Diamond+ stateroom upgrade

[Merion_Mom]

The only thing that I think might possibly help is to call them and have them put in the booking that you will take any upgrade without a phone call. I realize you can enter this info on the website now, but based on several years of observing the quality of programming on their website, I have little confidence that the selections we make are communicated accurately to the folks that make the decisions.

 

I also think that these upgrade preferences on the web should be allowed on a per cruise basis, not as a global preference. My particular preferences change based on the type of cruise, who I'm cruising with, what kind of cabin we have, etc.

 

Well, you can go into your profile and change your preferences every cruise, if you want to.

[karena1]

It doesn't matter if you call or not. On our last cruise I called probably 4 times as I watch the # of cabins available all the time. I was told every time that they don't know when "revenue" will release cabins for upgrades and if you have your preferences set they will call you if an upgrade is available. so in my case, calling made no difference at all.

[Clarea]

Well, you can go into your profile and change your preferences every cruise, if you want to.

True enough, and probably a reasonable workaround. Still don't trust the website, and I'll still call to select the D+ amenity.

[bajathree]

C & A told me they assign upgrades priority according to days sailed. So new D+, are less likely to get the upgrade, until all D+ with higher amount of days sailed have the option; if so indicated in their profile.

 

They can say it....but they don't practice it:rolleyes:

[Cruising89143]

There are two departments that give upgrades. Inventory Management and C&A. C&A is at the mercy of Inventory Management to give them cabins and from what I was recently told, they are not giving many cabins to C&A for upgrades. How Inventory Management decides on whom receives what is anyone's guess but I would not count on an upgrade. We were offered an upgrade back in January but for a cost. Not a freebie.

[Clarea]

There are two departments that give upgrades. Inventory Management and C&A. C&A is at the mercy of Inventory Management to give them cabins and from what I was recently told, they are not giving many cabins to C&A for upgrades. How Inventory Management decides on whom receives what is anyone's guess but I would not count on an upgrade. We were offered an upgrade back in January but for a cost. Not a freebie.

Interesting. I wonder if you would get the double C&A points if you paid for one of the inventory upgrades that took you to a JS or better? They are not supposed to give double points anymore for a free upgrade, but if you paid?

 

Just out of curiosity, did you consider the upgrade price a good deal?

 

Bob

[39august]

We were upgraded from a D1 to a GS on Mariner, May 2010, and we were D+ at the time. RCI contacted my TA 2 days before the sail date. Good move for RCI...Now we won't book anything else! Since we now book GS's, I don't expect to ever get another upgrade as usually suites sell out sooner than other catagories.

[bajathree]

This past June when I sailed Oasis I asked after I boarded how many D+ and above guests were aboard....ONLY 8 of us on the entire ship..and we were 4 of them booked between 2 cabins..... I was booked in the Royal Suite with my DD and my wife and other DD were booked in a Boardwalk cabin....the Royal Loft Suite stayed available right up to the day before sailing...nothing....and I even offered them my Boardwalk cabin back if they would upgrade all 4 of us together into the RLS. The cabin was occupied during the sailing....so someone got upgraded. Funny thing is that second day aboard the doorbell rang with an officer offering me to tour the Loft cabins on debarkation day before leaving for future booking.

[Polarbear Pa]

Never on RCCL with 38 cruises. Took 2 crusies on ccl and upgraded both times. So who knows how they figure we just pick the cabins we want.

[PH8]

Once.....In November from a balcony to a Grand Suite.

Small world..us too!!:)

 

.

 

I was also told C&A could only upgrade as high as a OS. If it's to a room class higher than OS, it was Revenue that did it. (or maybe it was the other way around :confused:)

Yes, thats true...or so I've heard;)

[Cruising89143]

Just out of curiosity, did you consider the upgrade price a good deal?

 

Bob

 

Yes we did and took the deal. We were booked in a Sky loft and were offered the Royal Loft for an additional $2500.00. With the paid upgrade combined with what we had orginally paid for the Sky loft, we still came out about $5000.00 ahead for what the Royal Loft normally sells for.

[Clarea]

Yes we did and took the deal. We were booked in a Sky loft and were offered the Royal Loft for an additional $2500.00. With the paid upgrade combined with what we had orginally paid for the Sky loft, we still came out about $5000.00 ahead for what the Royal Loft normally sells for.

Appreciate the info. We've never been offered a paid upgrade, so I was curious about how the pricing worked out.

 

Bob

[relaxatsea]

On a low season Trans-Atlantic on Brilliance of the Seas in 2008, we were upgraded from a balcony to a junior suite. We are D+ and that was the only time it has ever happened, but we were extremely grateful!

[rubrrick]

Yes we did and took the deal. We were booked in a Sky loft and were offered the Royal Loft for an additional $2500.00. With the paid upgrade combined with what we had orginally paid for the Sky loft, we still came out about $5000.00 ahead for what the Royal Loft normally sells for.

