GTY - tell me about it!

That's a *GT discounted rate.

Regular category GTY such as 4B GTY or 11A GTY are not discounted, and in fact with tiered pricing are higher priced than those who booked the same category before you. These are offered when a certain percentage of a staterooms in a category are booked, allowing DCL some flexibility to assign staterooms. There is no particular benefit to GTY other than you are guaranteed the booked category or higher.

The *GT rates (IGT, OGT, VGT) are highly discounted rates with restrictions. Similar in that you allow DCL to assign a stateroom in the broad category or higher. But includes restrictions such as no changes or cancellations.

Are the IGT, OGT, VGT rates only shown when cruises aren't full? I don't recall seeing those categories online but then again I normally booked on the ship and transferred to a TA so I didn't need to shop much online.
 
Are the IGT, OGT, VGT rates only shown when cruises aren't full? I don't recall seeing those categories online but then again I normally booked on the ship and transferred to a TA so I didn't need to shop much online.
They are only shown when DCL feels the need to discount a cruise -- so generally speaking, yes, only when a cruise isn't full. There might be an OGT on one cruise, none for the next cruise, and offering both IGT and VGT for the next. Not all cruises offer the *GT rates, and they didn't used to show up until after the PIF date for the cruise.
 
That's probably true in practice, since, as others have said, upgrades are rare. There was a thread a while back tracking GTY rooms assigned and almost everyone got the same category, or same room type in a slightly higher category (e.g., a higher floor). They automatically go to GTY when there are just a few rooms left in the category, but they don't sell more GTY than there are rooms available in that category. I'm not sure why some GTY people get upgrades, but I suspect it may happen if they come up on the limit for the muster station for the remaining rooms in your category after everyone else in that part of the ship is booked.

The point is DCL does have the right to move you out of an extended verandah category since GTY rate terms include the ability for DCL to move you to what DCL considers a "higher" category (whether or not you view that as an upgrade).
What I have heard (so take with a grain of salt) is that Disney does this to allow flexibility if last minute they need to accommodate handicap accessible rooms or additional sleep spaces, and that the people who get upgraded are because the handicap accessible rooms were needed.
 
Exactly! An extended balcony is a 5E, so there is Concierge and the category 4 cabins above it. I wouldn't consider a smaller verandah an upgrade. Concierge, yes!

From what I have heard, even if they upgrade you into a concierge cabin, they do not extend concierge access. Hopefully someone will correct me if that is wrong..!
 


The benefit is you got a cabin on a sailing that is booking out very fast or close to being sold out in your catagory. The drawback is you can’t pick where your room is. Which basically sucks. We prefer deck 10 just off of the elevators. When we booked the wish we only were able to get GTY. Didn’t save us any money either. The only benefit is if you’re super lucky, which doesn’t happen often you just might get upgraded. Though for many the location of their upgrade is worse than their original category location had they been able to choose.

maybe someone knows more than we can comment but I’m really surprised on how many GTY rooms they have. Are they really over booking a lot? A good reference sailing Are the Hawaiian ones. In our FB group it seems like half the cruise GTY rooms. You think they would let more choose their location.
 
From what I have heard, even if they upgrade you into a concierge cabin, they do not extend concierge access. Hopefully someone will correct me if that is wrong..!
That would make sense but haven’t ever heard of anyone GTY getting put in concierge as GTY is assigned weeks in advance and usually any vacant concierge gets held open to be offered for paid upgrades at the port.
 
maybe someone knows more than we can comment but I’m really surprised on how many GTY rooms they have. Are they really over booking a lot? A good reference sailing Are the Hawaiian ones. In our FB group it seems like half the cruise GTY rooms. You think they would let more choose their location.
A category shifts to GTY once a certain percentage of rooms in that category are booked. Not because DCL is over-booking them. The HI cruises sold out quickly so most if not all categories hit GTY early. Then when people allowed an initial hold to drop or later cancelled, it stays GTY. So I'm not surprised HI would seem like a lot of GTY.
 


maybe someone knows more than we can comment but I’m really surprised on how many GTY rooms they have. Are they really over booking a lot? A good reference sailing Are the Hawaiian ones. In our FB group it seems like half the cruise GTY rooms. You think they would let more choose their location.
The Hawaiian cruises are probably Disney's most popular cruises and they sell out quickly. Rooms go into GTY status when there aren't many left in the category, so you see a lot of that for Hawaiian cruises because those rooms are getting booked up quickly. I don't think a lot of overbooking goes on with DCL, because people sailing in GTY typically get the same category of cruise they paid for. Disney rarely does upgrades.
 
what are the benefits of bookimg a gty room? Are upgrades usual?

For regular GTY the only benefit is that you can book a room category that is otherwise sold out. It isn’t a choice between a specific 11b room or gty for example. If 11b is almost sold out you can either choose gty or you have to pick a different room category. There is no discount and upgrades are unlikely.

For GT, ie guarantee restricted the advantage is that you get a discount and you could get any category within the larger room type. So IGT could get an 11c but could also get a 10a, etc. BUT with GT you can’t cancel and get a refund.
 
