Cabin assignment for guarantee

I don't know what other travel agents do, but our agent is often able to book us a GTY on the G cabin category even if that category isn't reflected as GTY on O's website. Much later in the process, O assigns a cabin, often offering us an upsell before assigning the cabin. I don't believe our travel agent has actually bought up rooms on any cruise, but it's possible, as I've never really known what the process was. All I know is that it's rare when we've decided on a cruise and our TA couldn't get a GTY on a G for us. There may have been one or two more times, but the one time I remember was when I wanted to book a Caribbean cruise. It turned out to be part of the around the world cruise on Insignia (I think) and there wasn't anything he could do to get us one of the lower-priced cabins - GTY or otherwise.

But is there a price benefit to book the GTY when there is the option of choosing your own room within a certain category? I think that is one of the questions here.

If I'm not mistaken the only time I've been able to get a guarantee on Oceania is when there is special pricing, and no listed rooms available.

I'm trying to remember if our TA was able to book a G GTY when the G category was showing up as wait listed. I think so, but can't say for sure. Therefore, I would say that no, there's probably no price benefit to booking a guarantee. We just like it because we're not picky about cabin, almost always get an acceptable upsell or a free upgrade, and don't mind playing the waiting game for a cabin assignment. More often than not, we get something other than the lowly G inside cabin we paid for, so to us it's worthwhile. I also have to admit that I kind of like the anticipation of "the game." I used to think people with GTYs were more likely to get upsell offers or free upgrades, but now I'm thinking that's not the case. In any case, we're fine with booking a GTY, but it's obviously not for everyone. I should probably also point out that on the smaller ships, in one of the ocean-view categories, the rooms are smaller than the inside cabins. Therefore, if size is more important to you than having a porthole, you may not want to book a GTY on an inside cabin!

We pick a designated cabin we like but still get offers to move up

You do not need to play the GTY game to get an upsell/upgrade

Did anyone noticed that the TS (formerly known as OP) disappeared a few pages ago? I think that they learned that that their expectations were unreasonable and their anger misdirected!