Who is the upgrade Fairy?

[JeanG]

Well, Jean, since you sail on MY birthday, I think I should get upgraded to Cat 11 for MY cruise. Whaddya think?

 

:D

 

Maybe all with birthdays on 11/17 and sailing 11/17 got upgraded. Who knows how it's done.

[grammyandpoppy]

The upgrade fairy has been very kind to us - 2 out of 3 cruises. We book a guaranteed category early and hope our category sells out. Always book the category that you want and then hope, hope, hope.

 

I do think Carnival is very good with their upgrades and may the fairy sprinkle fairy dust on you all!

[merrycali]

If you get an upgrade do you have to take it? My husband and I are going on the Fascination June 2008 for our 15th wedding anniversary and we have booked a category 11 suite(cabin V1). It is the first balcony room in the front of the ship. Has anyone ever stayed in this room on any cruise. Will that be a good location. We want a good view and thought that might be the best. Do they upgrade any higher if you have a suite booked and if they do, would you have to take the upgrade, unless it is a category 12 suite.

[topazz11]

booked a cruise with an 8A GTY about three weeks ago. A week later I received a cabin assignment to an 8H. My aunt decided to book on the same cruise two weeks ago....also 8A GTY and the other day received a Cat. 11 suite. This is her 2nd cruise on Carnival and my 6th. I am happy for her, but I am annoyed at Carnival for not catering to their past guests (more than 2 cruises). I think the out of category upgrades should go to those who have more cruises on Carnival. Just my opinion. I have always booked an 8A GTY and have never received an out of category upgrade. I was hoping maybe this year I would get lucky....I am celebrating my 40th birthday. :-( I even sent Carnival an e-mail about this. I haven't heard anything yet. I doubt there is anything they will do anyway, but I felt better sending something.

[Chan_T]

booked a cruise with an 8A GTY about three weeks ago. A week later I received a cabin assignment to an 8H. My aunt decided to book on the same cruise two weeks ago....also 8A GTY and the other day received a Cat. 11 suite. This is her 2nd cruise on Carnival and my 6th. I am happy for her, but I am annoyed at Carnival for not catering to their past guests (more than 2 cruises). I think the out of category upgrades should go to those who have more cruises on Carnival. Just my opinion. I have always booked an 8A GTY and have never received an out of category upgrade. I was hoping maybe this year I would get lucky....I am celebrating my 40th birthday. :-( I even sent Carnival an e-mail about this. I haven't heard anything yet. I doubt there is anything they will do anyway, but I felt better sending something.

 

Did your aunt pay a higher fare?

[virginiab]

My theory is that this is all about Carnival's business needs and convenience in managing the booking process. As many have said, we all believe that they sell a lot more 1A's and Inside Guarantees than the available cabins in those categories. This lets them sell more cabins and fill up the ship.

 

As those who hang out here also know, they assign cabins to guarantee reservations somewhere around 45 days out -- but they need to leave some available cabins in each category, in case folks still want to buy a suite or whatever. I have looked at the available cabins in all categories on my past cruises and at this point the available cabins generally include some cabins in a row, as if they are waiting for a big family or other group who want to book cabins together.

 

At one or more points closer to sailing, the remaining cabins get assigned, so sometimes a guarantee during this period may just be a matter of being there at just the right time.

 

For the 45-day out cabin assignments, I'm guessing that the person who assigns cabins starts with linked reservations and tries to upgrade some of them to available rows of contiguous cabins where they are available. Then they fill in with pairs of cabins and single cabins, up to the capacity for upgrade that they predict will best fill the ship.

 

My theory (based on little evidence except the seeming randomness of the whole thing) is that reservations are not selected for upgrade on any particular basis (past cruiser, honeymoon, birthday, early booking, first cruise, or even price paid) but are simply based on convenience as they try to fill the ship efficiently.

 

I do think they intentionally upgrade a few cruisers from extremely low categories to balconies or higher, just for good word of mouth advertising that will help them continue to sell lots of cabins as guarantees, thus giving them lots of flexibility and maintaining their ability to fill the ship.

[topazz11]

Did your aunt pay a higher fare?

 

She actually paid less than I did!!!!

[dan40]

If you get an upgrade do you have to take it? My husband and I are going on the Fascination June 2008 for our 15th wedding anniversary and we have booked a category 11 suite(cabin V1). It is the first balcony room in the front of the ship. Has anyone ever stayed in this room on any cruise. Will that be a good location. We want a good view and thought that might be the best. Do they upgrade any higher if you have a suite booked and if they do, would you have to take the upgrade, unless it is a category 12 suite.

 

An upgrade to a cat 12 is the ONLY upgrade possible since you have a cat 11. I think you would be very, very happy to take a cat 12 over a cat 11 on a Fantasy class ship. Cat 12s are midships and are real suites. The cat 11's are just the forerunners of the modern ships cat 8. About the same but the balconies are smaller than cat 8's. Also the balconies are somewhat inboard, there is a set of stairs outboard of the cat 11s and the promenade deck is a deck below and outboard too. Means you cannot look straight down to the water, you can in a cat 12. And the cat 11 balconies have absolutely ZERO privacy. There is a viewing area forward on that deck that extends out over the bridge wing. Anybody there can just turn around and look directly into all the cat 11 balconies.

Be VERY HAPPY SHOULD YOU GET A CAT 12.

 

Dan