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GTY Cabin Room Assignment


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I know I've seen this on here before (or maybe not), but when does Royal "generally" assign the cabin numbers for GTY (guarantee) cabins?  This is our first time doing a GTY cabin, which was originally booked in 2019 so I cannot remember what I was told or find the information.  Really just curious since my in-laws have a GTY cabin as well and will need sure they have a good feel for things before we set sail.  Thanks.

 

I fully expect things to be "different" due to the COVID situation, but looking for a general timeframe from the before times ?

 

 

 

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There is no set time when they get assigned, it varies for every cruise.

Royal can assign GTY cabins to optimize muster station capacity so they can open a cabin for booking that would otherwise need to stay closed.  Each lifeboat has a specific number of seats and the cabins that use that lifeboat can't exceed its capacity on an aggregate basis.   If a set of cabins have families of four that may fill a particular lifeboat "early" or maybe leave an odd number of seats so by mixing and matching GTY bookings it's like a tetris game where they can optimize muster stations.  

How this plays out for one muster station one week can be very different the next week so it all depends.  

It could assigned months before or literally the day of the cruise.  Friends in a GTY could get their assignment 3 months after you get yours.

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16 minutes ago, twangster said:

There is no set time when they get assigned, it varies for every cruise.

Royal can assign GTY cabins to optimize muster station capacity so they can open a cabin for booking that would otherwise need to stay closed.  Each lifeboat has a specific number of seats and the cabins that use that lifeboat can't exceed its capacity on an aggregate basis.   If a set of cabins have families of four that may fill a particular lifeboat "early" or maybe leave an odd number of seats so by mixing and matching GTY bookings it's like a tetris game where they can optimize muster stations.  

How this plays out for one muster station one week can be very different the next week so it all depends.  

It could assigned months before or literally the day of the cruise.  Friends in a GTY could get their assignment then 3 months later you get yours.

Thanks so much!

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10 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

The drawback to a guarantee which is hopefully offset by the savings, is that one will often be assigned a less desirable location for a given category. This is due to the desirable locations being previously selected by guests not receiving guarantee discount. 

We've done GTY cabins on Disney and never had an issue, we like the cost savings and since we are basically never in the room it seems like it a good idea.  We're "inside cabin" people for those savings, and then adding the GTY savings on top adds up and allows us to do more travelling.  We would probably be pickier if we only travelled once or twice a year, but we generally take about 8 trips (of varying lengths) sine our work schedules tend to be pretty flexible.

We don;t mind the wait for the room number, but my in-laws have asked me about a million times about it ?  They've cruised before so it won't be an issue with room location. 

We're also on an Oasis class ship, so I personally don't think there is a bad room location.  

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1 hour ago, Reigert2008 said:

I know I've seen this on here before (or maybe not), but when does Royal "generally" assign the cabin numbers for GTY (guarantee) cabins?  This is our first time doing a GTY cabin, which was originally booked in 2019 so I cannot remember what I was told or find the information.  Really just curious since my in-laws have a GTY cabin as well and will need sure they have a good feel for things before we set sail.  Thanks.

 

I fully expect things to be "different" due to the COVID situation, but looking for a general timeframe from the before times ?

 

 

 

Before MAR 2020, I kept a database (with lots of input from this fantastic board).  Below is the data (a small sample, but with some trends if you look at it).  My plan is to start up again (as soon as the sailing begin ... I should have said that louder ... AS SOON AS THE SAILINGS BEGIN! ... and they will).  A few observations:

1).  A few get assigned very far in advance.  These appear to be outliners (and the frequency may come down over time with more data).

2). Just over a month before there is an inflection point where almost half have their assignment set.

3). Almost all have been set 10-19 days before sailing.

4). All have been assigned by the time you board. ?

 

Stay Safe, Stay Apart, Stay Connected,

Curt from Canada

image.png.5bcdc44e8d776f8273fc3cf9643655cc.png

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11 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Nerd alert!
Seriously, thank you for sharing and your fourth observation is important.

