Upgrades

So I've seen a few posts about lucky people who get upgrades. My question is, do you have to put your name on a list for upgrades or does RCCL just select someone at random and move them up?

They are mostly upsells now. They call you and ask if you want to upgrade to a certain level of cabin for a specific price. I am Diamond Plus and I have never been upgraded, only offered an upsell.

So I've seen a few posts about lucky people who get upgrades. My question is, do you have to put your name on a list for upgrades or does RCCL just select someone at random and move them up?

When you have cruised at least once with Royal, you will have the option to select your upgrade preference on Royal's website. Not that it's likely to do much good, as upgrades are extremely rare, but you may as well make you selection.

Speaking of upgrades, I wonder if going forward, all upgrades will be given only if the cruiser accepts a non-refundable deposit agreement. Not a problem if one is after final payment but I hope they make it clear if they are upgrading any earlier than that.

Speaking of upgrades, I wonder if going forward, all upgrades will be given only if the cruiser accepts a non-refundable deposit agreement. Not a problem if one is after final payment but I hope they make it clear if they are upgrading any earlier than that.

I don't see a correlation. Upgrades would never happen till after final anyway.

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Upgrades are pretty much non existent. We are D+ and have never received one. It amazes me when I read on the boards that someone on their first cruise gets one, when they always say they go by status. Just does not happen. I will be shocked it it ever happens for us.

They might call you for an "UPSELL"..that costs you money...."upgrades" are free and almost nonexistent. If you get a free upgrade..let us know!

They might call you for an "UPSELL"..that costs you money...."upgrades" are free and almost nonexistent. If you get a free upgrade..let us know!

I am here to certify that free upgrades DO exist. We received one on Quantum in March of 2015. Me, my husband, and two teen boys were in a balcony room for four when we received a call asking if we would be willing to switch to two connecting balconies with two people in each for no additional money. They put my two teens in one room, and my husband and I in the connecting cabin. So we paid 3rd & 4th person rates for the second balcony room. Deck level was the same. This was somewhere around final payment time, not sure if right before or after, but we paid no additional monies for the change.

We used an online cruise travel agent, one of the large ones, and RCCL contacted the travel agent who in turn contacted us. The TA left us a message on our answering machine, and I called them back hours later. They did not appear to be going down a list until the got the first person who was home, as others have reported. They waited for us to call back and accept the offer.

I am here to certify that free upgrades DO exist. We received one on Quantum in March of 2015.

Yes they DID exist 2 years ago. Not so much anymore. I have been upgraded several times with the last one being in Oct. 2015 on the Oasis from a JS to a CLS. Now it's all about the upsell. The day of the free upgrades is slowly grinding to a halt.

Yes they DID exist 2 years ago. Not so much anymore. I have been upgraded several times with the last one being in Oct. 2015 on the Oasis from a JS to a CLS. Now it's all about the upsell. The day of the free upgrades is slowly grinding to a halt.

Similar experience here. We received 2 or 3 upgrades prior to 2015 and nothing since then. I suspect they put us at a low priority because I note in the record that I want to be called first.

I open myself up for some flaming but I get RCL's logic here. If you have to sail with any empty cabins, make them the cheap ones. If they can upsell a cabin at a good value, they still get more money for it than doing a free upgrade. Now, naturally it would be a good PR/loyalty thing to do it for free. It's a business, I get it.

We'd booked a GS on Indy, T/A calls 10 days before departure, RC called and offered an OS for $250. Cheapskate me, I asked if that was per or total. It was total. Now figure, the gap between GS and OS is normally a ton more than $250 - but I expect these opportunities will be few as we book at least a GS. We took it (I tried my best to keep it secret, but kept getting oddball DW questions I couldn't keep fending off). I'd do it again without hesitation.

Thing is, if you pass on that paid upgrade, RC's still going to do whatever possible to sell that paid upgrade elsewhere before giving it away. So not taking it to take a stand in favor of a return of the "free upgrade fairy" has to assume everyone else is taking that stand. Not me. We'll happily pay, and I'm hoping someone has flagged us in the Great RC computer we're willing to pay so we get the call again.

