What's with GTY rooms??

[cvanhorn]

Just booked the NCL Dawn through NCL and asked to book a J GTY. She did that and when I checked my reservation online it showed as assigned cabin (8025) Click on GTY for the definition and it says cabin will be assigned anytime after final payment (due Sept 2009) until sailing. Called her back and she got it changed back, as verified when I checked online. Now today it is bac to 8025. Heck, if they are going to assign immediately I might as well have chosen a midship J instead of this fwd J. Asked for the GTY in the hopes of possible I or II, but am perfectly happy if assigned any J, just not this soon. Is that really what GTY means, it was the same price whether J GTY or Assigned J?? Just wondering??

 

Anyone's experience per GTY's appreciated.

[mtwingcpa]

A similar thing happened to me on one of my NCL cruises. I booked GTY but received a cabin assignment within 24 hours.

 

However, I ~think~ you nevertheless retain the GTY status. In my case they offered a nice upgrade/upsell (for $10 bucks) a few weeks before the cruise.

[bakerintn]

We booked about 65 days before sailing a K category inside room on the Pearl (Deck 5) GTY. Within 24 hours, we got a JJ Cat inside room on Deck 10 (but way forward). I checked online today and there are no inside, no ocean view and no balconies available per the website and the price is 47% higher than it was when we booked.

 

Guarantee means any cabin in the booked category "or better". In most all cases, one cannot expect an assignment to a different type of cabin (ie, inside to balcony) with a GTY.

 

The category that you booked was probably already full, so you got an immediate assignment I don't understand why an assignment now is worse for you than one 60 days out. I do understand that it is better for the cruise line to do it that way, so that they fill up the lower cost cabins early and then only have the higher priced cabins to offer later.

[mtwingcpa]

I do understand that it is better for the cruise line to do it that way, so that they fill up the lower cost cabins early and then only have the higher priced cabins to offer later.

 

Who knows, but I think the reverse is their strategy. They want to push people up/out of lower priced cabins so that they have "more" of them to sell. Naturally, it would all depend on the sales trend for the cruise in question.

[cvanhorn]

 

Guarantee means any cabin in the booked category "or better". In most all cases, one cannot expect an assignment to a different type of cabin (ie, inside to balcony) with a GTY.

 

The category that you booked was probably already full, .

 

No, at the time I booked the GTY there was plenty of J cabins showing to be chosen. As I had no real preference on the location I asked for the GTY in the hopes of maybe getting an I or II cabin, still in the Inside category same as the J. I am fine with the assigned cabin, just wondering if it was normal to assign it so soon on a Guarantee.

 

Thanks for the answers.

[garycarla]

If they have lots of a certain category, it might make more sense for them to assign right away.

 

Why you do a GTY, you are telling them that they can any damn thing they want. That is part of the DEAL.

[beachchick]

NCL seems to assign GTYs pretty fast most of the time. Both times we started with a GTY (later changed to specific cabins when fares dropped) we got our assignments with a week.

 

The bottom line is that you take your chances. If they want to assign you to 8025, then that's what they'll do. I know it takes away the time you would have to hope for a higher category, but they've done absolutely nothing wrong in assigning your GTY into exactly what you agreed you'd be willing to take.

 

Usually GTYs are a bit less (sometimes substantially less) than booking a specific cabin in that category. I'm surprised that the price was the same, but I guess you are probably correct that they're just using the GTY as a "maybe I'll get something better" hook. If you truly want an I or II, then you need to book a specific cabin. If the J is the category you can afford or are willing to pay for, then you might want to consider chosing your own cabin as long as the fares are the same between that and taking a GTY.

 

beachchick

[akeka]

NCL seems to assign GTYs pretty fast most of the time. Both times we started with a GTY (later changed to specific cabins when fares dropped) we got our assignments with a week.

 

This is our first time having a guarantee on NCL although we've done so Carnival and HAL. I was surprised to see we were assigned a stateroom within days of booking. Has your experience been that this tends to change (as with Carnival) or will it be the final assignment?

