Was my TA wrong about my "guarantee" cabin?

[cherub44]

I'm having a debate with my husband about the information our TA gave us. We booked a "guarantee" inside stateroom last December for a Nov '05 sailing. Within a day of making our final payment we were assigned a room. The debate is this...Our TA said that when you book a guarantee cabin upgrades are possible. He said that who gets the upgrades is 100% determined by who booked the earliest.

 

Is this true? If so, why would they assign us a cabin right away instead of waiting until right before sailing so they would know exactly what they were going to have left? What is the likelihood that our room # will change between now and the sailing?

 

I want to add that the room they gave us was in a very good location on Deck 9. We are happy with where we have been put, but we are just debating whether the TA was correct in how they were assigned.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Merion_Mom]

I'm having a debate with my husband about the information our TA gave us. We booked a "guarantee" inside stateroom last December for a Nov '05 sailing. Within a day of making our final payment we were assigned a room. The debate is this...Our TA said that when you book a guarantee cabin upgrades are possible. He said that who gets the upgrades is 100% determined by who booked the earliest.

 

Is this true? If so, why would they assign us a cabin right away instead of waiting until right before sailing so they would know exactly what they were going to have left? What is the likelihood that our room # will change between now and the sailing?

 

I want to add that the room they gave us was in a very good location on Deck 9. We are happy with where we have been put, but we are just debating whether the TA was correct in how they were assigned.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

That's news to me. Anyone else?

 

Carol

[johnql]

I don't believe anyone really knows how upgrades are determined. That's why everyone always refers to the Upgrade Fairy. It's probably a combination of how early you booked, how much you paid, how often you've sailed with them, how much you've spent onboard in the past, how much business your TA does with them, the category you're booked in, etc. But then again, I've heard of first-time cruisers being upgraded from guarantees. So, who knows?

 

I can say that I don't think your TA is right. I don't think there's any evidence that substantiates the claim that upgrades are based 100% on who booked the earliest.

[ilivefordreams]

I used to work as a cruise sales agent for Expedia.com, and when I booked guarantees, it was just based on a few things. First was the order that the guaranteed cabins were booked in, the order that the guests arrive at check in, and of course, availability. The travel agency, the travel agent, or how much the guest has cruise has little to no relation to how upgrades are given out.

[brigittetom]

We cruised with a couple that had never cruised with RCL and booked at the last minute. They were upgraded to a suite. We had cruised with RCL 6 times, booked early and cruised in the inside cabin that we booked. :)