From what I have heard, even if they upgrade you into a concierge cabin, they do not extend concierge access. Hopefully someone will correct me if that is wrong..!
We were actually upgraded from a 4a GTY to a veranda concierge room for our April 2020 sailing reservation a week before they canceled all the DCL sailings. We were so sad as that would probably never happen again. We got a call from the concierge team to let us know we were being upgraded, we already had all our mixology, palo and other reservations already set but they would have booked for us so I assumed we would have had full concierge benefits, but never got the chance to find out.
 
We were actually upgraded from a 4a GTY to a veranda concierge room for our April 2020 sailing reservation a week before they canceled all the DCL sailings. We were so sad as that would probably never happen again. We got a call from the concierge team to let us know we were being upgraded, we already had all our mixology, palo and other reservations already set but they would have booked for us so I assumed we would have had full concierge benefits, but never got the chance to find out.
What a bummer that is!
 
We have had no luck with several DCL GTY bookings. Never again. We always were assigned horrible locations, no upgrades whatsoever. I would never book another GTY cabin with DCL. Maybe others have had good luck, but it is not worth taking a chance, IMHO.
 
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We have had no luck with several DCL GTY bookings. Never again. We always were assigned horrible locations, no upgrades what so ever. I would never book another GTY cabin with DCL. Maybe others have had good luck, but it is not worth taking a chance, IMHO.
That’s definitely something to keep in mind. Some categories on DCL are split with some rooms far forward and some far aft, so if you have a strong preference, best to pick your own room. For example, if booking the Fantasy we would avoid anything that could wind up being far aft because that ship has a bad vibration problem in some rooms. We don’t mind aft so much on other ships.
 
so if we booked a GTY Extended Balcony, we could be 'upgraded' to a regular sized balcony on the port or starboard? That to me is not an upgrade. I really wish we could have booked with an actual stateroom number instead of GTY. Our cancelled May cruise we were able to, but when we rebooked to September, it was only GTY.
I really, really hate GTY. I want to pick my stateroom. That is one of the perks of sailing. We like the aft portion of the ship and don't want to just get assigned a room. Unfortunately, I noticed a trend of only GTY rooms available for certain room categories. I don't like it.
 
I really, really hate GTY. I want to pick my stateroom. That is one of the perks of sailing. We like the aft portion of the ship and don't want to just get assigned a room. Unfortunately, I noticed a trend of only GTY rooms available for certain room categories. I don't like it.
So agree with you there!
I was looking at February sailings and noticed every day I looked at, 4e were all GTY and I couldn’t find any where I could book 5e/4e (as 5e is now part of the 4e category due to the reclassification) and choose my room. I know these are popular due to the extended Verandah, but I was certainly wondering if DCL was just making these GTY only going forward.
 
So agree with you there!
I was looking at February sailings and noticed every day I looked at, 4e were all GTY and I couldn’t find any where I could book 5e/4e (as 5e is now part of the 4e category due to the reclassification) and choose my room. I know these are popular due to the extended Verandah, but I was certainly wondering if DCL was just making these GTY only going forward.
No, it’s just been a long time since the February 2022 cruises went on sail and there is a lot of pent up demand from all the cancellations and FCC. When they release new inventory, nothing is GTY until it starts selling up.
 
Other reasons I won't go GTY, and this is all from experience: They will assign you a connecting cabin, which we don't want. Or, put you sharing a wall with elevators. Nothing like hearing the elevator noises 24/7. Or, give you a handicapped room when you don't need it. It was a bigger room but I didn't like the roll-in type of shower. All this and we are platinum, so I really don't think DCL gives any consideration to that at all.
 
Other reasons I won't go GTY, and this is all from experience: They will assign you a connecting cabin, which we don't want. Or, put you sharing a wall with elevators. Nothing like hearing the elevator noises 24/7. Or, give you a handicapped room when you don't need it. It was a bigger room but I didn't like the roll-in type of shower. All this and we are platinum, so I really don't think DCL gives any consideration to that at all.
Yep—when it goes GTY, there are only a few rooms left in that category, which means that all guests who did choose a room in that category chose NOT to book those rooms. Could be because the rooms were in a noisy location, are the furthest room in that category from any elevator (we got one like that), or were handicap accessible and thus not bookable for most guests. Has nothing to do with Disney choosing a bad room, it’s because other guests chose all the good rooms.
 
No, it’s just been a long time since the February 2022 cruises went on sail and there is a lot of pent up demand from all the cancellations and FCC. When they release new inventory, nothing is GTY until it starts selling up.

I looked at the Wish all the way out to Sept 2022 and all of those rooms are GTY. They know what rooms are left and they choose to put the remaining rooms GTY for some reason. They never used to do that. I won't sail if I can't pick my room. I want to be comfortable, and for me, that means picking a room on the deck and part of the ship that I want. I don't see that as strange or unreasonable. Why change the way it has been done forever. I can see having 1 category of GTY, but to ONLY have it, I don't agree with. I know why they do it, but it comes down a worse experience IMO.
 
I looked at the Wish all the way out to Sept 2022 and all of those rooms are GTY.
The partial-season of the Wish that was just released was extremely popular - moreso than any other release that I've observed in the past decade. Combined with all the FCCs out there plus the pent up demand, I'm not at all surprised those cruises have reached GTY.
 

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