Been lucky with Room Guarantees

After reading threads about upgrades, I think it seems fairly random, but I think I have been fortunate all three times I have tried booking Room Guarantees, and was wondering whether it is common.

I have booked an interior guarantee and been allocated a promenade room.

I have booked an outside cabin and been allocated a balcony.

And I have booked a balcony and been given a hump balcony.

Well – luck IS with you – but not with us.

I booked a Balcony Guarantee and got an E ( twice) - Once on the Radiance and once on the Freedom

Booked a OV and got an OV on deck 2 ( even prior to final payment) WAY forward. I was able to move to another on Deck 2, more mid ship.

Never got more that then lowest guarantee – but hey – that is way I was guaranteed. Each tine the price was VERY good and since we cruise often, a non prime room location is no big deal for a week ( or less)

M

what is a hump balcony and how does it differ from a regular balcony?

cruisegal1...

I am so pleased you told me that. I was really thinking it was the practice, and presumed it was something to do with Crown & Anchor members etc.

kijjy...

A hump is one in the middle where the ship humps out a little - the balcony is bigger

I booked a inside, got bottom deck, almost the furthest aft cabin.

Booked inside, got a OV, yea!!!

Booked inside, got a PR .. even more yea!!!

Im happy with the results ... and then some.

The question is; Is this the most likely way to get an upgrade?

what is a hump balcony and how does it differ from a regular balcony?

they are the few in the middle of the ship and most of the time the balcony is larger a bit. :)

Only once did we get an OV when we booked an inside, and that was on Carnival. Our guarantee cabins on RCI have been within the category booked. However, twice we must have had the very worst cabins on the ship. We had a miserable time because of late night noise and couldn't sleep. Now we try to get an assigned cabin in a quiet location.

Booked an inside got an inside. FOS over Pharaohs Palace. Falling asleep to loud thumping beat but unable to hear the music NEVER doing an inside GTY again! I was hoping the new diamond status would help,but it didn't. Won't make that mistake again. For us- not doing it.

Karen

Well – luck IS with you – but not with us.

 

I booked a Balcony Guarantee and got an E ( twice) - Once on the Radiance and once on the Freedom

 

Booked a OV and got an OV on deck 2 ( even prior to final payment) WAY forward. I was able to move to another on Deck 2, more mid ship.

 

Never got more that then lowest guarantee – but hey – that is way I was guaranteed. Each tine the price was VERY good and since we cruise often, a non prime room location is no big deal for a week ( or less)

M

Booked a Z Inside Room Guarantee 5 days before sailing on Enchantment of the Seas 4 night western in Oct 2009 at $504 for two ppl including taxes and fees. Ended up with a Large OV room on deck 4. I was happy!

I booked an ocean view guarantee on the Majesty and was originally assigned to deck 2. I printed out all my cruise documentation with a deck 2 room number, wrote the deck 2 room number on my luggage at the port, and then arrived at the check-in desk to be reassigned to a better and larger room on deck 6. I was very happy for the upgrade, but had to run down to deck 2 and retrieve my luggage once I got on the ship! I don't know how often this happens or what they expect you to do with the luggage you've already turned in by that point. But I did enjoy the view and the sitting area of the room I ended up in. :)

Booked an inside got an inside. FOS over Pharaohs Palace. Falling asleep to loud thumping beat but unable to hear the music NEVER doing an inside GTY again! I was hoping the new diamond status would help,but it didn't. Won't make that mistake again. For us- not doing it.

Karen

C&A status does not matter. We are D+ with 363 credits and still are assigned the fairly low guarantee cabin.

We will only do the guarantee for a great price - NOT with hopes of a better cabin.

We cruise often. If I cruised one a year or less often, I would likely want to select a cabin.

M

As is the rule of thumb, if you are considering a guarantee, then make sure it is in a grade of cabin that you will be happy with ... from what I've heard, while upgrades do happen from time to time, it is a low percentage.

In all our cruises save for two, we have used the guarantee feature, and have gotten exactly the grade of cabin that we were guaranteed for ... and have had a blast each cruise.

Michael and Silke

I haven't been that lucky with my RCI guarantee either.

