Guaranty Cabin

[Tedferg]

Looking at a 5 Day, Feb 2023, Cal Coastal that is largely full.

 

General questions about Guaranty Cabin. I believe it could be any cabin, any deck, Aft / Mid / Fore, correct?

 

a. Obs De luxe Balcony most locations a Gty however there are two cabins available, on Mid Aft and one Fore. Does Gty Mid Ship imply that I do not want the cabins available and will therefore take a Gty. Surely the Gty could be either of those cabins. 

b. Balcony only available as Gty Deck 15 is $483 - Decks 9 - 14 is $494 - since Gty can be anywhere, why would they show different prices.

[PEB]

What a guarantee cabin means is you can get any cabin in the same category or better and it can be anywhere on the ship. The biggest downside to a guarantee cabin is that it can be in a bad location even if it is a higher category cabin. Looking at what is available now does not mean anything because someone may book those cabins or if they upgrade others different rooms could become available. If you want a specific room you are better off booking that room. JMHO. Yes I have booked guaranteed rooms in the past but no longer do so.

[Tedferg]

5 minutes ago, PEB said:

What a guarantee cabin means is you can get any cabin in the same category or better and it can be anywhere on the ship. The biggest downside to a guarantee cabin is that it can be in a bad location even if it is a higher category cabin. Looking at what is available now does not mean anything because someone may book those cabins or if they upgrade others different rooms could become available. If you want a specific room you are better off booking that room. JMHO. Yes I have booked guaranteed rooms in the past but no longer do so.

I agree with you, in this case it is the only cruise out of SFO, so no flight for us, and would be a nice winter break. Short enough so that cabin location is not as important. I was puzzled as to why two different rates would be shown for different decks.

[PEB]

4 hours ago, Tedferg said:

I agree with you, in this case it is the only cruise out of SFO, so no flight for us, and would be a nice winter break. Short enough so that cabin location is not as important. I was puzzled as to why two different rates would be shown for different decks.

They consider the higher decks as being a better view from the ship even though those decks will feel the ship movement more than the lower decks. The higher decks are also closer to a lot of the pools and popular public areas.

[Tedferg]

In this case the Gty, cabins on deck 15 were less expensive. I think it is a quirk of the system. The cabin price was set and then Gty. only and the fare was not changed.

[Thrak]

5 hours ago, PEB said:

They consider the higher decks as being a better view from the ship even though those decks will feel the ship movement more than the lower decks. The higher decks are also closer to a lot of the pools and popular public areas.

 

5 hours ago, Tedferg said:

In this case the Gty, cabins on deck 15 were less expensive. I think it is a quirk of the system. The cabin price was set and then Gty. only and the fare was not changed.

 

It isn't necessarily higher decks that they consider "better". To Princess an cabin that is midship is superior to any other location.

[caribill]

14 hours ago, Tedferg said:

 

b. Balcony only available as Gty Deck 15 is $483 - Decks 9 - 14 is $494 - since Gty can be anywhere, why would they show different prices.

 

If location is not important to you, book the lower price GTY.

 

You could end up on deck 15 in the category there or in a higher deluxe balcony category on another deck.

 

There is also the slight possibility that you could end up in an even higher category such as a mini-suite.

[PEB]

15 hours ago, Tedferg said:

In this case the Gty, cabins on deck 15 were less expensive. I think it is a quirk of the system. The cabin price was set and then Gty. only and the fare was not changed.

Perhaps because they are near heavy public traffic areas and may be subject to more noise the price is cheaper.

[Shippy]

Remember guarantees can be ANY cabin...

   Under the disco club,  obstructed view, etc,....twice we wound up with handicapped cabins which I do not like.

 The cabins you think are available are NOT the only ones.....they never show all of them

 We do not book guarantees anymore.

 

[TM]

We did a guarantee booking once and ended up with a cabin right above the casino.  Unfortunately, we could always smell the cigarette smoke in the cabin and as a result my wife had a terrible time with her asthma.  That's the last time we would ever book a guarantee.

[EconDoc]

On 1/29/2023 at 9:40 AM, Tedferg said:

b. Balcony only available as Gty Deck 15 is $483 - Decks 9 - 14 is $494 - since Gty can be anywhere, why would they show different prices.

There are typically six balcony categories from BA (highest) to BF (lowest).  The decks with public areas above or below (e.g. deck 15) are at risk of noise and hence in a lower category and less expensive.  Within each deck, mid-ship is the highest category and the categories go down as you move forward and aft.  You can generally book a guarantee in any category if they are selling those guarantees (you may need a travel agent or Princess agent to help book).  If you book a BF guarantee, you could be assigned any balcony cabin.  If you booked a BB guarantee, you could only be assigned BB or BA (or possibly get a free upgrade to something above BA).

 

In our experience once your guarantee cabin is assigned, which can be any time from final payment to days before departure, you can move within the category you are actually assigned to any available cabin in that category. If the ship is not totally sold out, a bunch of cabins seem to be made available 3-4 days before sailing. For manifest reasons, you must make cabin changes by midnight 3 days before or else you have to request it on board.  We recently booked a BF guarantee since there were no balconies available to assign and got actually assigned a BB in good location and were able to move to another BB in an even better location (from our point of view).

Edited January 30, 2023 by EconDoc

[Tedferg]

4 hours ago, EconDoc said:

  If you book a BF guarantee, you could be assigned any balcony cabin.  If you booked a BB guarantee, you could only be assigned BB or BA (or possibly get a free upgrade to something above BA).

Thank you, I did not understand that one could book guarantee at various categories.