Suite upgrades on day of embarkation?

[Davidonaboat]

Hi Guys

 

Has anyone had experience upgrading to a suite from a (VC) Verandah balcony on the day of embarkation? obviously subject to availability.

 

Cheers :)

[take us away]

Had it happen for me about 3 or 4 pm the afternoon before embarkation.

 

Have heard it has happened at the counter at check-in - but not for me.... (sigh)

[kazu]

HAL tries to "upsell" those categories (you pay something) and usually fills the suites but, it has happened with last minute cancellations, etc.

 

I suspect it is rare and far between.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We had to cancel a couple of cruises a couple of days before the ship sailed.

Someone got either an upgrade or was able to do an upsell to our PS.

So anything is possible.

[RJ2002]

Like Kazu said, I think the chance of a upgrade or upsell to a suite on the day of embarkation would probably be rare.

[scm1848]

We got a complimentary upgrade from a Neptune Suite to the Pinnacle Suite at the counter last year on a Norwegian fjord cruise. And, yes, it was awesome!!

[kazu]

we got a complimentary upgrade from a neptune suite to the pinnacle suite at the counter last year on a norwegian fjord cruise. And, yes, it was awesome!!

 

 

wow!!! Nice :)

[Bill S]

Many years ago we were upgraded at check-in from an outside view cabin to a verandah cabin.

 

Also, about 5 years ago, on the day before embarkation we received an email upgrading us from a Vista cabin to one of those wonderfully large aft-facing Neptune suites with the wrap-around verandah on the Oosterdam. I almost had to call security to get my DW off the ship on disembarkation day! ;)

[Cqis]

Our very first HAL cruise we went to our assigned inside cabin and the cabin attendant said Oh I am so sorry wrong room and took us to a window cabin. He said new room assignment. Anything can happened. I do have a friend that only wants an inside. She would have asked to return to an inside.

[HUNKY]

It would be wonderful to upgrade/upsell to a suite from my verandah, but I would not want to upgrade my verandah category. Is there any way to mark your booking to let HAL know I'm interested, but only for a suite?

[kazu]

It would be wonderful to upgrade/upsell to a suite from my verandah, but I would not want to upgrade my verandah category. Is there any way to mark your booking to let HAL know I'm interested, but only for a suite?

 

No way to do that. You have to either say "yes" to upgrade or "no". If you say "no" you could still be offered an upsell (pay extra) but no free upgrades.

[sail7seas]

If there is availability, you will be c harged a very high price. It is to your advantage to try and buy and upsell in advance of em barkation day.

Edited July 31, 2016 by sail7seas

[HUNKY]

I've sent an email to my PCC. If a reasonable upsell is offered we'll probably take it.

[kazu]

I've sent an email to my PCC. If a reasonable upsell is offered we'll probably take it.

 

Have a price in mind you are willing to pay. When the offer goes out it goes out to several at one time. First one to respond gets it.

 

Some upsells are a fabulous price and some are not. Depending upon the size of your ship and availability, there could be a "second round" if the first upsell offer is not taken by enough people to fill the rooms. But, that is a gamble since they be all grabbed on the first offer.

 

hope this helps a bit:)

[sail7seas]

T ell your PCC what you consider to be 'reasonable. That is defined diferently by all of us. that will sace vcaluable gime if an ofer comes if cc KNOWS YOUR WISHES IN ADVANCE. a

[DaveOKC]

It would be wonderful to upgrade/upsell to a suite from my verandah, but I would not want to upgrade my verandah category. Is there any way to mark your booking to let HAL know I'm interested, but only for a suite?

 

First, I would mark your reservation "do not upgrade" (call your TA to do this). HAL will still send you upsell offers, even to suites. I do this almost every cruise as I like to pick my cabin, but I also like upsell offers. It does take me off the free upgrade list, but I am OK with that as it is too easy to be upgraded to a cabin I would not like (for a number of reasons).

 

Second, you can call your TA and ask about upsells (most begin about 2-4 weeks prior to sailing). Since the good upsells go fast, it is better to call early and keep trying if they say "not yet".

