Guarantee Cabin
 

Hello,
Interested in thoughts on how best to choose a category for a cabin guarantee where you will be most likely to receive an upgrade. For those of you who have booked as a guarantee AND received an upgrade: What strategies did you use to choose a ship and category where you felt a guarantee would turn into an upgrade rather than ultimately receiving the same category that you booked?

Are there certain cruise lines which tend to upgrade guaranteed rooms more than others?

Did you receive more than a one category upgrade or is a one category bump the norm?

Are ships likely to upgrade you to a higher class as well as a higher category? For example of class, the Queen Mary has Brittania, Queens Grill, Princess Grill.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

The upgrade thing is often a scam. You can find a rate in the category you want discounted. You often get what you pay for. WARNING...when it comes to QE2 type of ships. Cunnard is big on the class game by assigning dinning rooms to original booking class....thus and a cabin upgrade does not include a dinning upgrade. If I was booking any of the Queen ships I would make sure I had access to the dinning room I wanted and not the mess hall. This is the only cruise line I know has this practice.

30 plus cruises I only tried a guaranty three times. On a transatlantic Celebrity cruise (where I am an Elite) - did not get an upgrade even though there were many empty suites available. On an NCL cruise (my first with them) - got a three category upgrade to a nice suite. Both times I booked a cabin category that I would be OK with (even if I got the worst location in the category) and I use a very well known and well liked cruise-only travel agent. On RCCL got a two category upgrade on my first cruise with them (before they bought Celebrity).

(On the Celebrity cruise I happened to be invited to the Captain's table for dinner on the second night. We hit it off so at the end of dinner I told him that I had gambled on the upgrade and it didn't pay off (the price of the guaranty was the same as the cabin category - sometimes it is less). I kind of joked about it with him; the next day the Hotel Director called and said that Captain has a nicer cabin for me. :). I moved.)

Some people think that upgrades go to first time cruisers with a line, to hook them. I don't know if it is true, although it was true with me.

On my fourth cruise with HAL, I booked a HH (fully obscured, lowest outside catagory) class guarantee and was upgraded C (nicer window cabin). My daughter and I are booked on another guantantee cabin in November-- this time we booked the very lowest inside guarantee- We'll see what happens.
However, I would not book a guarantee when I have particular desires- for example, this last May when traveling with all three of the children Tours and Mr. Tours, I wanted to be sure our cabins were located closely together and therefore booked the actual cabins by number.

I am not sure what is meant by "scam" when referring to guarantee cabins. You are "guaranteed" a cabin at least in the class booked or better.

One simple, probably obvious piece of advice: never book a guarantee for a category that contains any cabin that you wouldn't choose for yourself.

I've booked one guarantee and got an upgrade on it. My strategy was - ignore the upgrade and just book the cruise you want. You have no control over it anyway, so take what you get. I only booked the guarantee because there were con confirmed cabins left in the class I booked.

As a cruise consultant, unless there the client wants a specific cabin, a specific deck or a specific area on a deck. I always suggest taking a guarantee, you won't get anything less than what one has booked, and if you are booking an inside then any upgrade would be better. I have yet to have a client complain when they have taken a guarantee all of been quite happy and most end up with an Ocean View or Balcony.

Yeah i went on one without a gaurantee before and got the crappiest one they could find me.

We booked a guarantee and wound up with an upgrade, to an outside, handicap cabin. Not a great cabinin our opinion.

Not sure if this is going to be much help but...
Four cruises; so obviously no good status with anyone yet. Two moderate upgrades on our 3rd and 4th cruises.
1. Celebrity Millennium, Alaska. Booked the cheapest inside cabin we could get our hands on. Upgraded to an outside cabin. The only quirk was that we were near the front of the ship a few cabins away from a door that led into a technical area for the theater so there was a bit of traffic. The cruise was one of the first of the season so I think they had trouble selling out the cruise. I'm guessing they oversold the inside cabins just to grab pax and just upgraded whoever.
2. RC Liberty OTS, W Caribbean. Booked an inside guarantee via our travel agent. Somehow we got upgraded to an inside Promenade view which was nice. (Don't think it was our TA that got us the upgrade as she was on vacation leading up to & during our cruise and we had to deal with her backup for some issues.) Again, this was for a December sailing which I'm guessing wasn't full.