Royal Caribbean Picks Your Room

[Cruisegoer]

9 minutes ago, topnole said:

I’ve been cruising longer than 35 years and I can tell you from my experience, it’s a total crap shoot.  
 

Don’t worry I sleep just fine.  But you are essentially making stuff up, so no need to act surprised if someone asks how you would know something. Did you expect to post bogus info and no one say anything?  How would you know they give better cabins to those with status?  The answer is clear now that you don’t.  Instead you made a definitive statement about how they do it based only on your experience and not the millions of other cruisers.  Well, I can guarantee you there are many with a very different experience than you.  
 

It is a benefit for those reading this thread for this false information to be corrected.   Don’t act like anyone is overreacting if they correct your false statement.  You don’t know how

they assign cabins, so why pretend like you do and confuse others in the process.  

LOL, sorry you've had bad experiences and discount any else's positives.  Sorry none of it makes sense to the dense, I've tried to explain it as best I can. I'm sure you realize that someone assigns GTYs and your information follows your booking details.  Happy Cruising and if you don't like what someone else says you can always ignore it instead of being, well....obnoxious.

[livylotte]

The majority of my cabins are aft balconies and I always pick one of those if available - even if I end up paying more than I would like.

If there are no aft balcony cabins available, I pick a guarantee balcony. My thinking is that it’s aft or nothing. I don’t mind where they put me.

 

I haven’t had a bad guarantee yet. All have been central and not near lifeboats or anything noisy. And the cheaper guarantees help balance out paying more for my aft indulgences 😜

  
Never been given an aft guarantee yet though..

[Ocean Boy]

2 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

I'm not so sure about that...

I am Diamond Plus...As I reported earlier, I've rarely seen any bump.  I've been in roll call threads where I've been given a guarantee assignment in the lowest category of my guarantee while newbie first time cruisers have reported some sizable upgrades.  I believe it's simply luck of the draw.

It could also be a way to entice the newbies back. RCI knows that it already has us.

[Cruisin Kay D]

I recently booked a 5 night cruise with a Suite Guarantee, as that was the only way to book a suite.  Typically we book balconies and choose the specific location.  In this case of this cruise however, we need just 8 points to get to Diamond status, and 4 or 5 nights in JS would give us points we needed.   We will see what we are assigned!   I have not booked a guarantee in a long long time. With Mike's breathing issues, it has been best to pick a spot near an elevator.  

[topnole]

35 minutes ago, Cruisegoer said:

LOL, sorry you've had bad experiences and discount any else's positives.  Sorry none of it makes sense to the dense, I've tried to explain it as best I can. I'm sure you realize that someone assigns GTYs and your information follows your booking details.  Happy Cruising and if you don't like what someone else says you can always ignore it instead of being, well....obnoxious.

So you make up stuff up and then call others dense when they call out your lies.  Give me a break already.  
 

FYI.  You haven’t explained anything.  You made a bogus statement that they assign cabins based on status without any evidence that they actually do it this way.  
 

And btw, correcting the record so that others aren’t mislead by made up information isn’t obnoxious.  What is obnoxious is folks who just make stuff up and pretend like they know something they don’t know.  Folks doing this make these forums confusing or even useless.  Best to just say nothing than to make stuff up.  And if you are corrected or called out for making stuff up, just admit you made it up without any real knowledge of anything.  Don’t deflect with personal insults about one’s intelligence. 

[topnole]

21 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

It could also be a way to entice the newbies back. RCI knows that it already has us.

Or more likely a computer randomly assigns things.  Do we really think Royal IT has the capability to prioritize based on status?   I seriously doubt it.  Their use of a third party to handle Royal UP suggests they don’t have much interest in algorithms such as this. 

[OCSC Mike]

This thread has become a train wreck.

[Bruin Steve]

35 minutes ago, topnole said:

Or more likely a computer randomly assigns things.  Do we really think Royal IT has the capability to prioritize based on status?   I seriously doubt it.  Their use of a third party to handle Royal UP suggests they don’t have much interest in algorithms such as this. 

Exactly!!!

I really WISH they had a person or a team of people sitting around looking at the many guaranteed bookings on the 40+ ships on the RCI-owned cruise lines for 52 weeks of cruises each year and looking at the individual cruising resumes of everyone booked into those guarantees and assigning cabins and categories based on the cruising credentials of those passengers.  I am well into Diamond Plus on Royal and even farter up the board on Elite Plus on Celebrity.  I would book a guarantee every time...because I'd be virtually guaranteed that rare upgrade.  BUT that is NOT how they do it.