I'm still laughing.  Thanks, I don't get a chance to do that lately.

It took me over 60 years to really understand my chosen profession (Engineering).  With that much training, "nerd" is now genetically encoded.

Curt from Canada

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24 minutes ago, Curt From Canada said:

Before MAR 2020, I kept a database (with lots of input from this fantastic board).  Below is the data (a small sample, but with some trends if you look at it).  My plan is to start up again (as soon as the sailing begin ... I should have said that louder ... AS SOON AS THE SAILINGS BEGIN! ... and they will).  A few observations:

1).  A few get assigned very far in advance.  These appear to be outliners (and the frequency may come down over time with more data).

2). Just over a month before there is an inflection point where almost half have their assignment set.

3). Almost all have been set 10-19 days before sailing.

4). All have been assigned by the time you board. ?

 

Stay Safe, Stay Apart, Stay Connected,

Curt from Canada

image.png.5bcdc44e8d776f8273fc3cf9643655cc.png

Thanks!  I feel like we could be BFFs ?  The thing i say to my wife the most and the thing she hates to hear is "So, I made a spreadsheet to...."

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56 minutes ago, Reigert2008 said:

We're also on an Oasis class ship, so I personally don't think there is a bad room location.  

We have had an ocean view guarantee twice on Oasis-class ships. If I remember right we were allocated our cabins within a couple of days after making final payment. On both occasions we were allocated one of the forward-facing rooms at the very front of the ship. I really like the layout of those.

On the second occasion, SIL & BIL,  who were travelling with us, were allocated a room on deck 3, in the middle of the ship, so bear in mind that booking together doesn't mean you will necessarily get rooms together.

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Yea I was going to mention two things, Royal Up which Twangster has covered here and also mention travel agent/other group blocks.

Basically Royal is overselling certain categories (ocean view/ocean view balcony GTY) the folks who purchased will be offered upgrade opportunities to bid for a Royal Up!  into a junior suite for example and the bids work themselves through Royal's algorithm until things even out and everyone has a room.  I remember this discussion from a few other threads, thanks for keeping track of our experiences @Curt From Canada!!

Seems that less and less often are these upgrades are just given to priority or status heavy members, but instead must be paid for/bid on.  For all we love about RC we all know the experience is more and more about the approach some call nickel and diming, Royal would call up selling additional revenue from you after you've booked the cruise.  If it wasn't working they wouldn't keep at it, must be fairly effective. 

So as mentioned, the other thing I've learned is that there are almost always blocks of rooms that we cannot see booking directly through Royal's website.  Travel agents (and maybe Casino Royale or other programs too?) have blocks on most sailings that are released back to Royal if they aren't sold by a certain date ? - that's probably in this same 2-3 week window when most assignments happen.  So that's a big +1 for using an established TA as well.  I have booked GTY before when traveling with just my wife, I probably won't again, the savings weren't that great on our cruise but like everything your mileage may vary. 

I had been doing the research for next year with a larger group of family - looking for 6 rooms close to each other (in a row, across the hall, etc) and there was nothing across any sailing I could find for Feb or March 2022 sailing out of FL, then called a TA we had used for this group in the past, she found several options for blocks we could choose from across different floors of different ships on the main cruise we had settled on and also on different cruises.  We were originally on floor 14 all six cabins together, but then moved down to 9 to be on central park and more mid ship etc etc.  We had options.  So the rooms are out there, it's just about which route you want to use to find them (and how much you do or don't want to be staying near the people you're traveling with haha)

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I noticed something interesting to my on my Lift n Switch from last month.  We had a GTY balcony room booked for April 20, we lift and shifted to April 21 and when I received my email confirmation I noticed now that I had an assigned room.  Don't know if this was done accidentally or if its the norm for a L&S move?

Our experience with GTY rooms in the past has been positive.

