CC members say it is so....

[Toad]

I have read on the boards that the longer you wait the better your guarantee assignment. It is now ten days out, and no assignment yet so hoping for the best. Your experience?

[Fouremco]

I've read both good and bad news with late assignments. As long as you have booked knowing that you could accept the worst possible cabin assignment, you'll be fine.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Fouremco

[CruiserBruce]

No real way to quantify the quality of upgrades, without being able to see all the upgrades offered across a wide range of sailings.

[KirkNC]

I would be surprised if that was true.

[G&G]

Not so !

 

We have received great assignments and not so good assignments less than 7 days prior to sailing date.

[sail7seas]

I have read on the boards that the longer you wait the better your guarantee assignment. It is now ten days out, and no assignment yet so hoping for the best. Your experience?

 

I seriously doubt that is any sort of hard/fast rule.

Why not call and see if you can encourage hope for the cabin you would like.

Edited March 18, 2016 by sail7seas

[Toad]

We booked a guarantee that we would be happy with at any rate, but just dreaming, and wondered what was the CC experience in the last ten days.

[richwmn]

Ten days out is about when assignments are made, so you are not yet in the realm of getting closer to the cruise.

 

My best upgrade came at the pier - from an outside to a balcony.

[bobpatj]

Our last experience was getting our assignment a week before boarding and no upgrade!

[Cruising-along]

Our best upgrade came at 1.5 days before the cruise. From inside to unobstructed outside mid-ship.

 

Most of our assignments came at 9-12 days out.

[SetAnOpenCourse]

In our six cruises we've had nice upgrades and one really exceptional one (an upsell). They have been offered pretty close to sailing date, but I've come to the conclusion that there a variety of factors. My hunch is that if you get an exceptional upgrade/upsell offer, it will happen for one of your first few cruises with HAL.

[RuthC]

The longer you wait, the better the assignment? Can't prove it by me.

 

Normally I don't book guarantees, but I pretty much had to once, as there was nothing in a decent area left in my chosen category. I booked that category as a guarantee, hoping for a decent upgrade to a better located cabin.

Mine must have been one of the last cabins assigned, as it was well below the 10-day mark, and IIRC was less than a week before sailing. It was my booked category in a lousy location. I could have booked the same thing and not been on pins & needles wondering! :rolleyes:

 

I did contact my TA to see what she could do, and she got me moved to a much better location in the booked category. Don't know how she did it, but I was happy with that.

[jtl513]

Once we got a good assignment 11 days out (H gty to C) and then at three days out we got a re-assignment to a deck 8 V! All the other 8 assignments were 3 to 6 steps up within the verandah class, at 7 to 11 days out.

 

Some friends got their hopes up when they waited until 3 days out and they got just what they booked.

Edited March 19, 2016 by jtl513

[RMLincoln]

We had an at the pier assignment - from an inside rock-bottom guarantee to an mid-ship OV. I felt like I'd gotten the penthouse suite. Other guarantees were pretty ho-hum but I was on the ship!

 

I think it depends a lot on how booked up the ship is. Hope you have a happy cruise. Let us know what assignment you get! m--

[monkey@cruise]

I have read on the boards that the longer you wait the better your guarantee assignment. It is now ten days out, and no assignment yet so hoping for the best. Your experience?

 

Depends on what you mean by better assignment, better location or higher category? the cabin assignment could be a better location (ex. midship) but at a lower category, to some that is better, to others that is not.

[D-Town]

I'm a veteran Cruiser. Platinum on Princess, Elite on Celebrity , Diamond on Royal, and have sailed Cunard and Costa 200 + days at sea.

First sailing on HAL. I'm booked on a 19 day in the Med in mid April.

Very disappointed that HAL does Not allow shared Loyalty Status with it's other Brands.

Royal, Celebrity share Loyalty status.

Also, I've booked guarantee cabins before and never waited until final week before cabin assignment.

Having read these HAL Boards, it evident that late cabin assignment is quite common.

I'm 4 weeks out and received a call from my TA.

HAL wants to upsell me to a Signature Suite for an additional $850 pp.

If, accepted, I receive nothing but a larger cabin and flowers and a better robe.

I don't get a beverage card, internet, free laundry, specialty restaurant or any additional OBC.

How is this a 'good deal' ?

I declined and will take my chances with a VF or better.

