Price jumps $200pp if I select a stateroom

[JDinWA]

Has something changed at HAL? I was going to book a 2020 cruise on their website. I tried every available cabin in the category that I want, and the price always showed $200 per person more than originally shown, unless I accepted guarantee (no specific cabin). Is this a new sales approach? You have to pay $400 to choose your own cabin??

[kazu]

Guarantees are based on the lowest category cabin.

 

Sometimes there is a difference in pricing and sometimes not.  For example, there is none on my cruise for my category.

 

But it is why some take guarantees.  You are being offered a discount to take whatever is left and possibly an upgrade.

 

Pros and cons to both.  It depends on how fussy you are on location.  

 

We do choose our cabin most times but there can be advantages to guarantees like great upgrades - but they don't always happen.

 

 

[Fouremco]

You might find this article interesting, albeit with errors:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=337

Edited January 12, 2019 by Fouremco

[GUT2407]

I think every line you pay more to pick your own cabin.

[Homosassa]

21 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

Has something changed at HAL? I was going to book a 2020 cruise on their website. I tried every available cabin in the category that I want, and the price always showed $200 per person more than originally shown, unless I accepted guarantee (no specific cabin). Is this a new sales approach? You have to pay $400 to choose your own cabin??

This nothing new. I have always had a choice, starting  with my first cruise in 1976, of booking a guarantee rate (no specific cabin) vs booking a specific cabin at a higher rate on any cruise line I have sailed on.

[notladjr]

Typically cruise lines lowest price in each cabin catagory is the guaranteed cabin. To choose your own cabin you pay more. The reason is that if the ship is full they can put you in the worst cabin in that catagory that nobody wants to pick. On the other hand you read of instances where folks who book a guarantee get bumped up to a better catagory of cabin. It is a gamble.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Agree -- this is not anything new.  When you book a guarantee, it is for the cabins in the lowest price range.  You may or may not get a cabin you like.

 

We choose to pay more and get the cabin we want.

[JDinWA]

Must be my memory's faulty then. Or maybe it's because the new HAL site defaults to guarantee now, and since I always choose a cabin, I never saw the price difference before. 

[Hlitner]

Nothing new about guarantees being less costly...and this is common with most cruise lines.  We often book guarantees with HAL (and other lines) unless we have a good reason to book a specific cabin.  Our own experience is that getting the "perfect cabin" is more a matter of luck then skill.  One can choose what seems to be the perfectly located cabin only to find that their HVAC is faulty, they have a noisy neighbor, a nasty squeak in the bulkhead or ceiling, etc.  Over the years we found that our guarantees were often darn good cabins, we saved money, and a guarantee often got us a free upgrade (less common these days).

 

Hank

[Wishing on a star]

Two things come to mind...

If the lowest price cabin that type of cabin,  for example, a balcony in the front of the ship, or on a higher deck, is one particularly category - that is what the 'guarantee' price might show.   If you select a balcony that is a better location, and that is a different/better category,  then that should be an increase in price.

 

Also, if the sailing is getting booked,  the system might just automatically show the starting-at price at what that lowest category would be...  But, if all of that lowest category cabins are taken,  then it could be true that there are no available cabins at that lowest 'starting at' price.

Edited January 13, 2019 by Wishing on a star

[OVgirl]

If you are booking a guarantee for a category N and if there are no specific N's available, the lowest stateroom category you can select might be an M. Which would cost more than the N category.

We have booked guarantees in a category we like and the price is the same as choosing a specific stateroom.

Only book a guarantee in a category that you like. That way you'll get assigned that or better.

[iancal]

Depends on cruise line.  Balcony guarantees are certainly not always based on the lowest cabin category.  We have had numerous gtys on Celebrity and Princess that were based on a specific  on a specific cabin category, not the lowest, or higher.  I seem to recall doing the same on a Westerdam cruise.

Edited January 13, 2019 by iancal

[danb35]

12 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

When you book a guarantee, it is for the cabins in the lowest price range

Really?  Unless I'm misunderstanding you, this isn't how it worked for me.  When I booked my first cruise (which hasn't yet sailed), I could book a guarantee in any category I wanted (initially booked VH, have since upgraded to SS, still a guarantee).  I didn't book directly through HAL, though, I used an online agency.  Fare was the same whether I chose a cabin or picked guarantee.  It's a very small sample size, of course, but that doesn't sound like what you're saying.

[FOPMan]

As other posters have stated, cruise lines usually provide different pricing for a guarantee of a cabin in a particular class where the cruise line picks a particular cabin (if they oversell the cabin class, they will upgrade you to a higher cabin category, but the cruise line still picks the specific cabin). If you pay a bit more at the outset, you can pick a specific cabin in a specific category (you can still be moved by the cruise line if there is a maintenance issue with the cabin).

 

The cruise lines offer these kinds of pricing to maximize occupancy. While they would like to sell every cabin every cruise at the highest price, that may not happen. If, for some reason, there is higher than predicted demand for lower-priced cabins than for more expensive cabins on a particular voyage, the cruise line  can upgrade folks that purchased guaranteed cabins and “resell” the lower-priced cabin. That approach helps reduce complaints from people who might have purchased more expensive cabins early and then the cruise line discounts them.

