Questions on booking guarantee cabins

[nancy anne]

Has anyone booked a "guarantee deluxe" cabin? I'm wondering what the price difference (approximately) is between booking a sky suite and the guarantee deluxe. I'm assusming that we would get a sky suite as the minimum category. The internet site always says call your TA or X for the pricing. Also, do the X deluxe guarantee cabins book up right away? I'm waiting for the 2011 itineraries to be posted in April.

Nancy

[robtulipe]

Along with that message is the designation NA, not available, so IMO Celebrity really is saying is call us or your TA to see what is available.

 

IMO the rationale behind gtys is that the cruise line can offer cabins at a lower price without adjusting or price matching current bookings in a certain cabin category. For example for our last cruise Celebrity had lots of superior, Cat. 4 and 5 OV cabins available but no regular or inside cabins available for selection on Mercury. We could have booked a Cat. 5 OV for around $850, a Y gty for $599 or an Z gty for $499 each. We preferred to have the superior OV but took a chance and selected the Z gty knowing that an inside could be assigned. Within a day or so we were assigned a Cat. 5 superior OV at a savings of approximately $700. X sold us that cabin at that lower price without having to actually offer it or lower the price in that actual category. If I really objected to getting an inside cabin, I could have booked the Y OV gty for $200 more for both of us assuring us of getting a regular OV at least.

I've seen similar spreads for the W, Deluxe or Suite, Gty and yes, you are guaranteed the minimum suite category or SS stateroom.

Also typically Gty prices only appear close to the sail date. I've seen them a maximum of four or five months out for really poor selling cruises. I wouldn't expect to see Gty prices when prices first come out.

[Gonzo70]

Has anyone booked a "guarantee deluxe" cabin? I'm wondering what the price difference (approximately) is between booking a sky suite and the guarantee deluxe. I'm assusming that we would get a sky suite as the minimum category. The internet site always says call your TA or X for the pricing. Also, do the X deluxe guarantee cabins book up right away? I'm waiting for the 2011 itineraries to be posted in April.

Nancy

 

It is highly unlikely a guarantee option would be available for a sailing so far out. Cruise lines offer guarantees when a particular category of rooms is not selling well on a particular cruise. Some cruises do not ever have any gauranteed stateroom options available. It would be rare for a particular sailing to offer guarantees far away from final payment date.

[Fblack]

I gave up on guarantees when I was given some very poor cabin locations... twice. As an example, I booked a balcony guarantee once and was given the most forward balcony cabin on the port side of the ship. Unlike other balconies, the balcony railing and outside wall was solid. We could not see the water sitting down. Plus it was very rocky being so far forward. The second time we were given a cabin right opposite the elevator lobby. We heard way too much noise, yelling, talking and singing as passengers got on and off the elevator.

 

So now, I pick my cabin after careful consideration of its location. Even if it costs me a bit more money.

[neilrr]

I gave up on guarantees when I was given some very poor cabin locations... twice. As an example, I booked a balcony guarantee once and was given the most forward balcony cabin on the port side of the ship. Unlike other balconies, the balcony railing and outside wall was solid. We could not see the water sitting down. Plus it was very rocky being so far forward. The second time we were given a cabin right opposite the elevator lobby. We heard way too much noise, yelling, talking and singing as passengers got on and off the elevator.

 

So now, I pick my cabin after careful consideration of its location. Even if it costs me a bit more money.

 

FBLack - Sorry about your luck with the Guarantees. We basically have had good luck with guarantees and only one bad cabin (which we had changed) -- If you have a good TA she will get you thrown back into the "Guarantee Pot" and get another shot at a different room. We did that too and got the same crappy room again (first room by the anchor) and then we updated to an outside guarantee and we ultimately got upgraded to a Balcony for free. It is amazing how things happen. We will still do a Guarantee if the price is right as we have done fairly well over the years.

[robtulipe]

I gave up on guarantees when I was given some very poor cabin locations... twice. As an example, I booked a balcony guarantee once and was given the most forward balcony cabin on the port side of the ship. Unlike other balconies, the balcony railing and outside wall was solid. We could not see the water sitting down. Plus it was very rocky being so far forward. The second time we were given a cabin right opposite the elevator lobby. We heard way too much noise, yelling, talking and singing as passengers got on and off the elevator.

 

So now, I pick my cabin after careful consideration of its location. Even if it costs me a bit more money.

For the Mercury Gty I mentioned above we were initially assigned a near the stern Cat. 5 OV above the Pavilion Night Club. Upon checking availability on a German web sites I use for this purpose, noticed a mid-ship Cat. 5 OV near friends's cabin was open. Since I had booked direct with X a quick call to their reservation got us transferred to that mid-ship cabin. We've booked guarantees for five of our last six cruises and didn't really have a bad cabin assigned. So if you know the system works you can have the savings along with a decent cabin most of the time. The Gty assignments are random ones made by the cruiseline's computer system so once you are assigned a category of cabin you should be able to request another available cabin in the same category.

[Fblack]

I too have had nice guarantees. But the two times we got stuck were on very full ships and we could not change cabins. Our guarantees were only assigned the last 5 or 6 days before the cruise and we could not switch. Actually we did change mid cruise once when a passenger had to leave the cruise. They gave us her cabin.

 

For us, we have preferences and prefer to pay to pick our cabins. We don't like being under the pool deck, or under the outdoor cafe, or above the disco, or near an elevator lobby, or too far forward, etc. We have done over 40 cruises and know what we like.

 

Also, if the cruise line wants to "upgrade" us, I will ONLY do this with my prior approval. A few times they tried to "upgrade" us to an inferior cabin or location. As an example, an upgrade from a nice central balcony cabin to a forward balcony one deck higher is not an upgrade to me.