omro1975

Why?

Not sure what that means?

No biggie, I still think your itinerary was an awesome one.

We'll likely spend a lot of time on deck, but since it was a bucket list cruise for a 50th birthday, we decided to splurge and go guaranteed balcony, rather than oceanview. I'm hopeful that we don't get an obstructed view, but at the same time, if we do, it won't be the end of the world. With the money we've saved, we can buy a whole new cruise. We're actually considering Alaska. Yes, we like glacial scenery.

We'd originally considered just getting the essentials of Norway, but since this is my partner's 50th birthday, we decided to upgrade this to a bucket list level.

Have you done it?

This is the itinerary. Day 1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands Day 2 - Cruising Day 3 - Geiranger, Norway Day 4 - Molde, Norway Day 5 - Cruising Day 6 - Honningsvag, Norway Day 7 - Tromso, Norway Day 8 - Arctic Circle (Cruising), Norway Day 9 - Flam, Norway Day 10 - Alesund, Norway Day 11 - Olden, Norway Day 12 - Bergen, Norway Day 13 - Cruising Day 14 - Amsterdam, Netherlands Your cruise looks like it was amazing. Your cruise also looks like it was sort of a repositioning. I think I'm paying the price for mid summer and the hope for better weather.

Cruises cost more in Canadian dollars.

Sorry, at the time of your post, I'd not actually detailed it fully. Sorry if that was repetitive.

Two adults, one child. Starts Amsterdam, July 5, 13 nights (my bad, I keep saying 12), up the coast of Norway and back, crossing the Arctic Circle. Jewel of the Seas.

I'm not remotely expecting an upgrade. My example was from a few years ago. I'm not sure if Royal Up even existed then. I don't ever recall being asked if I wanted to upgrade my cabin that trip.

It's an Arctic circle cruise up the coast of Norway.

You may very well be right. Extravagant spending isn't limited to newbies though. I'm sure every cruise line has stats on this.

As I understand it, they expect the ships to be full and there to be cancellations at the point of final payment, which tends to open up inventory. So they certainly hedge their bets there. Once you to the final payment section, all of the guaranteed rooms are assigned somehow and then the system can only sell what continue to be vacant rooms. Again, this is just how I have had this explained to me. If they sell every room in a particular class, so much so that there are a few guaranteed rooms needing to be allocated, then they move to the next class up to see if they can place you. While a class upgrade is incredibly unlikely, I have known someone to whom this happened. They booked a balcony guarantee and once they were onboard they actually got a junior suite. This is not something we're even remotely pinning any hopes on.

I can see what you're saying here, but loyal cruisers actually also more likely to return than a newbie, especially once they've built up status. For instance, we have friends who are newbies, they liked their cruise on Royal, they had a balcony, but they feel no loyalty, they just care about the itinerary and the bottomline cost. They're cruising with Carnival next. Once we have the status, with the benefits that provides, we're more likely to book again and again and again, rather than waste time and money building up status with another line. So, I actually think rewarding someone with status would actually make them more money in the long run.