Free cruise want to upgrade

[lindleyjulie]

On The Volendam last october I won a free cruise, one week caribbean for two people(cant take the kids, shame) its an inside cabin and I wood like to pay to upgrade to a suite does anyone have any idea how much it will cost?

[ualtim]

Call the 800 number on the voucher. They can tell you what the up charges would be. We upgraded on a free cruise to an outside cabin and it was about $300 per person for the upgrade.

[jhannah]

I'm almost willing to bet HAL will use the full brochure rate as a basis. So it will likely be fairly pricey to buy up from an inside to a suite. Just be sitting down when they tell you. ;)

[cruisinjudy]

I won a free cruise 15 years ago and they would not let me add money to upgrade.I was told the cruise had no monetary value and so couldn't add money to it. With many phone calls however, I was able to move it from a Mexico cruise in the winter to an Alaska Cruise in the summer for our honeymoon! With the final person in Miami who I talked to I never mentioned money, just said how nice it would be if I could use it for my honeymoon as I was a teacher and couldn't travel in the winter, and I got the OK. We went with the inside.

[Lanson5]

We also won a cruise, and of course what we had won was an inside stateroom. When I contacted HAL to try and purchase an upgrade they told us that we would have to go through the TA that provided the certificate. I tryed a second time and explained that we were willing to pay, but again we were told that we had to go through the TA. The TA wanted to charge us big bucks. We actually could purchase a cruise on our own for less than what they wanted for and upgrade. We thought maybe after we got the documents, we'd give it another shot.

[VaCruzers]

We used Marriott points to book a cruise (not exactly the same as a "free" cruise, but similar I think) & the category that came with the points was a Cat G. We were able to upgrade to Veranda for $150 per person. With the points, you contacted HAL directly to make the booking & handle any upgrades. That might make it easier than the situation the OP has. Good luck!

[lindleyjulie]

Thanks everyone for your info, we won the cruise onboard after buying a lottery ticket so I guess I will only deal with HAL, at the end of the day we were in an inside cabin last time and were quite happy with that I just thought it would be nice to have a suite or a veranda as we were on our own and maybe even renew our vows, I will see how much the cost is with HAL, once again thanks.:)

[ROZO'SBEAU]

This just our experience (and I realize that others might have a differing view depending upon who answers the phone at HAL)...
DW won a cruise at bingo. Right away we asked on the ship if we were limited to a seven day Caribbean cruise inside cabin. We were told by more than one person, including he cruise director who endorsed the certificate), that it was most definitely up-gradable (is that a word?).
That meant we could go for more than seven days and also move up in cabin category. We were told that all arrangements had to be made through HAL in Seattle (special contact number to call).
We were looking at a specific date in November 2004 for more than 7 days. The HAL contact confirmed we could upgrade as promised....and she said we were not limited to Caribbean only...i.e., we could do Alska if it was available.
BUT, the biggest peice of advice she gave us was that the best value all around was to accept the original conditions....do not upgrade cabin....do not try to go on a 14 day cruise...it was not cost effective as we would end up paying more than if we booked straight up. It wouldn't be like we would be paying only half price for a 14 day cruise. Or to put it another way, this would not be a 50% off coupon. Likewise for cabin upgrades...the upgrade price would be more than the incremental cost you would pay from a straight or discounted booking.
We are contemplating a trip later this spring. HAL has told us we would be booked as a guarantee inside if we booked. Hmmmmm.....maybe that's where the upgrade fairy finds her candidates. We have not yet committed.
Hope this note adds to the knowledge base (or the confusion).
Beau

[lindleyjulie]

Thanks beau, you know I think really we should take this cruise for what it is after all as were from the UK we will have to pay air fare and I think you can go on for ever(well I can anyway DH doesent stand a chance) and we had a super time on The Volendam last october in an inside cabin, so yes I think we will take a western caribbean around this may, my only dilema now is which ship:eek:

[SharonN]

Well maybe I was lucky but here's my experience. I won the Cruise from Bingo last March on the Veendam. As normal it was for a 7 day Carribean Inside cabin and didn't include Port taxes or airfare. When they gave me the certificate on the ship they did tell me I could probably upgrade to an outside (I didn't ask them they just told me that). Anyway, we originally planned to just book the inside so it would really seem more "free". We decided to use it on the Westerdam in Jan (past) and so I called HAL direct at the Special Accounts number on the certificate last June. They were very helpful about the whole thing and when I asked about upgrading to an outside cabin she said she'd see what would work out the best. She spent quite a while entering things and trying them before coming up with an upgrade price of $176 each for a Guaranteed Outside Non-Obstructed. From what she said that was the difference between the Inside and the Outside based on the best prices she had that day. Seemed more than reasonable to me so I booked it that way. Several months later I noticed that the prices for the cruise I had booked had gone down especially on the Veranda cabins. So I decided just for the fun of it to call and see what the price of an upgrade would be. She was able to come up with $48 a person more so obviously couldn't turn that one down. So it turned out to be $224 each to upgrade to a Veranda which I think was a pretty good deal. I did not have any TA involved. So I'd suggest calling the special phone# directly and see what they say. Can't hurt to ask!

[lindleyjulie]

Thanks Sharon N it wont hurt to try it will it? I may get lucky and I will let everyone know how I get on.:)

[GroveGang]

Hi, We just booked for a Eastern Caribbean 7 day using a free cruise certificate. You can upgrade to whatever is available, but you can't do it through the main reservation number. Call HAL at 1-877-724-5425 and ask for Special Accounts. The are only open 8:30am to 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

You will need to know what cruise you want and what catagory of cabin you desire. They were very nice and will do the air and everything if you ask.

You will need to send your certificate to them via mail, so make copies of it and send it Certified Mail so you know it gets there. Give yourself some extra time, since you are dealing directly with HAL and it takes extra time for processing and actually getting your travel documents.

Have a great trip ....

[lindleyjulie]

Thanks GroveGang I will give them a call.:)

[gwilli]

We just came off of our free cruise from last year. We upgraded a 7 night Caribbean to a 10 night Caribbean. It was a real problem, and we got a terrible price for the upgrade. I was to cheep to give up the free cruise, so we paid the difference - with a "fight". I mailed HAL printouts from their website to show what the amount of credit we should get - which didn't happen. They offered us a price and we took it - but didn't save what a 7 night cruise cost! GOOD LUCK!

[ROZO'SBEAU]

GWILLI's experience confirms the story I got from HAL when I asked about upgrading. The person who answered the phone at HAL said to take it as is....it was the best deal we could get.
BEAU