Your experiences with OV guarantee

[HarleyGirl]

Have any of you ended up really lucky with getting the ocean view guarantee? I know the upgrade fairy is very unpredictable and my PVP was only able to say "you have a 50/50 chance of an upgrade" so I would just like to hear your stories, good or bad, about the OV GTY. Thanks!

[bellybutton]

Have any of you ended up really lucky with getting the ocean view guarantee? I know the upgrade fairy is very unpredictable and my PVP was only able to say "you have a 50/50 chance of an upgrade" so I would just like to hear your stories, good or bad, about the OV GTY. Thanks!

 

 

We booked an ov guarantee on our April Miracle trip we got upgraded to an balcony. It was great, it was our first cruise.

[K.T.B.]

More than likely, your upgrade will just be moving up a few levels.

[woodman]

We have booked 3 O/V gty. cruises and were upgraded to a balcony on 2 of them. The third is on the Glory sailing next week.(Can't wait) We were assigned cabin 2470. On the main deck all the way aft. If you look at the deck plan you will see a very odd shaped cabin. It is much larger then other cabins but no one can tell me if it is furnished as a mini suite or not. I have found out that it has t windows. Very curious to see for myself. I will post a review on the cabin when I return.

[TENNESSEE-CRUISER]

Last August on the Miracle we were upgraded from a oceanview guarantee to a balcony. It was really nice.

[HarleyGirl]

That must be so exciting, getting your documents and realizing that you've been given a balcony. I originally booked a balcony suite (Fantasy) myself but then I came to my senses and realized that the $800 difference could be spent on something really cool like excursions, cute clothes for the trip, etc. I would love to have the balcony but since this is my first cruise and I'm not really sure how my finances will suffer (or not) I've decided to get the OV GTY and pray.

[Djptcp]

We just returned from the Celebration on Monday, our second cruise on her in two months. In March, we had a 5A - outside with portholes on the Upper Deck Forward (deck 6) -and when we decided to sail on her again in April, 5A only had guarantees, so we booked a Guar for the first time in 10 cruises. DH and I did not find out our cabin assignment until we arrived at the port last Thursday and we were assigned Empress 43 -- outside on Deck 7. So, it was an upgrade. The Celebration is one of their oldest ships and does not have but a few balcony cabins, so we knew we weren't going to be upgraded to a balcony. I wasn't expecting an upgrade and only did the Guar because I didn't have a choice. I prefer selecting a specific cabin because there are places on the ship I don't like to be. However, in this case it worked out well because we didn't have the loud anchor noise we had in March! We are sailing on the Holland America Zuiderdam in December and selected a specific balcony cabin because some of them have a solid metal railing/enclosure balcony instead of plexiglass which you can see through and we wanted to be able to see out the bottom of the balcony! I wouldn't do a Guar for a balcony category on that ship for that reason.

Holland America - 2004, 2006

Carnival - 1995, 1998, 2006, 2006

NCL - 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003

Royal Caribbean - 2002

[Leo Jay]

We didn't get upgraded, but as it turns out I absolutely LOVED being on the lowest level of the ship (Riviera) and therefore so close to the water -- right outside the window! Any upgrade less than Balcony would have definitely seemed like a downgrade to me.

 

I'm in the distinct minority on this, but choosing between first-level OV and a Balcony anywhere would be close to a toss-up for me. I'll be trying a balcony for the first time in September, though -- we'll see if my opinion changes then.

[donnavb5]

I was upgrated last year to Empress. It was good. I don't even know WHY I have to have the window but I do.