Guarantee room catagory

[carolcp]

I booked a deluxe verandah outside room guarantee (VH) on the Noordam for the July 10th sailing. All the catagories from VH and up are "closed". Would HAL sell a guarantee and not have a cabin available at this or higher level? I am concerned that they might overbook similar as to airlines and hotel. The dinner times are also closed and I wasn't even able to be waitlisted when I made and paid for my trip.

Anyone ever book a guarantee when all the catagories are sold out?

Carol

[KAKcruiser]

The way I understand the process is that they hold a certain number of rooms for the guarantees. Just because a category is closed does not mean there are no cabins left.

[tbirdjoni]

I booked a deluxe veranda guarantee room also, a VD, about a month ago on the same cruise. I am curious to see where we end up. Let me know if you hear anything, and I will do the same. Where are you from? We are from South Florida. Have you determined how you are getting to the port? We are staying overnight at the Airport Hilton and have to get to the port in the morning.

[Robin7]

Would HAL sell a guarantee and not have a cabin available at this or higher level? I am concerned that they might overbook similar as to airlines and hotel.

 

We booked a guarantee once on the Zuiderdam--an NN. There are only two on the ship, right in the very bow, and we figured there was no way we'd be 'stuck' with it. Guess what we got? An NN. It wasn't a bad cabin, but it was TINY. It did make me wonder if people were 'bumped' from our cruise though. It was the first cruise after all the hurricane trouble in 2004 so maybe it was just there were a lot of passengers from cancelled or shortened cruises on our cruise who got first pick of staterooms?

 

Robin

[carolcp]

I am from St. Louis, grew up in Florida (west coast) and am back in St. Louis, so hard to say "where I'm from".

 

We will be staying in Rome, don't know where or how long because we are flying into Frankfurt first. We will take the train from Rome to the port. My dad who did it a couple of years ago, said it was around 9 Euro for the train. The train station at the port is across from the port so we just walk out to the ship.

 

Oh by the way, the we is my daughter and I. She just graduated HS and took a college level course in art history. Thought that a trip to Rome where she could see the actual art work she studied would be great and I would get a tour guide in the museums to boot.

 

Carol

[JmzandJojo]

I booked a VF garuntee for the May 28th Westerdam sailing. there were only 4 rather undesireable cabins left. I was greatly thrilled to be upgraded to an aft VA cabin. Tossing some upgrade fairydust your way. Good Luck.

[Tricia724]

I booked a deluxe verandah outside room guarantee (VH) on the Noordam for the July 10th sailing. All the catagories from VH and up are "closed". Would HAL sell a guarantee and not have a cabin available at this or higher level? I am concerned that they might overbook similar as to airlines and hotel. The dinner times are also closed and I wasn't even able to be waitlisted when I made and paid for my trip.

 

Anyone ever book a guarantee when all the catagories are sold out?

 

If you read these boards very much, you'll find that among the biggest mysteries to cruisers are...."where will I end up with a guarantee"...."will I get an upgrade"....and the biggest one of all "how does the cruiseline assign cabins/upgrades." After years of debate and speculation, I think it's safe to say.....nobody knows for sure. But somehow they do it.

 

Would HAL sell a guarantee and not have a cabin available at this or higher level? Possibly...but that isn't your problem. It is theirs. They have "guaranteed" you by accepting your deposit that they will provide you with a cabin in that category or above. And there are many ways that could happen: cancellations, upgrades to other passengers, rooms held by travel agents that were returned to inventory, etc. Once in a while you will hear someone say that the cruiseline contacted them and offered them a premium because the cruise was oversold or the cruiseline wanted their cabin. That doesn't happen a lot. The cruiselines are pretty good at shuffling things around to fill their ships and they will no doubt have a cabin for you....hopefully even an upgrade.

 

As far as dinner reservations, you will get a dining assignment....it just may not be the time you would like. You could always talk to the maitre'd once onboard, and depending on the supply and demand, you may possibly get it changed.

 

Good luck to you and I hope you have a great cruise on Noordam.

[Djptcp]

DH and I just sailed on our 10th cruise earlier this month and it was our first Guarantee. The only reason we did it was because the category we wanted was closed and we didn't want to pay any more than that category, so we took the guarantee. We didn't find out until we arrived at the port which cabin we were assigned and we were upgraded 4 categories. This was on Carnival. We booked a balcony cabin on the Zuiderdam for December and selected a specific cabin because I saw where some balconies are solid steel without plexiglass. We didn't want to get stuck with one of those and not be able to see out the balcony when sitting down. So, we decided not to try a guarantee for this cruise.

 

HAL - 2004, 2006

NCL - 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003

Carnival - 1995, 1998, 2006, 2006

Royal Caribbean - 2002

[sarahjane]

We booked a VH guarantee and ended up with a VA. It is pretty doubtful that you will end up with a true VH, because there are not very many of them, and quite a lot of people book the guarantee. I think they push the guarantees just to get people to "move up" to a verandah cabin. It is the cheapest way to get to a verandah (without picking the one you want), and they can put you in any one that hasn't sold yet. So both parties come out ahead. Chances are good that you will get better than a VH, but even if you didn't, any verandah is better than no verandah!:D

About the dining room waitlist, someone already said to check with the maitre'd once on board. That might work, if you do it right away. But if you still don't get the seating you want, try again after the first couple of nights. You'd be surprised how many people get tired of dressing up and abandon their dining room table after the first few dinners! Don't give up. We saw quite a bit of "table shuffling" going on around the 3rd night!

 

happy sails

 

sarahjane

[sandydownunder]

carolcp,

Are you taking the train from Rome to Civitavecchia to board the Noordam? If so the train station is not opposite the port. You will have a ten minute walk to the Port gates. Once there, just inside the gates to the left are Port Authority free buses that will take you to your ship. They do not want people walking around the port for safety and security reasons. It is a very large port and the berth for our ship (Carnival Liberty) was quite a distance from the gate. Going by train to the ship is not hard to do. The walk is very easy straight down the street outside the station entrance.

 

If you are sailing from Harwich, England then the port is right across from the train.

 

Sandra