 

 

I would consider that a very good deal! We were able to tour the Sky Loft and Royal Sky Loft on the Allure on the pre inaguaral and the RSL is very nice..........and I would think that it's well worth what you paid.

 

Unfortunately, I still fell that the mega ships are overpriced, and continue to stay away from them. We may never do more than the pre inaguaral, until our grandchildren talk us into one of these floating cities.:)

 

Rick

[bajathree]

I would consider that a very good deal! We were able to tour the Sky Loft and Royal Sky Loft on the Allure on the pre inaguaral and the RSL is very nice..........and I would think that it's well worth what you paid.

 

Unfortunately, I still fell that the mega ships are overpriced, and continue to stay away from them. We may never do more than the pre inaguaral, until our grandchildren talk us into one of these floating cities.:)

 

Rick

 

Rick if you consider that a good deal you may want to take a look at Loft Suite pricing for New Years 2012 on both Oasis/Allure;)

[Jimbo]

Highly unlikely they would upgrade from a Boardwalk to a JS or above....it seems like the upgrades to JS's are going to D1 folk lately. I don't believe that they would upgrade from a balcony to a balcony...it's usually balcony to JS and above.

 

Okay Steve, I read one of your other posts when you said there were only like 8 Diamond Plus members on your Oasis cruise.

 

If that is the case and they offer free upgrades to Diamond Plus members I might have a shot huh?

 

Right now 78 days before my sailing there are 3 Js's, 8 Gs's and 15CL's available.

 

If you were me what would you do, also you should know my Boardwalk Balcony Cabin is located on deck 10 last cabin all the way aft. That's what makes this a more difficult to decide.

 

If I should or shouldn't click the automatic upgrades preference on my cruises.

 

Have never been in a Boardwalk Balcony Cabin before, been in plenty of regular Balconies on the sides of ships.

 

Jimbo:)

[bajathree]

Okay Steve, I read one of your other posts when you said there were only like 8 Diamond Plus members on your Oasis cruise.

 

If that is the case and they offer free upgrades to Diamond Plus members I might have a shot huh?

 

Right now 78 days before my sailing there are 3 Js's, 8 Gs's and 15CL's available.

 

If you were me what would you do, also you should know my Boardwalk Balcony Cabin is located on deck 10 last cabin all the way aft. That's what makes this a more difficult to decide.

 

If I should or shouldn't click the automatic upgrades preference on my cruises.

 

Have never been in a Boardwalk Balcony Cabin before, been in plenty of regular Balconies on the sides of ships.

 

Jimbo:)

 

Yes...I have stayed in 11729, 11329 and 10329...great very entertaining cabins with some prime aft views.

 

My point to the post above of only 8 D+ members aboard and us being 4 of them booked in 2 cabins and we didn't get upgraded was to show that the upgrades are obviously staying with revenue and going to other guests...NOT to C&A guests with the highest status.

 

You never know...you can get lucky but it's been my experience lately that those guests with D1's (which are the highest priced standard cabins) are much more likely to get an upgrade than any D+ Boardwalk cabin.....those are the last to sell and discounted the most....they aren't as valuable to them.

My coming Allure sailing is the prime example....there were a dozen JS's a month out....2 weeks out about half that....then right up till yesterday 3 of them...then late yesterday all gone and an available D1 pops up.....by just how slow the roll call on this sailing has been (slowest I ever saw yet for a sailing) I am going to bet that there probably are only a hand full of D+ guests again...and again we are 4 of them in 2 balcony cabins. I got a call from C&A exactly on the 5 day before the sailing asking to make sure I wanted an automatic upgrade for this sailing.....I could be wrong but that is telling me that I was probably up there on the list and C&A never got any cabins released for upgrades...revenue kept them and did the upgrading. This of course is totally speculative but I will find out once I get on how many D+ and above guests there are and should be able to tell from that. The upgrading this from top status down is hogwash.... they say it but don't practice it. I recently had a friend with 500+ points sailing Oasis with over 15 Loft Suites available a week before sailing...she got nothing but someone posted on her roll call who had only sailed 2X before with Royal that they were upgraded from a balcony to a LS:rolleyes:

[Jimbo]

Yes...I have stayed in 11729, 11329 and 10329...great very entertaining cabins with some prime aft views.

 

My point to the post above of only 8 D+ members aboard and us being 4 of them booked in 2 cabins and we didn't get upgraded was to show that the upgrades are obviously staying with revenue and going to other guests...NOT to C&A guests with the highest status.

 

You never know...you can get lucky but it's been my experience lately that those guests with D1's (which are the highest priced standard cabins) are much more likely to get an upgrade than any D+ Boardwalk cabin.....those are the last to sell and discounted the most....they aren't as valuable to them.

