Guarantee or pick a cabin?

[twnkltoz]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum but the way the board's running right now, I tried searching and gave up. What's the advantage in guaranteeing a room in a category instead of picking a specific one? Am I better off picking a room if I can?

[sept10dsm]

Most times the guarantee rate is cheaper. If the prices are the same and you like a cabin, pick it. A guarantee just says that you will receive a cabin in that type. Some think that guarantees are sometimes the ones upgraded. I never was.

[paul929207]

With a guarenteed cabin, you have to plan for the worst cabin in that class. Hopefully, you will not get the worst, but you could. If you are okay with that, take the guarentee if you are saving enough.

 

Paul

[twnkltoz]

Good to know! When I called to get the price reduction, the only way to get into category E (the best available at the price) was to go "guaranteed" and there are no rooms available. So, I took that! However, for the others in my party since they're in the next category down I went ahead and picked rooms so we could have our pick. I'm interested to see what I end up getting--when do they do the room assignments? After final payments?

 

Thanks for the advice!

[sept10dsm]

They can do room assignments at any time up until the sail date. Some say after final pmt. Ours was assigned 2 days after we booked. Final payment was not due for about a month. Our cabin was assigned and never changed. It seems anything can happen even if assigned according to different experiences.

[sandinmyshoes]

We took a guarantee once to save a $100 and it definetly was NOT worth it! We ended up getting stuck right by the elevators/stairs and under the casino. It was so loud at night we couldn't sleep. If you go to bed before 1am, you will want to book a specific cabin so you don't get stuck right under the theatre, casino, or other late night venue. If you like to sleep in you will want to book a cabin away from the dining rooms and buffets where the crew gets up really early to begin preperations for morning delights such as danishes, donuts, pastries, etc. Yum! Makes my mouth water just to mention them. :) Have fun!

[sandinmyshoes]

We took a guarantee once to save a $100 and it definetly was NOT worth it! We ended up getting stuck right by the elevators/stairs and under the casino. It was so loud at night we couldn't sleep. If you go to bed before 1am, you will want to book a specific cabin so you don't get stuck right under the theatre, casino, or other late night venue. If you like to sleep in you will want to book a cabin away from the dining rooms and buffets where the crew gets up really early to begin preperations for morning delights such as danishes, donuts, pastries, etc. Yum! Makes my mouth water just to mention them. :) Have fun!

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We pick cabins but would take an upgrade if they offered one we liked, or for that matter just offered one:D

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We pick cabins but would take an upgrade if they offered one we liked, or for that matter just offered one:D

[luvrotties]

I am soooooo excited right now because we paid for a guarantee EE mini suite I just checked we are in cabin D526 AA. It's midship and perfect !!! The rest of our family paid more and are right next to the elevators !! Our ta ia a great ta and she requested cat. AA for us and we got it. Oh yea we don't leave till May !!

[Ephraim]

Cruise lines often make rooms available as "guaranteed" because they don't want to close the category and they like to overbook a bit, since people cancel, especially those before final deposit.

 

It also leaves more "available" cabins for those who are more picky about the location of their room. On some ships, the bottom category for an inside hardly even exists. NCL usually has only 2 to 4 rooms in the N category. They may book 50 people into N guarantees and obviously need to give them rooms in higher categories.

 

If the location is important to you, book a specific cabin. If it isn't, you might like a guarantee. On one Princess cruise we were given a nice handicapped accessible room on the Aloha deck. (The only deck that says hello every time to go to it!). They usually don't book the room and leave it open to guarantees because they don't know if they will need it for someone or not. It was enormous.

 

I have never been moved up from one class to another though. If I booked an inside, I got an inside, just in a higher location. When we booked an oceanview, we got an oceanview. On one cruise, we booked a guarantee only to be assigned a room almost immediately (and it never changed). Our next cruise, we booked a balcony and so far we have been assigned a balcony one category higher than we booked. Same size room, just a floor higher. It was assigned about a week after we booked and it hasn't changed. But, it is always open to change until the day of the actual cruise.

 

The tradeoff is pretty clear, usually you pay less for the uncertainty of not knowing where you are going to be on the ship. You are going to be on the ship and likely in a room in a higher category, but within the same class of rooms.

[Idratherbeatsea]

We always book guarentee's and have never been disapointed. The last 2 cruises we booked balcony guarentee for the CB and the Star and both times rec'd cabins in cat. BA on Caribe deck. We may never book a specific room at least not until our run of good luck ends.

[hbeard]

The past three princess cruises we've been on have been on gaurantee...and in each case we were bumped up at least three levels from the original.

Of course there's no "gaurantee" of that happening ;) but it can and does.

 

If you are more concerned about price than the exact room (which is the case for us since we have to work hard to scrape up enough just to afford an inside cabin) then you might give it a try.

 

hbeard

[twnkltoz]

Well, we didn't get a price break for doing it. All the rooms in category E were taken but I could get a guarantee for that category, so I took it! It was either that or go a category down. :) I was mostly asking for my traveling companions (and for future reference as well), and we ended up selecting rooms for them. I'll keep my fingers crossed that we get bumped up...if we do, I think it'll be to a non-obstructed view! That would be great, although I'll be very happy with the partially obstructed if that's where we'll end up.

 

Come on August 11th, get here!!!

[geenafeena]

we have crusied before on carnival and rc and always booked an assigned balcony cabin. we booked 9/6 crown princess with a guarantee balcony for the 1st time (category BF). we figure we would live on the edge...lol

we figure we could at least get a balcony which we are spoiled with, but are already at our limit as far as how much we want to spend. it looks like the balcony guarantee (category BF) only has 4 cabins in the category. wishful thinking, and we will get an upgrade.

[cruisinbuddy]

We always book a specific cabin, this way we know what we're getting. I study deck plans and pictures. That might sound funny but, when we were booking our Golden P. cruise, we were going to go for the cheapest balcony, until I realized that people could walk right in front of the balcony, it was on the Promenade deck. Also check deck plans to make sure you're not right above or below a noisy venue.