 

It's all computer driven...and the Computer programs are really not that complex.  They book a certain number of guarantees in certain categories because they either have cabins reserved or know, from experience, that a given number of cabins will come back to them over time due to cancelations and such.  The guarantee bookings allow them a certain amount of flexibility in how they market remaining unsold cabins and allows them to market cruises even in categories where they no longer have unassifgned cabins at any specific time.  Which specific cabins eventually become availableis a completely unpredictable variable.  People may cancel a booking in a well-located cabin...or in one in the extreme aft or forward.  And at times, the cabins that come available may not be in the predicted categories--leaving them the ability to move people around.  Throw in the RoyalUp thing and cabins and categories get moved around...but all for the convenience of cruise line marketing

 

The actual assignments are done by the computer...and it is the simplest program they can put together.  WHY?  Because who they assign where really doesn't matter to them...and it isn't worth the time or complexity to deal with otherwise.

 

So, when you book a guarantee, your booking goes into the list of guarantee bookings at that level...and the computer randomly assigns it to one of the available cabins--whichever and wherever that may be.  Don't imagine any additional motive or complex array of considerations.

[Cruisegoer]

59 minutes ago, topnole said:

 I seriously doubt it. 

So your doubt is certainty of how things work? Where's your proof anything I've said isn't actually how it works other than your Doubt and Personal Experience? Get out of here buddy and go be angry somewhere else. Your doubt is no more proven fact or certainty than my personal experience which evidently means nothing to you.......

[EleventyBangBang]

Did an inside guarantee once on Anthem and got put right underneath the kids pool.  We thought this would be really bad but we actually never heard a thing.

 

 

[topnole]

21 minutes ago, Cruisegoer said:

So your doubt is certainty of how things work? Where's your proof anything I've said isn't actually how it works other than your Doubt and Personal Experience? Get out of here buddy and go be angry somewhere else. Your doubt is no more proven fact or certainty than my personal experience which evidently means nothing to you.......

Oh I don’t know exactly how they do it.  That’s the point.   You don’t either.  The difference is I’m not claiming I do.  And your attempt at asking me to disprove your bogus statement (which you openly admitted you had no data on other than personal experience) is laughable.  I’m guessing you never took logic in school?    
 

I’m not angry or losing sleep or any other thing you want to use to deflect from your bogus prior statement.  I’m just calling out someone who seems quite angry for making up stuff and getting called out for it.  Just admit you have no idea and move on or dig deeper like George Constanza would.  Either way, I don’t care.  But for the sake of others, perhaps don’t make stuff up as many people on here come for concrete advice?  If you are suggesting what you guess might be the case, call it a guess and don’t state it like a fact.  

[c-leg5]

9 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I'd like to know why royal rarely let's solos book gtys. I used to book them all the time on other lines but royal doesnt have gty option when booking solo. 

 

Maybe too many with the DP340 code so they dont want solo to get discounted and also lower prices. Always seemed unfair to me to not let solo book gty. Yes I know use a fake 2nd person, but why.

I thought you could phone and get a guarantee price but not online?
 

However I think you have to be wary of what ship you book on if going that route since you may get a studio.

[Mum2Mercury]

When it's just me and my husband, we love Guarantees for the lowest prices.  We aren't fussy about where our room is, and we've been quite pleased with the rooms we've been assigned.  We seem to land mid-ship on Deck 6, and it's become our favorite spot -- one short flight of steps down to the Promenade for a drink or pizza, close to the MDR for dinner.  If we're in an Inside, which we usually are, we're close to Deck 4, which we consider our "shared balcony".  We usually take the elevator up to the pool or the Windjammer, which is okay.  

 

What I hate about Guarantees is waiting to know the room assignment.  It usually comes out shortly after boarding times become available, but sometimes they wait and wait and wait.  You know the barcode trick?  Use your phone to scan the barcode on your boarding pass, and SOMETIMES it'll give you your room number early.  

 

We were "bumped up" once to a Promenade Room, and we loved it -- but that wasn't really an upgrade because we purchased an Inside Guarantee, and a Promenade Room IS an Inside.  

Once -- pre-Royal-up -- we were bumped up to an Obstructed Oceanview, and we were happy.  We paid for an Inside, so even an Obstructed Oceanview was a plus.  

