upgrades

[loopee]

Does anybby know if Carnival gives free upgrades for rooms?

[Kuki]

They do on occassion, but the upgrade fairy has proven illusive for years. No one has figured out exactly how they work, or where they come from.

Then there are upgrades given which aren't really upgrades. A similar cabin in a different location on the ship, doesn't qualify as an upgrade in my mind. But many people do, for some reason.

[loopee]

Thank you!

[Donna]

Hi Loopee,
Like Kuki says, there is no rhyme or reason as to how they assign upgrades. Here is a link to a good article that explains it:

Upgrades

Hope this is some help and hopefully, you'll get one??

[Trip]

I prefer to know where my cabin will be, always close by an elevator...to book a gurarentee, to perhaps end up under a public room, or, close to tbe bow, would not be an upgrade to me....

[loopee]

Thank you, My wife and I will check it out.

[jacdenv24]

Originally Posted by Trip

I prefer to know where my cabin will be, always close by an elevator...to book a gurarentee, to perhaps end up under a public room, or, close to tbe bow, would not be an upgrade to me....

I agree! Years ago, we booked an inside cabin midship on the bottom deck of the Horizon. We got "upgraded" one deck directly under the galley-got about 3 hours sleep every night! The upgrade from Hell. Be careful what you wish for.

[Donna]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they have to offer the upgrade and give you a chance, to either accept it or decline it? Always a good idea to know exactly where your cabin is, what is above and below you....

[katlady]

Only one of my five cruises did I have a real "upgrade". I went from an Ocean View room (6A) to a Suite (11 or 12) on a Fantasy class ship. Fantasy class ships don't have regular balcony rooms (8A) only the suites have balconies I think upgrade happened because I required a refrigerator in the room and at that time the ocean view room didn't have one. This was in 2004.

The next fantasy class cruise I took they just put a fridge in the Ocean View room I booked. I had other "upgrades' but like Kuki said they were only changes in position on the ship not change in room class. Like moving from an 6A to an 6E. Same room just higher on the ship. My last cruise I picked the room I wanted and I really like the room I picked it was in a good spot. I may give up on the upgrade thing and start doing that. Plus if you book Early Saver then you have to chose a room. I prefer the price protection to the upgrade.

[jacdenv24]

Originally Posted by Donna

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they have to offer the upgrade and give you a chance, to either accept it or decline it? Always a good idea to know exactly where your cabin is, what is above and below you....

We didn't know about the upgrade until we checked in and, as we were relatively new to cruising, didn't think to query it. We thought moving up a deck was a good thing. When we complained about the noise (which we did EVERY morning!) we found out that a large group had wanted inside cabins together so we got bumped up. I should add that although we voiced our complaints every day to customer relations, we didn't rant and rave or let it spoil our cruise. And we got a very generous credit on our next cruise and Celebrity is still our cruise line of choice.

[Trip]

I wish the line would call and notify you of a potential upgrade..I'm not talking about a bump up to a mini suite, or a true suite, but, if they want to bump you up a deck or two..give me the option of saying, yes please,or no thanks.

[Donna]

True Trip,
I always thought they did ask you first, having never had that option may-be I'm just assuming.

[Trip]

The one time I can remember getting an upgrade was on the Soverign of the Seas, and we were not notified..we just got bumped up a few decks..ov to ov.....to them I guess it was an upgrade... to me this meant nothing..

[Parrot Mom]

Just heard a friend got an upgrade from a regular cabin to one with a balcony on the NCL Spirit last week. The best I have heard from the lines is that few "upgrades", but there are "upsells".. where for more $$ they will upgrade you. .I've been looking for a C2 handicapped cabin and that's all they want to do is sell me me in Aqua Class.. and since the prices since our original bookings have skyrocketed I've turned them down. Like Trip want to know exactly where our cabin is..what is above, what is below and how close to the elevator..I'm not a gambler that way.

[Ron]

JacDenV24, we must have had the same cabin on the Horizon-- years ago we too had an inside right under the galley-- I was exhausted after the cruise because you couldn't sleep for the noise.
But on the positive side, I learned a valuable lesson-- since that cruise, I book the specific cabin I want and don't have to worry about the so-called
" up-grade." One time I actually did get an up-grade from Carnival from the balcony cabin we had booked to a suite, but they called our T.A. and asked her to see if we would take the up-grade. I checked the location and said yep--we'll take it. That's the only time we have had a real up-grade.
As Kuki pointed out, just being moved from one cabin up a deck or two to the same type cabin may not necessarily be an up-grade, especially if you end up under / over the disco, bar, lounge, etc.

[Donna]

Trip,
I still think they should of asked first, even with a upgrade like that....You book a certain cabin, you should get that unless they notify you of a change...Doesn't mean they actually do that.

[Cruznut2]

On my Carnival Pride cruise we were assigned an interior room right under the rest rooms outside the main show lounge. I called to complain about that. I could just imagine listening to all that traffic and flushing overhead. We were moved to an oceanview. Most of my upgrades happened at the pier. most of the time it was from inside to oceanview sometimes it was from inside to inside on a higher deck. Never got one of those spectacular upgrades that we dream about. That is okay with me as long as I have a room and I am cruising.

Laura

[rollerdonna]

On our honeymoon on HAL we were upgraded from a balcony room (our first!) to a Suite, which was REALLY nice! We don't know if it was because we were honeymooners or not but it sure was appreciated!

donna

[suse]

We were surprised to be upgraded from a balcony on Lido to a suite on another deck. This was 3 years ago. It was actually a lovely upgrade and I appreciated it but my husband prefers to be on the Lido near the pools and food! Too funny!
It was the Carnival Triumph. The reason I was so surprised was that we booked an actual cabin and not a guarantee.
It was a nice cruise and nice to have a suite. We generally get a balcony but not suites.

