Guarantee cabins- timing on assignment

[Banditswife]

We booked an OV guarantee (F) for Nov 26 & Dec 3 on the N Statendam-- B2B.  We were told they start doing this about 30 days ahead.  So how soon will we know  what cabin we are assigned & how likely are we to be assigned the same cabin for both legs?  I understand timing will vary, just asking what is a typical time frame.  In looking at pics & videos on other web sites, it looks like most of the F category cabins have 2 bathrooms & are on deck 1 or Main & are the most forward or aft cabins.  How likely are we to get a category C which are mid ship on deck 1?  There are very few OVs on any other decks from what I can see on deck plans.  Are there any other cabins that are considered OV that I might not be unaware of?  

Once on a Carnival cruise we booked an OV guarantee & ended up with a life boat right outside our window- I called it an "ocean peek" because you truly could not see anything, that life boat was more like a permanent curtain.  Are there any cabins like that on N Statendam?

Edited October 28, 2022 by Banditswife

[Florida_gal_50]

It does vary.  Usually you get assigned about 10 days out.  I could be earlier, could be later.  You might hear that your cabin number will appear on your luggage tags first.  That is 100 percent false.  That used to be the case.  Your number will appear on all your documents at the same time.  No telling what you might get.  I do feel they try to keep you in the same cabin for both.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I know what you mean about having a lifeboat blocking your view. it's impossible to guess what your odds are of getting one of the midship OVs. There are a few OV cabins on 4, and they appear to be just ahead of lifeboats, so not fully obstructed. There's nothing blocking the windows on deck 1.

[kangforpres]

I think the norm is more like 7-10 days. They try to upsell everyone and then they start assigning the GTY's.

 

[CruiserBruce]

Not sure where the 30 day time line came from. I have seen close to 30 days once or twice on B2B suite bookings when they do it a little earlier to help you stay in the same cabin, assigning a little sooner. For cabins in general, on B2Bs, they may assign a little earlier, like around 20 days, again  to try and get you the same cabin for both cruises. Otherwise,  as mentioned,  sometime around 10 days before sailing is very commonly mentioned here.

[crystalspin]

@BanditswifeI would not expect you to get assigned an FA or FB unless you are booking with more than two pax. The F more or less stands for FAMILY (hence the separate shower room). 

 

There are four OVs on the Beethoven Deck 4 that @3rdGenCunardermentioned. They are 4037-4040 and are considered Partially Obstructed Oceanviews. One (pair) is partially blocked by a lifeboat (not a tender) and the other more by the deep balcony of the forward Verandahs. You would be able to look straight out at the ocean from either.

 

 

You could be assigned one of those, or any NON-FA/FB category OV on Main Deck 1. Good luck!

[VMax1700]

If your B2B is on two different booking numbers then the chances are they will assign two different cabins.  Not their fault as they assign cabins cruise by cruise.  However, if you are assigned two different numbers try calling the Inventory phone number 1.888.628.8107 or 206.626.7381and explain the situation.  I have done this successfully a couple of times.  It helps if you have checked available cabins by making test bookings and tell them which cabin is available for both cruises.

[Florida_gal_50]

I don’t know if this is appealing to the op at all but you could buy club orange.  It’s $25 a day but allows you to pick your cabin immediately plus you get the lovely club orange dining room.  You get to pick the highest available cabin within your category so that’s nice.

[SilvertoGold]

Had upsell for FA on KODM a few days out. Excellent stateroom, by the way, for two!

[FlorenceItaly]

We booked a F Guarantee for November 5 on the NS.  I received an upsell notice on Tuesday of this week with the choice of FA, veranda and Vista Suite.  I have not responded.  I am still waiting for assignment.  A few on my Roll Call have received assignment over the past few days.  Someone on my Roll Call booked 3 consecutive weeks on the same deal and was assigned the same cabin( C category) for all three weeks.  She sails this weekend.  I hope this helps.

