Any way to upgrade without Early Saver?

[erin327]

We booked a cruise for May a few weeks ago. We booked too late to have the option of booking early saver. We have an inside cabin. There is a sale going on now where a balcony cabin is basically the same price we paid for an interior. Is there any way for us to upgrade? A call to the general Carnival number gets me the answer that no. We can't upgrade or in any way take advantage of the current rates because we are "in penalty" which apparently means that it is too close to the date of our cruise. Any other way to be able to take advantage of this sale?

[stargate fan]

We booked a cruise for May a few weeks ago. We booked too late to have the option of booking early saver. We have an inside cabin. There is a sale going on now where a balcony cabin is basically the same price we paid for an interior. Is there any way for us to upgrade? A call to the general Carnival number gets me the answer that no. We can't upgrade or in any way take advantage of the current rates because we are "in penalty" which apparently means that it is too close to the date of our cruise. Any other way to be able to take advantage of this sale?

 

With whom did you originally book the cruise? Contact that person.

 

Or call Carnival again and speak to someone else.

 

Good luck.

[erin327]

I booked through Carnival.

[SummerXU]

Do a search for "upgrade final payment" and you'll get many threads with people discussing how they upgraded without early saver after final payment.

[maritaysa]

Unfortunately, there's verbiage with a lot of these sales that say new bookings only.

[stargate fan]

I booked through Carnival.

 

Call them again.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

Once final payment is made you are locked into your booking. You can cancel, absorb the retention held by Carnival depending on their days to cruising scale, rebook and pay the current price.

 

I'm not trying to be mean but I find all of this advise to call and badger Carnival a bit non-productive. People should read their contract and understand they are held to its terms once final payment is made.

 

Of course the OP can upgrade...but the price will be dependent of the current standard price of the cabin.

[crysanne]

It may be too late for this particular sale, but call your PVP at Carnival. I had no idea the sale was going on yesterday, and I called to asked about the possibility of upgrading our interior to a balcony. She said no, we were in penalty, and what a shame, cause they had a great sale on balconies. I was about to ask her another question (on booking excursions, couldn't see my friends booking that was linked to mine) when she told me to hold on. She came back and said for 60.00 pp (total 180), we could upgrade to a balcony.

 

I know I didn't book an ES fare (not sure which one though)...and this is for a May 3 cruise that was booked in late January. We were originally booking on an interline fare, but the inside guaranty was a much better rate at the time so we went with that.

[Qchell]

ES is not really for upgrades. It's for OBC if the price for your category stateroom drops below what you paid.

 

If the sale is for new bookings only.. you may be out of luck. However, if it is not, you should be able to move to a balcony for the difference as long as that sale is going on.

 

Last year I booked too late for ES and balconies went on sale for $10 more pp than I had paid for my interior room. It was a 1 day sale - I called in immediately - paid the $20 (as our cruise had been paid off) and we had our very first balcony. My friends waited until the next day, sale was over, and stayed in the interior room.

 

It never hurts to call and ask. I have a few times on various sales, etc. and sometimes I get a great deal and sometimes we decide I am better off staying with what I have. However, they have all been great to deal with and took the time to look at my bookings and walk through them with me and were just as pleasant when I did not change as when I did.

[jenng1976]

I would suggest looking at the sale prices for your cruise, and picking a category that is slightly more than you paid - even $10, then calling and asking to upgrade to that category.

 

They usually are more than happy to take more money - so by paying a little you could probably get a nice balcony for little money!

[lcpagejr]

Do you have an assigned cabin yet?? If not they may approach you with an upgrade/upsell. At a minimum...like Jenng1976 said...they may voluntarily allow you to upgrade if you pay the difference.

[eedee]

I agree with the last two posts. I have paid an extra 5 to 20 dollars just to get into an upgraded cabin. They gave me no problem. This was after final payment