Choose stateroom assignment: Let them choose or pick your own room

[PaulRC 96]

OK looking for input on this.   What you do When we booked the cruise we chose "We pick your room", We being RCL,  because it was around $400 cheaper. We have a guaranteed ocean view balcony.  The prices have changed and the difference is now only $141 for fwd or aft, and $170 for mid ship.  I have never let them choose the room and am not sure, but I do know that on the Allure OTS there are no obstructed ocean view balconies so there is that.   

Your thoughts

Thanks 

[USFFrank 209]

It's a roll of the dice with guarantee rooms. If you're OK with possibly being in the let's say the extreme far rooms (upper corner or bottom corner) especially in order to save $400, then go for it. Sometimes (but not all of the time, however it did work for me) if you can pay off the cruise sooner rather then later, they'll assign you a room shortly after. You just have to keep checking to see if and when it happens. If that happens you may be able to get that room changed to another balcony for no charge if you're not to thrilled with what they assigned you.

Should I book a guarantee stateroom on a cruise? | Royal Caribbean Blog

[teddy 627]

My thoughts:  

 

If you truly don’t care where your room is, let them assign you. 
 

If there is any little voice in the back of your head saying, “Yea....but”, pick your room yourself. 

Disclaimer: We do guaranteed rooms as long as it’s cheaper.   

[TXcruzer 319]

A $141 difference is not enough incentive for me to take a guaranteed room, I would call and switch

[sk8erguy1978 1,068]

Every one has different vacation budgets, that's what is great about cruises, they can accommodate most of them.

Even at $400 difference I'd want to pick my own room, at $141 (actually $170 I'm a midship guy) it's a no brainier for me. That's because I can afford it and don't like to gamble with guarantee category.

If you can still afford the cruise comfortably and not have to cut out a "must do" to get the room, do it. However, if it comes at a sacrifice, think about how much time you spend in the room and if it's worth it to you.

[ChessE4 743]

I don't really think it is about the $$, but your enjoyment of the cruise.  That is, if you can get the room type you want at a fair price, do it.  That has been our strategy.  We have learned to get better prices by booking well in advance, but we certainly don't think a $100 here or there would make a difference to our lifestyle.  I still regret not paying $300 extra per ticket to fly non-stop to London, choosing a cheaper method that almost caused us to miss our cruise.  Having this airline experience behind me, I approach cruise pricing looking for a fair deal but not a "killer price".  We have still managed to save $$ in the long run. So I vote for picking your room if location is important to your cruise enjoyment.

[WannaCruise 913]

We did this twice when you could select guarantee as refundable.  Both times they assigned up front of the ship.  Once we got our room, I just called in and could move it to any other available stateroom in the same category.  Forward and Aft are same code so we moved it to a more ideal spot in aft.

We won't select it now as you can no longer book guarantee as refundable, but if you could, we would have no issue doing so as long as there were a lot of rooms available (and we were booking a single room for our family).

[kc1968 10]

We booked an XB (guaranteed balcony) on quantum sailing in Jan, but after having done some research, on advice on many avid cruisers out there, decided to call in and RCI helped us pick a midship stateroom for a small fee . Also cancelled a more expensive VOOM package and repurchased at cheaper prices for black friday on advice from GregD here. Pretty chuffed with our arragements so far  thanks to all those who shared !

[PaulRC 96]

I ended up taking the advice of the majority and got to select my room for only $124 during the BF sale.
Thanks y'all for your input