now and I'm getting antsy! :)

[worldsbestcandles]

An update and a question...

 

We are now 15 days from sailing (YEAH!) and still no cabin assignment. Has anyone booked a guarantee room and gotten their assignment at the pier? How does that work with our luggage tags? Since we won't be able to write our number on them. The tag we got in our docs just say GTY on it.... also, since it's my BF's b-day I thought I might order decorations for the room or a cake, but his b-day is the day we sail and I'm thinking I have to have a cabin number to order that? Anyone have experience with this?

 

Thanks,

 

Steph