Booking a DZ Guarantee deck 15,16 . Ending up on deck 8!

[mluzzy1]

We booked a guarantee forward deck ,Marina or Lido for the 10/27 sailing of Regal. Their website gave me two options mid ship obstructed deck 8 for 400.00 pp or forward deck 15,16 for 497.00 a person. After some research I figured the eight cabins with the big balconies and steel under the handrail were way better. So we paid for that guarantee.

Yesterday I got an “ upgrade” email that put us on deck 8 e514 with a giant lifeboat right in front. Had I chosen the first guarantee for less money I would be fine with that. However ,  I would have never thought it was an upgrade to move down to deck 8 midship.

in all our cruises I’ve never been presented with an option to pay more for a higher deck guarantee so the whole idea seemed pretty good , narrowing down where you could land on the ship. And since it was already an obstructed category silly me thought that any upgrade would be on the same higher decks .

Has this happened to anyone? I called customer service yesterday twice and was told the ship is waitlisted and there is nothing they can do. They offered a dinner in a specialty restaurant. Am I being unreasonable? It just seems to be a bit deceptive to advertise a higher deck obstructed and move you to a lower deck obstructed that you could have purchased for 200.00 less.

 

 

[tompeter]

As long as you were moved to a higher category based on how Princess categorizes the rooms, they have fulfilled their obligation and you have no basis to complain. My guess is you are on a lower deck but more centrally located thus the higher category in Princess ratings.

[skynight]

1 hour ago, mluzzy1 said:

We booked a guarantee forward deck ,Marina or Lido for the 10/27 sailing of Regal. Their website gave me two options mid ship obstructed deck 8 for 400.00 pp or forward deck 15,16 for 497.00 a person. After some research I figured the eight cabins with the big balconies and steel under the handrail were way better. So we paid for that guarantee.

Yesterday I got an “ upgrade” email that put us on deck 8 e514 with a giant lifeboat right in front. Had I chosen the first guarantee for less money I would be fine with that. However ,  I would have never thought it was an upgrade to move down to deck 8 midship.

in all our cruises I’ve never been presented with an option to pay more for a higher deck guarantee so the whole idea seemed pretty good , narrowing down where you could land on the ship. And since it was already an obstructed category silly me thought that any upgrade would be on the same higher decks .

Has this happened to anyone? I called customer service yesterday twice and was told the ship is waitlisted and there is nothing they can do. They offered a dinner in a specialty restaurant. Am I being unreasonable? It just seems to be a bit deceptive to advertise a higher deck obstructed and move you to a lower deck obstructed that you could have purchased for 200.00 less.

 

 

The system works this way. If you select a guarantee you are selecting a minimum category, for you DZ. Princess can place you in any DZ, or upgrade you to a better category. There are DZ cabins all the way forward on decks 8, 15 and 16. What Princess did is place you in a deck 8 category DW cabin, an upgrade. Regarding the lifeboat, it will not be in your line of sight unless you stand at the railing and look straight down. What I don't understand is why the same category cabin had a different fare based on deck. I have never seen this. If you can prove it I would pursue a refund of the approximately $200, and yes I would also accept the dinner, valued at $58 for 2.

[john_galt]

Closest pics I could find were from E512 .  

[jlp20]

In exchange for choosing your cabin, you opted for a lower price. All "upgrades" are by Princess's standards. All this information was available to you prior to booking. We have booked guaranteed at least four times. While we have only been upgraded once, we knew exactly what ALL possibilities were before booking.

[fishywood]

A guarantee booking is never deck specific. You booked a DZ guarantee, and there actually are DZ cabins on Emerald Deck as well as Marina and Lido. There is no way to indicate a "preference" for a higher deck when you book a guarantee in a category with cabins throughout the ship. You were given a higher category cabin on a deck which does include the guarantee category you booked. SOP as far as cabin assignments go.

 

If as you say at the time of booking a DZ Guarantee was a higher price than a DV or DW cabin that should have been a huge red flag that the DZ cabins are likely overbooked. Cabins all the way forward are generally the lowest price on the ship. But if those are your first preference you should never be booking a guarantee as the only way to go if you are not assigned that category is closer to midship.

[molole]

The way Princess website handles guarantee cabins can be very confusing at times.  It leads people to think the cabin is guaranteed to be at a specific deck and section when it is not at all.   

[mluzzy1]

To be clear, this was a DZ forward deck 15,16 guarantee. They had two choices at booking. Deck 8 mid guarantee for 400.00 and deck 15,16  forward for 497.00.

 

i ended up deck 8 obstructed mid for 497.00. Had I thought that was a possibility , I would have paid the 400.00 and taken the the former. 

[mluzzy1]

4 hours ago, fishywood said:

A guarantee booking is never deck specific. You booked a DZ guarantee, and there actually are DZ cabins on Emerald Deck as well as Marina and Lido. There is no way to indicate a "preference" for a higher deck when you book a guarantee in a category with cabins throughout the ship. You were given a higher category cabin on a deck which does include the guarantee category you booked. SOP as far as cabin assignments go.

 

If as you say at the time of booking a DZ Guarantee was a higher price than a DV or DW cabin that should have been a huge red flag that the DZ cabins are likely overbooked. Cabins all the way forward are generally the lowest price on the ship. But if those are your first preference you should never be booking a guarantee as the only way to go if you are not assigned that category is closer to midship.

 

In this case it was deck specific. Hence the thread. 

 

The CSR I spoke to acknowledged it was.

 

 

[mluzzy1]

4 hours ago, jlp20 said:

In exchange for choosing your cabin, you opted for a lower price. All "upgrades" are by Princess's standards. All this information was available to you prior to booking. We have booked guaranteed at least four times. While we have only been upgraded once, we knew exactly what ALL possibilities were before booking.

Actually , the only thing left was the two options for guarantees as I stated. I too have booked on other cruise lines but have never seen deck specific options until this time.

[Colo Cruiser]

This is the chance you take with a GTY.

You are at their mercy.