Room Assignment?

[HermmyGranger]

This is our first cruise where we have opted to allow HAL to assign our room instead of choosing our own (the price difference was ridiculous.) How are in advance do they generally notify you of your room assignment? Is it the same week or two weeks out or does it just depend? Not that it matters because we get what we get, but I was just curious when we might know.

[CruiserBruce]

As frequently discussed here, anywhere from 30 days out, to at the pier. Average seems to be at about 8-10 days prior. We are 15 days out today, waiting for our assignment.

[HermmyGranger]

28 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

As frequently discussed here, anywhere from 30 days out, to at the pier. Average seems to be at about 8-10 days prior. We are 15 days out today, waiting for our assignment.

Thanks. I know we've had people discuss this before, but I did a search and couldn't find anything. Apparently I didn't use the right prompts. 😄

 

[Ilovesailaway]

Just did my first interior GTY with HA. 

I have learned here on CC that it's common for HA to assign closser to embarkation date so I was just waiting it out when they sent out a second round of upsell offers 20 days before my sale date. I ended up grabbing a midship balcony so I never did find out what my inside gty room would've been.

This has been pretty standard since the restart. I have booked 3 gty inside cabins, 1 with HA, and 2 with another line. All 3 times I ended up taking an upsell offer to a balcony for a lot less than it would've cost at booking

[Scorp1112]

I did the same thing and wasn't happy to have that out of my control, but it was almost $1000 more to pick???? That was crazy! 

[HermmyGranger]

1 hour ago, Scorp1112 said:

I did the same thing and wasn't happy to have that out of my control, but it was almost $1000 more to pick???? That was crazy! 

Exactly, it was $700 per person to pick our room. I hate not knowing, but I'm not paying that much.

[oakridger]

That surprises me that yours would be so much.  My recent cruises have always been approximately $100 but depending on area selected it went up some from there to select my cabin.  Check this random booking I just tried:

 

Edited March 16 by oakridger

[HermmyGranger]

12 minutes ago, oakridger said:

That surprises me that yours would be so much.  My recent cruises have always been approximately $100 but depending on area selected it went up some from there to select my cabin.  Check this random booking I just tried:

 

 

 

 

This is what I was quoted to select our room. It's $780 each. That's seriously crazy town.

 

Edited March 16 by HermmyGranger

[sunviking90]

8 hours ago, HermmyGranger said:

Thanks. I know we've had people discuss this before, but I did a search and couldn't find anything. Apparently I didn't use the right prompts. 😄

 

I have found it easier to Google search my topic with “cruisecritic” at the end. Forum search engines are pretty clunky imho.

Love your CC handle by the way!

[oakridger]

2 hours ago, HermmyGranger said:

This is what I was quoted to select our room. It's $780 each. That's seriously crazy town.

 

Dang!!  I wonder if the cost difference will change as time passes or stay the same????

 

~Nancy

[Ready2go11]

Remember you can always upgrade to Club Orange (if not already sold out) on any ship and pick your room in the same meta category.  
 

CO is $25 a day on shorter cruises so only $175 pp for a 7 night cruise to lock in your cabin or $15 a day on longer cruises. That cost can be significantly cheaper than the choose your cabin prices quoted in this thread. 

[Scorp1112]

I've seen the smaller difference too and would definitely do that, but I wondered if this is because I was booking this closer to departure.  Recently booked for August. And that's where it was about $1000 for two to pick the room. 

[ferretktf]

My only HAL voyage last September we received our guarantee assignment just 3 days before sailing. That cruise was not 100% sold so I could understand the late confirmation due to upsells etc,

my next sailing in June has been a complete sell out for 4 weeks now but I still don’t have an assignment. This makes far less sense

[CruiserBruce]

16 minutes ago, ferretktf said:

my next sailing in June has been a complete sell out for 4 weeks now but I still don’t have an assignment. This makes far less sense

Its because that part of HAL has a certain schedule in the process of finalizing a sailing. Its not an easy process, because each sailing has a different sales dynamic, and thus could have a gazillion assignments to make, or very few, or somewhere in between. Certain things are done at certain times. It doesn't matter if the ship is sold out...the GTY assignment we are waiting for is on a sailing that has been sold out at least since final payment 3 months ago(probably before, but assuming that a few canceled at final payment), and sails two weeks from today. But that department of HAL is doing all the ships...at a certain time in the process. And there is more than just your ship to assign any given week.

[YourWorldWithBill]

14 hours ago, Ready2go11 said:

Remember you can always upgrade to Club Orange (if not already sold out) on any ship and pick your room in the same meta category.  
 

CO is $25 a day on shorter cruises so only $175 pp for a 7 night cruise to lock in your cabin or $15 a day on longer cruises. That cost can be significantly cheaper than the choose your cabin prices quoted in this thread. 

Exactly! That's an answer: for the cost of CO you take the cheapest cabin in the class, then get to chose. And yes, you pay a bit, but usually less than cost of the "you chose your stateroom" plus the cost of the difference between that stateroom and some other, and you get the other benefits of CO if you want.

[CruiserBruce]

10 hours ago, ferretktf said:

My only HAL voyage last September we received our guarantee assignment just 3 days before sailing. That cruise was not 100% sold so I could understand the late confirmation due to upsells etc,

my next sailing in June has been a complete sell out for 4 weeks now but I still don’t have an assignment. This makes far less sense

Also....note there is a new process in the timeline of finalizing a sailing...the waitlist assignments. On our cruise, again, in now less than 2 weeks, sold out for 3-4 months, at least, one person on the waitlist just got confirmed on to the cruise, just yesterday. No assigned room, but confirmed they get to go.