Why you should never book a guarantee - Caribbean Princess Stateroom P324

[LauraS]

Note: I added the ship and stateroom number to the subject of this thread so hopefully anyone doing a future search on that stateroom will be able to to locate and read your experience.

 

Laura

[Colo Cruiser]

Good idea. :)

[dcdisney]

There is actually a whole huge long thread on here about Plaza level cabins...pros and cons, noisiest and quietest, etc. Yes I do think generally GTY are the left overs that may have issues but it just depends on your priorities. Even if other cruisers aren't informed about picking a good cabin they may have a travel agent who is well informed. We had an oceanview and interior cabin on the Plaza deck but on the vines side. We did have some luggage movement noise that last night. It wasn't horrific like others said but it was noticeable unless you are a deep sleeper. I think different people are more sensitive to noise and vibration than others and if you are sensitive book a specific cabin. I brought ear plugs and a white noise app just in case but didn't need them.

[good and bad]

Really sorry to hear you experienced similar noise problems to those we had to endure and instead of 7 nights of broken sleep as with us, a whole two weeks of being jolted from deep sleep.

 

Did you get anywhere at all with complaining or did you just get the wide-eyed 'we've never had this issue brought to our attention ever before' kiss off? I am still corresponding with CS in SoTon but don't really expect to get anywhere. If I do I will update you on here.

 

I hope your next cruise is a peaceful and pleasant and in some small way makes up for this latest one.

[USN59-79]

We have always booked a guarantee; we have always been upgraded at least a couple of categories in the same cabin type; and we have always been at least satisfied with our cabin. I have wondered who gets the worst cabin category as we have never been assigned one. I am suspecting that some cruisers book the cheapest cabin and then choose their cabin so they would only be allowed to choose a cabin in that category. Sometimes we got a forward cabin where the anchor going out would waken us, but that is just part of the ambiance of cruising. I wonder if anyone knows what percentage of cruisers book a guarantee compared to those who choose their cabin far in advance of the cruise.

[Musky Ike]

We have always booked a guarantee; we have always been upgraded at least a couple of categories in the same cabin type; and we have always been at least satisfied with our cabin. I have wondered who gets the worst cabin category as we have never been assigned one. I am suspecting that some cruisers book the cheapest cabin and then choose their cabin so they would only be allowed to choose a cabin in that category. Sometimes we got a forward cabin where the anchor going out would waken us, but that is just part of the ambiance of cruising. I wonder if anyone knows what percentage of cruisers book a guarantee compared to those who choose their cabin far in advance of the cruise.

 

Same experience here or even cabin type upgrades. As others have said this is not a GTY issue. The worst cabin is of course subjective but I would think that they tend to be either "upgrades" from a lower CAT (this case) or last minute deals to fill the ship. I do thank the OP for the info on this cabin for this itinerary. Just looking at the deck plans it is impossible to tell what those white spaces contain. That is why boards like CC are a great tool. But a last minute "upgrade" to a bad room like this does happen and unfortunately not much one can do except complain to Princess and tell others, just as the OP has done.

[Matcodixon]

Just curious - if you experienced what the OP experienced on your next cruise would it change your mind about guarantees? The odds would still be in your favor of getting a "happy" result but would it make you more leery?

 

No, because I have always received notice when my cabin was assigned. I refused an upgrade once when I liked my previous assignment better than the new one. Later as we got closer to sail date I was upgraded again to an excellent cabin which I accepted. I do my research and decide to accept or not. So far this has worked very well.

[RMM34667]

On my second Princess cruise I booked the lowest interior inside GTY cabin. Dirt cheap rate for a 10 day southern Caribbean on the Emerald.

 

Got first assignment a few categories up. Then got a second assignment of an ocean view all the way forward on the Emerald deck. I was pretty happy but showed the deck plan to my mother. As she had recent hip surgery she preferred the location of the interior. I called Princess and they put us back. I knew nothing back then. I just thought an ocean view was much better than an interior.

