Waiting for a cabin assignment on a guarantee

HI,

We elected to book our next HAL cruise, Journey to Norway on May 19 and booked a guarantee on a signature suite. We are 4 stat mariners and hope that will "guarantee" us a decent cabin. We still haven't received a cabin assignment although the 90 day pay or go deadline and come and gone. My wife is hoping they are going to bump us up to a Neptune suite but I would just like to know where we are going to unpack our suitcases.

What have other people experiences using a guarantee booking?

Thanks and have a great next cruise.

HI,

 

We elected to book our next HAL cruise, Journey to Norway on May 19 and booked a guarantee on a signature suite. We are 4 stat mariners and hope that will "guarantee" us a decent cabin. We still haven't received a cabin assignment although the 90 day pay or go deadline and come and gone. My wife is hoping they are going to bump us up to a Neptune suite but I would just like to know where we are going to unpack our suitcases.

 

What have other people experiences using a guarantee booking?

 

Thanks and have a great next cruise.

I think it would be rare to get an upgrade to a Neptune Suite but an upsell may be in the cards. At worst you may get a great Signature Suite location. Good luck!

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Oft-repeated advice:

• It is not unusual for a guarantee to find out their stateroom during dockside check-in.

• The longer a guarantee goes without an assignment, the better the chance for an upsell

• What's an "upgrade"? ;^)

PS: No telling with the new website, but the Luggage Tag part of the old website generally

had the cabin number before the Boarding Pass part did or before any email notification

was sent.

I too am waiting for a guarantee cabin assignment, I am about 40 days out. I used to be able to look at the old HAL website to see there there was no stateroom assigned, yet. With the recently implemented new website, that page seems to have been removed and there is no where to look anymore for the stateroom that I can find. It also seems I now have a male roommate. I am a woman sailing solo, LOL! I can't wait to see who I get. I hope he is charming and good looking. I have not attempted the boarding pass thing, but I imagine I will find out when I get to the dock. :(

I've only done one guarantee with HAL, and it was last winter for a Signature Suite as well.. though I did a lot of online research beforehand and can tell you my experience, which seemed to match the majority...

I received my cabin assignment about 10 days before sail. It showed up on my luggage tag (acted as though I was going to print them off, it would say "guar" until instead it had the cabin number). I got an email with the notification of assignment the day after it showed on the tag.

We paid for a SY and we were an SS. We had a standard SS in a perfect mid-ship location. It seemed to be the trend that some got assigned to unsold accommodation (handicapped) cabins, but when this happened it seemed they would almost always be a stateroom class jump (ie. ocean view to veranda, or veranda to suite, etc).

As someone mentioned, the longer you wait for assignment the better yours might be.

Also, seemingly rare, but I did read a few stories were a cabin was assigned the week before and then a different cabin was given at check in. So it can happen.

Signature Suites are lovely, I am sure you will enjoy your cabin! Good luck! Report back when you hear :)

We were on the Oosterdam last Thanksgiving and the people with us had a guarantee signature suite. They got their stateroom assignment about a week before sailing. They got a signature suite and it was in a really good location. A very nice room!

Most times HAL will wait until the final week (or two) before assigning guarantees. IMO this is due to HAL trying to upsell (paid upgrade) people to a higher priced cabin BEFORE they just give away the upgrade to a guarantee (makes good business sense). If the cruise is SOLD OUT, then the guarantees will likely be assigned earlier of course.

I know that this is a change from how it used to be done several years ago, but HAL has figured out a way to make some extra money on the process, so I do not expect them to go back.

One thing that this new process does is to make guarantees a less valuable option, as now most times people taking an upsell offer will get the higher ranked cabin, thus "jumping ahead" of the guarantees.

It also seems I now have a male roommate. I am a woman sailing solo, LOL! I can't wait to see who I get. I hope he is charming and good looking. :(

Maybe you'll get the comedian! :')

My guarantee cabin was assigned 12 days out from my sail date.

Greg

Most of our 9 guarantees were assigned 11 or 10 days out. Earliest was 18 days, latest 5. All were free upgrades, mostly a few steps up in the same class (OV or Veranda) but once we went from OV to Verandah.

If the cruise is SOLD OUT, then the guarantees will likely be assigned earlier of course.

One of our roll call members who had a guarantee has just posted that she has her assignment. 22 days from sailing but the 28 day is completely sold out.

I too am waiting for a guarantee cabin assignment, I am about 40 days out. I used to be able to look at the old HAL website to see there there was no stateroom assigned, yet. With the recently implemented new website, that page seems to have been removed and there is no where to look anymore for the stateroom that I can find. It also seems I now have a male roommate. I am a woman sailing solo, LOL! I can't wait to see who I get. I hope he is charming and good looking. I have not attempted the boarding pass thing, but I imagine I will find out when I get to the dock. :(

I had no idea that HAL offered the 'share' option!

