What is the best "upgrade" you received if you booked Guarantee?

[patsnation12]

My husband and I booked on the Noordam out of NYC on December 12th. We booked Category H (fully obstructed oceanview), and we were told we were given a Guaranty.

 

My question is what kind of upgrade could we be looking at if we do get one? Can anyone share their past experiences with this, and does it depend on what you paid when booking? I'm not delusional or naive, I realize they're not going to give us a suite or anything, but an unobstructed oceanview would be nice!

 

Thanks!

[eh2zed]

Never have had an upgrade. Don't get your hopes too high. The upgrade fairy has very limited fairy dust

[rebeljohn]

On our last HAL cruise, we booked an inside room GTY, and received an Oceanview.....two portholes.......the ship did not sail full.

[terrascape]

We have booked guarantee cabins several times. The most recent was this past August on the Volendam for an Alaska cruise. We booked a DA cabin which is a partial sea view. It was fine with us as we have been to Alaska numerous times & it was at a "fire-sale" price a couple months before sailing. We were upgraded to a "D" (regular ocean view) at the time we were assigned a cabin number about two weeks before sailing. On arrival Seward we found out we had been upgraded to a category "A" (Verandah suite on Navigation deck). We were shocked, but ever so pleased. So in this case it wasn't due to booking several months in advance or paying a premium price. Just the opposite. The only remaining possibility is the number of days we have sailed with HAL. On other occasions we have received a one category upgrade, and on another occasion we went from "B" to an "S" (deluxe suite) for an additional $150 per person a week before sailing. A lot depends on what cruise we are on, but often times we enjoy booking a guarnatee with the hope that we get a nice upgrade. We have not been disappointed.

[hammybee]

The best thing to do when booking a guarantee is to accept you may be assigned the cabin no one else wanted in the category you booked.

 

Upgrades work from the bottom, up, meaning HAL needs to sell more lower priced cabins, than it has cabins available. If they don't need your cabin, it is unlikely you will be upgraded.

 

You have almost three months before you cruise and what you want to see is all inside cabins achieving a closed/sold out status. That's a good sign for you that you might get lucky. Cabins assignments can be made as late as the port so be prepared to wait. It is also possible to be upgraded more than once.

 

Poster "Kakalina" has had the best good fortune of anyone I know with upgrades. To the best of my knowledge, she and her DH sail often and usually on longer voyages. They also book directly with HAL. I won't steal her thunder in case she pops in.

 

Good luck to you.

[Cruising-along]

Twice we have received 7-category upgrades. We've received some kind of upgrade 4 out of 4 guarantee bookings.

[missygirl]

We will soon be sailing on HAL for the fourth time, Oct 27. Our first cruise we selected our cabin...the next two we were upgraded three cat. each sailing. No way of knowing yet of our Oct. trip but the interior and oceanview are sold out so we are hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that the fairy will bless us yet again.

 

Missygirl

[MercedMike]

We are red button Mariners with HAL. We usually book way in advance. We frequently book guarantees. Sometimes we have received no upgrade at all. Often we have been upgraded within the category, usually to a higher deck or nearer midships. Only once have we been upgraded from outside to balcony.

 

The reservations department of any cruise line is a large, comfortable office filled with hundreds of earnest young people equipped with powerful computers, whose sole duty is to mess with reservations and make TAs pull their hair out. However, over in the corner is one rickety old desk equipped with an obsolete 286 computer with 4 meg of RAM and a 14.4 modem, which belongs to an elderly female employee who is usually out on sick leave. On those rare days when she does come in to the office, occasionally she lays her knitting down on the keyboard and it hits the proper key to do something nice ... even something wonderful ... to some particular reservation. She is known as the Upgrade Fairy and no living human being has any idea how her slow old computer happens to pick any particular reservation.

 

If she smiles on you, thank your lucky stars and accept gratefully. And if she does not, then be satisfied that you got a good deal on your guaranteed category and have a GREAT cruise!

[VegasRealtor]

On a recent 7 day cruise on the Westerdam, we booked a cat VH guarantee. I was on the phone with my TA regarding an unrelated matter - at the same time she said her HAL rep was on the other line. The rep told her she had a cancellation from someone who had an SZ, and would we be interested in upgrading for a very nomimal fee (which it truly was), so we jumped at the chance.

 

Upon arriving at check-in, the agent said she could not find our room number on her list, so a supervisor was summoned. Lo and behold, we had been upgraded from the SZ to an SA at no additional charge!! With all the bells and whistles included! Talk about being excited!! The fairy did her thing in a very big way!:p

[RevNeal]

I've booked an ROS GTY and have been put in an F-category outside.

[Desdemona01]

Only on our first HAL cruise. It was less than 3 months after 9/11 and we booked an inside guarantee and got an oceanview. We booked 2 more guarantees after that and got exactly what we booked. Since then we've chosen specific cabins and been very happy.

 

As others previously stated it's best to book a category you'll be happy with, because most likely that's what you'll end up with.

[shsunseeker]

For a Christmas cruise in 2005 on the Zuiderdam I booked the lowest inside guarantee and ended up in a VA aft - with the long balcony.

 

A pretty good Christmas present. It was my first cruise on Holland America.

[Bill S]

For cruises we've already completed, we booked guarantees three times and were upgraded twice: from a BB to a BA and then from an SZ to an SA--wow!

[grannynurse]

We booked an SZ guarantee on an Alaska cruise (Westerdam) and got an upgrade to an aft SC. It was a long walk forward but the cabin and the vearanda more than made up for the hike.

GN

[kakalina]

Hammydear, you are so sweet. :)

 

We have booked 16 inside quarantee cabins lowest available. We have actually been in an inside cabin three, maybe four times. We have been bumped up to everything from portholes to suites; although the suite was a special circumstance.

As Hamadarling stated, we always book directly with our HAL PCC and we do tend to book longer cruises or b2b's. It is all the luck of the draw and we have just been exceedingly lucky.