 

Third, you will generally get upsell offers to a higher category (inside to outside, etc.), but even if I am wrong on this, you can always just say no to the offer.

[OlsSalt]

We had two complimentary Neptune upgrades at the last minute.

 

One as previously described that happened when we were actually checking in after depositing our luggage with the old cabin numbers on them.

 

The other was a cabin assignment that came very late before departure. We let them know we were interested in an upgrade for X dollars but were told there were none available. Then when we got our cabin assignment we had been upgraded to a Neptune suite after all, but at no extra cost.

 

By way of understanding how both of these happened we figured in retrospect it may have been these coincidental factors:

 

The first one was because of a weather caused problem in NYC and the very last minute cancellations of a number of passengers who simply could not get to the embarkation destination leaving many empty cabins on that cruise.

 

The second one may have been because we got a Neptune cabin with a cracked balcony window. I assume they could not have sold at full fare so they passed it on to us, knowing as long time HAL cruisers we would be able to easily live with this defect without complaint.

 

They were right -- no complaints from us at all. We have also paid full fare in the past for Neptune suites, or taken advantage of last minute upgrades. That may also be a factor when it comes time to pass out some of the complimentary ones. We also use a lot of ship shore excursions on all our cruises, so they know we are a good overall profit center.

 

Or maybe, the upgrade fairly just blindly landed on our very grateful shoulders and whispered this good news in our ears totally by chance. That is the one remaining HAL deep, dark secret. How the heck do they juggle things around during the last remaining moments before the first anchor weighed for each cruise.

 

Plus overall it can balance out, since we got a defective balcony cabin on the Amsterdam Tale of the South Pacific - funky scupper smells rendering the balcony virtually unusable. Sure it was a problem but ultimately we decided HAL has been more than generous to us in the past so it was our turn to cut them some slack this time.

Edited July 31, 2016 by OlsSalt

[avian777]

We had two complimentary Neptune upgrades at the last minute.

 

One as previously described that happened when we were actually checking in after depositing our luggage with the old cabin numbers on them.

 

The other was a cabin assignment that came very late before departure. We let them know we were interested in an upgrade for X dollars but were told there were none available. Then when we got our cabin assignment we had been upgraded to a Neptune suite after all, but at no extra cost

...

 

We received both of our Neptune Suite upgrades at the check-in counter on departure day. But seeing OleSalt's Post makes me wonder if HAL actually made our upgrade assignments a day or more earlier and that we were just unaware because we never (as far as I can recall) check our booking details once we have completed online check-in and printed our Boarding Passes & Luggage Tags.

 

We are grateful for all of our upgrades however and whenever HAL grants them.

 

Smooth sailing ...

Edited July 31, 2016 by avian777

[OlsSalt]

Good point. HAL may have made that Neptune upgrade earlier but we had gone to our embarkation city a few days earlier and were using the luggage tags we had preprinted assuming they were still operational.

 

However, the storm that left a lot of passengers stranded happened just they day before the scheduled departure left a lot of unused cabins - an ice storm in NYC as I recall - quite awful. We actually felt bad benefiting from others disruptions. But repaid in gratitude hopefully.

[HELENPSL]

It happened to us this past January. We were taking the partial Panama Canal cruise on the Zuiderdam. We had booked a midship verandah next to the outside elevator which is always my favorite location. When we checked in we were told that our cabin had changed to 4185 and our old cabin was no longer available. We were upgraded to a Neptune aft cabin with wraparound deck. Although we loved the Neptune suite (OK - don't all yell at once) we hated the aft location. It was noisier than midship and there was more motion in the cabin. While the views were fabulous I would just as soon stick with the midship location.

 

Helen

[ORCRUISER]

We had several upsell offers before the one came that was at the price I was willing to pay. I was in a clothing store shopping for the cruise. I handed my friend my credit card to finish the transaction because I had to hurry up and call HAL to accept the offer. We went from a window to a Vista Suite on our South American cruise. It was GREAT.