NEVER AN UPGRADE!

[janina]

11 hours ago, jondfk said:

We've done 18 cruises with Princess, one upgrade, but it was a BIG one from an MA mini to a full suite.  That cruise was for our 25th wedding anniversary and this definitely played some role in the upgrade since which I answered the phone call the first thing the Princess rep said was "congratulations on your upcoming anniversary, thanks for celebrating with Princess".  

 

I confess that I had hoped this might happen and booked the MA (now M1) cabin knowing the only possible moves would be to full suites.  The call came about 60 days prior to sailing.  I managed to keep it under my hat all the way to boarding, it wasn't until we jumped into the Suites/Elites line at checkin in Southampton that my wife realized something was off in a good way.   

 

A lovely experience, but we figure we used up our upgrade luck for life on that one.

How wonderful and what a great surprise for your wife!

[Anubi]

In thirty years of cruising, we've had one upgrade offer from a balcony to a mini which we declined due to location of said mini; we would have had to pay for the upgrade as well.  Far more often we will get discounts on our fare.  I am always on the outlook for  new sales and then I contact our TA.  Sometimes we benefit, sometimes we don't. 

[K.T.B.]

13 hours ago, jondfk said:

We've done 18 cruises with Princess, one upgrade, but it was a BIG one from an MA mini to a full suite.  That cruise was for our 25th wedding anniversary and this definitely played some role in the upgrade since which I answered the phone call the first thing the Princess rep said was "congratulations on your upcoming anniversary, thanks for celebrating with Princess".  

 

I confess that I had hoped this might happen and booked the MA (now M1) cabin knowing the only possible moves would be to full suites.  The call came about 60 days prior to sailing.  I managed to keep it under my hat all the way to boarding, it wasn't until we jumped into the Suites/Elites line at checkin in Southampton that my wife realized something was off in a good way.   

 

A lovely experience, but we figure we used up our upgrade luck for life on that one.

 

I had something similar happen on my second Alaskan cruise, but this was with Carnival.

 

I had gotten a call for an upgrade to change to an extended balcony, which would have been great.  Me being me, I jokingly said, you don't have any suites available?  (I was in no way serious.)  However, I was told they had 2 junior suites left that were available, but I could not be upgraded for free to those, I'd need to pay to upgrade.  I was curious, so I asked.  It cost me $200 extra.  Total.

 

Like you, I did not tell my wife.  We were on that cruise to celebrate her 65th, so it was a great surprise!  The extra room was great, but she loved the whirlpool tub.  She used it every night.

 

Best $200 I ever spent.

[rhblake]

The only upgrade I have had in 40+ cruises was from an Oceanview Cabin on the Grand Princess to a Window Suite in 2011. The Grand had just come out of dry dock and had these new suites which I was lucky enough to get an upgrade to.

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, suzyed said:

Yes, apparently...

I'm going on a cruise where many people have just gotten upgrades.

GTY's?  Lots of people don't mention they had a GTY.

 

[Steelers36]

14 hours ago, leck57 said:

After discussions with my TA we always mark "no upgrade" on my booking. I would gratefully accept an upgrade from a balcony cabin, which I always book, to a mini suite/suite, however an upgrade can just be within the cabin class you book. For example I always like an aft balcony (due to access to things I like to use) and yet Princess could upgrade me to a mid ship balcony. That is not an upgrade I want and that is why we mark no upgrade on our bookings.

I would be more than happy to consider upsells but have never received one of those.

Did you know you can elect to mark booking as "meta upgrade" - meaning your upgrade is only to the next higher class of cabin, so a mini-suite or higher?  That way you avoid the balcony shuffle.  Of course if a mini anywhere is not to your liking, then no upgrade is best.

 

I also wonder if bookings marked "no upgrade" even get upsell offers since Princess is assuming the customer doesn't want to move.  And it also seems that most get upsell offers to the next cabin class only.  One poster on here reported asking jokingly if any suites were available after being offered a free upgrade and then got one for a deal.

[JimmyVWine]

We usually book in category MB which is now the highest category of Mini-Suite before you get to Club Class (or Full Suites).  I don't bother indicating "no upgrade" because if they want to upgrade me to CC or a Suite, I'll take it.  But so far I've never had that happen.  Conversely, I think I have been offered an up-sell upgrade on every single cruise I have taken.  I passed on every one except one.  We booked a Deluxe Balcony on Royal to save some money on a pricey cruise, but still wanted access to a fold-out love seat in the cabin.  When the up-sell offer for an MB Mini-Suite was made, the price came in lower than if we had booked the MB from the get-go.  The lure of a bathtub for my wife pushed me over the edge and I took it.

