Guarantee Status vs. IGT/OGT/VGT

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

1. What category GTY cabin did you book? VGT
2. What category and room # did you get? 10526 05A (deck 10 forward)
3. How many days before the cruise were you assigned your room? 5 days
4. Are you happy with your assignment or do you feel like you got a "leftover?" Happy with the location, nervous about verandah overhang above but not enough to be unhappy (hoping it provides shade on hot days)
5. If you booked more than one room, are they close together? N/A
6. What ship are you sailing? Fantasy
7. What day of the week was your cabin assigned? Monday around 11:30am
8. What time of day was your cabin assigned? Morning
9. What month is your cruise? March
10. Castaway Club? Gold
11. How long ago did you book? 52 days before sailing (47 days ago)

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Finally got my room assignment

1. What category GTY cabin did you book? VGT
2. What category and room # did you get? 7544 05B (Deck 7 Forward)
3. How many days before the cruise were you assigned your room? 5 days
4. Are you happy with your assignment or do you feel like you got a "leftover?" Just happy not to be aft
5. If you booked more than one room, are they close together? N/A
6. What ship are you sailing? Fantasy
7. What day of the week was your cabin assigned? Monday around 11:30am
8. What time of day was your cabin assigned? Morning
9. What month is your cruise? March
10. Castaway Club? Silver
11. How long ago did you book? 87 days ago

Yay!! So glad we finally heard!! Hope you have a great trip!

 

[CapnCrunch]

Yay!! So glad we finally heard!! Hope you have a great trip!

You as well!

 

[n2mm]

Whew, finally.

 

[SleepyDeb]

Has anyone looked into how DCL handles the amount of cabins availablet for *GT?

I had too much time on my hands and my mathematician brain was getting antsy. I now have a spreadsheet of every “open” room on the Dream for our cruise as of today. I put quotes around open because they are only temporarily open. Some will get assigned to me and other VGT purchasers.

60% of the veranda rooms are Booked. At some point DCL is going to have to put the remaining verandas as only available as VGT or orly sell selected room for over $4000 more than VGT. The two ways of selling cabins does seem viable as the cruise gets closer. But what I know, this is my first *GT booking.

I plan on keeping an eye on the bookings over the next couple of weeks to see which rooms get sold. When the number of open cabins gets to something reasonable, I plan on looking up the room ratings to calculate the chances of getting a good cabin.

 

[Flossbolna]

Has anyone looked into how DCL handles the amount of cabins availablet for *GT?

I had too much time on my hands and my mathematician brain was getting antsy. I now have a spreadsheet of every “open” room on the Dream for our cruise as of today. I put quotes around open because they are only temporarily open. Some will get assigned to me and other VGT purchasers.

60% of the veranda rooms are Booked. At some point DCL is going to have to put the remaining verandas as only available as VGT or orly sell selected room for over $4000 more than VGT. The two ways of selling cabins does seem viable as the cruise gets closer. But what I know, this is my first *GT booking.

I plan on keeping an eye on the bookings over the next couple of weeks to see which rooms get sold. When the number of open cabins gets to something reasonable, I plan on looking up the room ratings to calculate the chances of getting a good cabin.

The issue with calculating open cabins is that the website does not show all open cabins, only a certain number of every category. So, theoretically there could be rooms that are not assigned to a booking but they appear white not blue.

 

[n2mm]

The issue with calculating open cabins is that the website does not show all open cabins, only a certain number of every category. So, theoretically there could be rooms that are not assigned to a booking but they appear white not blue.

absolutely. My last cruise I was OGT. There were very few cabins left. At the end we were assigned on deck 2 9B. Those rooms never showed open whenever I looked months prior. Almost everyone on our cruise who were also OGT were in the same location as us.

 

[SleepyDeb]

The issue with calculating open cabins is that the website does not show all open cabins, only a certain number of every category. So, theoretically there could be rooms that are not assigned to a booking but they appear white not blue.

