Can anyone explain this?

[bskts4bj]

We just booked our second DCL cruise and asked our travel agent to request a Category 11 stateroom on Deck 6, which is where we were before and we were happy with it. She's now on vacation and mentioned this in her email before she left:

"Category 11 is now in a guaranty status therefore, I was unable to request a stateroom on deck 6"

What does this mean?

TIA!
Brenda

 

[gonna go cruising]

If I understand correctly, it means they cannot confirm a room but your category is guaranteed. The room assignment will come at a later date. Someone correct me if this is wrong.

Is the cruise date pretty near? I see this usually happens when a category is close to sold out and they guarantee your category.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I'm not sure- but from what I've read on the guarantee status it seems like it's only guaranteeing that you'll get a cat 11 (or better)- but no guarantee on the room?
I'm not sure why that is sometimes.. but that's what I gather from it. From what I've read- sometimes it can mean you even get a more expensive category for the price of the cat 11... sometimes.

 

[gdulaney]

I think that means that they weren't able to get you a room number...so you may not be on deck 6. Someone else may be able to contribute more.

Ginny


ps--- we've been on deck 2 and deck 7 --- and we love deck 2!!

 

[jbix00]

Everyone beat me down and correct me....but if you book a cruise & only get a category guarantee - not a room assignment...smells like an upgrade coming to me......

Anyone have this experience - getting a cat guarantee? What did you reserve and what did you end up with.... anyone???

 

[ThreeCircles]

The previous posters are correct about GTY status. We're GTY for our upcoming May cruise. Basically, it means that you will get at least a category 11 stateroom. You won't know an exact cabin number until closer to (or on) your sail date.

The good news is that you're supposedly more likely to receive an upgrade when you're listed as GTY. This is due to the fact that they may re-sell your category 11 to someone else and bump you up to a higher category. Don't know if this is true or not but I'll believe it!

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

We had a GTY cat. 6 for our 7 day. No upgrade though...from what I've seen here there is not rhyme or reason to who gets upgraded. Just because your GTY status and haven't received a room assignment really doesn't mean anything

 

[mmouse37]

I tend to agree with Briarfox....we have had GTY status twice and both times we were in the same category with no upgrade.


MJ

 

[steverog]

we booked cat 11 on the wonder twice got upgraded both times. Once to cat 8 and once to cat 9. I'm not booking either unless I see GUAR.

 

[prymsu]

when you have a guarantee status, i believe it means that all those cat 11 rooms are booked. They are waiting to assign a room in the event that someone would cancel before sailing. If that happens then you get the cat 11 stateroom. If it doesn't happen, then you have an opportunity for a stateroom upgrade. It is nice to hope for the upgrade, but you shouldn't count on that happening.

 

[Dean]

IF you don't care where you are on the ship, this should be fine. If you have sea sickness problems or location is important, you may want to follow up with your TA.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I read a thread awhile back- someone had gty cat 11 and got upgraded to 8 or 9...
Yet another thread showed the one cat that got the MOST upgrades- was cat 11. Someone explained that as being so because if the other cat. don't get filled- they sometimes upgrade cat 11's and then resell the cat 11's again.

It would seem to me that getting a gty on cat 11- that one of two things MIGHT happen. Either they upgrade someone ELSE in cat 11 to give you that cat 11 if none are available- or they'll upgrade you if none are available. It's a gamble though- I wouldn't book cat 11 unless I was perfectly happy staying in cat 11- that way you wouldn't be disappointed if you didn't get upgraded. Personally I wouldn't mind staying cat 11- but I WOULD mind not having a clue what room/deck I was going to be in! Just my personal choice.. (I'd rather avoid higher decks, noisy areas, etc.)

 

[ThreeCircles]

Originally posted by BriarfoxinWA
from what I've seen here there is not rhyme or reason to who gets upgraded.

Perhaps not from our point of view but I'm sure DCL has some method of figuring these things out. I just can't see someone in Celebration randomly picking cabin numbers for upgrades!

Although, I suppose it could happen!

 

[LisaTxUsa]

I had a guarantee status for a Cat 11, but no room assignment. I got an upgrade to Cat 9 when I got my travel documents.

 

[Grumpy's Mom]

We had a guaranty Cat 8 on our cruise last week - no upgrade, and didn't get our room number until we received our docs - 9 days before!! We were very happy with our room - 7504.

We rebooked onboard for 2005 for a Cat 6 and a Cat 11 - the two together were less expensive booking this early than what we paid for last week!!

IMO Cat 11 is what I have seen upgraded most frequently. Even on the Christmas cruise, which was "sold out", there was still the availability of a GTY status CAT 11 on Orbitz and Expedia about 3 weeks before. Keeping my fingers crossed that my girls (Cat 11) will get an upgrade - but they will be thrilled to have their own room and really, just to be on the Magic!!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

RE - getting an upgrade from GTY status...there seems to be a lot more upgrades to be had if you are cruising on the Wonder as opposed to the Magic. Must have to do with how long in advance most people book a 7 day versus a 3 or 4 day cruise...