Guarantee cabin, lowest or highest

[GUT2407]

I don't know if anyone can actually answer this question, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

 

Say I book a guarantee OV (and am the only one to do so, which I know isn't going to happen) and none of the OV categories are sold out, so cabins in all OV grades.

 

Are Princess more likely to allocate me the highest grade OV or the lowest.

 

Any guesses?

[neverbeenhere]

"higher" maybe not "highest". We have booked guaranteed numerous times and have been pretty happy most times.

[GUT2407]

"higher" maybe not "highest". We have booked guaranteed numerous times and have been pretty happy most times.

 

Before we HAD to be particular about location we used guarantees a few times and we're always happy, I just wondered if there was any rhyme or reason when all grades had free cabins.

[neverbeenhere]

I think it might be like loyalty status. Sometimes it has afforded me great upgrades, other times it seems I would have done better with no status at all.

[Pam in CA]

Supply and demand for the category you've booked. It all depends on demand and availability which is different for every cruise.

[GUT2407]

Supply and demand for the category you've booked. It all depends on demand and availability which is different for every cruise.

 

I know that, but the question was based on the premise that there were vacancies in every grade of the OV Category, so supply and demand has nothing to do with it.

[Tatka]

We once were "upgraded" from limited view OV GTY to OV with porthole at Rivera deck aft.... R749(?) on Caribbean. It was great as we had Terrace pool right next to us, but I am glad we are not prone to sea sickness... as we were rock & rolling whole trip. :)

[OzKiwiJJ]

It may also depend on how many Inside cabin guarantees there are. If those are oversold then they would probably roll some up to Oceanviews, and maybe roll the Oceanview guarantees up to higher categories.

[GUT2407]

It may also depend on how many Inside cabin guarantees there are. If those are oversold then they would probably roll some up to Oceanviews, and maybe roll the Oceanview guarantees up to higher categories.

 

But assuming there no over bookings, do they allocate lowest first to highest first.

Edited May 16, 2016 by GUT2407

[skynight]

You will get at least the category booked. Everything else can be based on what cabins are available. From what I have read over the years on these boards many times Princess gives the best upgrades to 'prospective' or new customers.

[cherylandtk]

But assuming there no over bookings, do they allocate lowest first to highest first.

I think you cannot think of it in a first to last allocation order...it's more random than that. Since they started doing up sells, it seems many of the GTY assignments come out fairly late in the process, about two weeks prior to sailing. How this is specifically done is still unknown. They will have X number of cabins and X number of names to allocate to those cabins, and just like those marble games, eventually a marble ends up in every hole. There is no magic order or plan as to which marble finds a hole first, and there is no publicly known method to the GTY cabin allocation.

[jasbo49]

My guess is that they would give you the best OV available at the time of assignment. But then I tend to be optimistic about such things.

 

Jim

[GUT2407]

My guess is that they would give you the best OV available at the time of assignment. But then I tend to be optimistic about such things.

 

Jim

 

Thanks Jim, it seems you read and understood the question, that's my feeling too, I'm just trying to find out if anyone actually knows.

[peety3]

I don't know if anyone can actually answer this question, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

 

Say I book a guarantee OV (and am the only one to do so, which I know isn't going to happen) and none of the OV categories are sold out, so cabins in all OV grades.

 

Are Princess more likely to allocate me the highest grade OV or the lowest.

I would assume it's iterative from the top down:

S1s can't get anything better, so the S1 guarantees get whichever S1 cabin isn't assigned.

S2 guarantees get any S1s available, or an S2 if not.

S3 guarantees get any S1, S2, or an S3 if not.

....

IA guarantees get any S1, S2, ... MA, MB...ME, (balcony high to low), (OV high to low), or an IA if not.

...

IF guarantees get any S1...->OV, IA, IB, IC, ID, IE, or an IF if not.

 

I'd suspect that if multiple bookings fall into the same line of the algorithm, Elite status, overall cruise count, and some other secret 'revenue metric' sauce could factor into who gets first dibs.

[geoherb]

While I tend to think the longer you wait for a cabin assignment, the better chance of an upgrade, I really can't confirm that. We've been upgraded from obstructed view cabins to unobstructed ones three times. The first time we received our cabin assignment just a few weeks before the cruise. The second time we received our cabin assignment before the final payment date. The third time it was the week of the cruise (after we had already started on the land portion of our cruise tour in Alaska).

 

Other times we've ended up in the same category we booked or slightly higher--sometimes a couple of weeks before and sometimes several months before.

 

We've had similar experiences when we've booked balcony guarantees. The best upgrade was from a Cat. BF to a BA on the Caribe Deck just a week before.