[RuthC]

On Holland America, if you book a specific cabin in a given category, you pay the same price as if you had booked a guarantee cabin in the same category. For example, I can book a specific J-category for the same price as a guarantee J-category, but I'm not taking a chance on getting a less than desirable location.
It's only if you get an upgrade on the guarantee that you 'save' money. You 'save' the amount you would have paid had you booked that higher category in the first place.

You can be upgraded from any booking in which you haven't had your specific booked cabin marked 'do not upgrade'. Even then, it has happened that an upgrade was given, but it is very, very rare.

[POA1]

18 hours ago, JDinWA said:

Has something changed at HAL? I was going to book a 2020 cruise on their website. I tried every available cabin in the category that I want, and the price always showed $200 per person more than originally shown, unless I accepted guarantee (no specific cabin). Is this a new sales approach? You have to pay $400 to choose your own cabin??

 

Can you give us an example of what you were looking at? In my experience, the difference between picking a guarantee and specific cabin in the same category is usually around $40 - $50 pp.

[OlsSalt]

The surcharge is well worth it once you develop a preference for certain cabins, decks and locations.  

 

Except I would not  really call this cabin choice a surcharge rate, but rather the normal rate. Letting HAL put you willy-nilly in cabins of  their own choosing for their own booking convenience is what gains one the price  discount rate. 

Edited January 13, 2019 by OlsSalt

[Homosassa]

2 hours ago, FOPMan said:

As other posters have stated, cruise lines usually provide different pricing for a guarantee of a cabin in a particular class where the cruise line picks a particular cabin (if they oversell the cabin class, they will upgrade you to a higher cabin category, but the cruise line still picks the specific cabin). If you pay a bit more at the outset, you can pick a specific cabin in a specific category (you can still be moved by the cruise line if there is a maintenance issue with the cabin).

 

 

Don't kid yourself about a higher cabin category.

 

The cruise line will first look at the cruisers that have paid a more expensive rate for that category cabin. Those passengers will be upgraded for free and the lower category cabin placed into the guarantee pool  (or some cruise lines place the upgrade for a fee game to open the lower category cabins).

 

My husband and I prefer inside cabins that are on lower decks and amidships.  There has been more than one cruise where at check in, we have found that we have been moved to an Ocean view and even a balcony (twice).

[catl331]

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

In my experience, the difference between picking a guarantee and specific cabin in the same category is usually around $40 - $50 pp.

We've done several VD or VE guarantees over the years, and the price we paid was always the same as if we had chosen a specific cabin of the same level on that day. But we were always upgraded to a VA or VB, so we "saved money" compared to booking the higher cabin in first place.

 

As the article linked to by Fouremco says "In other cases, there's no real savings; Crystal, Disney and Holland America are among those that told us they permit guarantees, but you'll pay the same as anyone booking a cabin in that particular category. With these lines, you only get a deal if you score that upgrade. "

[OlsSalt]

We learned our lesson about getting "upgraded" from a guaranty when they stuck us directly over the Ocean Bar.  (Bass booming thump, thump, thump and vocals blasting into our cabin until nearly 11pm.)

 

 That was the last time we ever took a guaranty risk.  And we were five star at the time, -so no extra loyalty benefits granted in guaranty cabin selection on that cruise.   So for every great upgrade, there is just as much risk for a known clinker cabin passed off as an upgrade. 

 

(We luckily got moved to allegedly the only other open verandah cabin on that cruise due to a last minute passenger cancellation) 

Edited January 13, 2019 by OlsSalt

[JDinWA]

3 hours ago, POA1 said:

 

Can you give us an example of what you were looking at? In my experience, the difference between picking a guarantee and specific cabin in the same category is usually around $40 - $50 pp.

It's a 7-day Alaska cruise, Neptune suite.

 

But now I'm guessing the displayed price is SB and the only available cabins to select from are SA, and that might be the price difference. 

[POA1]

30 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

It's a 7-day Alaska cruise, Neptune suite.

 

But now I'm guessing the displayed price is SB and the only available cabins to select from are SA, and that might be the price difference. 

 

That's probably the case. Did you try to manually select an SB? Look at the deck plan. The SBs are often on a deck that's different from the one the Neptune lounge is on. 

[cruiserchuck]

50 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

It's a 7-day Alaska cruise, Neptune suite.

 

But now I'm guessing the displayed price is SB and the only available cabins to select from are SA, and that might be the price difference. 

 

Are you looking on HALs website or a travel agent site?  I always have great difficulty finding specific categories and cabins on HALs website.  It is much easier for me to see cabins and pricing on 3rd party websites.

[kazu]

1 hour ago, JDinWA said:

It's a 7-day Alaska cruise, Neptune suite.

 

But now I'm guessing the displayed price is SB and the only available cabins to select from are SA, and that might be the price difference. 

 

that would make a difference for sure.

 

There’s a price difference between SB and SA.  If you can book the guarantee price still, go for it.  There really aren’t many bad NS cabins (other than HC ones)

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, JDinWA said:

But now I'm guessing the displayed price is SB and the only available cabins to select from are SA, and that might be the price difference. 

That's the difference right there. If you looked at pricing for a guarantee SA, it would be the same as for a selected SA. You were comparing two different categories of cabins, which will never be the same price (on the same day).