Curiosity

lundve

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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?
 
If you are asking what your odds are of being upgraded to a Cat 4 if you change from an assigned Cat 8 to a Cat 8 GTY, I'd say they are very slim and just marginally better than if you stayed in the assigned Cat 8. Upgrades are very rare and over the years, hardly ever heard of a free upgrade to Cat 4. I'd say the odds are better that DCL will assign your GTY room pretty quickly since rooms that can accommodate 5 are limited and the odds of you being reassigned to your original cabin are much more likely than an upgrade. You say it is a fairly popular cruise - have you looked at availability in a Cat 4 cabin? You are still a long way from sailing but are many of the Cat 4's already booked? That may give you more insight into how unlikely an upgrade would be.
 
Also, have you phoned DCL? Sometimes rooms are available that aren't showing on the website. If not, you can always keep watching. People change their plans and cancel and maybe one of them has the room you'd rather have.
 
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?
You will most likely be assigned an 8D if you book an 8D guarantee. Don't hope for an upgrade- that will probably lead to disappointment. Aside from that, there is nothing wrong with booking a guarantee as long as you're not fussy about your cabin location.
 

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.
 
We've done 3 cruises on the Fantasy, category 7A GTY. Every time we've been assigned a 4A.

While going up to 4A is surprising, I'm not surprised you got above a 7A. I would guess those are incredibly popular for people who want a verandah but don't want to break the bank. If we weren't trying to get rooms close together, I'd feel pretty confident booking GTY for a 7A.
 

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