Let's Talk Guarantee Cabins

[cruisinfamily7609]

Okay, I’ll play along. This is our very first time on Princess (Enchanted), and while we didn’t set out to book a guarantee - we DID set out to book a midship DE cabin, *checks booking again to be sure* and at some point late in the booking process we realized that they didn’t have cabins in that category anywhere (midship, aft, forward, etc.) to assign us, so we decided to go with a guarantee and see what happens. I’ve since made final payment, and now we wait to see what they give us. 

 

I’m sure some people are grasping at their pearls in horror at the idea, but the truth is - for my husband and I, it’s not going to matter. While yes, we did want a balcony because this cruise is a 14-day Caribbean adventure for the two of us and we thought MAYBE we’d actually use it this time, the bottom line is that we’re really only going to use the cabin for sleeping unless we get put somewhere super amazing (which we won’t, and we KNOW we won’t). We probably could have just changed our booking to a category that had cabins available, but you know - we’re risk takers that way. Bring on the obstructed view. It’s fine. I’ll come back when I find out where they put us! We’re going to be in the Caribbean on a cruise ship. I can think of worse things.  😄

Edited March 6 by cruisinfamily7609
added some details

[jwb3843]

@SCX22

 

I’m curious about your statement regarding bidding for upgrades being more advantageous for those with guaranteed cabin assignments, as this is our first time sailing with Princess and we’ve chosen a GTY mini suite.  We just purchased a few days ago and have not been assigned a cabin as of yet, but did receive the “bid up” email the very next day.  We’re still 57 days for sailing.  Is it your normal practice to bid on several different categories or stick with just one?  Clearly one would only bid what one was willing to pay, but have you had the majority of your successes bidding on the lower or higher end of the bid spectrum?  Also, do you find that bidding on an upgrade delays the cabin assignment?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

 

Julie

 

[Elizabeth K.]

I have booked specific cabins and gtys over the years and have never been dissatisfied with my assignment. I've always had at least a one category upgrade. I returned from sailing the Regal 2 weeks ago. I booked the least expensive unobstructed balcony gty, BF. I was assigned a BC on the Marina deck. I didn't love the location since I'm a pretty light sleeper and a stair user. But it was fine. My legs got a good workout all week lol!

[SCX22]

@jwb3843

 

Let me preface this by saying, never book a guarantee expecting an upgrade.  You should be happy with the GTY category you booked at bare minimum in the event that Princess assigns you a cabin the category that you paid for.  

 

What I meant by bid to upgrade being advantageous to GTY bookings is that cabin inventory never really what it really seems.  If Princess accepts the bid of someone who picked a "prime" location category, then at cabin becomes open to assign to other passengers, which include passengers who booked GTY.  A booked passenger could cancel out of the blue.  Only Princess knows the true cabin availability and only Princess can assign your cabin in a GTY booking.  I didn't mean that GTY bookings that bid to upgrade are more like to have bids accepted. 

 

I don't, bid to upgrade so I can't really speak too much about that.  There's a thread on bid to upgrade successes/failures on this forum.  What does happen after Princess upgrades you into a higher meta category from your GTY category is that the bids go down for higher categories.  For example:  When I initially made my booking to Alaska on the Majestic, I booked GTY IF.  At that time, I could only make a bid for BW, DW, Balcony and Deluxe Balcony.  After I was assigned a BW cabin, I was sent a new bid to upgrade e-mail, with lower bids for DW, Balcony, Obstructed Balcony, and Mini-Suites (can't really compare Mini-Suite bid prices because I initially was never able to bid for this category, but my point is that option appeared).

 

I always think that it's better to play the GTY game until Princess assigns a cabin, hoping, but not expecting, for an upgrade.  But this comes from a person that doesn't play the bid to upgrade game.  

[deultgen]

On 3/5/2024 at 1:25 PM, startedwithamouse said:

Please answer only if you've booked a Guarantee.

 

What was the location of your cabin assignment?

 

1. Mid-Ship

2. Mid-Forward or Mid-Aft

3. Forward or Aft

 

If you've booked Guarantee multiple times, please list all.

 

Not interested in the "book the cabin in the location you want" comments.  

 

Thanks.

 

 

We have booked "balcony Guarantee" rooms twice.  

 

Once we received a nice balcony room about mid level maybe a bit forward.  It was fine, just what we paid for.  

