Guarantee cabin

Does anyone know when Guarantee cabins are generally assigned? I see a bunch of folks getting upgrades and upsells (yes, even those who got the super cheap casino rates) on my upcoming sailing, but still no cabin assignment for us less than a month out.

They can be assigned at any time up to the time you check in. Princess is going to try to do upsells first, and they assign gtys to whatever rooms are left.

Agree. This is discussed here almost daily.

I'm too OCD to do a guarantee cabin. My upcoming cruise on Princess I had the option for a guarantee and couldn't do it ... had to pay more $$ and choose my own. Stubborn, maybe.

I have gotten a guarantee assigned the night before we cruised - and also have had a GTY assigned within 2 days of making my reservation.

Susan

Agree. This is discussed here almost daily.

Oh really? Well this is the first day I have booked a guarantee and searched and looked for the answer and couldn't find it.

I was looking for first hand experience from someone who has done it before.

I'm too OCD to do a guarantee cabin. My upcoming cruise on Princess I had the option for a guarantee and couldn't do it ... had to pay more $$ and choose my own. Stubborn, maybe.

I didn't have a choice of paying more....there was only guarantee for the category I was looking at.

I had one that was assigned supposedly the night before embarkation. I wasn't on line at that point, so learned about it when we got to the terminal in the morning. I knew we had a cabin (that's the point of a guarantee); I just didn't know what cabin.

Admittedly a long time ago, but the last time we did a guarantee booking on Princess was December 2012 on Grand Princess (her last season in Ft Lauderdale). Got our cabin assignment nine days before. And yes we did get an upsell offer in the interim. So no need to feel left out--both the offer and the cabin are likely forthcoming.

Months, weeks or days before the embarkation. Even heard people have to wait at the port for decision to be made. Trading the knowledge of any actual cabin number for the small savings booking guaranty. You have a cabin at that category you picked.

As everyone has said you may not know until the last minute.

Keith

Months, weeks or days before the embarkation. Even heard people have to wait at the port for decision to be made. Trading the knowledge of any actual cabin number for the small savings booking guaranty. You have a cabin at that category you picked.

There is $0 savings for booking a GTY vs selecting a cabin in the same exact category (such as a BC balcony).

There is only a savings if you book a GTY in a lower category than the category you select a cabin in (example, GTY in BC, but can select a cabin in BB).

Does anyone know when Guarantee cabins are generally assigned?

Generally from just minutes after booking up until the day of embarkation. In other words, unpredictable.

The quickest I received a GTY assignment was within one hour after I booked the cruise which was over four months before the sail date.

The latest was 24 hours before embarkation while I was flying to the port for the cruise that was booked 17 months before sailing.

Admittedly a long time ago, but the last time we did a guarantee booking on Princess was December 2012 on Grand Princess (her last season in Ft Lauderdale). Got our cabin assignment nine days before. And yes we did get an upsell offer in the interim. So no need to feel left out--both the offer and the cabin are likely forthcoming.

Thanks!

There is $0 savings for booking a GTY vs selecting a cabin in the same exact category (such as a BC balcony).

 

There is only a savings if you book a GTY in a lower category than the category you select a cabin in (example, GTY in BC, but can select a cabin in BB).

As I said...we didn't have a choice....there was only GTY available in the category we chose. With all the cheap cheap cabin offers being given out...they are upgrading people like crazy so no actual cabins in the BD, BE, etc were available to book.

I don't think there is a 'Usual" time when guarantees are assigned. Two years ago, we had two guarantees that were for cruises a week apart. Both were filled the same day. So one was 2 weeks before sailing and the other was 4 weeks before

I've received cabin assignments for guarantees before the final payment date and as late as three days before the cruise. Not knowing builds excitement. We've only had one bad cabin out of 20 or so guarantee bookings. In that case, I booked an obstructed view guarantee and got an "upgrade" to the tiniest ocean view cabin on the Caribbean Princess. We still had a great cruise.

As I said...we didn't have a choice....there was only GTY available in the category we chose. With all the cheap cheap cabin offers being given out...they are upgrading people like crazy so no actual cabins in the BD, BE, etc were available to book.

After those upsells there will probably be a cabin in your GTY category. You could also get a higher category but not a lower one. People state and it may be true, maybe not, that the closer you get to sailing the better the cabin.

Well well! What do know? We got our cabin assignment this morning...just two days after booking!

26 days before sailing and I guess the push is on to fill up the cabins. I booked a BD gty, hoping i would get a Caribe deck balcony, but I suppose they were full by now. We got a BB cabin on Baja deck mid-ship! I'm a happy camper!!

We're 45 days out. It's kind of interesting watching the cabins slowly click off. As others have said, we're fully comfortable with whatever they assign us, especially given the price point we paid. Even at this moment my GTY is significantly cheaper than ANY cabin remaining on the ship.

Which sort of leads to another question. This is the first time I was able to beat the fare offered directly by the cruise company. Beat it by a ton in fact via a well known TA. That's never happened for me on Carnival or any other line I've sailed. Wonder if incentives were offered to move these units last minute or if the TA has a minimum quota or something. Or is it simply because we're Blue Cards on Princess and can't see returning guests rates? Thoughts?

I think Princess is the only cruise line that lets a TA discount the price. They cannot advertise a lower price, but if you ask for a quote they can discount. I have a TA that consistently gives us a nice discount on our Princess cruises.

We had no choice but to book a GTY to get in our T/A's group space. It was the last spot available. We were assigned our cabin immediately after making final pmt. We booked a mini-suite GTY and we got the lowest category of mini-suite but overall we're pleased with the cabin assignment.

~Denise

I think Princess is the only cruise line that lets a TA discount the price. They cannot advertise a lower price, but if you ask for a quote they can discount. I have a TA that consistently gives us a nice discount on our Princess cruises.

Interesting. Without breaking any rules on here, our GTY (purchased in late March via a TA) was well into 3 figures PP cheaper than any 'fake booking' I've ever been able to do online. Now I've seen $10 difference here or there elsewhere on other lines and historically directly booked with the cruise company because of my ability to deal with my reservation directly but not this time for sure.

Seriously, we were so blown away by the price that we went from 'not even considering a cruise' to 'booked' in 24 hours. During that time I investigated airfares, etc. and they were reasonable enough to make it work.

I think I've learned that there's two ways to buy cruises. Purchase either right when they open or right before they sail. We literally did that last winter when everyone was afraid to go to the Caribbean following the hurricanes. Had an incredible time and probably saved close to $1000 compared to the standard rate on our chosen itinerary. Looking forward to retirement when we can do it on a whim.

HAL allows discounting. Our TA discounts our cruises every time.

We're 45 days out. It's kind of interesting watching the cabins slowly click off. As others have said, we're fully comfortable with whatever they assign us, especially given the price point we paid. Even at this moment my GTY is significantly cheaper than ANY cabin remaining on the ship.

 

Is there a simple way of doing this? Without fake booking every category.