 

Learned some along the way. Booked my 3rd Princess cruise 10 day Southern Caribbean on the Star same way. Dirt cheap lowest interior. Got a decent assignment, but then studied the deck plan and found another available cabin in the same category but closer to mid ship (and elevators) and asked to be moved to that location.

 

Booked my 5th Princess cruise on the Royal. I booked the highest level interior hoping for an upgrade to a balcony. Didn't happen but a we got exactly what we paid for. Mid ship interior.

 

It worked well for me but I've learned lots since then (thanks CC). For my upcoming Regal cruise in November I picked an Emerald Deck Obstructive Balcony mid ship extended angle with no obstruction (thanks Renmar).

 

I would do GTY again, but only because of the knowledge I've gained here.

[DrMark]

The other issue with this location is that when the stabilizers are deployed, there can be a lot of noise and vibration as the ship rolls from side-to-side.

 

We had one bad weather day during which there was some roll. I don't know if the stabilizers were deployed, but we did not notice them. If they were deployed then the noise wasn't in the same league as that damn door they kept opening in the middle of the night.

[DrMark]

Did you get anywhere at all with complaining or did you just get the wide-eyed 'we've never had this issue brought to our attention ever before' kiss off? I am still corresponding with CS in SoTon but don't really expect to get anywhere. If I do I will update you on here.

 

No, complaining got me nothing. The first few times I called, they claimed to have no idea what it could be, and wanted to send somebody by to hear it for themselves.

 

I get that some cabins have some noise, as do some hotel rooms. However, I sleep like the dead (I even slept through a fire alarm in the dorms in college. My roommate came back to drag me back out of bed). The only time I've ever been woken up in the night by noise before this trip is when I was on a live-aboard dive boat with the cabin directly over the anchor chain. The first time they dropped anchor, I thought the engine had blown up :p.

[DrMark]

Same experience here or even cabin type upgrades. As others have said this is not a GTY issue.

 

The thing about a GTY is that you can't research the room in advance to see if it is a good room or not. When I booked it, I thought that I would be happy with any obstructed view cabin. I had no idea they would move me to the worst cabin on the ship (for me at least). Of course, Princess can always try to upgrade you at any time, so you might not get the room you booked.

 

I think part of the problem is that the sailing was entirely sold out, so they put us in the cabin that nobody else wanted. If there were open cabins on the sailing, then they would be less likely to move a GTY to a bad cabin (why put somebody in a bad cabin when a good one is available?) So, the real lesson may be to not book a GTY when the ship is full?

[DrMark]

No, because I have always received notice when my cabin was assigned. I refused an upgrade once when I liked my previous assignment better than the new one. Later as we got closer to sail date I was upgraded again to an excellent cabin which I accepted. I do my research and decide to accept or not. So far this has worked very well.

 

We were not assigned the cabin until some time after 9:00 a.m. on the sailing day. Again, this wasn't an upgrade where we had a room to ask to be moved back to; it was a GTY, where all they really guaranteed was a room somewhere on the ship that was not an inside.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

We had one bad weather day during which there was some roll. I don't know if the stabilizers were deployed, but we did not notice them. If they were deployed then the noise wasn't in the same league as that damn door they kept opening in the middle of the night.

 

They sound like a constant groaning noise when deployed if your cabin is in their vicinity.

Edited September 3, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78
spelling

[good and bad]

Hey DrMark,

 

I laughed at your remarks regarding college dorm and fire alarms.......We have a daughter who can still sleep like that .....she is the one whose graduation we were celebrating in the infamous CP E104........but even she was woken by the noise!!!

 

Yep, we had the same old same old when we complained...even down to the coming to listen inside the cabin. We were told it was something unsecured and around:eek:

 

My point to them then was if everyone we spoke to regarding the issue had such little understanding or curiosity regarding the architecture of the ship,in an emergency how effective would staff be at getting people to safety? My partner is an engineer, not marine I must admit and our daughter an architect so between them they should have a rudimentary understanding of the ship's construction.