 

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44 minutes ago, Snowchaser said:

I noticed something interesting to my on my Lift n Switch from last month.  We had a GTY balcony room booked for April 20, we lift and shifted to April 21 and when I received my email confirmation I noticed now that I had an assigned room.  Don't know if this was done accidentally or if its the norm for a L&S move?

Our experience with GTY rooms in the past has been positive.

 

We had that happen with our L&S from November 2020 to November 2021.  Our TA said it made her pick a room, so she did and then had Royal lower the price back to the GTY price since the L&S was price protected.

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  • 9 months later...
9 hours ago, Luis said:

Just got assigned.  15 days out... and the barcode trick worked.

Spreadsheet updated thank you.  Actually, it was a big thrill to put in new data point in.  I checked and the last one I entered was on March 06, 2020 ... ugh.  Still, it was a thrill ... anyone and everyone send data.

And 100%, that bar code trick is brilliant.  Can't remember who suggested it first, but it is making the data gathering somewhat redundant.

Curt from Canada

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44 minutes ago, Curt From Canada said:

And 100%, that bar code trick is brilliant.  Can't remember who suggested it first, but it is making the data gathering somewhat redundant.

37 minutes ago, Marlena said:

Bar code trick?

A quick search for "bar code trick" took me to this post from quite a while ago. I'm gonna have to remember this for our upcoming Alaskan cruise this summer!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello.  Can anyone help me understand category definitions.  For example, we are looking at and interior room.   There is a more expensive room option with an interior window view of the promenade or central park, but within the interior room category.  Would the guaranteed best room mean the best room in the broad interior category, incuding the more expensive rooms with a view.  Or, is it more specific to just the best room, interior, no view?  Hope that makes sense.  And, thanks!!

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Guaranteed rooms are just a fancy term for saying that you didn't pick your own room.  They are usually cheaper but they are also the leftover rooms that no one else picked.  In general, that means they will not be best or most desirable rooms in the category.  That doesn't make them bad rooms, but they might be further from the stairs/elevator or they might be noisier because of their location and what is above or below them.

The only guarantee is that you have a room on the ship.  Also, in the event that they sell all the rooms in the category you booked, they promise to upgrade you to a higher category.  So if you booked an oceanview guarantee, you will get at least an oceanview room, maybe something better, but they will not downgrade you to an interior.  A guaranteed interior is already the lowest category so in theory you could get any room on the ship.  But you're almost certainly going to get a plain interior room.  There's a small chance of getting an interior with promenade or central park view.  There's almost no chance of anything higher than that.

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  • 4 months later...

This GTY thing...  It's never been an issue in the past, but now it's an issue every time.🥴

I am often offered comp rooms from the casino.  And I often take advantage of them. 

It's always been a non-issue, I call up to book the room, and I've until recently, been assigned a room, even allowed to choose a room.

 

Last couple times, I was told I'd have to wait for my room assignment once I've boarded.  But I was offered to upgrade and get an instant room assignment.  Okay, done.  I wanted a better room anyway.

 

I called to book two more cruises yesterday, and in both cases they gave offered only GTY rooms, but I could pay an extra 200-bucks and get an assigned room. 

Another ploy to make a buck, for them?

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2 hours ago, WAYNO said:

This GTY thing...  It's never been an issue in the past, but now it's an issue every time.🥴

I am often offered comp rooms from the casino.  And I often take advantage of them. 

It's always been a non-issue, I call up to book the room, and I've until recently, been assigned a room, even allowed to choose a room.

 

Last couple times, I was told I'd have to wait for my room assignment once I've boarded.  But I was offered to upgrade and get an instant room assignment.  Okay, done.  I wanted a better room anyway.

 

I called to book two more cruises yesterday, and in both cases they gave offered only GTY rooms, but I could pay an extra 200-bucks and get an assigned room. 

Another ploy to make a buck, for them?

Casino bookings don't get the best rooms. They allot so many to push for guest to spend money, but they aren't going to give them "quality" locations, hence the GTY options. 