[newmexicoNita]

Just booked the NCL Dawn through NCL and asked to book a J GTY. She did that and when I checked my reservation online it showed as assigned cabin (8025) Click on GTY for the definition and it says cabin will be assigned anytime after final payment (due Sept 2009) until sailing. Called her back and she got it changed back, as verified when I checked online. Now today it is bac to 8025. Heck, if they are going to assign immediately I might as well have chosen a midship J instead of this fwd J. Asked for the GTY in the hopes of possible I or II, but am perfectly happy if assigned any J, just not this soon. Is that really what GTY means, it was the same price whether J GTY or Assigned J?? Just wondering??

 

Anyone's experience per GTY's appreciated.

This will happen when the cruise line expects a total sell out and doesn't see any possiblity of upgrades, etc. I would try to talk to someone one more time. This happened to us a few years ago, but it was not too far prior to the sailing date. We booked a gty and were assigned a cabin immediately. In fact I have seen it happen a couple of times. If the prices do drop you can switch to an assigned cabin closer to sailing.

 

Nita

[snorklinbarb]

I've had experiences all over the place. One time booked a gty and was assigned a cabin one category higher almost immediately. In Dec. for the Gem I had a BA gty and it was assigned a couple of wks before sailing.

 

I've been holding a BD gty on the Jade for next June and have had that booking since the summer. Still no assignment.

 

One other time I got the cabin assignment just a couple of days before sailing.

 

So it really depends. I've never been moved from an inside to an outside or outside to balcony or balcony to minisuite but have gotten better cabins within the category a couple of times.

[OceanDreaming2]

The only time we booked a guarantee was last year on the Pearl. We booked a BE balcony and were given a BD within a week or two. The assignment never changed and the location was great!

[beachchick]

This is our first time having a guarantee on NCL although we've done so Carnival and HAL. I was surprised to see we were assigned a stateroom within days of booking. Has your experience been that this tends to change (as with Carnival) or will it be the final assignment?

 

I don't know because both times the fares for higher category balconies or the mini-suites dropped to below the original GTY price. We were able to take advantage of the lower fares (they weren't specials or "new bookings only" deals) and change to slightly higher categories in cabins we selected ourselves. I don't know if we would have stayed in our original balcony GTY assignments. (As an aside, both of them were HC-accessible cabins. It really bothered me that the cruise line would assign them to AB pax several months before the cruise date. Although it occassionally happens, the cruise lines very, very rarely move AB pax out of HC cabins to accomodate HC pax who want to book.)

 

From what I've read, most people do stay in their original assignment. The closer you are to your cruise date, the more likely that is to be the case.

 

beachchick

[Mrs. H.]

We booked a gty a month before sailing Carnival Triumph when she was brand spanking new. We didn't get our cabin# until we got to the pier.

We paid for deck 1/inside and the woman at the pier told us we were assigned to deck 9/outside. I was so excited until we got to the cabin and realized the woman was wrong. Deck 9/inside. DH loved it! Good for him since we were never going back to an inside again. lol I have no complaints about it, it was nice and dark during the day for naps. :D

Our friends paid for the botton assigned room and got what they paid for while we were many many decks above. Another good thing about the cabin was that we were a few doors from the main stairs to go up one flight and fall into the pool.

 

On the last day when we left our cabin the door was open to the cabin across from us, (they were cleaning the room) so I popped in to have a look at how the other half lives and have had a balcony ever since.

I am trying a penthouse this upcoming cruise. (meant to do a mini suite;))

 

We did the gty AKA 'run of the ship' again two years ago, but the ship was somewhat full when I booked it (once again it was a month before sailing) so we got this weird room with a porthole but it was like another sloped room behind the beds in which I would 'crawl' up it to see out the 'window'. Great for storing lots of luggage. lol

It was a pretty cool room.

 

I believe in the gty/run of the ship. Its a hoot not knowing what cabin you will get and most times a pleasant surprise.