- When you book a cruise with Carnival, you are given the option of not choosing a specific room, but selecting the oceanview guarantee option. Selecting this option means your stateroom will have a view of the water. The catch to the program is that you have no control over what side or deck of the cruise ship you will be on. That is why they don't recommend the program if you are traveling with more than one room, because you could end up on opposite ends of the ship and different decks. You are taking a chance by not having a specific room--it can end with the room being really convenient or really inconvenient. But you are guaranteed a view of the water.
- There are definite benefits to the program. One of these is the chance that you will get a stateroom on an upper deck at a better value than just booking that stateroom to begin with. The later you book the room, the better the odds you will get an upper deck. Cruises tend to book from the bottom of the ship up, because the rooms on the bottom of the ship are less expensive. Lower-deck rooms are the equivalent of "economy" seats on planes. This means if all the lower-deck rooms fill up and you have chosen the oceanview guarantee option, you get upgraded to the upper deck.
- A distinct disadvantage of the program is the randomness of the room. You do not want to choose this option if you are traveling with other rooms.
You also take the chance that if the ship does not fill up, the cruise line will put you on the lower decks, but the odds are in your favor.
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