HI,

We elected to book our next HAL cruise, Journey to Norway on May 19 and booked a guarantee on a signature suite. We are 4 stat mariners and hope that will "guarantee" us a decent cabin. We still haven't received a cabin assignment although the 90 day pay or go deadline and come and gone. My wife is hoping they are going to bump us up to a Neptune suite but I would just like to know where we are going to unpack our suitcases.

What have other people experiences using a guarantee booking?

Thanks and have a great next cruise.

My last HAL guarantee cabin booking was for late November 2017. I got my cabin assignment 2 days before sailing, and I had to call and ask for it.

I too am waiting for a guarantee cabin assignment, I am about 40 days out. I used to be able to look at the old HAL website to see there there was no stateroom assigned, yet. With the recently implemented new website, that page seems to have been removed and there is no where to look anymore for the stateroom that I can find. It also seems I now have a male roommate. I am a woman sailing solo, LOL! I can't wait to see who I get. I hope he is charming and good looking. I have not attempted the boarding pass thing, but I imagine I will find out when I get to the dock. :(

I hope you'll let us know how the roommate thing works out! Lol. If it turns out well, I want to book one of those guarantees. :D

HI,

We elected to book our next HAL cruise, Journey to Norway on May 19 and booked a guarantee on a signature suite. We are 4 stat mariners and hope that will "guarantee" us a decent cabin. We still haven't received a cabin assignment although the 90 day pay or go deadline and come and gone. My wife is hoping they are going to bump us up to a Neptune suite but I would just like to know where we are going to unpack our suitcases.

What have other people experiences using a guarantee booking?

Thanks and have a great next cruise.

We got a great SS location on our guarantee but the only complaint was the bed hard as aI rock NA but the rest of cruise great...pinnacle had lunch and two dinners awesome service was superb also...good luck we waited for upsells but we’re way out of price IMO...best wishes on your cruise...

21 Days out and waiting on my cabin assignment

21 Days out and waiting on my cabin assignment

Don't worry until it gets down to 21 seconds. :D

We just got our cabin assignment for our May 1 from San Diego on Nieuw Amsterdam followed by 7 day Alaska cruise - SA in a perfect location, same cabin for both legs. Thanks HAL (and a hats off to my wonderful TA)!!!

We are also on that May 1st NA sailing and got our cabin assignment yesterday. Booked a cat. G gty and got exactly that. I am very happy with the location and glad we got the G because I wanted the wall of glass instead of a window.

I recently had a guarantee C category booked on my 35-day cruise and was not assigned a cabin until the day before I sailed. I was bumped up (free) to a nice veranda cabin, so it was a great deal.

It is also possible that you won't be assigned a cabin until you actually check in at the port, so worry not. That happened to me one other time a number of years ago. I had booked a veranda guarantee and was assigned to the penthouse suite at checkin!! The porter labeling our bags wrote down a cabin number and I said ooh that doesn't sound like a veranda cabin number, are you sure and he said "don't worry about it, I think you're going to like this cabin". He was soooo right!!!!

This is exactly why we never book guarantees. Don't need the drama.. But clearly a lot of folks enjoy it!

We are also on that May 1st NA sailing and got our cabin assignment yesterday. Booked a cat. G gty and got exactly that. I am very happy with the location and glad we got the G because I wanted the wall of glass instead of a window.

I'll have to look tomorrow as I'm on May 1 cruise as well. Thanks for heads up.

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We are enjoying this thread and the "Why do you not Choose a Cabin" thread. Thank you all. We have a DA Guarantee and sail May 12. Given our itinerary (New England and Canada Historic Coasts), a cozy, warm ocean view cabin sounds good. Don't expect an upsell or an upgrade, but we shall play the game. We are 24 days from departure with no cabin assignment. It seems this is the position we want to be in.

Last year, on our first ever cruise, about 11 days before sailing, we paid a pittance to go from a specific DA cabin to a Vista Suite on the Veendam. Worked out great for the Bermuda cruise.

Some are lucky, some MEH!! I am in the latter group.

As a single cruiser and a recipient of the one guy pays for two syndrome, I have just started booking 'guarantee' cabins. I am booked on the Maasdam for a 14 nt. round trip, Boston - Montreal - Boston. I booked a category L inside guarantee. The cruise departs 5/19. I received my cabin assignment 2 days ago and guess what? Received an L inside. I was, of course, hoping for an upgrade, but "it is what is is". But, isn't that what booking "Guarantee" is all about?

Guess what? I will still enjoy this cruise.

We cruise on May first. Our cabin was just posted today, 12 days prior to boarding. Not a bad wait at all. We didn't get an upgrade, but that's fine. We booked what we were happy with and got the cabin in a great location. Now for the wait until we can board.