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On 3/11/2022 at 2:55 PM, TessaS said:

Hello.  Can anyone help me understand category definitions.  For example, we are looking at and interior room.   There is a more expensive room option with an interior window view of the promenade or central park, but within the interior room category.  Would the guaranteed best room mean the best room in the broad interior category, incuding the more expensive rooms with a view.  Or, is it more specific to just the best room, interior, no view?  Hope that makes sense.  And, thanks!!

It could but you are best to assume you will get a plain interior cabin. 

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44 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Interesting b/c I once tried to book a GTY category (granted, it wasn’t an inside GTY.  A suite GTYi think) and they wouldn’t let me.

I believe the GTY option would only be interiors because they are most often the "free" option. I would imagine if you were paying to upgrade, they have access to better inventory. Maybe in the case they didn't want to do a suite GTY because it was available in their inventory.

 

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Not sure why this hasn’t been mentioned but you can usually find your cabin assignment as soon as you check in using the “bar code trick.”

Simply put your set sail pass in your Apple wallet (if you have an Apple device) or scan the bar code with another device. You will see numbers under the bar code. The numbers after the dash represent your cabin number. In rare cases it may change before it is officially assigned but not usually.

I knew my cabins for my current B2B 45 days out but they weren’t officially assigned until 16 days out. As soon as they were I was ready to have my TA move them but we won a small RoyalUp for one so she only moved the 2nd (we switched between halves).

Hope this helps.

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1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I believe the GTY option would only be interiors because they are most often the "free" option. I would imagine if you were paying to upgrade, they have access to better inventory. Maybe in the case they didn't want to do a suite GTY because it was available in their inventory.

 

No they do have GTY's for Suites as well but there is of course much less inventory at that level and once they've sold all their suite GTY's they will not offer or sale any more for the particular cruise.  When I first started booking suites some years ago I would alway used the suite GTY because it was a more affordable way to get into a suite.  I no longer do that now as we can now comfortably afford owners and crown loft suites but for those looking to get into a suite without having to do an upgrade the suite GTY is an option and can be a money saver but there are usually only a handful of suite GTYs offer per cruise.

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2 hours ago, JasonOasis said:

No they do have GTY's for Suites as well but there is of course much less inventory at that level and once they've sold all their suite GTY's they will not offer or sale any more for the particular cruise.  When I first started booking suites some years ago I would alway used the suite GTY because it was a more affordable way to get into a suite.  I no longer do that now as we can now comfortably afford owners and crown loft suites but for those looking to get into a suite without having to do an upgrade the suite GTY is an option and can be a money saver but there are usually only a handful of suite GTYs offer per cruise.

I was referring to Casino Royale inventory. I should have said that because they have mostly free interiors, they could be GTY. However, all the rooms can be upgraded so they probably won't have GTY rooms for things like balconies and suites. Royal will have GTY cabins until they sell enough at whatever price to fill the ship. 

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6 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Casino bookings don't get the best rooms. They allot so many to push for guest to spend money, but they aren't going to give them "quality" locations, hence the GTY options. 

My experience has been, I spend a lot of money in the casino, and I do in fact get premium room offers.  And I've never had to pony up to get a non-GTY room, until now.

This is a change from past practice, how it has applied to me. 

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9 hours ago, WAYNO said:

This GTY thing...  It's never been an issue in the past, but now it's an issue every time.🥴

I am often offered comp rooms from the casino.  And I often take advantage of them. 

It's always been a non-issue, I call up to book the room, and I've until recently, been assigned a room, even allowed to choose a room.

 

Last couple times, I was told I'd have to wait for my room assignment once I've boarded.  But I was offered to upgrade and get an instant room assignment.  Okay, done.  I wanted a better room anyway.

 

I called to book two more cruises yesterday, and in both cases they gave offered only GTY rooms, but I could pay an extra 200-bucks and get an assigned room. 

Another ploy to make a buck, for them?