Edited March 19, 2016 by D-Town

[MaisonRose]

I have read on the boards that the longer you wait the better your guarantee assignment. It is now ten days out, and no assignment yet so hoping for the best. Your experience?

 

Nine days out, OV guarantee Cat HH. Got unobstructed forward port side under the casino.

 

Had called months ago asking for rear near elevator due to being a wonky Walker. Didn't happen but normally a request like that has a chance. Oh, well.

 

Here's an interesting observation: for a different reason I called HAL today and got an agent who's accent I couldn't understand and there was a dog barking in the background.

SM March 27 TA on Eurodam

[Lizzie68]

Nine days out, OV guarantee Cat HH. Got unobstructed forward port side under the casino.

 

Had called months ago asking for rear near elevator due to being a wonky Walker. Didn't happen but normally a request like that has a chance. Oh, well.

 

Here's an interesting observation: for a different reason I called HAL today and got an agent who's accent I couldn't understand and there was a dog barking in the background.

SM March 27 TA on Eurodam

 

Bummer.:(

 

I believe most of the HAL agents now work from home, since HAL moved its HQ.

[MaisonRose]

I have read on the boards that the longer you wait the better your guarantee assignment. It is now ten days out, and no assignment yet so hoping for the best. Your experience?

 

Nine days out, OV guarantee Cat HH. Got unobstructed forward port side under the casino.

 

Had called months ago asking for rear near elevator due to being a wonky Walker. Didn't happen but normally a request like that has a chance. Oh, well.

 

Here's an interesting observation: for a different reason I called HAL today and got an agent who's accent I couldn't understand and there was a dog barking in the background.

SM March 27 TA on Eurodam

[Toad]

Wondering if they are selling the last few cabins to Floridians (At reduced prices) and then will make the assignments.

[Skoogs]

Wondering if they are selling the last few cabins to Floridians (At reduced prices) and then will make the assignments.

 

 

Hey Toad, we are on the same cruise and we have not been assigned a cabin either. We did take an upsell from OV to a Lanai, we wanted that, all part of our strategy, lol. Our Hal PCC said we have a good chance to be upgraded to a Vista. That being said, I noticed last night that there are cabins available in every category. I doubt we are getting bumped up, oh well. I look forward to meeting you at the meet and greet.

[G&G]

Wondering if they are selling the last few cabins to Floridians (At reduced prices) and then will make the assignments.

Toad,

 

I have not seen any special sell for Floridians.

 

I just checked available cabins and there are over +50 cabin unsold as of 9:45AM; including three Neptune Suite. HAL will try to have upsells to passengers in higher category cabins like Vista Suites and Lanai for the Neptune and shake out these cabins before assigning your stateroom.

[RuthC]

the cabin assignment could be a better location (ex. midship) but at a lower category, .

No, you can't be assigned to a lower category than the one in which you booked the guarantee. You can be assigned to the same category you booked, though. There is no guarantee of an upgrade, but there is a guarantee you won't be downgraded.

[G&G]

No, you can't be assigned to a lower category than the one in which you booked the guarantee. You can be assigned to the same category you booked, though. There is no guarantee of an upgrade, but there is a guarantee you won't be downgraded.

 

That's correct, but on one of our cruises, I believe the Maasdam, we had picked an inside cabin on the Lower Promenade Deck, requested an upgrade, and prior to sailing got an outside cabin on A Deck, two decks down. We felt this was a downgrade, though it was not.

[Tom O.]

When a cruise date is nearing, and there are unsold cabins, HAL runs ads for last minute specials. You can find them on their website (look under specials). If your cruise does not have any specials, more than likely it is sold out.

If it is sold out you will probably not get an upgrade, but it depends on how many guarantees have been sold. If there were lots of guarantees sold, there will not be enough of the cheaper cabins to go around, so some will get upgrades while others will not.

If your cruise is having a last minute sale, this means there are a lot of unsold cabins. This could mean a better chance at getting an upgrade, but this depends on how well the sale goes for HAL. If they sell all the good cabins during the sale, you won't get an upgrade. But if they mostly sell less expensive cabins during the sale, you will get bumped up to make room for these people who are most likely paying a lot less than you.

Since you have no idea how many guarantees are sold for a particular cruise, or how many cabins are sold during the last minute sale (if there is one), it is impossible to determine whether you are going to get an upgrade or not.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Tom O.