[Banditswife]

Thank you all, guess we will keep waiting patiently & hoping for the best. I don't think we are willing to pay $25 per day for club orange.

Crystalspin:  I think I know the web pg you got that deck plan from, which ship is that.  Checkd that pg for those little red arrows which indicate videos available.  I will check it again for deck 4, didn't realize those were considered OV.

[Banditswife]

7 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We booked a F Guarantee for November 5 on the NS.  I received an upsell notice on Tuesday of this week with the choice of FA, veranda and Vista Suite.  I have not responded.  I am still waiting for assignment.  A few on my Roll Call have received assignment over the past few days.  Someone on my Roll Call booked 3 consecutive weeks on the same deal and was assigned the same cabin( C category) for all three weeks.  She sails this weekend.  I hope this helps.

so we have awhile to wait.  C category is what I am hoping for.  Hubby is hoping for the extra bathroom in an FA or FB.  We will not mind being on deck 1, as long as we don't have a lot of noise from galley or other mechanical noises.

[FlorenceItaly]

4 minutes ago, Banditswife said:

so we have awhile to wait.  C category is what I am hoping for.  Hubby is hoping for the extra bathroom in an FA or FB.  We will not mind being on deck 1, as long as we don't have a lot of noise from galley or other mechanical noises.

I will let you know how I make out.  I am hoping to be assigned soon while there are still some upsells open.  If I don't like my location I will consider an upsell deal.

[Iamthesea]

4 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I don’t know if this is appealing to the op at all but you could buy club orange.  It’s $25 a day but allows you to pick your cabin immediately plus you get the lovely club orange dining room.  You get to pick the highest available cabin within your category so that’s nice.

I thought that I read on here that Club Orange was normally $50 a day.  Is $25 the normal price, and is it per stateroom or per person?  I looked it up on HAL's website and is says to call for pricing.

 

WOW...those FA's look nice if it were just two of us.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Iamthesea

[FlaMariner]

48 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

I will let you know how I make out.  I am hoping to be assigned soon while there are still some upsells open.  If I don't like my location I will consider an upsell deal.

 

This is similar to our plan as well............

 

We are Inside Guarantee for the 11/19 & 11/26 B2B NS cruise......I called the upsell area a few days back (for the 11/19 sailing) and they quoted $299 pp to move to "non obstructed balcony" which was quoted as any cabin not VH (So VF to VQ).....

 

That price is too high for us (it is more than we paid for the cruise!)

 

I also called the upsell area yesterday for the 11/26 NS cruise (I think that is your cruise also @Banditswife?) and was told nothing to upsell yet. 

 

It's hard but I need to be patient a few more days/weeks..........We are very happy with our Inside Guarantees but enjoy the drama of waiting for an assignment while also playing the upsell game.

 

Smooth sailing to all..................

[Banditswife]

It seems that the N Statendam has a lot of B2Bers for the month of Nov & into Dec.  Several on our roll call are doing 3-4 legs.  It was a huge promotion- too good to pass up, IMO.  So we will impatiently wait.  When booking, we did request to be in same cabin.  We booked & paid for both cruises at the same time.

[twoforone]

We booked 3 Caribbean BTBTB cruises in a guarantee veranda VH.  Each cruise has a separate booking number.  We got our stateroom number a few days ago and were upgraded to a VC for all three weeks.  No upsells were ever offered.  We are very happy!

[twoforone]

Whoops - I meant we got a VB for all three cruises.

[FlaMariner]

1 hour ago, Banditswife said:

It was a huge promotion- too good to pass up, IMO.

 

Agree!

 

We had booked the Thanksgiving leg (11/19) with the extended family back in February but when we saw a price that was cheaper than our weekly grocery bill for the next week, we decided to say goodbye to the kids on 11/26 and stay on for another 7!

[Florida_gal_50]

3 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

I thought that I read on here that Club Orange was normally $50 a day.  Is $25 the normal price, and is it per stateroom or per person?  I looked it up on HAL's website and is says to call for pricing.

