Guarantee

[trbarton]

I’m wondering how many times that when booking a guaranteed that you got exactly what you booked or got an upgrade/better stateroom.

What did you book & what did you get?

What did you think about getting a guarantee & would you do it again & if so why?

Tom🤔

[Musky Ike]

We have booked a number of guarantee cabins with Princess. Mostly we get the cabin type booked but often in a higher category like OZ to OV etc. Rarely, we have been bumped up cabin types. Obstructed oceanview to unobstructed. Balcony obstructed to unobstructed. Once from an obstructed oceanview to an unobstructed balcony. Have also taken an upsell to higher cabin type (our only suite).

 

Yes we would do a guarantee again but we are not too picky. Others want to lock things down.

[geoherb]

We have had guarantees for 10 out of our last 12 Princess cruises. The two times we did not were because we were doing back-to-back cruises and did not want to change cabins. (The other time we did back-to-back cruises, we could not select the same cabin for both legs and ended up taking guarantees. For that once, our BF guarantees turned into an accessible BB cabin on the first leg and a great Caribe Deck BA cabin on the second.)

 

On two cruises, we got bumped up from an obstructed view guarantee to good unobstructed ones. Once we got bumped up from an obstructed view to a cabin with a balcony. It was still classified as an ocean view cabin because it did not have any balcony furniture. One we got bumped up from an obstructed view to a cabin classified as ocean view--but it was a tiny cabin with a port hole so recessed that might as well have been obstructed. Plus it did not have room for two night stands. My side of the bed was up against the wall.

 

A few times we've had obstructed view guarantees and ended up in slightly upgraded locations.

 

Our inside cabin on the Caribbean Princess last August we went from a guarantee IE inside cabin to an IC--just a slightly better location. For the Royal in December, we booked a BD guarantee and received a BB assignment--but then took an upsell to a suite.

 

In two weeks we'll be sailing on the Regal in a BB cabin. We booked a BD guarantee for that one as well.

 

So out of our last 10 guarantee bookings on Princess, nine were successful. Only one was a dud of a cabin, but we still had a great time on the cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

As Cruise Critic is such a small percentage of cruisers, and the type of guarantee affects the concept of a serious upgrade, as opposed a lessor upgrade, there really isn't any serious way to measure this. For example, we have booked a suite GTY a number of times, so there is only so many level of upgrades we could possibly get, as opposed to someone who books an inside GTY.

 

Maybe just enjoy the MANY threads on GTY bookings, and if you are booking a GTY, understand the possible outcomes?

[AE_Collector]

I agree with CruiserBruce. Many people only consider that they received an upgrade if they moved up in cabin type, not location so they are likely to mess up your survey results. Also, upgrades diminished substantially a couple of years ago once Princess began selling last minute upgrades rather than giving them away. So, old info will skew the survey results.

 

In 2014 we booked 6 Cruises all in Obstructed OV cabins and were upgraded once to Full OV and three times to a Balcony. This sort of luck no longer follows us.

 

 

AE_Collector

[jlp20]

When booking GUARANTEE your saving a couple of dollars to get any cabin of whatever category. At some point Princess does upgrades, This is not done as a reward, more to fill vacant cabins in any one section. While guarantee will most likely get you a bump, do not expect much. Our upgrades have been in name only

[caribill]

When booking GUARANTEE your saving a couple of dollars to get any cabin of whatever category. At some point Princess does upgrades, This is not done as a reward, more to fill vacant cabins in any one section. While guarantee will most likely get you a bump, do not expect much. Our upgrades have been in name only

 

The cost of a GTY is the same as the cost of selecting a specific cabin in that category.

 

 

The only time there is a cost savings is if you book a GTY in a category that has no cabins left to select but there are cabins available to select in a higher priced category. But you still could end up in a cabin in the selected category, thus resulting in no cost savings.

[caribill]

I agree with CruiserBruce. Many people only consider that they received an upgrade if they moved up in cabin type, not location so they are likely to mess up your survey results. Also, upgrades diminished substantially a couple of years ago once Princess began selling last minute upgrades rather than giving them away.

 

Also several years ago Princess rearranged which cabins were in each category. In this process many categories with only a few cabins (as few as 4) were eliminated. The opportunity for an upgrade is less when there are 78 cabins in a category than when there are just four.

[poolreader]

Never upgraded, but did get an upsell once.

[runnerodb83]

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cabin-upgrade-statistics

 

Info and conclusions after tracking nearly 200 upgrades. Granted the list is somewhat biased by more people reporting that they got upgrades than not, it still gives you an idea. Also worth mentioning is that the submissions received goes back to 2012 or so when complimentary upgrades were far more common than upsells which are likely to impact those upgrade numbers.