 

On the other hand, if we're taking another family member, we might be more fussy about where our room is located.  For example, we'll be sharing a room with our adult daughter on an upcoming cruise -- so we purposefully chose a room near a public rest room; with three adults sharing, someone's bound to need to "run out" at some point.  Another good option might be to choose a room near the gym so some of your party could shower in the gym's locker room.  

[marci22]

Besides location, consider that you may be assigned a connecting cabin. We chose a balcony guarantee for our last Explorer cruise and got assigned a connecting cabin with the noisiest possible, music playing until 3am, partying neighbors. Supposedly Explorer has a problem with noise because there is only one door between the cabins instead of two? Not sure if it's like this on other ships but it was terrible and I would never book a guarantee on this ship again.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I thought you could phone and get a guarantee price but not online?
 

However I think you have to be wary of what ship you book on if going that route since you may get a studio.

Yep I finally got a gty, and I'm the one got assigned a studio. Imo if I pay any solo supplement giving me a studio is just plain wrong. I no showed. Ship sold out and to change cost more than the cruise. I had a broken wrist and couldnt have slept in one twin bed which is what I got 

 

The only way I knew to get around gty was to book a fake 2nd pax. Now I'm doing group rates which sometimes is close to gty rates. Rcl makes me dance to get my rates, but at least there is a way. 

[c-leg5]

5 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Yep I finally got a gty, and I'm the one got assigned a studio. Imo if I pay any solo supplement giving me a studio is just plain wrong. I no showed. Ship sold out and to change cost more than the cruise. I had a broken wrist and couldnt have slept in one twin bed which is what I got 

 

The only way I knew to get around gty was to book a fake 2nd pax. Now I'm doing group rates which sometimes is close to gty rates. Rcl makes me dance to get my rates, but at least there is a way. 

I would assume if you pay the full two person gty rate, but only name one person, you would get a two person cabin and double points, but as far as I know you have to phone you can’t see it available online to book yourself.

 

If a reduced single person gty rate was available then you could get a studio. Not all ships have studios so I don’t suppose a reduced rate is available many ships.

[firefly333]

5 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

I would assume if you pay the full two person gty rate, but only name one person, you would get a two person cabin and double points, but as far as I know you have to phone you can’t see it available online to book yourself.

 

If a reduced single person gty rate was available then you could get a studio. Not all ships have studios so I don’t suppose a reduced rate is available many ships.

I see the studio rates. When insides are a lot lower than other categories if I click thru past the page with prices to a booking page, skips right thru pick a inside cabin. ..then I know that's a studio price. Another site I can see it's a studio .. but catching on with rcl.

 

This time I could use my DP340 code to book the inside gty. My TA booked it. Just said gty for a couple of weeks then gave me the studio assignment. No way to see that one coming. Even my TA was surprised I could get a studio  ...maybe the dp340 code is a reduced supplement, but it's still a solo supplement. My TA is very good and knowledgeable and he didnt know it could happen until it did. And then ship said sold out. He tried too to get it changed but it was so sad too bad. I dont think if you pay even a 50% solo supplement you should get a studio. 

[Ocean Boy]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I dont think if you pay even a 50% solo supplement you should get a studio. 

If you pay ANY solo supplement you should not get a studio cabin.

[c-leg5]

13 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

If you pay ANY solo supplement you should not get a studio cabin.

That is basically what I stated above.

 

However since we aren’t privy to the codes or prices involved it is difficult to make a true assessment.
 

IF it was a single person gty rate then I can understand, if it was a true D340 of the current two-person gty rate then I agree it should have been a two person cabin and double points.

[firefly333]

30 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

That is basically what I stated above.

 

However since we aren’t privy to the codes or prices involved it is difficult to make a true assessment.
 

IF it was a single person gty rate then I can understand, if it was a true D340 of the current two-person gty rate then I agree it should have been a two person cabin and double points.

I'm using a well known TA who posts here, just saying he is not a newbie. If he couldn't tell from the billing and codes, I wouldnt know. Surprised us both when I got assigned a studio. This was on radiance. So it was a very small studio and I'd just broken my arm and was propping it up at night. I was iffy about going one armed so just no showed .. but I think they are wrong. TA tried to argue the cause but it didnt fly. He it been a 2w studio or whatever the category is we both would have known, this was just listed as a inside gty. Same code as any other inside gty.  There wasnt anything obvious except I knew it was very unusual a solo was offered a gty .. in my mind rcl owes me one now. If my very smart ta didnt see anything unusual about the gty except a solo could book a gty .. it wasnt obvious. 

 

They seem to only care about money but at least it will help stock holders.