Definition of "Guaranteed" on

[Shining Clem]

Oceania Cruise website????

 

The sailings now have availability of the different cabin categories listed for every upcoming journey, which is very helpful.

 

However, I am uncertain what Guaranteed signifies. I understand "Available" and "Wait List". Thanks in advance!

[newbie60]

If you sign up for a Guaranteed, you will not get a cabin assignment for some time - perhaps not even until you board. You are guaranteed to get the category you paid for, but you won't know what deck, part of ship, etc. you will be on. I've heard of some being upgraded to the next category upon boarding, but the guarantee is for the category you booked.

[Shining Clem]

If you sign up for a Guaranteed, you will not get a cabin assignment for some time - perhaps not even until you board. You are guaranteed to get the category you paid for, but you won't know what deck, part of ship, etc. you will be on. I've heard of some being upgraded to the next category upon boarding, but the guarantee is for the category you booked.

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

Does that mean a particular category (in this case PHs) are becoming scarce?

On other lines (mainly Celebrity) when I've seen that designation, the cabins are priced lower than if you had secured a definite cabin reservation. Is that the case with O?

[Paulchili]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Does that mean a particular category (in this case PHs) are becoming scarce?

On other lines (mainly Celebrity) when I've seen that designation, the cabins are priced lower than if you had secured a definite cabin reservation. Is that the case with O?

 

No - the price is the same. It's just that more people booked that category than is available. Oceania will accept a few more bookings as guarantee and waitlist in anticipation that some people will cancel (based on statistics).

If nobody cancels, they will offer upsels, move overs until they have enough cabins for everyone.

[Mura]

I'm no expert here. We only had one cruise where we had a "guaranteed" cabin and indeed we got the level it was for (although it was an A1 and we wanted a PH, but we'd booked too late on a very popular cruise). I don't recall exactly but I think we had the cabin number in advance of arrival, although we HAVE heard of people arriving and not knowing. I have never heard of someone arriving with a guarantee and being told it wasn't available.

 

Then again, CC members are a small percentage of Oceania passengers.

 

Based on our experience it's not worrisome. I always assumed that "guarantee" means that cabins are scarce. But as I said, I'm no expert.

 

Mura

[newlondon]

This is an interesting discussion. We are on the 11/24 CPT/CPT cruise in a PH3. Vista suites are listed on the web site as guaranteed. Having some interest I called O to see what was available. A very nice young lady, however, was hampered by company policy. There are only 4 VS on the Nautica. She told me there was only one left, but could not give me the location because even though it was the only one, policy was that it was a guarantee and therefore could not be assigned. Too bad as we decided not to do it. Seems to me to be a foolish policy.

[wripro]

No - the price is the same. It's just that more people booked that category than is available. Oceania will accept a few more bookings as guarantee and waitlist in anticipation that some people will cancel (based on statistics).

If nobody cancels, they will offer upsels, move overs until they have enough cabins for everyone.

 

As opposed to a line like Seabourn where a guarantee cabin usually costs a couple of thousand dollars less than opting for a specific suite. That makes the risk a little more palatable.

[gbits]

We booked a guarantee on our recent Med cruise. We did not get a a cabin assignment until 4 days before (the call came from our TA when we were at the airport waiting to depart as we were spending a few days in Barcelona before our cruise). In our case, the guarantee paid off as we were assigned a category 2 up from what we paid for. You have to be willing to be placed anywhere on the ship and you should only book a guarantee in a cabin category you would be willing to be in (ie, don't book in inside cabin in the hopes of getting upgraded and then be miserable without a window if it doesn't work out in your favor with an upgrade). You should also be aware that guarantees are not offered on all cruises - while on board we booked another cruise in order to take advantage of the on board specials and having done well with this guarantee tried to book it that way again but were told a guarantee was not being offered on that particular cruise....

[hondorner]

Say you want to go on a specific cruise, perhaps because it's the only one that fits your schedule. However, it's a popular cruise, and different folks have placed reservations on all the cabins in the category you desire. However, based on their statistical history (similar to insurance company actuaries), Oceania knows that some of the cabins will become available because of cancellations, some before final payment, and some (due to accident, health or death) up to a day or so before the cruise. Obviously they have no way to predict which cabins, but they know there will be some -- and they're willing to put a number on that situation based on past history.

 

That number of cabins are then placed in "GTY" status. You really want to go on that specific cruise, and you really want to sail in that specific category (or better). So, you book the GTY. Because Oceania doesn't know which cabins may become available, you won't know, either. You put down the normal deposit, and when time for final payment comes, you pay the same price as everyone else who booked around the same time.