[venice]

if I were the Upgrade Guru I would do the following

90 days out, I would look at my inventory management and if there was a waitlist for upgrades (i.e from OV to Balcony), I would identify guest who paid the most for an OV and put them in a (holding pool) for candidates for upgrade to Balcony but would not do the actual upgrade until 7 days before the sailing, if I needed to and then advise our guest, who should be very happy

60 days out, I would put aside (in my pocket) 10% of any unsold cabins (OV and above) for day of departure "challenges/opportunities" for use by my check in staff at their discretion with the approval of my operations manager of the day of departure

45 days out, if there was another ship in the fleet that was oversold on the same week and we needed to pre remove guests, I would offer them a "comp" upgraded cabin on the cruise with the empty premium cabins

30 days out I would do an aggressive outcall program to my highest 2 levels of repeat cruisers on that specific sailing, offering them a special deal (not published) to upgrade to open cabins (i.e if the published difference in fare is $500, I would extend a $250 special with a 48 hour response time)



21 days out I would look at the travel agencies that have exceeded revenue projections by a significant amount and offer them complimentary upgrades for their best customers on that particular sailing

hopefully, at day of sailing I will have maximized my revenue, recognized my premium customers, and have empowered my front line staff to provide outstanding customer service and resolve issues, prior to my guest boarding the ship..the last thing i would want is to reward an infrequent cruiser who paid the least for my product with an upgrade to a premium cabin (unless of course they were CruiseMates)

[Fern]

We've never had an upgrade, but on our 25th anniversary cruise we were offered an very good upsell from our outside cabin to the owner's suite !

It was great, but I probably wouldn't pay the extra for an "average" cruise!

venice, I think your idea is very good! I especially like: (unless of course they were CruiseMates)

[CruiseSC]

I found a way to enhance my chances of being upgraded to a suite from a balcony cabin a few years ago.

I used the method successfully on three cruises before I started booking ajoining rooms when the kids got bigger (suites need a second bathroom).

I have mentioned my success on boards in the past only to be verbally abused by the locals. Most expressed disbelief. Some I expect use the method themselves and don't want others to know the secret; others are so full of themselves that they are upset that they did not discover it on their own.

These days I book two cabins and I pick the location very carefully--something you cannot do if you are expecting a visit from the upgrade
fairy.

Sometimes I miss the excitement checking daily to see if my cabin had been assigned yet.

[ToddDH]

Venice,

You should definitely be employed by someone in the cruise industry as a consultant. Yours is an excellent/outstanding/fantastic idea and if it already isn't being done in similar fashion by one of the lines, it soon will be once this thread gets around!

Your talent for a high CS position certainly has manifested itself in this idea!

Todd

[venice]

Todd..I'm angling for Paul to secure a liason position (and veranda cabin with $500 OBC) for me and my guest to represent CruiseMates on all the full charter jazz cruises over the next 5 years :: ::...Paul doesn't even have to pay me :: my good friend Dave The Wave has volunteered to be the liason for the Cougar cruises ::

an upgrade is something perceived of great value by the paying customer and actually represents lagniappe to the cruise line that otherwise would lose incremental revenue due to an empty cabin

the best job in the marketing/sales department of the cruiselines these days has to be the manager of charter sales, because that position represents the highest form of pure revenue. all the fix cost plus a nice profit are paid upfront by the promoter and the cruiseline does not have to worry about filling the ship, all the pressure is on the promoter.....the perfect match is when the affinity of the charter, matches the demographics that the cruiseline wishes to attract and maintain a long term relationship with...i.e. the article on our board about Celebrity doing a 1/2 ship classical music cruise (perfect demographic match)...Royal Caribbean has the same relationship with HOGS (biker) which now sells out half the Freedom of the Seas, year after year and Tom Joyner (radio DJ who charters the Fantastic Voyage every year as a fundraise for HBCU's....Carnival is doing the same thing with the NKOTB, Elvis etc...start off with 50% of the cabins, work your way up to where the demand exceeds the limited capacity and then you have all the elements of a full charter..the master of this is of course LLC and HAL with the full charter jazz cruises..back to back to back full charters in January/Feb, has got to make HAL corporate offices elated, and because they now sell out more then a year in advance, the cruiselines simply takes it out of their sales inventory, long before the general public actually books a cruise

the other aspect is that these charters have a phenomal repeat rate (north of 70%) are usually 40-50 % above rack rates and attracts alot of guest that might not be inclined to think of a cruise as a vacation experience, and after they have so much fun, they will book again on a normal cruise and not flinch at paying for a veranda or suite because it's so much less then what they paid for an inside cabin on a full charter cruise, plus they receive cruise credit ..the cruiseline can also move alot of it's entertainment staff to another ship for that week

why worry about upgrades when you sell the ship out a year in advance.."comp" upgrades should be used very judiciously by the cruiselines and the customer should clearly understand why he/she is receiving an upgrade (i.e. Mr Todd, we are upgrading you from an OV to a balcony/suite, because we appreciate the fact that you have cruised with us every year for the past 10 years in an OV and we thought you might like to experience a balcony/suite and book them for all your future cruises)...gone are the days when one was comp UG because you are on your honeymoon (know how many honeymooners there are on any given ship)..or (Mr. Todd, you are being upgraded because we recognize that you are a valued contributor to CruiseMate, and we consider CruiseMates, the premier internet cruise disburser of cruise information)

IMHO there is a definite strategy behind how cruiselines do UG, and they will never tell us for obvious reasons

[loopee]

Carnival just got back to me, they said they do not do free upgrades but they would put me on a waiting list if I willing to give them more dough, thanks to everybody for the input it was very helpful.

[venice]

good luck...hopefully you are happy with the location and type of cabin that you paid for