surprise "upgrade" that we didn't want

[kathi]

How much before your cruise were your cabins moved?

 

[brentm77]

Just to clarify a common misunderstanding...

At the time you book and select a stateroom, there is no GTY available. GTY rates come out after a certain percentage of staterooms in a given category have been booked and selecting a stateroom in that category is no longer offered. The GTY rate may actually be higher than what most guests paid. So the statement above is essentially suggesting that DCL charge more for a rate that wasn't available when people booked. DCL is moving people to the same or higher stateroom category as they booked -- so if you booked a 4B you'll be in a 4B or 4A room (or concierge).

I think you are confused with the more generic but discounted and restricted *GT rates, which allow DCL to assign any interior, oceanview or verandah stateroom. While discounted off the prevailing rates, it may not be less expensive than opening day rates for those who booked early. *GT aren't offered on every cruise. If you want everyone changed to a *GT rate, it's a broad category so a 4B could be bumped down to a 4C or even a 6A.

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I could have sworn that when booking through Costco in the past, I was given the option of picking a room at a higher rate or have one picked for me at a lower rate as a GTY. But maybe it was different room categories where some had sold out. Or just a false memory.

In any case, I would be pretty frustrated. We are very careful about picking locations based on noise levels, hall traffic, etc. A lot of thought goes into it and I feel for the price DCL charges, it should be doing better than just moving people without any discussion or even an email.

 

[anricat]

How much before your cruise were your cabins moved?

My cruise is in 29 days. Room was moved last week so a little over 30 days out. I didn't know until I went to do my online checkin. No email to TA. No email to me.

 

[anricat]

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I could have sworn that when booking through Costco in the past, I was given the option of picking a room at a higher rate or have one picked for me at a lower rate as a GTY. But maybe it was different room categories where some had sold out. Or just a false memory.

In any case, I would be pretty frustrated. We are very careful about picking locations based on noise levels, hall traffic, etc. A lot of thought goes into it and I feel for the price DCL charges, it should be doing better than just moving people without any discussion or even an email.

On the one hand, it would have been nice to have a little "hey, we have to move you, do you have a preference?" type of contact. But I can see where they are moving so many people around, that's just not feasible from the perspective of the work involved in that. Still, some kind of email notification would have been nice. We got nothing which seems sort of lame. And I just sort of noticed it offhand when I was checking in. Of course, my 13 year old noticed it right away when she looked at the boarding document, "HEY!! WHY ARE WE ON DECK 6!!" Ah, teenagers. LOL. I should tell her she'll be closer to Edge this way.

It would be nice to have the option to upgrade for, perhaps not free (though one person on my cruise did get this as I mentioned upthread), but maybe for a discounted rate akin to what we might see when upgrading at checkin at port? The ship isn't full so I don't see why this wouldn't be an option they could offer. We will try to see what we can do at the port but we're driving (about 4 hours) and I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn just for the chance of an upgrade. We chose a noon PAT so the chances are going to likely be slim by then.

 

[anneeb]

We just got off the Disney Fantasy on 10/16. The first seven night cruise since Covid started. Unfortunately, we had to quarantine due to a close contact exposure in the kids club our daughter had with another child who had tested positive. The quarantine floor was floor 2. I strongly suspect based on our personal experience that they are keeping part of floor 2 for situations like we were in. Disney was amazing during the entire situation. We absolutely would cruise again (but would avoid kids club). Luckily it was only on the last day (after all the kids under 12 were tested).

I'm so sorry to hear you had to quarantine. Do you know how they defined which kids were a close contact and needed to quarantine? I'm just trying to anticipate how to minimize the chance of that occurring. Avoid the kids club altogether?

 

[anricat]

I'm so sorry to hear you had to quarantine. Do you know how they defined which kids were a close contact and needed to quarantine? I'm just trying to anticipate how to minimize the chance of that occurring. Avoid the kids club altogether?

The whole story plus photos are in this thread here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...low-status-with-the-cdc.3851840/post-63474335