Upgrading cabin on Board from Inside Cabin to Balcony

[Technoman2]

Hello my well travelled ship mates. Has anyone tried to ask for an upgrade of cabin whilst on board the ship if there are cabins available. Im not looking for a free upgrade but how does it normally work. Has anyone gone through the process either at the start or part way throughn a cruise. We are on Arvia 30th April and may want to look at this option if available or if unhappy with inside cabin once onboard. To be honest it does not normally bother us in an inside cabin but we were spoilt on a trip on Iona just after lockdown in a balcont cabin. Thanks for any advice

[pete14]

I think that if there is a suitable cabin available, you will be charged to upgrade, probably based on the price that was in force when you booked. I suppose that if you are on an early saver or saver fare, the price would be based on the select fare when booking as you will effectively be choosing your cabin. All speculation but I would be surprised if I am wrong.

[TigerB]

4 hours ago, Technoman2 said:

Hello my well travelled ship mates. Has anyone tried to ask for an upgrade of cabin whilst on board the ship if there are cabins available. Im not looking for a free upgrade but how does it normally work. Has anyone gone through the process either at the start or part way throughn a cruise. We are on Arvia 30th April and may want to look at this option if available or if unhappy with inside cabin once onboard. To be honest it does not normally bother us in an inside cabin but we were spoilt on a trip on Iona just after lockdown in a balcont cabin. Thanks for any advice

 

We were on the maiden Caribbean cruise on Arvia in January, and had an inside accessible cabin on deck 9. 

I called P&O four days before the cruise and was told that the only available accessible higher grade cabins were a suite, for which there was a wait list, one GB and one GA. During that call, the price to upgrade to the GA from our PF inside would have been just short of £1200 (£80 per night); and that was based on the select price we paid when we booked our cruise; it would have been more if we had booked later. The advisor suggested I ask once we were onboard as things may have changed, and we may get a better price.

After embarkation, while it was quiet at reception, I took the opportunity to ask if there were any upgrades available, and more importantly, how much would they be. I had set myself an upper limit of £40 per night, but I really didn't expect there to be anything available.

The next morning we had a letter outside our cabin, it informed us our upgrade request had been approved; we had been offered a mid-ship GA balcony on deck 11. The upgrade cost: a big fat £0.👍

[Britboys]

As you are on one of the larger ships outside of school holidays, it's definitely worth a try...

[Technoman2]

9 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

We were on the maiden Caribbean cruise on Arvia in January, and had an inside accessible cabin on deck 9. 

I called P&O four days before the cruise and was told that the only available accessible higher grade cabins were a suite, for which there was a wait list, one GB and one GA. During that call, the price to upgrade to the GA from our PF inside would have been just short of £1200 (£80 per night); and that was based on the select price we paid when we booked our cruise; it would have been more if we had booked later. The advisor suggested I ask once we were onboard as things may have changed, and we may get a better price.

After embarkation, while it was quiet at reception, I took the opportunity to ask if there were any upgrades available, and more importantly, how much would they be. I had set myself an upper limit of £40 per night, but I really didn't expect there to be anything available.

The next morning we had a letter outside our cabin, it informed us our upgrade request had been approved; we had been offered a mid-ship GA balcony on deck 11. The upgrade cost: a big fat £0.👍

Thanks TigerB for your detailed response, i may give that a shot and see what is available.

[P&O SUE]

I know if you want to upgrade before you go the price is based on what it was when you originally paid.

I booked an inside cabin on Azura on launch in 2018 for 2020 knowing that if I could afford to upgrade it would be much cheaper as it would have been based on the 2018 price. Sadly it was the year of you know what so we didn’t even go.

 

Tiger B’s story is very interesting though!

[david63]

2 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I know if you want to upgrade before you go the price is based on what it was when you originally paid.

Not always - and things may have changed.

 

A few years ago I was pre booking a cruise just before sailing on another cruise. After that was completed there was the "anything else I can help with today" question to which I responded (as a throw away line) "only if you can upgrade me to a suite next week". Long story short - after a bit of backwards and forwards we were upgraded to a suite for £400 each which was about a quarter of the actual difference.

[TigerB]

2 hours ago, Technoman2 said:

Thanks TigerB for your detailed response, i may give that a shot and see what is available.

 

2 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I know if you want to upgrade before you go the price is based on what it was when you originally paid.

I booked an inside cabin on Azura on launch in 2018 for 2020 knowing that if I could afford to upgrade it would be much cheaper as it would have been based on the 2018 price. Sadly it was the year of you know what so we didn’t even go.

 

Tiger B’s story is very interesting though!

 

When I called I was told the rate would be as the original booking. I never expected it to be free, and don't know why it was; after all, there was nothing wrong with our inside cabin. Perhaps it was because the ship was only at 80% capacity. I was prepared to pay and had worked it out that, based on the original price paid, the cost of upgrade should have been £80 per night; I was prepared to barter it down to £40 per night. So, was really chuffed with the free upgrade. It'll probably never happen again, but I will try again in the future.

 

What is even sweeter though is that we had a problem with the shower drains smelling in the upgraded cabin. It wasn't a vomit inducing smell, but was there in the background and, despite engineers coming a few times, never got sorted. I contacted P&O after the cruise to let them know that it hadn't been sorted; it wasn't a complaint, and I said that the cabin was perfect otherwise, and the cruise and ship were great, just that it would need looking into for the comfort of other guests. Anyway, we got a call a couple of weeks later, and received £500 OBC for a future cruise. 👍

 

So, needless to say, I am impressed with P&O's customer service.🙂