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

We usually book in category MB which is now the highest category of Mini-Suite before you get to Club Class (or Full Suites).  I don't bother indicating "no upgrade" because if they want to upgrade me to CC or a Suite, I'll take it.  But so far I've never had that happen.  Conversely, I think I have been offered an up-sell upgrade on every single cruise I have taken.  I passed on every one except one.  We booked a Deluxe Balcony on Royal to save some money on a pricey cruise, but still wanted access to a fold-out love seat in the cabin.  When the up-sell offer for an MB Mini-Suite was made, the price came in lower than if we had booked the MB from the get-go.  The lure of a bathtub for my wife pushed me over the edge and I took it.

Doesn't it make you wonder if Princess does the historical analysis and realizes what you usually book, so they offered the upgrade to see if get some additional revenue?  Worked well for you.

Edited September 9, 2019 by steelers36

[famski740]

15 cruises in total. 10 with Princess.

 

On our 3rd cruise in 2003 on Coral on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise we were upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite.  That's been it.  Have never gotten an upsell offer.

[voljeep]

I think we got an upgrade once from an inside to a balcony ...but ended up not taking that cruise ... long story, but we ended up with great results ...

 

One move-over offer .. which was somewhat tied to the above ... went from a 5 day to a 7 day the next week

 

One upsell that we didn't take ... balcony to mini

 

One upsell that we did take ... balcony to our one and only full suite on a little 4 day western on the CB ...

[mum and son]

I define an upgrade as being moved up an entire cabin type, like inside to outside or outside to balcony etc. I don't tend to call a move within the cabin type to really be an upgrade, to me that's more of a shuffle...

 

The only time I received an upgrade was on my first cruise with Princess (which seems to be a bit of a theme). I booked an oceanview and ended up in a BB balcony. I don't often hear many stories of Australians being upgraded, it seems to be something that is held within US borders. On my two upcoming cruises I have marked my bookings "no upgrade" because I particularly want to try the cabins I have booked, one forward facing, and one aft facing.

 

Back in the olden days (haha) you could call NCL, if you were lucky enough to get your hands on the right phone number, and initiate your own upsell. You could literally make them an offer and they would negotiate with you. The secret was to already be booked in a sought after cabin that they knew they could re-sell. At 3am (Aussie time) I did a 3 way call with my US agent, and the NCL upsell desk, and negotiated an upgrade to a 6 berth Courtyard Villa (now called The Haven Suite) for a few hundred extra dollars. Still to this day the most memorable cruise of my life, and I got all the tips and tricks for the upsell from the NCL board on this website!

 

Ahhh the good old days 🍸😆.

 

 

[suzyed]

11 hours ago, steelers36 said:

GTY's?  Lots of people don't mention they had a GTY.

 

Well speaking of GTY...that's what I have on the following cruise.  I got the category that I booked.

[richstowe]

No upgrades yet but I got great cabins with GTY booked cabins and two fantastic upsell offers . The upsells were both on the HAL Veendam . We moved from a OV to and amazing handicapped Lanai cabin where the cabin opens onto the walking deck for less then 300 total . And again on the Veendam we moved up to our first and only suite at very reasonable amount . We've gotten other mediocre upsells which we didn't take . 

On NCL we booked a GTY balcony and got what I consider the perfect location , mid-ship on a sandwich deck with cabins above and below . 

It seems meaningful free upgrades are only offered occasionally and on sailings with lots of empty cabins . 

[richstowe]

12 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Did you know you can elect to mark booking as "meta upgrade" - meaning your upgrade is only to the next higher class of cabin, so a mini-suite or higher?  That way you avoid the balcony shuffle.  Of course if a mini anywhere is not to your liking, then no upgrade is best.

 

Never heard of this "meta upgrade" . Thanks

[polmcs]

2nd Princess Cruise (back in 2005) and I had 2 minis booked. It was an Alaskan Cruise, so I had a starboard side mini for my in-laws and a port side mini for my wife and I, close to a crossover point, so we could run from side to side depending on the scenery. Got a call from our big box TA about a week before saying that we had been moved, but we would like our new cabins. Turns out that we’d both been moved to full suites at the front of the ship, with one still starboard and one port side. No charge for the upgrade.

 

That was our only ever upgrade until May this year, which was our 13th cruise with Princess, when we got an upsell offer from a BE balcony to a full suite which we took. Coincidentally, this was the first time we had ever booked direct with Princess. 

 

We we usually mark our upgrade as Meta upgrade only as I typically book BE balcony cabins on Grand class ships as I’m happier at the front of the ship as it typically has less footfall along the corridor, so I don’t want to move to another balcony closer to midship, but I will move for a mini. 

[winnifer]

Our first Princess cruise was in 2014. It was our first cruise at all. We booked an interior and I wish I could remember the details, but ended up being upgraded to an Oceanview (non-obstructed - it was beautiful!). 

 

Our second cruise is also our second cruise with Princess, and we're repeating the same itinerary as 2014 (down to the day, same trip, but on the Star instead of the Grand and they've switched up the port order). We decided to splurge and book a balcony and have a note that we're open to upgrades. We know the risk of going somewhere less desirable, but hope we have options if we are visited by the Upgrade Fairy again (for instance, do you get any time to think about it and look up the deck plans and call back to accept or pass on it? Can you ask for OBC instead?). If not, we really like our cabin location now, so either way we win!