May 2017

Aft JS to GS

At the pier, Rhapsody. Solo passenger of all people

D+ with almost 600 pts

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Summer 2014 JS to GS. No phone call just noticed it in my record one day about 10 days before our Baltic cruise.

When you have cruised at least once with Royal, you will have the option to select your upgrade preference on Royal's website. Not that it's likely to do much good, as upgrades are extremely rare, but you may as well make you selection.

Where do you do that. I just looked in My Cruises and did not see anyplace to do that.

Where do you do that. I just looked in My Cruises and did not see anyplace to do that.

Once logged in, click Profile, then Upgrade Preferences.

May 2017

 

Aft JS to GS

 

At the pier, Rhapsody. Solo passenger of all people

 

D+ with almost 600 pts

 

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Did you lose one of those cherished Aft JS?

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2 upgrades here (D+) both on the EN and both from an OV to a balcony. One 2013 and one in 2014

I open myself up for some flaming but I get RCL's logic here. If you have to sail with any empty cabins, make them the cheap ones. If they can upsell a cabin at a good value, they still get more money for it than doing a free upgrade. Now, naturally it would be a good PR/loyalty thing to do it for free. It's a business, I get it.

The other way to look at it is that it might be better to give a loyal customer a free upgrade as they might have a better chance of selling the less expensive cabin that they just moved you out of than they do of selling the more expensive cabin. So then you have a happy loyal customer and RCI gets much more money selling the less expensive cabin that what they probably would have received for the up sell. Of course the best thing that can happen from RCI's standpoint is they charge for the up sell and then also manage to sell the lower category cabin.

We have gotten one upgrade on Royal - from an aft D1 to a mid-ship JS. No extra $$ involved.

In fact, I have changed our upgrade preference on the website to reflect that we don't want an upgrade. We typically book b2b or b2b2b cruises, and if we were to get an upgrade, it would probably be on the middle cruise of b2b2b. Would also most likely mean a change of decks as well. Call me a cynic, but we book a specific cabin because we like the location. Why move? Now, having said that, if the upgrade was from an inside to the Royal Suite, well..........

No "Free Upgrades" for us. We have been called before each of our cruises over the last two years by the "Upsell Fairy". We've never taken the offer.

Got a call Thursday to upgrade from a balcony to a JS on my 7 day Allure cruise. Royal wanted $385 total. Good price.....but I wanted to stay on deck 7.

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The other way to look at it is that it might be better to give a loyal customer a free upgrade as they might have a better chance of selling the less expensive cabin that they just moved you out of than they do of selling the more expensive cabin. So then you have a happy loyal customer and RCI gets much more money selling the less expensive cabin that what they probably would have received for the up sell. Of course the best thing that can happen from RCI's standpoint is they charge for the up sell and then also manage to sell the lower category cabin.

I agree with you, especially with the last sentence. But then yep they could make a loyal customer happy, or they could give it to a first timer and make them happy and turn them into a loyal customer because of this. In addition especially with the first timer, they might show them how great the higher category is and in the future they might not want to go back.

We have had three upgrades over the last few years. Our first upgrade was from an inside to an ocean view in 2013, then last year we were upgraded from a D1 balcony to a JS and this year we were upgraded from a D1 to a AFT JS on our transatlantic crossing. Our first upgrade happened at the check-in desk and the other two have been offered by email one week before sail date.

Just off independence of the seas and we were upgraded 3 days before hand from junior suite to grand suite. Only indication was an email to say we had been upgraded.

Many years ago we received an upgrade from an OV to a Balcony for free at the Pier on our first cruise with Celebrity. This was before Celebrity was owned by Royal. We are now Diamond Plus on Royal and have never received an upgrade offer paid or free.

Did you lose one of those cherished Aft JS?

 

 

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Yep, and add someone had a new bikini she was planning on using. No sun at all in a GS

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