Upgrades-Always a bridesmaid, Never a bride

[Kaibocan]

We have never been upgraded on any of our Princess cruises. Therefore I do not even know how it works. Do they notify you through your cruise personalized? Do they call? When does it usually happen? We are on the Oct 3 New England/Canada cruise and I am dreaming of an upgrade...

 

We were upgraded once on RCCL...from a balcony cabin to a Grand Suite!! Totally awesome & now I am spoiled!!

[Goldenpaw]

We were upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite on our last cruise and they notified us by email. We had the option of declining it - yeah, right!

[birdiebill]

We were upgraded once, on a three day cruise, from a balcony to a mini-suite. The notice was by e-mail with a chance to decline. Of course we did not decline.

 

I suspect Princess upgrades only when there is a demand for a lower priced cabin and higher priced ones are not selling, but what do I know. How they determine who gets the upgrade---who knows???

[hllwdcruiser]

Both times we were upgraded we were notified by our TA. I do wonder how it works since we have only sailed Princess 4 times and have been upgraded twice - both from a regular balcony to a mini.

Edited June 6, 2015 by hllwdcruiser

[Steelers36]

My sense of it has been that most people getting them booked a GTY, so if the category you booked in is sold out as well, they have to move some people around to create space for the GTY's. Some people will like their spot and not be open to upgrade and then it comes down to whether someone with a specific cabin in your GTY category gets bumped up and you get their cabin, for example, or whether they bump you up and leave someone locked into a cabin where they are.

 

Booking a GTY in a lower category of whatever type of cabin you want (Inside, OV, Balcony, Dlx Balcony, Mini), especially one with low total count on the ship and that is all sold out (cabins allocated) is the best way IMO to have a chance at an upgrade when they assign you one.

 

You just need to be prepared and happy to get the same thing you booked and also be accepting of any of the locations on the ship for that category you booked in.

 

A lot of people don't want to take a risk. If you booked and selected a nice Balcony location, do you want to take the risk of being upgraded to a poor location (in your mind) just to be moved to a Deluxe Balcony? Probably not, but then some people think there's a chance they can get a double bump to a Mini. So, it's a roll of the dice, and it's a personal choice.

 

But Rule #1 has to be to be happy with anything they give you in same category or anything Princess computer considers higher.

Corollary #1 is that best location is in the eye of the beholder and everyone has their own idea of that and it may not agree with the Princess Upgrade Fairy's opinion of what is better.

[Steelers36]

To your notification question, Cruise Personalizer will be updated in any case, but there is no auto-notification from that.

 

I believe you will get an email with a direct booking and your TA gets the notice if you used a TA and then they pass the message along.

 

If you want to know ASAP, you need to check Cruise Personalizer as your TA may take a day or two to get to you, depending on their work schedule.

[Matcodixon]

Also it is possible to specify "no upgrade" on your booking so if you booked with a TA, that might be the case for you.

 

We have come to book Balcony GTY as our results have been fantastic in the past, and are continuing so far. :cool:

[Kaibocan]

I checked and I was marked no upgrade because I selected an angled balcony cabin. So I marked my res as NUM or META upgrade only

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

I would imagine that there may be fewer upgrades now that Princess is trying to upsell the higher category cabins.

[shredie]

We got an upgrade again. Lido balcony to midship caribe balcony. I like this one. I have been upgraded out of something I wanted into something I didn't before. It's always been a case of location rather than up a cabin grade.

[Pam in CA]

Supply and demand. That's all it is. Princess is offering far fewer upgrades and more upsells. That is their new strategy. I've been upgraded once from a balcony near the aft elevators to a mid-ship mini. Enjoyed the cabin, hated being mid-ship.

[Thrak]

We were booked into an inside cabin for a California Coastal. About a week or two before we sailed I logged into my personalizer to check for any upgrades. (I tend to check my booking to see if anything has changed but never expect it to happen.) I was shocked to find that our inside cabin had been changed to a Caribe deck handicapped accessible balcony room. We never got notification from Princess or from our TA. It was just a done deal. We were extremely pleased and it was a great cabin. It was half again as big as a regular cabin and the balcony was, of course half again as wide and, as a Caribe balcony, it was also much deeper. We loved it but had no idea how we got such a big bump in category.