I booked a balcony guarantee and received possibly one of the the worst balonies on the ship. A connecting cabin very forward, but no forward view. Oh well! :p

However, technically it was an upgrade. They upgraded me from an E2 to an E1. :D

Well I can only speak from 1 experience: I'm sailing on the freedom next weekend and booked an x guarantee (balcony guarantee) paid only half of what the "regular" non guarantee price was running at the time for an e1, ended up with a D1, great location centrally/aft located on deck 6. Not sure if thats considered a big upgrade, but the room is the highest regular balcony category and in a location I would have picked myself. I'm very thankful. Since this is our first RCCL cruise, maybe they are trying to draw in the newbie lol

I would book a guarantee again in a heartbeat for the price difference I got, if the price was only marginally better then I would go ahead and pick my spot.

I guess we have been VERY fortunate, 3 inside guarantees = 3 Ocean Views (however 1 of them was next to the anchor....bout scared us to death the first time it happened at 5 AM :eek: )

I booked a gty inside and am usually fine with inside. We had an aft JS flood 2 different nights during the middle of the night and will never book a JS again. We were very disappointed. I was fine with an inside cabin. I was dismayed by the location over the Pharaoh's palace night club. I can't believe no one else had ever complained about it. Lesson learned. I just wanted to share that , FOR ME, no more guarantees. The price difference really wasn't worth it. I just think the OP should be aware that you can end up over a disco/nightclub where the music vibrates your room. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Karen

Well – luck IS with you – but not with us.

 

I booked a Balcony Guarantee and got an E ( twice) - Once on the Radiance and once on the Freedom

 

Booked a OV and got an OV on deck 2 ( even prior to final payment) WAY forward. I was able to move to another on Deck 2, more mid ship.

 

Never got more that then lowest guarantee – but hey – that is way I was guaranteed. Each tine the price was VERY good and since we cruise often, a non prime room location is no big deal for a week ( or less)

M

Got the same. Ended up upgrading to a balcony during a price drop that lasted 48 hours.

BTW my balcony guarantee was assigned just 1 day after initial booking.

I booked an ocean view guarantee on the Majesty and was originally assigned to deck 2. I printed out all my cruise documentation with a deck 2 room number, wrote the deck 2 room number on my luggage at the port, and then arrived at the check-in desk to be reassigned to a better and larger room on deck 6. I was very happy for the upgrade, but had to run down to deck 2 and retrieve my luggage once I got on the ship! I don't know how often this happens or what they expect you to do with the luggage you've already turned in by that point. But I did enjoy the view and the sitting area of the room I ended up in. :)

All you needed to do was ask your cabin steward. He/she would have brought your luggage to you in the new cabin.

BTW my balcony guarantee was assigned just 1 day after initial booking.

Lucky you! I booked our guarantee a couple weeks ago for a crazy great deal and still haven't received a room assignment. We're sailing in 12 days! :eek: The suspense is killing me, lol.

. . . We will only do the guarantee for a great price - NOT with hopes of a better cabin. . . .

Exactly. We have done guarantees several times, but only for the price difference. My personal theory is that you should never book a guarantee in hopes of a level upgrade [inside to OV, OV to balcony, etc.]. If the price difference isn't enough to tempt you, don't do it -- you are likely to be dissappointed.

Our best gurantee was on our TA on Independence. We had a D1 on the center of the hump, starboard. The gurantee price was about half of what we had originally booked. We couldn't turn that down and went for it. We ended up with first D2 aft of the hump, port side. Same size cabin about the same location, half the price -- hard to beat.

We just did our first balcony guarantee for our cruise in September on the Freedom. The price difference from a gty to an E category was $10 cheaper, so we figured we'd gamble a little bit-not a huge savings tho. We just got our assignment w/ 4 months to go and ended up w/ a D2, which is going for almost $150 more than what we booked, so I consider it an upgrade! It's cabin 7232, and its a bit more forward than we would have chosen, but overall I feel we got VERY lucky!

I would do it again, but we are not at all picky about a balcony, as long as there's a balcony! We even had an obstructed view on our Carnival cruise and would book the same thing again if the price was right (and if it was on RC instead, but that's another story!)

I believe the best chance of an upgrade is when you book just a few days before sailing. I don't think the cabins they have available then are the same cabins that are advertised as guarantees. For instance, we booked an inside guarantee on the Allure four days before sailing and got a Central Park balcony assigned the next day.

All you needed to do was ask your cabin steward. He/she would have brought your luggage to you in the new cabin.

Thanks for letting me know. It was my first cruise ever, so I had no idea what to do. My suitcase was in the hall outside my previously assigned room, so I just grabbed it and took it to my new room.

As a side note, the cabin steward was awesome! Not sure if he's still around, but his name was Arturo. He's the only one whose name I remember, because he did such a great job.