[fishywood]

I suppose I have run the gamut on guarantee results.

 

My very first Princess cruise (though with a high-level cabinmate) in 1998 on the original Regal booked the cheapest inside guarantee available and was assigned the highest category oceanview.

 

In 2002 on Grand Princess booked the lowest category OV obstructed guarantee--and was assigned exactly that, even though there were (at that time) only six or eight cabins in that category.

 

In 2007 booked the cheapest balcony guarantee on Caribbean and got a nice BA Caribe balcony (though cabins in that forward section of Caribe deck are no longer BA).

 

A lousy "non-upgrade" was on Star in 2011. Booked OV obstructed guarantee, only a day or two later was assigned an unobstructed Plaza deck OV. Worst. Location. Ever. in a dead-end hallway opposite a constantly-slamming door to the Purser's office.

 

Since that one, if an Emerald deck obstructed OV (or obstructed balcony on Royal/Regal) is the limit of my budget, I choose the cabin.

[barriedavis]

As a Princess rep said to me once. If you want at least what you have booked and paid for, and possibly something more, take a GTY. If you don't, make the decision for Princess and book a specific cabin and have no likelihood of an upgrade.

[Canuck455]

We are 9 days our from our sailing on the Crown and haven't been assigned our stateroom yet. We booked an IC category. They way I look at it the longer they take to assign the greater chance of upgrade. Thoughts? This is the first time in an interior...price was right!

[weedpindle]

Out of 20 or so cruises in various guarantees (inside, balcony, mini), we have gotten an upgrade every time, the least of which was a 3 category bump for an inside, 1 for a mini. The best was a bump to a BB balcony from an inside guarantee.

We book B2B's as guarantees as we don't mind changing cabins.

[MGAfhc]

For our upcoming cruise we originally thought we would try an Inside Guarantee and were 'upgraded' to an Inside sideways quad. The only way to get it changed was to cancel the booking and lose the deposit. I will never again book an Inside guarantee as I now realize the Quads are the last to go and Princess relegates them to guarantees. Similarly, on Grand Class ships, Obstructed Oceanview are likely to be upgraded to those midship rooms that truly are fully obstructed by tenders but are rated a higher category by Princess, so in that situation I always choose a room and specify 'no upgrade' and would never take an ObstructedOV guarantee.

[Shmoo here]

We just got our assignment on our guarantee booking. Got a tiny upgrade - OZ to OW.

[Canuck455]

For our upcoming cruise we originally thought we would try an Inside Guarantee and were 'upgraded' to an Inside sideways quad. The only way to get it changed was to cancel the booking and lose the deposit. I will never again book an Inside guarantee as I now realize the Quads are the last to go and Princess relegates them to guarantees. Similarly, on Grand Class ships, Obstructed Oceanview are likely to be upgraded to those midship rooms that truly are fully obstructed by tenders but are rated a higher category by Princess, so in that situation I always choose a room and specify 'no upgrade' and would never take an ObstructedOV guarantee.

 

 

 

What is an inside sideways quad?

[4cats4me]

Once we were upgraded from a regular balcony to a full suite. Several times we’ve booked a category and basically received a higher category within the same classification.

For example, we just booked a DZ guarantee last month for an April cruise and just received an assignment this week for s DB, same category, Deluxe Ocean View. actually we did get an upgrade, now that I think about it, because DZ is obstructed Deluxe an DB is unobstructed Deluxe. Woo hooo. And who knows, we could get a further upgrade.

[riclop]

I’m wondering how many times that when booking a guaranteed that you got exactly what you booked or got an upgrade/better stateroom.

What did you book & what did you get?

What did you think about getting a guarantee & would you do it again & if so why?

Tom🤔

You never know what they will do.

[Lovetravel101]

We booked Feb 7 - BD. assigned today to a DB ..... I'm not sure that is a great upgrade.... Seems a bit forward. I have only been aft rear .... Will be nice to have the love seat ... And we requested to be near our travelling companions ... We got 210 and 209

[caribill]

What is an inside sideways quad?

 

Most cabins have the length going from hallway to hull.

 

The inside sideways have the length parallel to the hallway. For example, R407 on the Ruby. For these cabins, the door opens into to bedroom part of the cabin, not near the bathroom. Many feel the layout of this type cabin is better than the the regular inside cabins.

 

The quad part means there are two bunk beds mounted on the wall than can be let down to accommodate a third and fourth passenger. Unless you do have more than two passengers, avoid the cabins with the protruding bunk beds like the plague as the beds will be a bumping hazard.

[Canuck455]

Six days till sailing....still no state room assignment!

[saintsfan777]

Booked a BE balcony guarantee for a March sailing on Regal and just received a DC deluxe balcony cabin. We are pleased.