Well, that changes the analysis! I guess I won't be able to put a circle around the possible staterooms we might get after all. Bummer.

 

[n2mm]

Well, that changes the analysis! I guess I won't be able to put a circle around the possible staterooms we might get after all. Bummer.

It’s best not to think about it. This is something no one can guess. I find myself looking often too. Last year we had 4 cruises booked gty. In April we got the best assignment of our cruising life. 4B. In September we got another great assignment for OV. 8A. In oct, pretty good 8A. November 9B which is a standard room. Keepin mind the rooms which were great were cruises with 2000-2500 onboard. November we had 3300 onboard. So if you’re on one of theDisney+ cruises, please set your bar very low because I’m hearing those cruises are FULL.

 

[CapnCrunch]

So if you’re on one of theDisney+ cruises, please set your bar very low because I’m hearing those cruises are FULL.

Can confirm. Just off the Fantasy PDaS sailing and it was a busy ship. We could tell the staff were struggling with the amount of people onboard.

 

[SleepyDeb]

It’s best not to think about it. This is something no one can guess. I find myself looking often too

But this has been my profession for 35 years, analyzing info and pinning down probabilities from what everyone else saw as random data. The rest of my industry thought we were a combo of geeky miracle workers and leaders of the business prevention department. However, I have to admit I don’t have enough data in this case.

We’re going on the Iceland cruise in July.

 

[Clarkson U]

Depends on the group. We always noticed TAs get theirs earlier. Florida residents and cast members also are in an earlier group, with us lonely general public (non florida residents) last and normally 10-14 before sail date. Not sure when military is assigned.

I am. FL resident and often don’t find out until 10 days prior to sailing on GTY roomz

 

[n2mm]

I am. FL resident and often don’t find out until 10 days prior to sailing on GTY roomz

I guess you hang out with us. My last 4 gty cruises the cast and florida residents have been getting assigned weeks before us. Though it also depends how last minute you booked too.

 

[n2mm]

But this has been my profession for 35 years, analyzing info and pinning down probabilities from what everyone else saw as random data. The rest of my industry thought we were a combo of geeky miracle workers and leaders of the business prevention department. However, I have to admit I don’t have enough data in this case.

We’re going on the Iceland cruise in July.

Yea, I’m always trying to figure out patterns too. Let’s call it my former job experience before I retired from the USG. After 30+ cruises, still can’t figure it out, I call it luck now. Some folks get fantastic rooms while others get standard rooms. Doesn’t matter if you’re first time or platinum/Pearl level.

 

[Clarkson U]

I guess you hang out with us. My last 4 gty cruises the cast and florida residents have been getting assigned weeks before us. Though it also depends how last minute you booked too.

I also wonder if some of this depends on the type of GTY or *GT booked and what DCL knows about bookings up to a certain point in time. For example, if they have a bunch of 7A GTY meaning you get 7A or better and they know that more 7A rooms sold than are available, might as well consider going ahead and assigning those another room like a Cat 5 room. Then maybe they take some of those that booked a Cat 5 room on GTY and consider upping them - not sure pure speculation on my part which never leads to good outcomes. They must have a formula and algorithm for this along with marketing and data that makes sense.

My son who is an Industrial Engineering student in Orlando and has gotten lectures from folks at Disney - tells me that for each day in the theme park, disney can generate up to 5,000 data points on you. Amazing when you think about it. From magic bands, to credit cards, to the App it is just madness to think about. He figures that all of this room assigning is done based on a lot of data points collected on prior cruisers and assumptions about new cruisers booking these rates. Definitely an interesting conversation.

I know on our upcoming May 5th sailing on the Magic - many folks already stated that DCL assigned them a room but we are still listed as GTY and I expect it to remain that way into late April.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Can confirm. Just off the Fantasy PDaS sailing and it was a busy ship. We could tell the staff were struggling with the amount of people onboard.

