Disney Fantasy, August 18, 2012 - Western Caribbean

[JLDSMD]

Could someone please define OGT, IGT, and VGT for a clueless newbie?

The letters represent the following:

IGT = Inside Gauranteed (Cats 10-11)
OGT = Oceanview Gauranteed (Cats 8-9)
VGT = Verandah Gauranteed (Cats 4-7)​

DCL has started in the past year (or less) to put booking categories out there where you can select the "type" of room you want and you could get any room or category that applies. They sell them at a really reduced rate. For a family of 3 on our cruise, an OGT is priced $1,500 less than the lowest oceanview room (9D) is priced at.

These rooms are different than if you booked let's say an 8B GTY. There you are gauranteed a minimum of an 8B room and would not get an 8C or D or any of the 9's.

Over this summer, it appears the ships have not been sailing full and you will see people get upgraded from IGT and OGT to a verandah room. That's a pretty nice upgrade. There is a thread that tracks these rooms and it looks like several IGT's get a verandah. On our cruise, and on others that I've looked at, the IGT's are costing more than the OGT's. I'm thinking there are some IGT's that will get a double upgrade to a verandah while the OGT's get what they booked, an oceanview room.

Hope that explains it. If you have any other questions, ask away.

 

[crabbymom90]

The letters represent the following:

IGT = Inside Gauranteed (Cats 10-11)
OGT = Oceanview Gauranteed (Cats 8-9)
VGT = Verandah Gauranteed (Cats 4-7)​

DCL has started in the past year (or less) to put booking categories out there where you can select the "type" of room you want and you could get any room or category that applies. They sell them at a really reduced rate. For a family of 3 on our cruise, an OGT is priced $1,500 less than the lowest oceanview room (9D) is priced at.

These rooms are different than if you booked let's say an 8B GTY. There you are gauranteed a minimum of an 8B room and would not get an 8C or D or any of the 9's.

Over this summer, it appears the ships have not been sailing full and you will see people get upgraded from IGT and OGT to a verandah room. That's a pretty nice upgrade. There is a thread that tracks these rooms and it looks like several IGT's get a verandah. On our cruise, and on others that I've looked at, the IGT's are costing more than the OGT's. I'm thinking there are some IGT's that will get a double upgrade to a verandah while the OGT's get what they booked, an oceanview room.

Hope that explains it. If you have any other questions, ask away.

A-HA! That explains a lot. We originally intended to book an inside room, but at the time (back in January) it was cheaper to book oceanview, so we did. The original reservation said "09A GTY" but now when I look at the reservation online it says that our stateroom is 10004, which is a 5A - Deluxe Oceanview w/Verandah. So I guess we got lucky!

 

[JLDSMD]

A-HA! That explains a lot. We originally intended to book an inside room, but at the time (back in January) it was cheaper to book oceanview, so we did. The original reservation said "09A GTY" but now when I look at the reservation online it says that our stateroom is 10004, which is a 5A - Deluxe Oceanview w/Verandah. So I guess we got lucky!

Congrats! Yes, you did get a good upgrade.

9A is the best of the Cat 9 rooms to get. We originally booked a 9D on the wonder last year thinking the corner rooms were going to be good ones. Once the ship came out though, we switched to an 8C - which is a great room.

We haven't had a balcony in January 2006 when we got our one and only upgrade. We usually book one of the SPH rooms on the Magic (5X22 - either side of the ship). We booked one on our first cruised and loved it, but choose to save the cash and go for oceanview.

We're hoping with so many rooms still open on our sailing that the "upgrade gods" will be kind to us and we'll get one. If not, at least we're on the ship and will have a great time nonetheless.

 

[designertravels]

From what I can tell, I think there will be a lot of open rooms. As one who booked OGT, I've been watching the rooms available to book (i.e. ones you can actually select in a category) to see what might get assigned.

As of this past weekend, there were only 10 oceanview rooms. That's not a lot, however, if you look at the verandah rooms, my estimate has it over 200 available.

The process is not easy, I actually created a chart with each room that is listed in each of the verandah categories and then went on DCL's site and input every single room (exept 5A and 4A as there were too many rooms to go through - maybe by this weekend I'll do those). Anyhow, DCL only lists a maximum of 8 rooms when you go in to select a category, but you can enter all the other rooms. I know that 5E only had 1 room, 5672. For 5 B, C and D, and 4 B, C, D, and E, my count was well above 160, and that was NOT with the 4A's or 5A's like I said. But those alone add a minimum of 8 each, so another 16 bringing us to around 175 +/- for sure. I would have to think there is at least 25 more rooms between those two categories. Heck, there are a good number of 4E's for this Saturday's sailing.