[geoherb]

I usually book last-minute guarantee cabins. Most of the time we receive slight upgrades--such as from a Cat. IF to a Cat. IB on our cruise later this month. A few times we've received very good upgrades: from inside to ocean view cabins and from obstructed ocean view cabins to unobstructed ones. Only once did we receive a really great upgrade from an obstructed view cabin to a cabin with a balcony. And once we received a horrible upgrade from a guarantee obstructed view to the tiniest possible inside cabin with a recessed port hole on the CB. It was so small that there was only one nightstand beside the bed. In my opinion, Princess should really reclassify this cabin as obstructed view.

[Steelers36]

34 minutes ago, geoherb said:

the tiniest possible inside cabin with a recessed port hole on the CB. It was so small that there was only one nightstand beside the bed. In my opinion, Princess should really reclassify this cabin as obstructed view.

Or designate for a single cruiser at quite a bit less than 2X the cost.

[suspaul]

Our TA has us marked for ‘no upgrades’ per our request.  We book the cabin we want and if it isn’t to our liking there’s no one to blame.  

[billco]

We have had some success in being upgraded to a higher category than what we booked by booking a guarantee in a category that had relatively few cabins. For example, aft deluxe balcony Cat DD on the Regal Princess. There are only about 20 cabins in that category. We ended up in a midship deluxe balcony.

[SargassoPirate]

On 9/8/2019 at 2:20 PM, fluffybunny22 said:

I've never gotten an upgrade but I don't want them. I want the cabin I book. My next cruise is marked no upgrade because we have an aft balcony on the Baja deck of the Sky which has a bigger balcony. My in laws are a couple of cabins down the hall. I check my cruise personalizer every day to make sure Princess hasn't jacked my cabin.

 

After unkowingly booking some less than ideal cabins, we also have our booking marked "No Upgrade" and we've never been bumped.  We book a balcony with cabins above, below, and across the corridor, and away from elevator lobbies and laundry rooms.  Suits us just fine and it's better than being "upgraded" to a cabin right below the Melanoma Deck, above a nightclub, or across from room steward scullery/mop sink.

[sweetp12]

Could people possibly crystal ball gaze at what my cabin class might be for an up coming cruise.  We are doing a 14 night out of Auckland NZ on the Ruby Princess leaving on 30 Dec.  When we booked there was only 4 obstructed oceanview left so we grabbed one.  However due to a small issue with our booking meant that the princess agent had to rebook us and couldn't get us back in the cabin so we are obstructed ocean view guarantee with no assigned cabin left.  

 

So we are 108 days out and at the moment there is 1 suite, no mini's, no balconies, one ocean view, 3 obstructed views and 17 insides.  While we are comfortable getting the ob view this sailing is going to be sold out by the looks of it.   While I know we will get a cabin what happens with guarantees when it is fully sold out?  Not that I would mind if they gave us the suite.... Apparently we are #1 on the cabin assignment list.  Our planner is still very new and while wonderful has very little knowledge.

 

Any thoughts / speculations welcome!

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, sweetp12 said:

Could people possibly crystal ball gaze at what my cabin class might be for an up coming cruise.  We are doing a 14 night out of Auckland NZ on the Ruby Princess leaving on 30 Dec.  When we booked there was only 4 obstructed oceanview left so we grabbed one.  However due to a small issue with our booking meant that the princess agent had to rebook us and couldn't get us back in the cabin so we are obstructed ocean view guarantee with no assigned cabin left.  

 

So we are 108 days out and at the moment there is 1 suite, no mini's, no balconies, one ocean view, 3 obstructed views and 17 insides.  While we are comfortable getting the ob view this sailing is going to be sold out by the looks of it.   While I know we will get a cabin what happens with guarantees when it is fully sold out?  Not that I would mind if they gave us the suite.... Apparently we are #1 on the cabin assignment list.  Our planner is still very new and while wonderful has very little knowledge.

 

Any thoughts / speculations welcome!

Yes, you will have a cabin.  It is impossible to know the true available inventory as Princess plays with it in order to stimulate sales.  Impossible to know what your cabin assignment will be, but won't be worse than the category you are booked in - unless they offer you some money to move to a lower category (seems to be happening of late in North America).

 

[Duffysmom]

On 9/9/2019 at 8:25 PM, suzyed said:

Well speaking of GTY...that's what I have on the following cruise.  I got the category that I booked.

I believe we have the same TA, have you asked her about upgrades?

[Go-Bucks!]

On 9/8/2019 at 1:44 PM, suzyed said:

Are we the only ones who have never gotten an upgrade?  6 different cruise lines, 35+ cruises...never an upgrade, even on sailings where it seems everyone is getting upgraded! 🤔

 

Me too...no upgrade, upsell, move over or move down offers! That's why I always pick the exact room I want so I won't be disappointed.