When does HAL assign guarantee cabins?

[Dutchman48]

On 7/3/2018 at 11:04 AM, elycelynne said:

 

As long as you've put down a deposit, you have a cabin somewhere on the ship which is at least at the level of your guarantee.

Hopefully.

To my knowledge HAL has not turned away anyone at the dock. Like all cruises they overbook, but once final payments are made and know who is actually going (not just holding a low value deposit) they contact customers if there is an issue and don't wait till cruise day.

In the news today RCL oversold a cruise and left some passengers stranded at the pier. 

 

[KroozNut]

Usually at the last second, even sometimes after you've checked in at the pier.. 🤨

[Mary229]

10 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

Usually at the last second, even sometimes after you've checked in at the pier.. 🤨

Yeah, I think it is a ploy to get you to pay for an upgrade. 

[Banditswife]

We've booked a few guarantees.  Last cruise , it was about 2 weeks ahead, next cruise it was 6 days ahead- we sail on Tuesday (12/19) & got our cabin # mid day last Wednesday (12/13.)  

Keep checking your navigator app or  their web site.  Ours appeared there 1st, never got the usual email from HAL or our TA.

[rass2008]

We sail December 29th and one cabin is a GTY, still no cabin assignment and we are 10 days out. I check daily.

[DaveOKC]

On 11/27/2023 at 4:11 PM, trishbk said:

Insides and Verandahs. Oh and by the way, as I was typing this, we just got assigned our VE verandah cabin for the Dec 5 sailing on Kdam. Fortunately, when the price dropped right after final payment,I was able to nudge our TA to get us moved from a regular guaranteed verandah (which could have been obstructed) to a VE guarantee. Our cabin assignment for next week is a VD on deck 5. I am ok with it albeit only a one category upgrade for a Mariner with just shy of 500 actual days on HAL.

IMO, since most cruises have been selling out, booking a guarantee is really taking a chance.  Especially since HAL is so aggressive with trying to upsell people during the last 2 weeks.  A year ago, we got some nice upgrades, but during the past 6 months this is not the case (for us anyways).  Now I always pay a bit more and upgrade to the cabin I want (sometimes using Club Orange) as its not worth the hassle.

[Nickelpenny]

I leave Dec 22nd.  I received my GTY cabin assignment yesterday (Dec 19th).  The sailing has been sold out for weeks.

[sambamama]

I always book inside guarantees and usually book a year out or more.  A few times I got moved up to an outside guarantee six months or so before the cruise left.  I usually got my cabin assignment about three weeks out, but once it was either 2-3 days before and I had no ability to print out luggage tags.  I always book thru a TA, and if I have been moved to an oceanview, I try for an upsell to a balcony.  Right now I am booked for an Asia cruise leaving in a month.  It's the first time HAL contacted me directly for an upsell, and the first time they contacted me about an upsell two categories up (I am booked in an outside, and I have offers for a Signature or a Neptune Suite.)  They've made two rounds of upsells so far, but none for balconies yet.  The last round was a week ago, and no one booked any suites at all-perhaps because our 2 week cruise is part of longer Asia cruises. Perhaps because it's so expensive to fly to Asia, and it's so expensive to stay in Singapore, Japan, etc.

[DaveOKC]

2 hours ago, Nickelpenny said:

I leave Dec 22nd.  I received my GTY cabin assignment yesterday (Dec 19th).  The sailing has been sold out for weeks.

How was the assignment?  Good or bad?

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

IMO, since most cruises have been selling out, booking a guarantee is really taking a chance.  Especially since HAL is so aggressive with trying to upsell people during the last 2 weeks.  A year ago, we got some nice upgrades, but during the past 6 months this is not the case (for us anyways).  Now I always pay a bit more and upgrade to the cabin I want (sometimes using Club Orange) as its not worth the hassle.

I don't know that anything can be extrapolated from the ships selling out. Are they selling out because they are selling tons of GTYs at low levels of cabins? That would imply lots of upgrades. Because of heavy discounting? For some other reason?

[DaveOKC]

48 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

I don't know that anything can be extrapolated from the ships selling out. Are they selling out because they are selling tons of GTYs at low levels of cabins? That would imply lots of upgrades. Because of heavy discounting? For some other reason?

My thought is that when there are empty cabins, the better the chance you have for an upgrade.

[CruiserBruce]

13 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

My thought is that when there are empty cabins, the better the chance you have for an upgrade.

Hmmm...as most of the GTYs are sold in categories that only have 2 or 4 cabins in them, a lot of upgrades are happening. Obviously with all the threads on the topic, there are never enough, high enough, upgrades being made. But I sense there are still lots of upgrading going on.

 

This has changed a little with the current "you pick your cabin, or we pick your cabin" sales protocol.

[Nickelpenny]

4 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

How was the assignment?  Good or bad?

Some people would say bad as it is right under the SeaView Deck.  But IMHO, it is perfect.  Noise does not bother me; in fact I do not like quietness when sleeping (sleep with the tv on).  And I like a moving ship.  I am one of those who only use my cabin for sleeping and picking up stuff that I need throughout the day.  🙂 

[sunviking90]

1 hour ago, Nickelpenny said:

Some people would say bad as it is right under the SeaView Deck.  But IMHO, it is perfect.  Noise does not bother me; in fact I do not like quietness when sleeping (sleep with the tv on).  And I like a moving ship.  I am one of those who only use my cabin for sleeping and picking up stuff that I need throughout the day.  🙂 

Sounds convenient to me. We were under the lido on the Volendam last month and we did hear the occasional trolley, but it was super handy to run up and get a cup of tea.