How does Princess offer cabin upgrades?

[Sigyn]

I'm thinking about an Alaskan cruise and I'm curious how Princess offers, if any, cabin upgrades. I know that Carnival simply calls and offers them for a price. I've had that happen and accepted. I'm currently about to cruise on NCL and they have a streamlined process where you bid for an upgrade about 80 days before your cruise and you find out anywhere from 2-7 days before your cruise if your bid was accepted. How does Princess do it? 

 

I typically book a balcony because that's the room I'm happy with and that fits within my travel budget, but I'm always open to an upgrade if it's affordable. 

[Lady Arwen]

Princess also has a bidding system available after final payment.  This is fairly new with Princess and there are many recent posts detailing how it works and CC members experiences utilizing the system.

[geoherb]

The bidding process is so new that Princess probably hasn't worked out all the kinks yet. Before it started, Princess would send upsell notifications occasionally. We only took advantage of them once--moving from a balcony to a full suite for a great price. The emails had a contact number to call. A Princess rep called me back to go over the details of the upsell we took.

[landnsea]

This is total CRAP! A one time leader in the cruising industry Princess has become just another follower. Turning to the Third Party Vendor to handle everything that made Princess a leader. Princess Fine Arts At Sea gone to a Third Party. This Medallion thing a Third Party operator. Princess Upgrades gone to a Third Party operator. I’m sure i could go on. So disappointed at what Princess Cruise has become. 

[Samkitty1]

I booked a BD balcony on the Sky and was upgraded the same day to a BB on a different deck. 

Don't know why ...when I received the email I  called in to ask for my old cabin back.  

This was the first time in 7  Princess cruises that I had ever received an upgrade.

[sandancer]

On 10/9/2022 at 3:07 PM, Lady Arwen said:

Princess also has a bidding system available after final payment.  This is fairly new with Princess and there are many recent posts detailing how it works and CC members experiences utilizing the system.

Not everyone gets the invitation to bid. Appears to depend on your home location. 

[caribill]

53 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Not everyone gets the invitation to bid. Appears to depend on your home location. 

 

Also depends if you opted out of Princess marketing E-mails.

[2CtheC]

2 hours ago, sandancer said:

Not everyone gets the invitation to bid. Appears to depend on your home location. 

I found after logging into the personaliser, and on the summary page under Plan Your Voyage, there's a link to Bid To Upgrade Your Stateroom that then takes you to the bid page for the sailing.
Edit:- I haven't received an email

Edited October 15, 2022 by 2CtheC

[Lady Arwen]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Also depends if you opted out of Princess marketing E-mails.

I don’t think bids are offered by email.  It’s shown in the Manage My Cruise section.  You just click the banner and it shows you if you’ve qualified or too soon.

[sandancer]

3 hours ago, 2CtheC said:

I found after logging into the personaliser, and on the summary page under Plan Your Voyage, there's a link to Bid To Upgrade Your Stateroom that then takes you to the bid page for the sailing.
Edit:- I haven't received an email

Not on Princess UK. There are 6 links and none of them are Bid to Upgrade your stateroom. 

[sandancer]

27 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Not on Princess UK. There are 6 links and none of them are Bid to Upgrade your stateroom. 

Found this on another thread - Sorry, Princess.com does not currently offer Princess Upgrade in your region.

[JF - retired RRT]

2 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

I don’t think bids are offered by email.  It’s shown in the Manage My Cruise section.  You just click the banner and it shows you if you’ve qualified or too soon.

They absolutely are offered by email. I've gotten 2.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

I don’t think bids are offered by email.  It’s shown in the Manage My Cruise section.  You just click the banner and it shows you if you’ve qualified or too soon.

 

Yes, that is one way to find the opportunity to bid, but many people do not know this path.

 

Most people are aware of the ability to bid because Princess sends an E-mail to them about it. However no E-mail is sent if a person has opted out of marketing E-mails from Princess.

 

In fact, Princess will send more than one E-mail. Today I received a second one for an upcoming cruise:

 

Booking # xxxxxx: You can still upgrade!