My coming Allure sailing is the prime example....there were a dozen JS's a month out....2 weeks out about half that....then right up till yesterday 3 of them...then late yesterday all gone and an available D1 pops up.....by just how slow the roll call on this sailing has been (slowest I ever saw yet for a sailing) I am going to bet that there probably are only a hand full of D+ guests again...and again we are 4 of them in 2 balcony cabins. I got a call from C&A exactly on the 5 day before the sailing asking to make sure I wanted an automatic upgrade for this sailing.....I could be wrong but that is telling me that I was probably up there on the list and C&A never got any cabins released for upgrades...revenue kept them and did the upgrading. This of course is totally speculative but I will find out once I get on how many D+ and above guests there are and should be able to tell from that. The upgrading this from top status down is hogwash.... they say it but don't practice it. I recently had a friend with 500+ points sailing Oasis with over 15 Loft Suites available a week before sailing...she got nothing but someone posted on her roll call who had only sailed 2X before with Royal that they were upgraded from a balcony to a LS:rolleyes:

 

That sucks !:mad: I guess I might be better off not clicking the automatic upgrade then and just be happy with our aft view boardwalk balcony cabin.

 

I would be interested to know just how many Diamond Plus members there are on your sailing though and if you could find out if any got upgraded from the Concierge .

 

After your findings then I can make up my mind whether or not to check that box on my cruises.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Jimbo:)

[SeaPete]

I would love to surprise my wife with an upgrade. We are on the Allure 8/28. I booked a suite guarantee room and was assigned a JS. There are CL-11 GS-10 and OS-1 available. Can I call revenue and see if they will make me a deal? Call CA? Call TA? Diamond Plus and still hoping for a first time upgrade!

[yogimax]

I love the comments about Owner's Suites and the like. Heck, I would be thrilled with an upgrade from my inside cabin to a promenade!

[Pickels]

Maybe somewhere between 6 and 8. There are some Pinnacle Club members that have had more.....when they were D+.

 

All of ours were when we were D+. We have received none as PC members, but, in all honesty, knowing that there were better cabins to be had back in 2009, we booked balconies, knowing that we would be upgraded to a suite.

 

Since we are suite people..........we simply book what we want today, and don't worry about an upgade.

 

I must say that the game was fun.......while it lasted, and we played to win. The best one was the ATH run, where my DW received an OS for all three legs.........I was fortunate enough to enjoy the last leg with her.

 

Times have changed, and so has Royal Caribbeans marketing system.

 

Unless we see an opportunity that we know is a slam dunk......we just book what we want, and hope that someone, not as fortunate, will find the upgrade fairy ringing their phone!!;)

 

Rick

we have changed our cruise planning over the years. when we book a cruise, we select the cabin (category) we want. this way, we get what we want and don't have to worry if the upgrade fairy is going to call. it's a bit more expensive but, we get our choice. happy cruising.

[LMZinSC]

And they are able to look through their rosters and hand-pick upgrades for people with more money to burn? I can't imagine they are capable.

 

Have to agree with you on this. Way to much time and effort to go through 2000 plus passengers per ship each week.

They really don't have to hand pick. It is an automated process. They could just link their passenger list, the system would evaluate it and let them know who to upgrade. I am not saying this is how they do it at all, but it can be done. "Big Brother" information is definitely available if they wanted it.

 

As much as I would like an upgrade, I can see why they would give it to less experienced cruiser. They know I am already hooked. RCCL is already my favorite for reasons other than cabin upgrades. Can you imagine the great word of mouth they will get from a newer cruiser who got an upgrade?

[Merion_Mom]

I would love to surprise my wife with an upgrade. We are on the Allure 8/28. I booked a suite guarantee room and was assigned a JS. There are CL-11 GS-10 and OS-1 available. Can I call revenue and see if they will make me a deal? Call CA? Call TA? Diamond Plus and still hoping for a first time upgrade!

 

Come join our Roll Call!

 

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=978570

 

You can't "call revenue".

 

Call your TA if it will make you feel better.

[Merion_Mom]

They really don't have to hand pick. It is an automated process. They could just link their passenger list, the system would evaluate it and let them know who to upgrade. I am not saying this is how they do it at all, but it can be done. "Big Brother" information is definitely available if they wanted it.

 

As much as I would like an upgrade, I can see why they would give it to less experienced cruiser. They know I am already hooked. RCCL is already my favorite for reasons other than cabin upgrades. Can you imagine the great word of mouth they will get from a newer cruiser who got an upgrade?

 

Just think of the great word of mouth if an experienced cruiser gets an upgrade, and tells all the newbies, and gives them something to look forward to and to build towards? :rolleyes:

[PH8]

Just think of the great word of mouth if an experienced cruiser gets an upgrade, and tells all the newbies, and gives them something to look forward to and to build towards? :rolleyes:

What a novel idea!:D