 

The second time we were given the same category balcony stateroom about mid ship on Ruby with the room immediately below the Salty Dog burger seating.  Chairs were moving from 7 am to 10pm above us.  It was exactly the room we paid for.  I would not want that room again though.

 

 

 

 

 

[jwb3843]

@SCX22

 

Ahhhh!!  Thanks so much for the clarification!  I totally agree that you should never book a GTY category you wouldn’t be happy being assigned to.  We booked a mini suite GTY because I like a little more space beyond just a bed, and like you we aren’t picky as to location.  We’ll see how the dice rolls for us!

 

Julie

[Steelers36]

On 3/6/2024 at 1:45 PM, cruisinfamily7609 said:

Bring on the obstructed view. It’s fine.

If you booked a GTY Category DE, you will not be assigned an Obstructed View cabin as you are assigned no less than your booking and there are no OV cabins in higher categories.  The Obstructed Deluxe Balcony cabins are pretty much all DW - certainly not higher than DE>

[cruisinfamily7609]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate that there are people, such as yourself, who learn and remember these details.  Thanks! 

[Italy52]

Has anyone ever had a Guaranteed DF cabin (Deluxe Balcony)?  If so, where did you end up -- just curious.

[HMSDingy]

This is the first time I've booked a guarantee after originally selecting the location myself, because of a great price drop. Having done that, now I'm worried that we may get less than what we had booked earlier. I'm not too familiar with the categories only that ours will be a BB. Looking at the deck plans of the Island Princess, the BB category seems to be on Decks 11 and 12. My only worries is that it may be an obstructed one. Does it matter that we are Platinum? 

Edited March 8 by HMSDingy

[SCX22]

Just now, HMSDingy said:

This is the first time I've book a guarantee because of a great price drop. Having done that, now I'm worried that we may get less than what we had booked earlier. I'm not too familiar with the categories only that ours will be a BB. Looking at the deck plans of the Island Princess, the BB category seems to be on Decks 11 and 12. My only worries is that it may be an obstructed one. Does it matter that we are Platinum? 

You’ll never get lower than what you initially booked.  If Princess does assign you a lower category, then they are obligated to give you a downgrade offer.  Loyalty level doesn’t matter. 

[HMSDingy]

Just now, SCX22 said:

You’ll never get lower than what you initially booked.  If Princess does assign you a lower category, then they are obligated to give you a downgrade offer.  Loyalty level doesn’t matter. 

Thanks

 

[Sweetrosie]

I booked an if guarantee in may 22 to Alaska and received a front balcony right near Salty's.  We loved it! Great treat! This time we were only able to book an if (on casino rate) ...after searching around I see the ship has over 200 cabins still empty (leaving may) so looking forward to an upgrade 

[Italy52]

17 hours ago, Sweetrosie said:

I booked an if guarantee in may 22 to Alaska and received a front balcony right near Salty's.  We loved it! Great treat! This time we were only able to book an if (on casino rate) ...after searching around I see the ship has over 200 cabins still empty (leaving may) so looking forward to an upgrade 

We have a guarantee deluxe balcony booked for our May Alaska 2024 cruise.  I know it has been a few years for you but do you remember when your cabin was assigned?  Was it real close to embarkation or a few weeks out.  Thanks in advance.

[Sweetrosie]

9 hours ago, Italy52 said:

We have a guarantee deluxe balcony booked for our May Alaska 2024 cruise.  I know it has been a few years for you but do you remember when your cabin was assigned?  Was it real close to embarkation or a few weeks out.  Thanks in advance.

We booked within 2 weeks of departure and found out about 5 days out...  you will love it!

[Kineticoh20]

We just did our first Guarantee cabin, it's a back to back,  booked 2 weeks ago with 37 days to sail. We are MF Mini, will see what we get? No reply from Princess yet.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Kineticoh20 said:

We just did our first Guarantee cabin, it's a back to back,  booked 2 weeks ago with 37 days to sail. We are MF Mini, will see what we get? No reply from Princess yet.

 

We booked a GTY MF on the Enchanted Princess. We sail May 4 and just got our cabin assignment on Tuesday night, so under two weeks out.

[Kineticoh20]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

We booked a GTY MF on the Enchanted Princess. We sail May 4 and just got our cabin assignment on Tuesday night, so under two weeks out.

Was it a MF or better?

 

[Dani24]

Our first cruise (back in 2005), we booked a guarantee obstructed oceanview in the very back of the ship. We booked after final payment, and the next day we had our assignment. We were placed in a mid-ship obstructed oceanview. Our new room was definitely better. Better location, less of an obstruction, a less noisy area. We were very pleased. It was a couple categories higher. 