 

I dislike how, as the paying passenger, we are expected to justify our position i.e. why they took a late availability etc., when all Princess has to do is either market these cabins honestly or 'fess up when staff are approached regarding extremes of noise and put it right as far as possible. We would then all have confidence in the brand and that we are being treated as 'guests' and not sheeple.

 

LauraS - would it be possible to add E104 to your list please,to try to alert others to the noise issues we experienced. Thanks

[Meanee]

So far I've been lucky with GTY. On Allure of the Seas, booked inside guarantee, received a balcony in a very nice spot.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...all Princess has to do is either market these cabins honestly or 'fess up when staff are approached regarding extremes of noise and put it right as far as possible. We would then all have confidence in the brand and that we are being treated as 'guests' and not sheeple...

 

I agree, and wonder how many first-time cruisers got a "bad" cabin without being warned, had complaints brushed off, and as a result decided never to cruise again? As another poster mentioned, the cruise lines are upfront about obstructed views, then fail to warn about known noise issues :(.

Edited September 3, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78

[Kamloops50]

Have never had a bad Guy cabin. More likely to chose a bad cabin.

[Pam in CA]

There are cabins in every category, from inside to full suite that have possible noise problems. Reasons range from beneath public deck or the buffet, next to an outside door, next to an elevator shaft, above the stage in a lounge or theater, above the thrusters and stabilizers, etc. The list is practically endless. Some people are bothered, most aren't. When you think about it, not that many cabins are completely quiet.

[Kamloops50]

All cabins have some noise . I get used to noise and aren't bothered by it after a few days. Only had one cabin where noise started near the end of the cruise. Princess dealt with the issue after the fact.

[Colo Cruiser]

There are cabins in every category, from inside to full suite that have possible noise problems. Reasons range from beneath public deck or the buffet, next to an outside door, next to an elevator shaft, above the stage in a lounge or theater, above the thrusters and stabilizers, etc. The list is practically endless. Some people are bothered, most aren't. When you think about it, not that many cabins are completely quiet.

 

 

Yes it can be anywhere. :(

[ggprincess2004]

It can be anywhere. I am a light sleeper, and apparently hear very well. My husband can sleep through anything, especially with his hearing aids out....:o

 

Luckily, only once have I had a serious noise issue and it was on the Emerald on Plaza deck. It was not the pilot door, or stabilizers, but some other noise at a low pitch that just went right through me and was just about constant. It was a migraine inducer and I could not remain in that cabin for more than about 5 minutes at a time.....due to bad weather a number of passengers had missed the ship and we were able to move to another cabin the next morning...a sea day....and that cabin did not have the same noise issue. It was on Baja deck.

 

Of course, the funniest thing about the entire episode was moving to the new cabin the next morning. Best question...(sea day) Did you just board? Yup, swam out to the ship.......:D

[Colo Cruiser]

It can be anywhere. I am a light sleeper, and apparently hear very well. My husband can sleep through anything, especially with his hearing aids out....:o

 

Luckily, only once have I had a serious noise issue and it was on the Emerald on Plaza deck. It was not the pilot door, or stabilizers, but some other noise at a low pitch that just went right through me and was just about constant. It was a migraine inducer and I could not remain in that cabin for more than about 5 minutes at a time.....due to bad weather a number of passengers had missed the ship and we were able to move to another cabin the next morning...a sea day....and that cabin did not have the same noise issue. It was on Baja deck.

 

Of course, the funniest thing about the entire episode was moving to the new cabin the next morning. Best question...(sea day) Did you just board? Yup, swam out to the ship.......:D

 

 

HaHa good one! :D

[Pushka]

We had awful neigbours on our cruise last month. I dont know how they did it but they stomped around the cabin until midnight and started around 5.30am. There wasn't even room in cabins to make the noise they did. They would yell from Balcony to bathroom. We were underneath the pool deck and was worried about that - that turned out fine. And we found this large puddle on our balcony. Thought they must have cleaned it. Next night. Same puddle. Next night we realised it was the run off from their 'smalls that were very large' they had put on the balcony to dry. Last night, we received the charming present of their underwear that had blown through. I left a note on them saying "neighbours, not mine!"

