I have booked a 6a assigned room through my TA. She advise me to pick an assigned room over guarantee because we are traveling w/family of 5 and all in the same cabin. I am hoping for an upgrade but am confused about whether they will be available due to having a room assigned. Should I switch to 6A guarantee?

if you have an assigned cabin (as far as i know, you will NOT get an upgraded cabin):

If you are traveling as a family of 5 am surprised they put you all in the same room, anyhow, with 5 in a room, maybe an assigned cabin isnt that bad.

If you had a 6A guarantee you are guaranteed at least a 6A room, but there may be a possibility you may get upgraded.

For example, i was upgraded from a 6A guarantee to an 8B for a May sailing,

I have never been upgraded when I had an assigned room. I have been upgraded with haveing a guarantee several times. I believe the cruise line figures if you booked an assigned room you may want that specific room for some reason. JMHO

hey, fellow southbender!!
we originally booked an 8a cat. assigned cabin due to the same situation of having a family of 4 in one cabin and needing the quad sleeping arrangements. having never cruised before, i was very hesitant to book the guarantee and since you know you need to room for a family of 5, I would stick with your assigned cabin. Our TA was very helpful in leading us toward an assigned cabin, we were also wanting mid-ship so taking the guarantee is quite a gamble for me. Anyhow, 3 weeks prior to our cruise date we were informed by our travel agent that our 8a balcony cabin was upgraded to a cat.11 suite with no additional charge to us. we remain on the same deck however, but we were very pleasantly surprised by the upgrade. I would continue to keep in touch with your TA.

I went with the guarantee myself. Since they promise you a room of at least what you paid for what have you to lose. I paid for a room at the lowest level and price and was pleasently surprised to find out we were upgraded 4 floors at no extra charge. The only way you can lose is if when you book you have a choice of a room at a certain part of the floor you like (say the middle or front or back) and later you find yourself assigned a different part. Like I said we went from the lowest level to one of the highest level which would have cost me about $400 more up front. My travel rep told me that Carnival will upgrade early bookers who choose guarantee to unsold better cabins, then sell the lower cabins to the last minute bargain hunters.

dwhite759@aol.com

We did the same thing you are doing with 5 adults in a cabin on the Paradise. It was a bit cramped but we managed just fine. We booked a 6A guarantee and got put in a 6B. I have sailed on Carnival many times now and there is no difference in size between the outside cabins until you get up to the suites. The only diffence is how many floors you have to walk up.
Have a great time.