Having Royal choose room

[kimlet]

I am thinking of booking again for next April, just interior room this time but I am thinking of letting royal choose the room and save over $100.

Anyone done this and was happy with it or not?

Thoughts? Thanks

[kiska]

we have always opted for a guarantee if it was cheaper. Most of the times we ended up in the same general category (inside or oceanview) but a better level within that category, and once we got upgraded to a balcony from oceanview (only once). The way to approach this is to think if there is a cabin anywhere on the ship you would really not like to end up  on. For me, I would really not like to end up on deck 2 or 3 right underneath casino or dining room or shops, or the top most cabin deck with the pool above you, or very aft or forward of the ship if you suffer motion sickness. That said, you can usually call in and swap a cabin out within the same category if any are available, such as 3V to another 3V, once you've been actually assigned a cabin. I'm going to be on Adventure in a week, and we went with oceanview guarantee ("prepaid" casino cruise) since it was a last "free" cabin available. Couple days later got assigned a panoramic oceanview cabin on deck 12 all the way in the front. Cabin looks very cool, price level is more than I would have been willing to pay for it, but there appears to be a sun deck above it, which may end up with noise in the morning when they set up the area for the day. Will it bother me? I won't know until I sail, unfortunately, but it's always a gamble I'm willing to take. Most of the times if I didn't like the location of the cabin assigned I was able to call in and swap out. The other thing to note here, is that right around the final payment date more cabin will become available as people cancel, and thereafter there may be price drops, at which point you can call and ask to upgrade to a different cabin if it's within your budget, or on the off chance there is no price difference. I was actually able to get myself from an inside cabin to a balcony for only $12 more per person once, when a sale popped up. Other times you call and you think it'll be only $50, but you don't qualify for that sale as an existing booking and they want like $400 to upgrade. Just food for thought, and even with all the possibilities, I will still go for a guarantee EVERY single time, because it saves money I can spend on other things. 

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, kimlet said:

I am thinking of booking again for next April, just interior room this time but I am thinking of letting royal choose the room and save over $100.

Anyone done this and was happy with it or not?

Thoughts? Thanks

 

Many do it, and as long as you will be happy with any inside stateroom, then go for it.

[ndabunka]

Letting them pick (Guarantee) works extremely well for Balcony cabins as there is not much that can go wrong.  When selected for "Ocean View" cabins you might get a cabin that has an obstructed view (i.e. your view may be of a lifeboat) which still isn't normally THAT bad.  The problem comes when you use it with INSIDE room category.  We got stuck DIRECTLY about the engines on the Majesty of the Seas in a lower floor for one cruise many years back & basically didn't get to sleep from port to port. Couldn't really do anything about it as we had agreed to ANY cabin so...

[Ashland]

5 hours ago, ndabunka said:

Letting them pick (Guarantee) works extremely well for Balcony cabins as there is not much that can go wrong.  When selected for "Ocean View" cabins you might get a cabin that has an obstructed view (i.e. your view may be of a lifeboat) which still isn't normally THAT bad.  The problem comes when you use it with INSIDE room category.  We got stuck DIRECTLY about the engines on the Majesty of the Seas in a lower floor for one cruise many years back & basically didn't get to sleep from port to port. Couldn't really do anything about it as we had agreed to ANY cabin so...

You actually could have done something about it. As soon as the cabin was assigned you could have requested a different location as long as it was the exact same category you could have moved without any fee incurred.

[ndabunka]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

You actually could have done something about it. As soon as the cabin was assigned you could have requested a different location as long as it was the exact same category you could have moved without any fee incurred.

The boat was "full" which was why we ended up with the room we had.  This was back in the early 90's so it was before you could "see" your room on the online & we've had plenty of time to have gotten over it...LOL

Edited March 2, 2019 by ndabunka

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, ndabunka said:

The boat was "full" which was why we ended up with the room we had.  This was back in the early 90's so it was before you could "see" your room on the online & we've had plenty of time to have gotten over it...LOL

Gotcha 

[Thorben-Hendrik]

4 hours ago, ndabunka said:

The boat was "full" which was why we ended up with the room we had.  This was back in the early 90's so it was before you could "see" your room on the online & we've had plenty of time to have gotten over it...LOL

Yeah these boats 🛥 in the 90's hardly had any rooms! 😱

Glad they have ships 🛳 and cabins now! 👍

[ndabunka]

On 3/2/2019 at 2:56 AM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Yeah these boats 🛥 in the 90's hardly had any rooms! 😱

Glad they have ships 🛳 and cabins now! 👍

LOL. By today's standards, one could say those much, much , MUCH smaller ships were closer to... well, maybe not a "boat or even a Yacht but they were a fraction of the size of the Harmony.

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, ndabunka said:

LOL. By today's standards, one could say those much, much , MUCH smaller ships were closer to... well, maybe not a "boat or even a Yacht but they were a fraction of the size of the Harmony.

But they were big enough to get us addicted.