What was your best upgrade?

Or even your worse 'upgrade'

Share your story, please.

Years ago.....on Home Lines "Atlantic" We booked a minimum guarantee and got a category 2 cabin (1 being the highest) It was a two room suite. I guess the "worst" was getting no upgrade, at all.

Our best upgrade was from an obstructed view guarantee to a cabin with a balcony at the bow of the ship (Sapphire Princess). It was technically classified as a deluxe ocean view instead of a balcony cabin because it did not have any furniture. But it was great for viewing the glaciers in Alaska.

Our worst upgrade was from an obstructed view guarantee to an unobstructed one on the Caribbean Princess. It was the most forward cabin on the Plaza Deck. It was tiny--so small that there was only one nightstand and my side of the bed was up against the wall. The window was just a porthole, and it was so far recessed that we couldn't really see much.

Probably not very impressive...

But we booked a balcony on Celebrity & $20 more each for the week got us Aqua Class.

Then we booked interiors on Celebrity & got a Family suite for Mom & Dad for $150 more total. We could have gotten a family suite for DH & I as well as the kids (2 more) next to them for the same price & foolishly didn't...those family suites ROCK.

Only on last minute bookings, when we've been upgraded from inside to outside and obstructed outside. Normally we don't tick the box for upgrades, as we like to choose the cabin, but on last min ones we just take guaranteed inside and tick the upgrade box.

Our best up grade was a down grade... we'd booked a balcony right behind the bridge on Aurora; the captain had been on the world cruise and still had weeks left on board, so his family with small children and his parents decided to join him.

We were asked by our TA if we'd downgrade to the same size cabin on a lower deck, and received enough OBC to pay for wine throughout the cruise of 17 days, plus some great excursions. We also received a surprise cheque when we returned, for the different pricing!

On Princess, ocean view to window suite.

Our best was balcony to mini-suite. We had booked through a close friend who was also a high seller for Princess, so I am pretty sure she got it for us.

We sometimes book guarantees. Usually we get a couple of category upgrades, nothing special, but ok. We only book balcony guarantees. So far we've had good luck with that.

Booked an oceanview cabin on HAL for an Alaskan cruise. Shortly after booking, we paid $169 pp to upgrade to a balcony cabin. Next deal was another $20 pp for a Signature Suite. 3 days before the cruise we were upgraded, for free, to a Neptune Suite. Awesome cruise.

We've had three "suite" deals - no "worsts", all "bests" - all with RCI:

First - and probably the best of all three - was a post final payment stateroom reduction price up-sell on Oasis of the Seas that our TA was able to get for us that took us from a D8 Balcony to a Grand Suite for $75 pp over our D8 rate. We had three staterooms in total in our party that got the same upgrade.

Second was on Adventure of the Seas where a Junior Suite GTY had a Grand Suite assigned.

Third was a purchased Junior Suite on Explorer of the Seas that the Crown and Anchor loyalty program upgraded to a Grand Suite.

Sadly, I believe those days are long gone now.....

Best I can say we ever got was because of tips here on CC for NCL. This was before the bidding thing went into place.

Got a killer deal on a 7 day Bermuda on the Breakaway. Was originally $2400 for 4 of us in a mini-suite. About 2 weeks before the cruise and watching prices, I called the old upgrade line. Ended up getting a Haven suite on a Bermuda sailing for only $3400. If I was to have booked it as an actual room at the time? Almost $8000 for the 3 of us who went.

It was shortly after this that NCL started their new bidding system and I have to lean to the ability for those who knew how to, to get killer deals like we did.

Unfortunately, we tend to book really, really early (like I planned 2020 about 3 months ago early..) and then tend to pick very specific rooms.

While not an upgrade, I will say our upcoming MSC cruise in November I would consider an upgrade. Our sailing is actually gone now. Not because it is full, there is still a lot of openings on the embarkation 1 and 2 days after us, but because they shortened the sailing by 1 day and end in Rome instead of Genoa now for only about $100 less than what we paid. If the savings were significant I would have seen if we could switch to that "sailing" and then spend another day in Florence instead of 3/4 of the day we will have before flying back out, but $100 won't even pay for a hotel, let alone food and trains between. So in that case, booking super early got us an extra day on the ship as an upgrade!