Boarding Day Upgrade to Balcony?

[friendswithdave]

We are boarding on Saturday and our party of four is in a verandah and inside room. Any chance our insiders could upgrade to a balcony during check-in? I assume they will have some available because we read of many who upgraded from verandah to suite (therefore their verandah is empty unless it is a last-minute fill). 

 

Has anyone tried this? Any success?

[CruiserBruce]

Expect to pay rack rate.

[kit125]

Why not call the upsell department now and see what they can offer?

[Ferry_Watcher]

Depending where you are sailing, many ships are sailing close to capacity.  Any surprise "upgrades" are usually due to having a passenger previously select a stateroom that is now on a deck or in a designated Covid quarantine area of the ship.  

 

Like @kit125 suggests, If you or your friends really want that balcony, they should call and just pay for it

[DaveOKC]

41 minutes ago, kit125 said:

Why not call the upsell department now and see what they can offer?

Thats what I would do.  I think you can get a better deal from the upsell department 1-2 weeks prior to sailing versus trying it onboard.

 

[friendswithdave]

Thanks yall!

[CaliforniaAC]

Before they call, make sure they have in hand how much they paid for their inside cabin, and what the current price of a balcony is with whatever promos HAL is offering. We have been able to jump a category or two by doing this, and on Princess, we were able to go from a balcony to mini-suite for under $100.00 p/p each. Probably would also be good to check their inventory to see which rooms are available, so if they do upgrade, they know which room is going to suit their needs most.

[weeislayman]

7 hours ago, CaliforniaAC said:

Before they call, make sure they have in hand how much they paid for their inside cabin, and what the current price of a balcony is with whatever promos HAL is offering. We have been able to jump a category or two by doing this, and on Princess, we were able to go from a balcony to mini-suite for under $100.00 p/p each. Probably would also be good to check their inventory to see which rooms are available, so if they do upgrade, they know which room is going to suit their needs most.

Probably a (very) dumb question, but....how do you check the inventory?
Thanks.

[SUESEABE]

Holland Up sells #888-628-8107

[Texaggie]

Can you call the upsell on your own or do you need your travel agent? I’m in a window room and was hoping to upsell to a balcony. I see that there appears to be many available. At what point do the mail at offers usually?

 

[john2003]

Upsell will deal with you directly.

[SUESEABE]

@Texaggie I have usually called it on my own and it has worked for me  in the past. It's hit and miss based on  availability and your specific wants for location. 

[DaveOKC]

11 hours ago, weeislayman said:

Probably a (very) dumb question, but....how do you check the inventory?
Thanks.

Do a dummy (fake) booking on the HAL website to see what cabins are still showing as available.  Also, I have found that some of the travel booking websites are even better for this as they seem to show more cabins (HAL usually limits the number they show by category).

[DaveOKC]

8 hours ago, Texaggie said:

Can you call the upsell on your own or do you need your travel agent? I’m in a window room and was hoping to upsell to a balcony. I see that there appears to be many available. At what point do the mail at offers usually?

 

WHile it can vary, I would expect the upsell offers to begin around 3-4 weeks prior to sailing.  One way to tell I have found is to watch your cruise daily on the HAL website and when you see some categories all of a sudden show sold out it can mean that HAL has temporarily closed for booking the category so that they can offer upsells (do not want two groups at HAL selling a cabin at the same time I suspect).  A few days later these categories will be open again for booking (often times).