 

Our second cruise (2 years later) we booked guarantee obstructed oceanview and got the category we booked. We were happy with our room.

 

Our third cruise was our honeymoon (16 years ago now). We booked an oceanview guarantee. We were placed in a mid-ship Caribe deck balcony. We were stoked!

 

Fourth cruise (14 years ago) we booked a guarantee oceanview and were assigned the category we booked. 

 

The last one and our current one we didn't do a guarantee. 

 

So we've had a 50% success rate with guarantees. But a 100% success rate with being happy with our rooms. 🙂

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, Kineticoh20 said:

Was it a MF or better?

 

 

MF is just the lowest mini-suite category.

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, Dani24 said:

Our first cruise (back in 2005), we booked a guarantee obstructed oceanview in the very back of the ship. We booked after final payment, and the next day we had our assignment. We were placed in a mid-ship obstructed oceanview. Our new room was definitely better. Better location, less of an obstruction, a less noisy area. We were very pleased. It was a couple categories higher. 

 

Our second cruise (2 years later) we booked guarantee obstructed oceanview and got the category we booked. We were happy with our room.

 

Our third cruise was our honeymoon (16 years ago now). We booked an oceanview guarantee. We were placed in a mid-ship Caribe deck balcony. We were stoked!

 

Fourth cruise (14 years ago) we booked a guarantee oceanview and were assigned the category we booked. 

 

The last one and our current one we didn't do a guarantee. 

 

So we've had a 50% success rate with guarantees. But a 100% success rate with being happy with our rooms. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

I believe all of your examples pre-date the upgrade bidding system. I imagine that has impacted when they assign GTY rooms and the likelihood of free upgrades.

[Canuker]

I recall, many years ago, going to a variety show at a (land based) theatre in which most seats were empty. Before curtain-up, the manger invited everyone to come to the front stalls to watch the show. All did; we moved from the balcony to the third row. We were surprised and very happy about that, and enjoyed the show the more for it. And, clearly, I remembered their good gesture after all this time*.

I'm wondering if a cruise line like Princess might operate on the same principal, i.e. if there are larger, higher-priced cabins available just before the embarkation date, they move people into them from smaller, lower-priced cabins.

From their perspective, the operating cost increase is virtually zero but in terms of goodwill towards their brand, the delight of those passengers and the post-cruise word-of-mouth publicity they may get, it seems a very good idea, not to mention the opportunity to perhaps perform needed maintenance work on a whole block of now empty cabins all at the same time (they are otherwise rarely empty).

As one who owned a business before retiring, exceeding the expectations of the customer - even in a just a small, but meaningful, way - is a great way to build customer loyalty and repeat business. They remember that*.

[wallyj]

5 hours ago, Canuker said:

I recall, many years ago, going to a variety show at a (land based) theatre in which most seats were empty. Before curtain-up, the manger invited everyone to come to the front stalls to watch the show. All did; we moved from the balcony to the third row. We were surprised and very happy about that, and enjoyed the show the more for it. And, clearly, I remembered their good gesture after all this time*.

I'm wondering if a cruise line like Princess might operate on the same principal, i.e. if there are larger, higher-priced cabins available just before the embarkation date, they move people into them from smaller, lower-priced cabins.

From their perspective, the operating cost increase is virtually zero but in terms of goodwill towards their brand, the delight of those passengers and the post-cruise word-of-mouth publicity they may get, it seems a very good idea, not to mention the opportunity to perhaps perform needed maintenance work on a whole block of now empty cabins all at the same time (they are otherwise rarely empty).

As one who owned a business before retiring, exceeding the expectations of the customer - even in a just a small, but meaningful, way - is a great way to build customer loyalty and repeat business. They remember that*.

At the ‘restart’ in 2022, on some Princess ships that were very lowly booked, my experience was, Princess did complimentary upgrades. After a few months, I spoke to the Captain Circle host(function now moved to future cruises dept) and was told the Hotel Manager changed this ‘policy’ as they did not want Passengers to start feeling they could book lower categories and be complimentary upgraded. 
 

Now most ships are mostly fully if not over 100% double occupancy, meaning having many 3rd and 4th berths filled in addition to all doubles, so complimentary upgrades are more the exception, but do occasionally happen. With the implementation of the upgrade bidding system, complimentary upgrades seem to be rarer.