So, it looks like we may not be as crowded as some cruises. I'm thinking a lot of people don't travel that late in summer and I think the FL kids are back in school by the time we sail. So if we figure 200 rooms with an average of 3 per room, we could be looking at sailing light by 600 passengers. Great, the line for the AquaDuck may only be an hour long.

I'll try to post tonight the amount of rooms in each category that I showed available (just double checked the 5 B-D and 4E's this weekend).

Oh my gosh, that is a lot of work! I'm so glad I got my VGT assigned early because I get possessed with the assignment too.

Jill

 

[ant3838]

Welcome aboard! Where on Long Island are you from?

Hi Chris,

I am from Long Island too!! - I clicked to join Face book group - I am antbay pal

Thank you

 

[JLDSMD]

Oh my gosh, that is a lot of work! I'm so glad I got my VGT assigned early because I get possessed with the assignment too.

Jill

I hear you. The wait is killing me.

The category specific gty though (in your case, you booked 7A GTY) did get theirs really early for this cruise. Those usually happened about a week out from when docs are sent.

The VGT, OGT, and IGT are different and those bookings get their rooms at about 2 weeks out with whatever room is left in those groupings. The benefit of booking these types of rooms is they are substantially less than the lowest category room. The downside is you could end up with not the best room in the group. It's a roll of the dice. The other downside is the long wait for the stateroom number.

 

[Dizneycrazee]

I totally understand. You want it to be a great experience for your husband so that he can relax and have a great time... and want to re-book the next cruise while on board. (That is what I'm hoping with my DH.)

Table companions can make or break the dining experience. I've read about some perfect match-ups. And I've read other stories about not so great dining experiences. And that's the part that worries me.

To take away the unnecessary stress. We decided to request a table just for our family and will follow up with that request on the first day when the opportunity for dining changes comes up on the schedule.

I would so love to sit with another family or, better yet, families that want the same fun dining experience that we do. Makes you wish you could fill out an table companion "wish list"! Wanted: Table companions with a good sense of humor, decent table manners, not obnoxious and not arrogant towards the servers. Noisy, relaxed, funny family Sunday dinner at Grandma's types please apply....

Absolute ditto.

We have had many marvellous allocated dining mates, usually with children around the same age as our dd, but one time we had a family of four who whispered to each other throughout the meal on the first evening and spent the rest of the cruise dining at the casual places on the upper decks. Made us feel like lepers sitting on a huge table by ourselves

If anybody wants to take a chance on us and share a table we are pretty relaxed, hopefully very friendly and chatty, and our DD (7) is a great mixer, and more to the point, scoots off with the OC club counsellors as soon as they come into the dining room!!!

Bren

 

[JLDSMD]

We had a bad experience our first time with tablemates as well back in 2005. We were assigned them from DCL.

We request a 4-top table now when we go. Once it wasn't honored, but the Head Waiter took care of us before anyone got to the table on the first night.

We have also sat with friends from the DIS on several occasions, once a table of 12, and had a blast. If you get to know them first, it makes it a lot easier.

 

[Cherokee2504]

Great! Noah will be thrilled. We'll look for you at the meet-up.

Do you have a room no. yet? I was just going to make note of it for my son, just in case I get to involved in checking the ship out and miss the meet up.

My son ask me everyday now if we can start packing!!!

Thanks,

Lisa

 

[VeryBeachy]

When some of the cruise thread members began using a facebook page dedicated to our cruise, I started a "cheat sheet" to help me keep track of who's who. (Because I had gotten so used to everyone's nicknames that I had a hard time adjusting to using their real name!) Attached is the file I put together with everyone that has joined the cruise thread.

Please let me know if you have any changes (whether if be an addition or removal of information). With respect for everyone's privacy, last names (from Facebook) are not visible to to person's who open this file from the DISboards.


https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DISboard Cheat Sheet.pdf?w=b36fc1d9

 

[VeryBeachy]

When some of the cruise thread members began using a facebook page dedicated to our cruise, I started a "cheat sheet" to help me keep track of who's who. (Because I had gotten so used to everyone's nicknames that I had a hard time adjusting to using their real name!) Attached is the file I put together with everyone that has joined the cruise thread.

Please let me know if you have any changes (whether if be an addition or removal of information). With respect for everyone's privacy, last names (from Facebook) are not visible to to person's who open this file from the DISboards.


https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DISboard Cheat Sheet.pdf?w=b36fc1d9

A few changes made... new link below:

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DISboard Cheat Sheet.pdf?w=b36fc1d9

 

[staffieri]

absolute ditto.

