Greece

[markham]

Does Seabourn even/ever do/offer/solicit “paid upgrades”? 
Sure, at full price this might happen.
Sounds like something you would find on a mass market line.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Jane21]

18 minutes ago, markham said:

Does Seabourn even/ever do/offer/solicit “paid upgrades”? 
Sure, at full price this might happen.
Sounds like something you would find on a mass market line.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

Had one of these upsell offers on every one of my last five Seabourn cruises for the last four years and thus I am afraid they obviously do act like a mass market line 😀

[Jane21]

3 minutes ago, Jane21 said:

Had one of these upsell offers on every one of my last five Seabourn cruises for the last four years and thus I am afraid they obviously do act like a mass market line 😀

Thought I would show you an example:

 

 

 

[markham]

Thank you Jane21.

I have never seen such a promotion in 20 years of sailing Seabourn.

I will be in contact with my TA before my next cruise.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[jenidallas]

We’ve received these upsell offers onset of our Seabourn sailings, always passed onto us by our Virtuoso agent.  Interestingly the only times I have not received one of these offers have been when I booked with someone other than her.  

[Jane21]

1 hour ago, markham said:

Thank you Jane21.

I have never seen such a promotion in 20 years of sailing Seabourn.

I will be in contact with my TA before my next cruise.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

In my experience they have appeared around six weeks before sailing ( you can normally tell if one is going to appear if you look online about eight weeks before and see a number of premium cabins available and they are also selling OB cabins. Have been told by people I have met on Caribbean cruises that they have received them 12 weeks before and then prices reduced at eight weeks)

[Jane21]

17 minutes ago, jenidallas said:

We’ve received these upsell offers onset of our Seabourn sailings, always passed onto us by our Virtuoso agent.  Interestingly the only times I have not received one of these offers have been when I booked with someone other than her.  

We use Virtuoso for our land based holidays but never for a cruise. We pay same price as on website for hotels but are given extras.
The cruise company I use just gives me a straightforward cash discount (10 - 12%) off the advertised price on the Seabourn website. 
Do you mind me asking what benefits you get booking a cruise with a Virtuoso agent?

Always find I learn something from these boards 😀

Thanks

[jenidallas]

We typically get either a special shore excursion (which have often been nicer and more unique from anything Seabourn has on offer for that particular port) or a $150/pp extra onboard credit.  My agent also usually gives us onboard credit on top of that.

 

Sometimes Virtuoso will have an onboard host and they will then throw a cocktail party.  We’ve loved some of the hosts and enjoyed meals or onboard activities with them.  But we’ve also had hosts we despised who have Virtuoso a black eye with their attitude/behavior.

 

I like my agent a lot - her being with Virtuoso (and a Seabourn preferred agency) is just a bonus.  

[Hlitner]

We are on the Ovation now.  Had booked a V1 guarantee and about 3 weeks prior to the cruise we were offered various upsells to nearly every category which we declined.  SB assigned us a perfectly located V5 cabin just down the corridor from SB Square.

 

Hank

[Jane21]

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We are on the Ovation now.  Had booked a V1 guarantee and about 3 weeks prior to the cruise we were offered various upsells to nearly every category which we declined.  SB assigned us a perfectly located V5 cabin just down the corridor from SB Square.

 

Hank

This is what I am used to. I think the issue must lie with Markham’s agent.

[SLSD]

10 hours ago, jenidallas said:

We typically get either a special shore excursion (which have often been nicer and more unique from anything Seabourn has on offer for that particular port) or a $150/pp extra onboard credit.  My agent also usually gives us onboard credit on top of that.

 

Sometimes Virtuoso will have an onboard host and they will then throw a cocktail party.  We’ve loved some of the hosts and enjoyed meals or onboard activities with them.  But we’ve also had hosts we despised who have Virtuoso a black eye with their attitude/behavior.

 

I like my agent a lot - her being with Virtuoso (and a Seabourn preferred agency) is just a bonus.  

We need a new Travel Agent.  Too bad you can't share whose yours is--but I will be looking for a Virtuoso agent.  

[Isklaar]

4 hours ago, Jane21 said:

This is what I am used to. I think the issue must lie with Markham’s agent.

 

I believe Markham and I have the same agent. However,  we frequently get these offers from the TA. It's a mystery! 

[markham]

Isklaar,

 

I will be looking into this.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Isklaar]

2 hours ago, markham said:

Isklaar,

 

I will be looking into this.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

Markham, I'm interested to know the outcome. 

 

Our TA sends an email when these are available. It doesn't happen for every cruise, and I've noticed it tends to be on shorter itineraries that aren't selling so well. We definitely didn't receive any offers for any of our Christmas/NY cruises., for example. 

