Guarantee When Nothing in That Category or Above Available

[travellady]

Yesterday I booked a Cat AD mini-suite for Caribbean Princess 12/24 sailing. I'd been keeping my eye on mini suites because when I booked in early September, there were none available. At that time I booked a Cat BE guarantee and was assigned a CAT BA on Lido the next day.

 

I check my online TA booking engine everyday for a mini suites and other than a few brief moments last week when a Cat AB popped up at more than I was willing to spend, no mini-suites have been available. When an AD guarantee showed up, I immediately emailed my TA who in turn booked it for me. Then it was gone.

 

But, no staterooms above balcony BA's have been available for weeks, and none once again. So the question is, where are they going to put us? Do they hold a few back just in case? Final payment was several weeks ago so I can't imagine many people are planning to cancel at this point so mini's or above opening up from this point forward seem slim.

 

Also, I checked the Cruise Personalizer and nothing assigned yet, so it wasn't like Princess was keeping something in their back pocket ready to assign.

 

Anyway, there are still 30+ cabins available for this sailing, at lesser categories, so I suspect I'll end up with something. And I do know they have to guarantee me something AD or above or offer me a deal (I'm not really planning on that happening but I've heard it has).

 

Has anyone on these boards booked a category after final payment where nothing of that category or above showed as available other than that one guarantee you booked? If so, I'd like to know what you ended up with and when you got your assignment.

[Toto2Kansas]

I wouldn't worry, passengers rarely will be assigned a cabin under their guarantee category (it has happened, but I have only read about it maybe twice in all of my years on the internet). They seem to be able to 'pull them out of the air' at the last minute. I am sure, even though none are showing up on the booking engines that they have a mini or above slated for your booking. Let us know when you assigned cabin shows up on the PP.

[cherylandtk]

They will put you in an AD or better; this is just cabin shuffling at the last minute. The actual number of passengers in each category is established, it is now just a matter of who goes where.

 

I suspect what happened was that somebody cancelled a mini booking last week (or failed to make final payment after dragging things out); this showed up as gty AD on the booking engines. One room was cancelled and you booked "it"; one for one. After the computer finishes upgrading, you will get the room not yet assigned. Sort of like musical chairs, but with enough chairs for everyone.

 

It is also possible that instead of a cancellation, someone with say, an aft balcony booked, found they had been upgraded to a mini and chose to return to the aft balcony, thus opening up one more mini. Or perhaps a family with several rooms booked was offered one of those "take a later trip" options and it involved cancelling the mini. There are many other possiblities, all involving shuffling of cabins.

[comettgirl]

I believe they "hold back" those they need when they offer guareented rate in a catagory, and you just don't see them available. I think they have some available in that catagory, you just don't see it. I have booked guareentee many times and been upgraded, but have also ended up in that catagory, even when none appear to be available.

[calikak]

Toto is probably right, I wouldn't panic at this point. I doubt they'd start selling cabins if they didn't expect to have one available for you. On the other hand, it is a holiday sailing, so the odds of it being oversold are higher than on other sailings. But, that just means they'd offer people tons of onboard credit and upgrades to get them to switch to another sailing date so you can have a cabin. They know just how much to offer to get people to switch. :)

[alolewis]

We were originally booked for the Nov 4 Coral sailing in a Balcony guarantee, last week my TA e-mailed that they are offering us a minsuite for an additional fee. The additional was $1200 ($600 each) which seemed very high to me but I took it anyway. Went from a BH guarantee to an AB. Not sure why are cabin is an AB since in my mind, midish-ship (is that a word?) on the Dolphin Deck (D312), higher decks would be more preferred? Such as the AD's on the Aloha deck or am I mistaken that AB is more expensive then AD?

[travellady]

I'm not panicked, just found it interesting there isn't any inventory listed at all for mini suites or hiigher, yet there was a guarantee available at one point in time yesterday that I got but no cabind assignment yet. Just one more of the mysteries related to guarantee cabin assignments.

 

I won't panic until I find out the cruise is totally booked and I get a call offereing me a different sailing. Even if the offer were good, I'm traveling with my 2 adult sons as well and it's the only time we can all get off together.