 

WOW...those FA's look nice if it were just two of us.

$25 is the price per person.  I always think it's better to quote a price that way or some get confused.  Apparently its cheaper $15 maybe after 14 days.  I've done a few B2B adding up to the 14 days and I still pay $25 USD (around $33 cdn) for it.

[crystalspin]

4 hours ago, Banditswife said:

Crystalspin:  I think I know the web pg you got that deck plan from, which ship is that.  Checkd that pg for those little red arrows which indicate videos available.  I will check it again for deck 4, didn't realize those were considered OV.

Aha, you caught me out! The screenshot is from the Koningsdam (I checked against the NS plans, that the room numbers were the same, but didn't take another Snip).

[Iamthesea]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

$25 is the price per person.  I always think it's better to quote a price that way or some get confused.  Apparently its cheaper $15 maybe after 14 days.  I've done a few B2B adding up to the 14 days and I still pay $25 USD (around $33 cdn) for it.

Thank you for clearing that up.  DH and I were under the impression that it was $50pp per day. 

 

I have not seen any mentioned about it from HAL or from our TA.  I still think that $700 total  may be a little steep for a 14 night cruise.  $25 per couple, per day would be more reasonable for us because we would probably not use the dining room at night.  We would jump on it if the price was $15pp, per day. as I read somewhere that it was offered to a cruiser.

[honeyb2]

19 hours ago, Banditswife said:

We booked an OV guarantee (F) for Nov 26 & Dec 3 on the N Statendam-- B2B.  We were told they start doing this about 30 days ahead.  So how soon will we know  what cabin we are assigned & how likely are we to be assigned the same cabin for both legs?  I understand timing will vary, just asking what is a typical time frame.  In looking at pics & videos on other web sites, it looks like most of the F category cabins have 2 bathrooms & are on deck 1 or Main & are the most forward or aft cabins.  How likely are we to get a category C which are mid ship on deck 1?  There are very few OVs on any other decks from what I can see on deck plans.  Are there any other cabins that are considered OV that I might not be unaware of?  

Once on a Carnival cruise we booked an OV guarantee & ended up with a life boat right outside our window- I called it an "ocean peek" because you truly could not see anything, that life boat was more like a permanent curtain.  Are there any cabins like that on N Statendam?

We are on the same B2B with y'all and we are also waiting on Cat F cabin assignments. Checking every day and not being very patient. We did have our cruises booked separately but have them linked in the system.

 

With that said, on another cruise line we had the same situation and they assigned us a cabin for the first week. After we were onboard, we were told a cabin change would be made for the second cruise. The cruise line had sold our cabin for the second cruise and we didn't get our cabin assignment until we were halfway through the first cruise.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, Iamthesea said:

Thank you for clearing that up.  DH and I were under the impression that it was $50pp per day. 

 

I have not seen any mentioned about it from HAL or from our TA.  I still think that $700 total  may be a little steep for a 14 night cruise.  $25 per couple, per day would be more reasonable for us because we would probably not use the dining room at night.  We would jump on it if the price was $15pp, per day. as I read somewhere that it was offered to a cruiser.

I don't use it at night either.  The upgrade is worth it to me because I buy a vh a get a v category cabin.

[Banditswife]

2 hours ago, honeyb2 said:

We are on the same B2B with y'all and we are also waiting on Cat F cabin assignments. Checking every day and not being very patient. We did have our cruises booked separately but have them linked in the system.

 

With that said, on another cruise line we had the same situation and they assigned us a cabin for the first week. After we were onboard, we were told a cabin change would be made for the second cruise. The cruise line had sold our cabin for the second cruise and we didn't get our cabin assignment until we were halfway through the first cruise.

Hope to see you on board.  From all I have read on here, I think I will love the ship.  We check daily too, sometimes more than once.  We're ready.  Our only other HAL cruises have been on N Amsterdam.