I have booked my family of 5 in an 8D stateroom on a fairly popular cruise occurring next summer. I was considering changing my stateroom to another, but no category 8 are available anymore - they are only bookable as a guarantee. Since I have a family of 5, I can only fit into category 4 or 8. Would changing to a guarantee be prudent if I really don’t care where my stateroom is? Do you think I’d be a candidate for a verandah upgrade?
Sounds a lot like the 11 night Dover Scotland Iceland cruise, I was checking availability last night, I looked at Cat 4s all gone, and little availability accross the cruise.
Our cruise meets group has 225 members over a year out and the majority are platinum or gold, so I suspect the % cancelling would be low as they are seasoned cruisers. There will be some for maybe unexpected occasions like health but we were close to sell out before general release.
Guaranteed rooms will be a risk, I suspect you will only get the level of the category you book.
Many have booked verandahs for the expected views, you can tell this as starboard sold quicker.
Anyone giving an impression of getting a verandah upgrade on this cruise from a lower guarantee category is not managing expectations correctly.
DCL typically puts you up one cat maybe two, unless it's an out of peak season cruise where it's not full.
This way they give more people some pixie dust, i.e. Inside to ocean view, ocean view to verandah etc.