 

Dear Guests, You might have missed it – or maybe were mulling it over – but that upgrade is still yours for the bidding. With Princess Upgrade, all you have to do is make an offer on an even better stateroom before you sail. Don't miss out – bid today! By clicking the Get Upgraded link, you will navigate to a 3rd party website that is not owned, operated, or controlled by Princess Cruises or any of its affiliates. (Booked through a travel advisor? They'll be happy to help you with placing an upgrade offer.)

[Doug R.]

On 10/9/2022 at 3:39 PM, landnsea said:

This is total CRAP! A one time leader in the cruising industry Princess has become just another follower. Turning to the Third Party Vendor to handle everything that made Princess a leader. Princess Fine Arts At Sea gone to a Third Party. This Medallion thing a Third Party operator. Princess Upgrades gone to a Third Party operator. I’m sure i could go on. So disappointed at what Princess Cruise has become. 

You seem to be fixated on third party vendors. Why?

[Lady Arwen]

3 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

They absolutely are offered by email. I've gotten 2.

Thank you for correcting me!  I’ve only read about that those who found the info on the website.  Good to know!

[Lady Arwen]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Yes, that is one way to find the opportunity to bid, but many people do not know this path.

 

Most people are aware of the ability to bid because Princess sends an E-mail to them about it. However no E-mail is sent if a person has opted out of marketing E-mails from Princess.

 

In fact, Princess will send more than one E-mail. Today I received a second one for an upcoming cruise:

 

Booking # xxxxxx: You can still upgrade!

 

Dear Guests, You might have missed it – or maybe were mulling it over – but that upgrade is still yours for the bidding. With Princess Upgrade, all you have to do is make an offer on an even better stateroom before you sail. Don't miss out – bid today! By clicking the Get Upgraded link, you will navigate to a 3rd party website that is not owned, operated, or controlled by Princess Cruises or any of its affiliates. (Booked through a travel advisor? They'll be happy to help you with placing an upgrade offer.)

My senior brain needs a tuneup!  Thanks for the correct information.   You learn something new everyday here on CC.

[missymerv]

18 hours ago, Samkitty1 said:

I booked a BD balcony on the Sky and was upgraded the same day to a BB on a different deck. 

Don't know why ...when I received the email I  called in to ask for my old cabin back.  

This was the first time in 7  Princess cruises that I had ever received an upgrade.

Same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago.  I  was able to get my original cabin back. 

[caribill]

7 hours ago, Doug R. said:

You seem to be fixated on third party vendors. Why?

 I am not Doug R, but from my experience in the working world:

 

o Inhouse work will be unique to your organization. It can be good or it could be bad, but it is developed by people who have an interest in the success of your organization and usually know the product well.

 

o Third party vendors have no interest in the success of your company past the current contract. Even if they are familiar with the industry, they do not know what is unique to your organization and how to implement that uniqueness in their product for you.

 

o If the third party vendor is providing the same service to your competitors, than using it gives you no advantage over the competition.

[Coral]

Right now - not all of Princess cruises are available for bidding. Only those sailing in North America are.

[2CtheC]

Mine is round trip Australia and its available to me.??

[kiwimum]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

Right now - not all of Princess cruises are available for bidding. Only those sailing in North America are.

Not quite true.   We are on the Sapphire out of Santiago in December and have been offered the bid.   Yes I did bid, it was accepted as a bid, but nothing further.   

[Coral]

Interesting. It is not available for my cruise yet (in November) - it was explained to me that it would be available fleet wide at the end of October.

[Essence08]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

Right now - not all of Princess cruises are available for bidding. Only those sailing in North America are.

Australian cruises are offering bidding - have received the option for our December 2022 cruise 🙂 

[sandancer]

Looks like it’s just European guests who don’t have the option to bid. We sometimes use a TA in Florida and I think we would be able to bid if we’d used her this time. The situation with the current currency exchange rate makes me very glad we didn’t this time. We’ll stick with the cabin we’ve got. 

[Coral]

Thanks for clarification. When it was released, it was mentioned that it would start for North American cruises first and then go fleet wide at the end of October. Yes - I have a European cruise and it is not available yet.