[lljost]

It really does seem random who gets chosen. However, from our last half dozen or so cruises, a couple of those trips we picked a specific cabin and marked those no upgrade. The others we booked a guarantee and we were upgraded every single time. So if you are not over picky, I suggest booking a gty, you might get lucky.

[Colo Cruiser]

I would imagine that there may be fewer upgrades now that Princess is trying to upsell the higher category cabins.

 

 

I would think so. :(

[Tony1878]

I am due on my first Princess cruise in just over a week, i must be lucky because i have been upgraded twice for this booking.

I originally booked an inside cabin midship and they moved us to a larger “sideways” cabin.

A few weeks ago we were upgraded to a balcony cabin, i actually mentioned that the price had reduced and they honoured this as well., they took away my OBC, but i was still about £250 GBP up on the deal.

[caribill]

I would imagine that there may be fewer upgrades now that Princess is trying to upsell the higher category cabins.

 

The more that people excitedly jump at the opportunity to pay more for a cruise via an upsell, the less there will be cabins for the upgrade fairy to allocate.

[Woobstr112G]

We have never been upgraded on any of our Princess cruises. Therefore I do not even know how it works. Do they notify you through your cruise personalized? Do they call? When does it usually happen? We are on the Oct 3 New England/Canada cruise and I am dreaming of an upgrade...

 

We were upgraded once on RCCL...from a balcony cabin to a Grand Suite!! Totally awesome & now I am spoiled!!

 

That's one heck of an upgrade. Was it an upgrade or an upsell? We've received one upsell offer but have yet to receive an upgrade.....:):):)

 

Bob

[paul929207]

The purpose of the upsell is to generate a little more income for Princess. Why give away an upgrade when you can sell it for a few hundred as an upsell

[icat2000]

I've had a couple of upgrades once from then I was in an assigned cabin, but the rest are when I have booked a guaranteed catergory, they move me around, also I travel solo so it might be depending on numbers on a particular floor for fire and lifeboat regulations. Also, I think it depends on the fare price you paid.

[Colo Cruiser]

I am due on my first Princess cruise in just over a week, i must be lucky because i have been upgraded twice for this booking.

I originally booked an inside cabin midship and they moved us to a larger “sideways” cabin.

A few weeks ago we were upgraded to a balcony cabin, i actually mentioned that the price had reduced and they honoured this as well., they took away my OBC, but i was still about £250 GBP up on the deal.

 

 

Very lucky!

[Kaibocan]

That's one heck of an upgrade. Was it an upgrade or an upsell? We've received one upsell offer but have yet to receive an upgrade.....:):):)

 

 

 

Bob

 

 

It was a upgrade!!! We were totally stunned. Brilliance of the Seas fjords of Norway cruise

[shopperwhite]

Used to so guarantees. Never ever got an upgrade. Now I pick my room so I don't get those darn bunks that I hit my head on.

[latebloomer56]

I checked and I was marked no upgrade because I selected an angled balcony cabin. So I marked my res as NUM or META upgrade only

 

We generally book early because I like to pick our cabin. We were upgraded once from an aft cabin on our third trip to mid ship dolphin after that made sure to have NO UPGRADE in place.

Now the question I have is I have heard of META (not sure what it is but never added it a to booking) but have never heard of NUM? Can somebody explain what these are and should I have the TA add them to our booking? Took what I could away from the seawalk on the Regal our next 2 trips in mini's so doubt they would go up from here.

Thanks as always

[Colo Cruiser]

We generally book early because I like to pick our cabin. We were upgraded once from an aft cabin on our third trip to mid ship dolphin after that made sure to have NO UPGRADE in place.

Now the question I have is I have heard of META (not sure what it is but never added it a to booking) but have never heard of NUM? Can somebody explain what these are and should I have the TA add them to our booking? Took what I could away from the seawalk on the Regal our next 2 trips in mini's so doubt they would go up from here.

Thanks as always

 

 

META upgrade only....... from one cabin category to another IE-inside-outside,

outside-balcony, balcony-suite etc. ;)

 

No idea what NUM is.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Colo Cruiser

[Kaibocan]

META upgrade only....... from one cabin category to another IE-inside-outside,

outside-balcony, balcony-suite etc. ;)

 

No idea what NUM is.

 

NUP = no upgrade

NUM = no upgrade unless META

 

I just double checked this with a rep