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How the Heck Do You Get Upgrades???


tweeteybird88
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How the Heck Do You Get Upgrades??  

213 members have voted

  1. 1. How the Heck Do You Get Upgrades??

    • Book a Guarantee Cabin -- in the hopes of an automatic upgrade
      62
    • Just Ask!
      20
    • Cruise the Same Line Often -- loyalty perks
      26
    • Cruise Different Lines Often -- lines will court new passengers and offer upgrades
      5
    • I'm Feeling Lucky -- no rhyme or reason to it
      55
    • Get Cruise Line Branded Credit Cards -- offer perks like upgrades and onboard credit
      5
    • Book During Off Peak Times -- more likely to get an upgrade when ships are not full
      26
    • Take a Luxury Cruise -- all of those cabins are "upgrades" anyway
      14


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I recently got offered an upgrade from an ocean suite to a grand suite -- for $350. The cost would normally have been $800 more. I took it even though the suites are quite similar (same deck, doors apart). I just wanted to see what the grand suite is like!

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I chose 2 options....cruise lines perks and booking a GTY. Cruise line perks because I know of at least one line that lists upgrades as a loyalty perk (RCI). However, when those upgrades come available, usually about 2 weeks before the cruise, they start with the top cruisers. And on RCI the top cruisers have a lot more crusies than me (and you see how many I have :eek:).

 

The GTY seems to be a pretty standard way of increasing your odds on most cruise lines.

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We never check that we want an upgrade. Be careful - not all upgrades are a good deal.

 

We have had 3 upgrades out of 45+ cruises, all to suites, two arranged by our TA at the time.

 

One happened with when our TA promised an OBC, which we did not get, but got an upgrade instead to a full suite on HAL. Was wonderful on a 10 day cruise.

 

The second was another upgrade to a Sky suite on Celebrity, our TA got for us.

 

Then we got an upgrade to a larger balcony on Princess once which was nice on a Baltic cruise some years ago. It was the first cruise of the season, the ship was not full, so we were upgraded.

 

Once again, be careful though, upgrades under the pool are not good.

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  • 1 month later...

We booked 2 inside cabins about a year in advance on the Caribbean Princess that sailed out of San Juan back in December 2012. My wife and one son (age 23) we placed in one while my other son (age24) and I we in the other. About 48hrs before sailing I received an email saying my rooms were changed... to a full family suite! I went from the cheapest to the most expensive! We're still trying to figure out why, but all we can think of is that this was our (my wife and I) 6th Princess sailing, we booked a lot of shore excursions so they saw we weren't cheap. We also tend to treat our ship staff well at tip time. I'm thinking that they saw a better chance of filling the cheap rooms last minute than that big suite.

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  • 1 month later...
The system of upgrades is a closely guarded secret. No one has ever mentioned really knowing how it is done. Rumors have it related to demand for cabins- low demand in a higher level cabin will generate upgrades. But how they decide you get it, and I don't is closely held.

 

15 cruises, never a hint of an upgrade.

Have you been on the Ruby Princess?

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Hi,

 

We received two nice upgrades over the years. When we were traveling with our young children we were upgraded to a suite simply because, we were told, that we were a family of four. How nice of HAL!

 

The second time was more recent. It was on a river cruise and someone wanted to be near their friends and so wanted our cabin. They asked us if we minded being changed - we hadn't even checked in on the ship yet and of course we agreed. Aside from those two occasions we haven't been upgraded much to any degree except for promotions at the time of booking. We have booked Guaranteed Catagories and have received small upgrades maybe closer to mid-ship. However, the uncertainty of what we might get probably wasn't worth it. Gloria

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Been cruising sine 1982 on the Sitmar Fairsea and have never been offered a free upgrade. Have had at least one upsell opportunity each time but I don't do up sells. I book the cabin I want, in the location I want. I do not think there is any formula to the free upgrades and that it is dumb luck that you get an offer.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

We have been upgraded once, from a ocean view to a mini-suite (no balcony category on the ship). It was our honeymoon, which they knew, so I don't know if that played a part, and it was our second cruise through Princess/P&O Australia.

 

It was great, but pretty random.

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I recently got offered an upgrade from an ocean suite to a grand suite -- for $350. The cost would normally have been $800 more. I took it even though the suites are quite similar (same deck, doors apart). I just wanted to see what the grand suite is like!

 

For the sake of clarity, this is more accurately called an 'upsell'. An upgrade is no additional money. NOT to say it wasn't a great deal for you!! :)

 

 

You - along with most cruisers - missed the most obvious and easiest way to get an upgrade.

 

BUY ONE.

 

This method works nearly every time.

 

 

Works every time for us.

We buy the cabin we want and always get it. ;)

 

In the giant search for free upgrades, it is easy to forget there are actually some cruisers who book and pay for those cabins that others seek to get upgraded to for free. ;) We want to know in which cabin we will be staying and are willing to pay for it.

 

We understand how it works and make our choices but the goal for the cruise line, of course, is to get the most money they can for the cabins and even more particularly for onboard spending. When they give free upgrades, it is their juggling act to get all those guarantee cabins assigned.

 

 

 

Edited by sail7seas
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The most reliable way to get an upgrade is to pay for it. Other then that, there is no sure way.
Absolutely correct! The only way to guarantee a 'nicer' cabin is to book it and pay. Even though it's been many, many years since I took Economics 101, I still remember 'There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch'. Too many times I've seen comments here (read whine) along the lines of 'We got an upgrade - but we don't like the cabin'. :rolleyes: Edited by Mary Ellen
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  • 9 months later...

We got our first and only upgrade Jan 2012 on the Oasis. We booked a Crown Loft Suite, the day before they called and asked if we wanted to upgrade to a sky loft for $500. I said no thank you. When we checked in at the port they told us we were upgraded. We're Diamond members, they probably look at the past passengers onboard when they upgrade. They had no takers for that suite,( I hope I didn't get the suites confused!). The balcony was the size of a Grand Suite but it overlooked mini golf was a bit noisy.

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This is an old thread, but it's still relevant.

 

The only time I booked a guarantee, I received a whopping upgrade. This was during the economic meltdown. Disney decided to put one of its ships in Europe for the summer and forgot to do any advertising. :rolleyes: So, very few people knew about it. I booked an interior guarantee, with kids sail free, for an 11 night Med cruise. $50 pppn including taxes. I got a midship balcony. :D

 

I still see very good pricing on Med cruises. I went back to the Med last summer on HAL. This time it was $75 pppn, in their newest ship, but in an interior.

 

For me, it's not so much the space on the ship as it is being on the ship. If I wanted square footage, I'd stay at home and take myself out for dinner. :cool:

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  • 4 months later...

We were offered an upgrade once. We booked an inside cabin and two weeks before we were to leave, we were offered a mini suite if we would postpone our vacation for another month. We didn't do it, but it was a good deal if we could have. That was with Princess.

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We were moved once on a Celebrity ship.

They had moved us from forward to midship which is considered an upgrade, but we were NOT happy. We much preferred the location of our first cabin and our luggage didn't arrive until almost 8 pm the first night(and had to cancel our reservation in a speciality restaurant as we had only our traveling clothes). That experience alone is why we don't even look at Celebrity anymore.

 

 

Voted: go on a luxury line

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We took a Med cruise this past spring on HAL - booked a MM gty last June. Two weeks before the cruise we were offered an upsell to balcony cabin (don't remember which category) for $99pp and we took it. We thought we were getting a good deal. When we got to embarkation in Rome, we were told that we were told no mere balcony - upgrade to Neptune. WOW.

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