 

You are now in the queue to receive a cabin when and if it gets cancelled. The cabins are assigned in the order in which they are booked.

 

The tricky thing on Oceania's part is to predict that number accurately. If they do, everyone who booked a GTY will get a cabin in that category. If more cancel than they expected, they may remove the GTY status, or they may accept more GTYs. If there are too few cancellations to fill all the GTYs, they start other procedures. They will start to offer incentives to other folks in that category to take an upsell, or a downsell (in which Oceania makes it worth their while to move to a lesser cabin), or even a move offer, in which folks get the chance to move to a less popular cruise with good, sometimes great, incentives. They'll continue to "up the ante" until someone bites and the GTY holder gets their cabin in their guaranteed category.

 

In rare cases, if no cabins can be made available in that category, the GTY holder may be given an upgrade. Whatever the case, founder Frank Del Rio came on this forum years ago and made a simple promise, to everyone who books with Oceania, not just cruise critic participants. That promise is that anyone who holds a GTY will never be "bumped" from a cruise -- they will always get at least the category they where guaranteed.

 

 

The difference in a GTY and a Wait List is that Wait List folks have no guarantee -- if there are extra cabins, they will get one -after the GTYs are filled, and in the order in which they reserved their Wait List status. Also, they will pay the current price for the cabin, which may be (and often is) higher than earlier guests paid. Finally, if there are no extra cabins, the Wait List folks will not get to go but their deposits will be returned.

 

This is far different than other cruise lines that accept GTY bookings even before the cabins are sold out. These folks may get a lower price for the cabin, but they won't get a cabin assignment until the cruise line is convinced there is little chance of more reservations of specific cabins at the higher price. Finally, if all the cabins are sold, their GTY's can assume the status of a Wait List -- they won't get to go, and will be bumped from the cruise. That is the primary difference between an Oceania GTY, which is a true guarantee, and the others, in which the GTY is a marketing ploy.

[wripro]

And there are other cruise lines where many times a GTY booking will result in a suite assignment far higher than the GTY. It's a matter of luck but you have to be willing to gamble.

[roothy123]

We almost always get a guaranteed cabin category (usually inside cabin G) through our travel agent. (He has group booking privileges and can get a GTY even if a GTY is not showing up on O's website for booking.) We are not picky about cabins, and this works well for us. Occasionally we get a free upgrade (modest, though), but more often we get an upsell call a couple weeks pre-cruise, offering us a veranda cabin for additional money. If we feel it's worth it, we take it. Other people get these upsell offers - not just people who have booked a GTY.

 

Keep in mind that some cabin categories have earlier booking privileges for the specialty restaurants. That, or a very unusual itinerary which we feel merits a lot of veranda time, are about the only things that might possibly sway us to spend more money upfront and book a veranda category rather than a GTY on an inside cabin.

 

Other than some ocean view rooms that are a little smaller in size than the inside rooms, I feel that any room on any O ship is fabulous, so just about anything we get after booking a GTY inside room will be great. The insides are fine for us, as we don't spend that much time on the veranda. A GTY is fine as we're not picky as to where on the ship we end up. (Mid-section is usually best for seasick prone people, but we're not; no room we've ever had has been noisy or a bad location. Location just isn't important to us.)

 

If you think you want a particular room, go for it. If you don't care about the room, I would not hesitate to book a GTY room. I actually kind of enjoy the waiting until the last minute to see what we'll get. The latest we've had to wait was until about 4 or 5 days pre-cruise. As for wait listed rooms, we were once on a wait list for a particular room category. Nothing turned up and we remained in our veranda cabin. I don't bother with it any more.

[roothy123]

We booked a guarantee on our recent Med cruise. We did not get a a cabin assignment until 4 days before (the call came from our TA when we were at the airport waiting to depart as we were spending a few days in Barcelona before our cruise). In our case, the guarantee paid off as we were assigned a category 2 up from what we paid for. You have to be willing to be placed anywhere on the ship and you should only book a guarantee in a cabin category you would be willing to be in (ie, don't book in inside cabin in the hopes of getting upgraded and then be miserable without a window if it doesn't work out in your favor with an upgrade). You should also be aware that guarantees are not offered on all cruises - while on board we booked another cruise in order to take advantage of the on board specials and having done well with this guarantee tried to book it that way again but were told a guarantee was not being offered on that particular cruise....

 

Might want to shop around to find a travel agent who has "group booking" privileges. He/she can then book you in GTY status, even if Oceania shows the cabin category as available. We love our TA (works for a large, national company) but since we're not allowed to post names, I can't recommend him! We almost always have him book GTYs for us. It has worked well for us.