We have had many marvellous allocated dining mates, usually with children around the same age as our dd, but one time we had a family of four who whispered to each other throughout the meal on the first evening and spent the rest of the cruise dining at the casual places on the upper decks. Made us feel like lepers sitting on a huge table by ourselves

If anybody wants to take a chance on us and share a table we are pretty relaxed, hopefully very friendly and chatty, and our dd (7) is a great mixer, and more to the point, scoots off with the oc club counsellors as soon as they come into the dining room!!!

Bren

i would be happy to share a table with you. We are in the first dining. It just the three of us. Me my hubby and dd 6.

 

[crabbymom90]

Do you have a room no. yet? I was just going to make note of it for my son, just in case I get to involved in checking the ship out and miss the meet up.

My son ask me everyday now if we can start packing!!!

Thanks,

Lisa

We'll be in 10004. Noah's very happy to have someone to hang with! I just looked at Tracy's list and saw that you have a 4 y.o. daughter. Our Abby is 5!

 

[crabbymom90]

Yes, I suggested a second SEPARATE list for those of us who missed the cut-off.

Anyone who would like to be on this second FE list, please let me know. I will keep track of the list and post it as Chris has done with the first one.

Any takers? My kids are excited to distribute plentiful amounts of Hershey products all over the ship!

 

[VeryBeachy]

Any takers? My kids are excited to distribute plentiful amounts of Hershey products all over the ship!

Lol! Just last month, on the drive up north to see family, my son and I stopped at Hershey's Chocolate World for a few hours. Was so neat to see the cute Kiss lampposts along the streets (and the chocolate colored roads). Chocolate World.... Wow! But as a result, I'm "chocolated" out! Never thought it could happen! But one can't possibly leave that place empty-handed. We even did the "make your own chocolate bar" thing. Fun!

 

[PixiePirate21]

I totally understand. You want it to be a great experience for your husband so that he can relax and have a great time... and want to re-book the next cruise while on board. (That is what I'm hoping with my DH.)

Table companions can make or break the dining experience. I've read about some perfect match-ups. And I've read other stories about not so great dining experiences. And that's the part that worries me.

To take away the unnecessary stress. We decided to request a table just for our family and will follow up with that request on the first day when the opportunity for dining changes comes up on the schedule.

I would so love to sit with another family or, better yet, families that want the same fun dining experience that we do. Makes you wish you could fill out an table companion "wish list"! Wanted: Table companions with a good sense of humor, decent table manners, not obnoxious and not arrogant towards the servers. Noisy, relaxed, funny family Sunday dinner at Grandma's types please apply....

Tracy - I would apply - your description sounds great.

 

[PixiePirate21]

Congrats! Yes, you did get a good upgrade.

9A is the best of the Cat 9 rooms to get. We originally booked a 9D on the wonder last year thinking the corner rooms were going to be good ones. Once the ship came out though, we switched to an 8C - which is a great room.

We haven't had a balcony in January 2006 when we got our one and only upgrade. We usually book one of the SPH rooms on the Magic (5X22 - either side of the ship). We booked one on our first cruised and loved it, but choose to save the cash and go for oceanview.

We're hoping with so many rooms still open on our sailing that the "upgrade gods" will be kind to us and we'll get one. If not, at least we're on the ship and will have a great time nonetheless.

Hi Jeff - Another question from a newbie, if you don't mind....

Is it possbible for a person who booked last year in a regular room be upgraded. If so, when does that normally happen?

Thanks,

 

[Dizneycrazee]

i would be happy to share a table with you. We are in the first dining. It just the three of us. Me my hubby and dd 6.

Arggggh Kimberly that wouldve been fun, but we are on second dining, we always have to do that as we can never fit three meals in otherwise!!

We will let ourselves be at the mercy of disney

Bren

 

[JLDSMD]

Hi Jeff - Another question from a newbie, if you don't mind....

Is it possbible for a person who booked last year in a regular room be upgraded. If so, when does that normally happen?

Thanks,

No problem Mary, I never mind answering questions. Ask away.

To answer your question, it happens, not sure how much. All upgrades are by chance and based on availability. I don't think it matters how/what you booked, but it just seems like some of the IGT and OGT bookings have been getting upgrades lately. (now that I just jinxed myself out of one. Actually we're fine with any room and that is why we booked OGT because we at least wanted a window)

We had lightning strike once (our 3rd cruise) and went from a 9 to a 7 (that was before they had the letters - it would be a 9B to a 7A now).

Not sure what their philosophy is as to how they pass them out, but anything is possible. Just have to believe in Pixie Dust. LOL

 

[VeryBeachy]

Tracy - I would apply - your description sounds great.

You are so sweet Mary!

In that case, you can move on to the next level of the application..... the part where the dining companions promise not to ask "um, are you really going to eat that?" or mention that they just saw me through the window of Cove Cafe downing a venti cafe mocha (with a mountain of whipped cream) just hours ago.