To Guarantee or Not to Guarantee?

Just wondering what people's experiences have been with the dice roll that is guaranteed cabins.

If you don't care what location on a deck you will be on then for many it is worth the risk.

For some they get no gain from a guarantee but for others they have done well.

Keith

We are wondering the same thing. We originally booked an interior cabin then saw the price drop for a balcony guarantee to only $20 more than we had already paid, so we switched over to that. We figured any balcony is an upgrade from interior!

Unless you are particular about LOCATION, a GTY is a great way to save some money! Rarely will you get better than the category you book, but it's always a possibility!

Just wondering what people's experiences have been with the dice roll that is guaranteed cabins.

Another thing to be aware (or beware) of is the 'ranking' of staterooms. We took what was essentially a guarantee through a major bundler of cruise vacations. The operator cheerily told me "All our insides are at least category J!" That was great, I thought; Js were roomy, low, and midship interiors with sofa&table&chair&desk and a large open space besides. We could do with that or better for 26 days!

When we got our assignment, we had an I, and it was high, forward, small and narrow, with one chair and a small desk! The operator cheerily told me "It's higher in the ship so of course it is rated higher!" What is actually true is that the lines have taken undesirable cabins and given them higher rankings so they can bump people (on guarantees) to them and claim no foul.

We ended up taking an upsell that cancelled out all savings we thought we had achieved by booking with the bundler. We had a fine cruise but I will never again make that mistake.

Unless you are particular about LOCATION, a GTY is a great way to save some money! Rarely will you get better than the category you book, but it's always a possibility!

We only used it once and were not pleased with the cabin we got. As far forward as possible next to the thrusters. Do you know what time the thrusters are used some mornings? We do :(.

On the money savings, we have not seen it to be that much.

I always like to pick my cabin, but the difference between the BX and the next selectable cabin was $850 PP, which is a lot of $$, so I took a chance today.

I also never book this close to departure - 45 days out. I paid in full today, and got a mid ship BA cabin on the Pride of America on deck 10.

Very excited!!!

Good luck to you and enjoy your trip.

We were assigned our cabin yesterday at 67 days out.

We are on the Dream, had a balcony guarantee and were assigned cabin 6435. We are excited to have a balcony! We have only had ocean view cabins on previous cruises. :)

Thanks for all the replies!

All the ocean view cabins were sold out on my sailing (100 days out) so it was a choice between an inside and a balcony. Going with the dice roll of a guaranteed cabin was one way to make that balcony affordable; just as a previous poster experienced, the savings were significant.

Since it's a guaranteed balcony cabin I'm less concerned that if it was an inside, or an ocean view. How bad could it be, I ask myself. Don't much care about location horizontally, but I might vertically - naturally I'd prefer to have suites above and below. So that's the only dice roll here.

Wish me luck! Who knows, maybe I'll get an aft cabin or a Premium Balcony!

Since it's a guaranteed balcony cabin I'm less concerned that if it was an inside, or an ocean view.

I think you're right, Dunnik -- there are no balconies under the kitchen! Tee hee.

The problem with a guarantee is you have to NOT CARE where the balcony is located. MANY times the guarantee is given that is located in noisy areas.

Above lounges etc. - Piano bars that play until the wee hours of the morning

or the show lounge where you get to hear the thump thump of the bass

or under the pizza kithen which is opened 24 hours a day

When I first looked into doing a guaranty, the advisor at Celebrity said to look for a good deal on a Concierge Class cabin as there really aren't any bad ones and only a couple on board that have any kind of obstruction. With a balcony guaranty, you could be anywhere. Much less chance of a bum cabin with Concierge but you might be further forward or aft than you might like. Seems like a small price to pay for saving $800 pp!

An update:

It seems I've won the diceroll! I had booked a guaranteed balcony, and have been assigned an 8C (on the Vista, 7/9/16), Deck 8, aft.

I'd have probably picked the exact same cabin had I the option to choose. Deck 8 has staterooms above and below. The cabin is aft of the last bank of elevators (with much of the traffic going forward, not aft) and it's not close enough to said elevators to cause any concern.

Win!

When I booked our cruise I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I booked a guarantee because I didn't know that I could have chosen my cabin (having said that, I wouldn't have known which cabin to choose).

I booked in April for our January cruise and after doing some reading, expected to find out our cabin sometime in November if I was lucky.

Nope. I knew less than 2 weeks later. Thankfully we lucked out: deck 6, good location (middle-ish aft) but straight above MDR, so possible noisy? I was a bit bothered by the metal balcony at first but since everything else is exactly what we wanted (and some reassurance from seasoned cruisers here) I got over it quickly.

I probably won't book a guarantee again, but ask me again after our cruise ;)

I'm too picky about location to book guarantee's anymore. I was told long ago that if they assign you, it can also change if you're booked guarantee.... Hope they don't if you're happy where they assigned you.

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I think you're right, Dunnik -- there are no balconies under the kitchen! Tee hee.

If the OP is talking about the Carnival Dream, then there are balconies under the galley. That's where a lot of the cove balconies are located.

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I'd like to experiment booking a guarantee. As long as I get something in my category and I'm paying less, I'll take it. Also, as someone mentioned, you can switch your cabin once you are assigned a room.

We booked on the pre-inaugural sailing on Ovation of the seas and decided for the Gty balcony because there wasn't much price difference with oceanview. We were assigned a Spa Junior Suite and were delighted!!! It was beautiful!