Interesting. We sailed the week before you on the Fantasy. While it was also a full ship I never noticed any signs of the staff struggling with the number of guests on board.

Where did you see this? Our experience was AMAZING!!

 

[CapnCrunch]

My wife and I still had a great time, there were just a few things we noticed, mainly during dining/Cabanas. We had an 11:30 PAT, and noticed how many first time cruisers were checking in versus only a handful of us moving to the CC silver/gold/platinum check-in area so maybe that was a contributing factor.

Cabanas just needed someone directing traffic. On our last day, (Castaway Cay day) we were a little late getting into port due to rough currents. We missed MDR breakfast so went up to Cabanas around 9:30. Cabanas was lined up into the pool deck (next to the sweets shop). We thought people were waiting to wash their hands but they were standing in line for food. Staff were trying to get things restocked (cups, plates, juice dispenser, etc.). We washed our hands before heading more toward the midsection and it was much less overrun by comparison.

Our wait staff, while great, seemed on edge and distracted most nights (we had late dining). I noticed our server constantly glancing around while taking our food order. Most nights, he wanted to take our entire order at once (appetizers all the way to dessert). We were using the app to order off the menu, which is normal for us, but we’re used to dessert orders happening after we finish our entrees. 2nd time through AP I ordered 2 appetizers (dill marinated shrimp and seared tuna, plus chicken schnitzel) and ended up with the chicken schnitzel and shrimp pasta. It was a bit loud that night, so probably just a miscommunication.

On night 2, our assistant server was moved to a different serving team. Not sure if we wasn’t there on night 3 because we did Palo, but he was back on night 4. We asked why and were only told he had to help a different serving team. On 3 nights (nights 2, 4 and 5) our head server reiterated how hard his team was working.

We noticed one of the white suits in our dining room 2 straight nights (nights 4 and 5) and asked our head server about it. He said that was his boss and was there to make sure that dinner was coming out on time. I’ve seen white suits pass through dining rooms before, but he was watching our rotation for 15-20 minutes for 2 straight nights.

Dinner just had an off vibe most nights until the last night and our service team seemed more relaxed.

At breakfast on Day 2 in Royal Palace, our server came out to apologize that our food would be a little slow out of the kitchen because of the big rush of people. It didn't feel like it took any longer than what we're used to in MDR breakfast, but the server just seemed overly apologetic for how long it was taking and brought an extra fruit plate and pastries to the table. Our order came almost immediately after he brought the additional food items.

 

[maui2k5]

Once a VGT rate sells out, does Disney ever offer more VGT rooms or once they are gone they are gone?

We were thinking about going on the Fantasy out of Port Canaveral in July for a 10 night cruise that we saw a 30% off rate yesterday for a verandah and now the VGT rate for four people is gone.

I figured that unless a lot of rooms are canceled once the VGT rates have been purchased, they’ve satisfied there need to fill the ship so they probably won’t offer any more.

 

[TooBoyz4us]

Hi all,
We are first time cruisers and have booked VGT for our upcoming June cruise on the Magic. We made the choice to book VGT because we spontaneously booked just a few weeks ago it saved us about $800! Reading this thread has helped answer a ton of questions I had, and it seems like many of you just keep your fingers crossed for a good end result. Thats where we seem to be as well.

 

[n2mm]

I miss when folks would post what they received. it’s really interesting to see how the last minutes assignments are given. I’ll post mine when received probably late June. Here’s a cut and paste to use.

1. What category GTY cabin did you book?
2. What category and room # did you get?
3. How many days before the cruise were you assigned your room?
4. Are you happy with your assignment or do you feel like you got a "leftover?"
5. If you booked more than one room, are they close together?
6. What ship are you sailing?
7. What day of the week was your cabin assigned?
8. What time of day was your cabin assigned?
9. What month is your cruise?
10. Castaway Club?
11. How long ago did you book?