I've booked @36+ cruises since October, 2021 with casino comps. I got one GTY balcony thus far. The others have been balconies/Suites wherever I wanted on the ship generally. I usually book 2 rooms (one under me, other under wife). It may change as the ships fill up. I have had 3-6 offers a month, for each of us, many that I can't use.

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/4/2021 at 9:46 AM, Curt From Canada said:

Before MAR 2020, I kept a database (with lots of input from this fantastic board).  Below is the data (a small sample, but with some trends if you look at it).  My plan is to start up again (as soon as the sailing begin ... I should have said that louder ... AS SOON AS THE SAILINGS BEGIN! ... and they will).  A few observations:

1).  A few get assigned very far in advance.  These appear to be outliners (and the frequency may come down over time with more data).

2). Just over a month before there is an inflection point where almost half have their assignment set.

3). Almost all have been set 10-19 days before sailing.

4). All have been assigned by the time you board. ?

 

Stay Safe, Stay Apart, Stay Connected,

Curt from Canada

image.png.5bcdc44e8d776f8273fc3cf9643655cc.png

Hi Curt from Canada,

Fellow Canadian here.  We booked our first GTY cabin back in March and your graph was very helpful.  When our cruise fell into the 10-19 days range, I began checking our booking daily to see if our cabin had been assigned.  Sure enough, 10 days out, we received our cabin assignment!  (I tried the "bar code" trick and it didn't work for me.)

BTW, I am a fellow "nerd" when it comes to spreadsheets as I actually created one to compare cruises to Hawaii from Vancouver, LOL.  

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/21/2022 at 3:15 PM, OCSC Mike said:

Not sure why this hasn’t been mentioned but you can usually find your cabin assignment as soon as you check in using the “bar code trick.”

Simply put your set sail pass in your Apple wallet (if you have an Apple device) or scan the bar code with another device. You will see numbers under the bar code. The numbers after the dash represent your cabin number. In rare cases it may change before it is officially assigned but not usually.

I knew my cabins for my current B2B 45 days out but they weren’t officially assigned until 16 days out. As soon as they were I was ready to have my TA move them but we won a small RoyalUp for one so she only moved the 2nd (we switched between halves).

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the hack information. I just got my room number from it 40 days out but I hope my room gets changed since it is right above the theater.

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11 hours ago, chipnut said:

Thanks for the hack information. I just got my room number from it 40 days out but I hope my room gets changed since it is right above the theater.

Once officially assigned, you can ask to switch to any available cabin in the SAME EXACT CATEGORY. If you used a TA, they have to do it. If you booked yourself, just call.

I switched my GTY cabin twice before my cruise last week.

NOTE: This applies to US bookings, other countries have different rules.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hiya guys,

We booked our first ever cruise yesterday for a 7 night Norwegian Fjords cruise on Anthem of the Seas! We're travelling as a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 'children' - they're 21, 18 and 16) across two cabins. We booked balcony guarantee cabins and, strangely enough, they've already been allocated to us, even though we're not travelling for another 230ish days and we've only just paid our deposit. 

Suffice to say, we completely understandable the conditions and implications of booking guaranteed cabins. We've been allocated one obstructed view balcony cabin on deck 6 and one generic balcony cabin on deck 11. We don't mind that the cabins are separated by a few decks, as the children are old enough and capable enough to not need to be nearby, nor that one of them is an obstructed view, but our main query comes through the muster points that we've been given with our cabins. Our children's muster point is at La Patisserie, whilst my husband and I are at Jamie's Italian. Of course, I know that the likelihood of anything going wrong is low, but even so it's scary to think that, should something happen which causes us to need to gather there, we won't all be together. 

My main question, therefore, was whether RCL could reallocate our muster points so that we're at the same point. I'm not too sure how muster allocation works in the first place, and whether there's any reason as to why we're in different locations, but if it was possible then does anyone know whether we should contact our travel agent to arrange this or if we should talk to RCL directly?

 

TIA :)

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