Guarantee Suite

[Leroyr55]

So this is my first time reserving a guarantee suite. My only question is how does Royal notify you where our cabin is. I understand you may not find out til the day of your cruise also. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

16 minutes ago, Leroyr55 said:

So this is my first time reserving a guarantee suite. My only question is how does Royal notify you where our cabin is. I understand you may not find out til the day of your cruise also. 

I booked a suite guarantee for my upcoming Symphony cruise (Dec 8).  I discovered that a nice JS had been assigned the same day our cruise docs were available.  They never notified me.  I just happened to notice that there was a room number on the website where previously only GTY had appeared.  It is also noted in my cruise docs but I saw it on the website before I looked at my cruise docs.

I had a suite guarantee booked for a Jan 2025 Enchantment sailing and managed to get that room number months earlier than I did with the SY sailing so there’s really no rhyme or reason to when those assignments are made and published.  It’s a coin toss.  With the Jan EN booking I was actually able to change my JS to a different one.

[Ampurp85]

Truthfully, has Royal ever notified you in regard to GTY, regardless of whether it is a suite or not? I always had to find my room out through the barcode or updates on the app/CP/cruise documents

I guess technically if you get an email from a concierge, you will have notification . 

[JasonOasis]

We just did a suite guarantee on our Symphony cruise, we had something come up luckily we found out about it early enough (mid-summer) and needed to be back in Chicago for an event this week and had to give up our transoceanic cruise.  I wasn't about to spend 2 weeks on land while on vacation so we switch our ship an sail over to Symphony and all that was left on our November Symphony cruise was the suite guarantee, ocean view, or inside cabin.  We went with the suite guarantee. 

Most likely you are simply going to end up in a junior suite even if it is showing zero availability revenue management knows how many rooms they have available and how many they've sold.  Royal assigned us our JS around 3 weeks prior to our cruise.  They don't email you or call you, all they do is update your reservation, how you find out is by checking your reservation.  In the past when I use to use suite guarantees a lot more than I do now I found they wouldn't assign me a room until at least 4 weeks prior to embarkation, I've even experienced where I wasn't assigned a suite until the week of departure.  However, there have been people on this site who stated they've been assigned their stateroom much earlier than 4 weeks out.  My advise is keep checking another bit of advise is if you're hoping for something more than a junior suite and they have other suites available pay for the upgrade, the chances of a suite guarantee netting you someone more than a JS nowadays given how popular cruising has become is slim to none.

[Leroyr55]

On a follow up note I just checked our cruise and all suites are listed as sold out. So I’m assuming since I don’t have a cabin yet they hold some back? This is January on Odyssey.  

[smokeybandit]

12 minutes ago, Leroyr55 said:

On a follow up note I just checked our cruise and all suites are listed as sold out. So I’m assuming since I don’t have a cabin yet they hold some back? This is January on Odyssey.  

Yes, rest assured your GTY is accounted for.

[Ampurp85]

I would call and maybe they can assign your suite now. I had issues with the Black Friday sale and had to call in because it triggered a balance due and the reverted my suite gty back to the interior gty I started with. It was a casino comp, for an Oasis sailing in Jan. There are only a 1br at and a star class cabin left, she assigned my suite for the trouble. Since your sailing is sold out they could assign yours.

[WAAAYTOOO]

32 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I would call and maybe they can assign your suite now. I had issues with the Black Friday sale and had to call in because it triggered a balance due and the reverted my suite gty back to the interior gty I started with. It was a casino comp, for an Oasis sailing in Jan. There are only a 1br at and a star class cabin left, she assigned my suite for the trouble. Since your sailing is sold out they could assign yours.

Wow….thats scary !  So glad you were able to get it fixed quickly….and that they assigned your suite.  That’s making something good from something REALLY bad.

[Zenra]

50 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I would call and maybe they can assign your suite now. I had issues with the Black Friday sale and had to call in because it triggered a balance due and the reverted my suite gty back to the interior gty I started with. It was a casino comp, for an Oasis sailing in Jan. There are only a 1br at and a star class cabin left, she assigned my suite for the trouble. Since your sailing is sold out they could assign yours.

Did you call to change your casino offer and pay a difference or how did that work? I have an OV comp I'm using in March and was wondering about upgrading it to a suite, etc. but I've never done so, new territory for me.

[Pattycruise]

1 hour ago, Zenra said:

Did you call to change your casino offer and pay a difference or how did that work? I have an OV comp I'm using in March and was wondering about upgrading it to a suite, etc. but I've never done so, new territory for me.

You go online and do a mock booking

 find the value of the ov (as a “you pick” if your comp was not for GTY) then find the price of the cabin you want to upgrade to, you pay that difference.  It helps if you know the cabin # and just provide it.  I’ve had the agent on the phone quite me for the more expensive balconies, when I tell them the actual cabin I’m interested in they can suddenly see the price of the less expensive balconies.  It’s a miracle!

[Zenra]

42 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

You go online and do a mock booking

 find the value of the ov (as a “you pick” if your comp was not for GTY) then find the price of the cabin you want to upgrade to, you pay that difference.  It helps if you know the cabin # and just provide it.  I’ve had the agent on the phone quite me for the more expensive balconies, when I tell them the actual cabin I’m interested in they can suddenly see the price of the less expensive balconies.  It’s a miracle!

Thanks - I appreciate the info!

[AndrewOfTheSeas]

I upgraded from Interior to Balcony, added 2 kids on Casino Comp for a 9 Nighter out of Tampa for $1000.

A couple weeks later on the website a GTY Suite became available, difference in the cost online was another $1000, so i paid that and double upgraded and added kids, so total for the cruise for 4 of us was only $2000 for a suite (plus the casino comp).

Previously, only pickable suite cabins were available for suites, and the upgrade was $5000, so i'd recommend keep checking, and if that GTY Suite pops up, or prices drastically reduce, you're in for an awesome saving!

[Ampurp85]

11 hours ago, Zenra said:

Did you call to change your casino offer and pay a difference or how did that work? I have an OV comp I'm using in March and was wondering about upgrading it to a suite, etc. but I've never done so, new territory for me.

This was my annual prime cert, I originally asked about the upgrade cost, and they were high, she quoted me $4k for JS GTY. I kept stalking the website as I actually want a CLS but the upgrade was close to $5k with the comp. I waited until after all the hurricanes happened and the prices dropped dramatically. They had a full suite GTY for less than $2k, I knew I was still going to only get a JS since it's Oasis class but a JS for what came to about $2200 with taxes and fees was a steal.