 

So sometimes stuff just happens.

[riclop]

We never do and never will book a gyt.

[cactusrose]

Hello all,

 

I'm just back from the 14 night Baltic Heritage (Aug 1) cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We found out the hard way why taking a "guarantee" can be a very bad idea. When people say that "what Princess considers an upgrade might not be what you consider an upgrade" they are right!

 

Now, before you flame me with that is what you get when you take a guarantee, I know that. Some new cruisers might not know this, and I'm writing it for them (everybody talks about how they get great upgrades, nobody seems to talk about how they got screwed).

 

So, here is what happened: we were booked into an obstructed view guarantee. No cabin assignment was made until the day of departure (sometime between when we left our hotel in London and when we arrived in Southampton). We were assigned P324 (an unobstructed ocean-view cabin on Plaza deck, near the International Cafe). At first we were very pleased with our "upgrade." The cabin was low down near the center of the ship (my SO sometimes gets sea sick), had an unobstructed view, and was close to the International Cafe. On paper, this was a great cabin.

 

Our happiness lasted until 5:45 a.m. the next morning when we were woken up by an incredibly loud noise that at first I though was a ships alarm. By "loud", I don't mean you can hear somebody moving a chair or the background thump of loud music in a bar nearby, I mean the whole room was shaking, and you jump out of bed loud! The whole floor was vibrating, and things were moving across the desk with the vibration. We called the front desk, and they said they had no idea what the noise could be. The noise was so loud that it was hard to hear what they were saying on the phone. It lasted about 5 minutes, and then all was quiet again. About 5 minutes after that, somebody from the front desk came by and wanted to hear the noise we were complaining about. We told them it had stopped and went back to bed.

 

There was no problem on day 3. On day 4, we were woken up again at 5:12 a.m. This time, the noise went on for about 10 minutes. Again, it had stopped by the time somebody from guest services came to check.

 

There was no problem on day 5. On day 6, we were woken up at 3:44 a.m. by the same loud noise. Again, we called guest services. They said they would check on it and get back to us. That evening, we got a call from guest services telling us that our cabin is directly over the water level door that they use to let the pilot on board the ship when arriving in port. The noise we were hearing was the door opening to let the pilot on, and then closing again. They were sorry about the noise, but there were no other rooms available, so they couldn't do anything for us. In the next port, I looked at our cabin location from the dock and sure enough, one of those large water level doors (like the ones they use to let passengers on and off of the ship) was right under our cabin. There were also at least three other doors that were not under any cabins (forward of our location) that they could have used. Nobody was ever able to give me a straight answer as to why they couldn't just use one of those. On the final night of our cruise, we received a letter that said they were sorry we were disturbed by the noise, and that they had filed a complain with Princess for us. I don't ever expect to hear back from Princess about this.

 

So, our "upgrade" consisted of us being woken up at 5:45 a.m. for Zeebrugge, 5:12 a.m. for Copenhagen, 3:44 a.m. for Stockholm, 3:33 a.m. for St. Petersburg, 6:31 a.m. for Tallinn, 5:49 a.m. for Gdynia, and around 6:00 a.m. for Southampton. Any other room on the entire ship (including an inside room) would have been an upgrade over what we went through, but since this was an unobstructed view, it was technically an upgrade. Princess really needs to list this room as "Noisy: some passengers may object to the noise level in this room," like they do for obstructed view. Does anybody know of a web site that has cabin specific information like "seatguru" has for airplane seats? Our cabin would definitely have been one of the black last row seats that doesn't recline, and is right next to the restroom kind of cabins.

 

I've definitely learned my lesson about a guarantee, and I hope me writing about this saves some of you from the same experience.

 

Did the ship give you a copy of the complaint they filed for you? I would be sure to include this issue in the survey they send out after the cruise. We once received some OBC from reporting a serious issue in that survey that wasn't resolved while we were onboard. I would consider this a serious issue.