How Does Princess Upgrade?

Does anyone know how you end up scoring an upgrade on Princess? I just want to see if we're in the running for that potential. We have a mini suite booked for the 10-day Coastal leaving Vancouver on April 11th. Would LOVE to be upgraded to a suite!

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

How upgrades are determined is an industry secret. Essentially, it is the need to fill the ship, which is determined by sales. If sales at the high level cabins are weak, people will get upgraded, and lower level/price cabins will be sold to get the ship filled at all costs.

But as each cruise sells differently, there is absolutely no way to predict who gets upgrades. No one will be able to tell you your chances of an upgrade. Virtually everyone would love a free upgrade- join the long line. But there is virtually no way to control your destiny.

There is a booking type called a "guarantee", shortened to GUAR or GTY. In this case, you book a cabin at the lowest level you will accept, and take your chances on an upgrade. As these low level GTY bookings are usually in the base cabin for that category (cheapest balcony cabin, for example), and there typically very limited numbers of cabins at that level (sometimes only 2) upgrades are common. But not promised. If you will to get a higher level for cheap, this is one way you increase your chances.

The only way to assure a suite, is to do what most people do-book and pay for one.

Does anyone know how you end up scoring an upgrade on Princess? I just want to see if we're in the running for that potential. We have a mini suite booked for the 10-day Coastal leaving Vancouver on April 11th. Would LOVE to be upgraded to a suite!

Experienced cruisers can always spot a poorly researched article on cruising when it mentions upgrades. As Bruce mentioned you can crapshoot a guarantee but the odds are more likely a poor location.

Truth is there are much of an free upgrade on a cruiseship as being plucked from economy seats on the airplane and put into first class.

FYI Many people fib about it being a free upgrade because they don't want their spouse to know how much they paid.

I agree with the philosophy of book the category cabin you want. we go further and book a specific cabin in the location we want and then mark our cabin "no upgrade desired." In the past, we have received upgrades....some were fine, but not always. On my first cruise, we were "upgraded" to right under the dining room and heard vacuuming late at night. definitely not an upgrade for us.

Does anyone know how you end up scoring an upgrade on Princess? I just want to see if we're in the running for that potential. We have a mini suite booked for the 10-day Coastal leaving Vancouver on April 11th. Would LOVE to be upgraded to a suite!

Upsell is often the more likely scenario with their top selling TAs getting first shot to query their clients with a price offer and/or request for a bid. Best deals go very fast.

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