When is a good time to try and get an upgrade?

[karensj]

I noticed that my cruise still has several cabins left. We cruise in 7 weeks. I am interested in an upgrade if I can do it at a good price. When is it a good time to check? Once final payment has been made is it too late? Thanks for any advise.

 

Karen

[tommy]

If location doesnt matter to you ,call Holland or ta if you use one and ask if your catagory can be switched to a guarentee if not just ask how much to upgrade.You never know. Good Luck TOM

[jhannah]

Once final payment is made, you're pretty well out of the loop. You could get an upgrade ... but it will most likely be for the ship's convenience. Prior to final payment, you can either switch your booking to a guarantee (which is no guarantee of an upgrade) or purchase a higher category cabin if any are available. Good luck!

[AmyinVail]

My first HAL cruise is this April and recently shot my (newly found from this board) TA an email asking about getting an upgrade for one of my cabins (an SS) after final payment - as I have had great success with this on NCL. I've been able to upgrade two cruises from a mini-suite to a full blown penthouse (with butler) for very minimal dollars....due to moving up to the big cabins, clearing more lower category cabins to sell. apparently, HAL isn't big on this procedure.....

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I think it all depends on how hard your TA wants to work for you. Although it was not recently our first HAL cruise on the Zuirderdam was booked in late Feb of 2003 and we sailed middle of April. There was no deposit we paid in full when we booked but in the few weeks before we cruised we changed cabins 3 times. We started with the lowest catagory of outside and ended up with a balcony BB catagory the week before we sailed. When all was said and done we probably paid $200 more. Our second HAL cruise we book a year in advance and booked a BB Cat and because it was Alaska the prices did nothing but go up and was sold out early so we never changed from what cabin we originally chose. Now our last which was the Ryndam is a Rags to Riches story:D (this is only a little fun with words I do not mean to offend anyone who books Inside cabins, hey we booked the Inside to begin with) We originally booked an Inside and way before finale payment we chose to move up to a S Suite. Now for our upcoming Westerdam I orginally booked cabin 4179 A cat. aft, then later changed it to SS 6077, then we changed it again (we got spoiled with a S) we now have cabin 7051 in a S cat.

 

So another words what I am saying is if HAL has the upgraded cabin available and your TA is willing to work to get you a good price (meaning take a discount from their commission) and HAL is profitting a little bit more Yes, I think you can do it. I think all most TAs will work with you if they know you will be a steady repeat customer. Mine learned that quickly and was willing to work really hard for us on that first HAL cruise.

[JDee]

As I understand HAL's upgrade policy, as long as you are not booked under a guarantee program, you can upgrade at anytime, provided of course, the cabins are available. As for cost, that is an entire different matter. May take some negotiation between you, your TA and HAL.

 

Quote from HAL's Brochure:

 

Change Charges - Changing your itenerary after reservations have been made can result in loss of advantages gained by early planning. In addition, results of last-minute changes may be disappointing. To cover administrative costs, a per-person charge will be made if you request a change in your travel arrangements after final payment due date. Change charges are not assessed for stateroom upgrades or for the additiona of services, unless air reservations are altered and/or travel documents must be reissued.

 

Good luck & happy cruising.......

[CrabbyHarper]

On our recent Nov 9 Maasdam cruise we were able to upgrade within a week of sailing to an "S" suite. We had balcony guarantees, then about three weeks before sailing were assigned a "B" category.

 

I had reminded the TA - a gal I use a lot! - that we were interested in an upgrade. She got a fax from HAL about upgrading and promptly called me. The price was about $500 more per person, but what the heck - this was a special cruise. Only problem is, we are now permanently spoiled.

 

For our upcoming family cruise Apr 21, my dh has already paid to upgrade his mom (!) to an "S" suite, but we are still booked in a "B". Will keep my fingers crossed.

 

My theory is it never hurts to be the squeaky wheel to your TA - if you do it nicely.

 

Gerry the Crab

[tommy]

With a guarentee you can be upgraded at any time and more than once.Also once assigned you can check and if they are offerrin guarentee in assigned cat.You can continue with higher guarentee and hopfully move up again. TOM

[slineberry528]

You can have your TA fax HAL ship inventory and ask for an upgrade. They keep the faxes on file until the sailing. We got upgraded to a B cat. 4 days before sailing for $235 per person. We were booked an outside guar.

Susan

[Hakuna]

hello, Laffnvegas

 

This is my first time posting. You mentioned you are going on a Westerdam cruise. We are going on the Transatlantic on the Westerdam in April. Are you going on the same one? Is anyone else going on this one?

[RuthC]

Hakuna, welcome to the HAL boards. Sit down, pull up a keyboard and get to know us. Our barks are worse than our bites (usually). :D

As you learn your way around the entire Cruise Critic community you will find that there is a roll-call forum, with a board dedicated to HAL roll-calls. Scroll through there and see if anyone has started a thread for your cruise.

Also, Ziggy7 has started several threads to find who is sailing in specific months. She then puts them in order and lists them out. As a matter of fact she listed everyone (what a job!) in the last day or two. Those threads might still be on this page. :)

Hope you stick around a while. To know us is to love us. :rolleyes:

[Majika]

We are sailing on the Zuiderdam on July 30th and have already been upgraded from a vc to a va catagory. With my online TA we even got to choose the room we wanted. I opted for room 8129 on the Navigation deck aft. My brother and sister in law are right next door. This will be our first HAL cruise and so looking forward to it.

[Hakuna]

:cool:

 

Hello Ruth C. Thank you for responding to my post and welcoming me. I am not too familiar about message boards and was quite lost after my last post. Anyway, i found your response and wanted to say thanks. I will look for that particular thread and also find out where Ziggy 7's thread is. I am so excited about this cruise. First time on HAL, but my 2nd cruise. Done one with Celebrity. Love that cruise line. Take care, Shami

[scluvsrain]

Hakuna, I'm on the 4/27 Westerdam sailing too. I started a roll call for it back in November. Go check and add your name to it.