[jenidallas]

9 hours ago, SLSD said:

We need a new Travel Agent.  Too bad you can't share whose yours is--but I will be looking for a Virtuoso agent.  

We use a great agency out of Fort Worth that is almost exclusively cruises.  A bit of etcetera.  If only I could name them.  😉     
 

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, Isklaar said:

It doesn't happen for every cruise, and I've noticed it tends to be on shorter itineraries that aren't selling so well.

 

Yet, interestingly, it doesn't appear they are offering these paid upgrades on the current 7-day cruises in the Caribbean, even though they are very lightly sold. (There were about 130 people on the first two cruises, and under 100 on the current cruise.) They clearly have premium category inventory which is unsold, but reports from everyone here on CC and on the Facebook Seabourn forums indicates that no one has received an upgrade offer. Perhaps their staff is so overwhelmed with rebooking canceled and changed cruises that they don't have time to send out upgrade offers? On the other hand, it's 100% profit for Seabourn if they get any takers, so you'd think they would be trying not to leave behind easy money.

[cruiseej]

And now the latest wrinkle: the CDC today added Greece to a list of countries it labels as "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High" -- its category of highest risk for COVID-19 -- and advises Americans not to travel there.

 

It's non-binding, like the UK restrictions, so fully-vaccinated Seabourn passengers from the US may not be deterred or significantly affected, but it's just the latest wrinkle in the ever-changing ebb-and-flow of "re-opening" and "returning to normal."

 

Wasn't it just a month ago that we were marveling at how well Greece had done with speeding up vaccines in order to re-open to tourism?

 

Sigh.

[Jane21]

11 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

Yet, interestingly, it doesn't appear they are offering these paid upgrades on the current 7-day cruises in the Caribbean, even though they are very lightly sold. (There were about 130 people on the first two cruises, and under 100 on the current cruise.) They clearly have premium category inventory which is unsold, but reports from everyone here on CC and on the Facebook Seabourn forums indicates that no one has received an upgrade offer. Perhaps their staff is so overwhelmed with rebooking canceled and changed cruises that they don't have time to send out upgrade offers? On the other hand, it's 100% profit for Seabourn if they get any takers, so you'd think they would be trying not to leave behind easy money.

My friends travel agent has confirmed they have received paid upgrade offers for clients on 7 day Greek cruises. 
They have had no clients on first few Barbados cruises.

[markham]

My TA says that these offers do go out on cruises that are “under-selling” and there more of them in past years. They are generally for the V category - and so not necessarily of interest to us. It’s the former that explains why I haven’t seen them to speak of.

 

Anyway I intend to dial in 8 weeks before my next likely under-selling cruise of 2022, assuming that despite all the pent-up demand that particular cruise qualifies.

 

And again Jane21, thank you for the heads up!

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Jane21]

2 minutes ago, markham said:

My TA says that these offers do go out on cruises that are “under-selling” and there more of them in past years. They are generally for the V category - and so not necessarily of interest to us. It’s the former that explains why I haven’t seen them to speak of.

 

Anyway I intend to dial in 8 weeks before my next likely under-selling cruise of 2022, assuming that despite all the pent-up demand that particular cruise qualifies.

 

And again Jane21, thank you for the heads up!

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

If by V category your TA means Verandah cabins that also is not strictly true in my experience.

Only one of mine was from a verandah cabin ( that was a cruise that is known to have wide open availability in all suites and thus deliberately booked a verandah as an upsell was obviously going to happen), remainder have been Penthouse to Wintergarden.

[fdnycruiser]

I’ve had a few upsell offers over the years, including from V to penthouse . It wasn’t any bargain though,so we declined .

[Jane21]

8 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

I’ve had a few upsell offers over the years, including from V to penthouse . It wasn’t any bargain though,so we declined .

I agree that the upsell from Penthouse to Wintergarden is not a bargain - in fact never had an upsell that was a bargain but have saved many thousands of pounds.

[Mr Luxury]

Markham,

I did get an upgrade offer on the Silver Moon trip.

The offer was from SS via our TA.

I was offered a Silver Suite for 50% discount.

I didn't take it but was upgraded anyway as the ship is half full.

I have been offered Seabourn upgrades on some trips in most categories if it is a slow seller.

[markham]

Mr L,

 You were upgraded anyway and didn’t have to pay? 
I guess the good word I put in for you with Reception did the trick.

Not that you owe me one, mind you.

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Mr Luxury]

12 hours ago, markham said:

Mr L,

 You were upgraded anyway and didn’t have to pay? 
I guess the good word I put in for you with Reception did the trick.

Not that you owe me one, mind you.

Happy and healthy sailing!

Markham,

Ofcourse I owe you one.

I'll be happy to repay you any time.