Upgrade Free Cruise - Royal Caribbean ?

[Noreen411]

Hi

 

My husband and received a list of offers for free cruises via email and snail mail.  This is on Royal Caribbean.

 

In the past the free cruises never worked out for us so we’ve applied discounts to other sailings but this time it looks like it could work.

 

If we upgrade the free cabin to the next (or higher) type of cabin do we get points?  I know this was removed and put back so just wanted to make sure that’s the case.  In our situation my husband’s offer is for a free junior suite.  If we take the junior suite, I’m assuming no points, but if we upgrade to at least a Grand Suite we’ll get two points per night.  Is that correct?  Or if we upgrade a free balcony (my offer) to a junior suite we will get two points per night.  Correct?

 

Question #2.  For the sailing we’re looking at he was offered a free junior suite and I was offered a free balcony.  I’m assuming we can’t combine the offers together to get something higher for free.  I haven’t called Casino Royale yet to ask about upgrade prices but was just poking around online doing a mock booking.  the difference from a Balcony to junior suite looks to be about $200 per person ($400 for both) and the different between junior suite to grand suite is about $500 per person ($1,000 for both).  The sailing is on Mariner of the seas which I know doesn’t have the same suite perks as Quantum Class or Oasis Class.  I know nobody can decide but me but is it worth an additional $600 for the grand over the junior suite without all the real perks that other ship classes get?  Not having called yet, those differences are just my initial calculations and they could be different.  It’s a short 4 night sailing.

 

Thank you in advance for your advice

 

Noreen

Edited January 18, 2019 by Noreen411
Add more info

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, Noreen411 said:

If we upgrade the free cabin to the next (or higher) type of cabin do we get points?  

Yes.

 

1 hour ago, Noreen411 said:

If we take the junior suite, I’m assuming no points, but if we upgrade to at least a Grand Suite we’ll get two points per night.  Is that correct?  Or if we upgrade a free balcony (my offer) to a junior suite we will get two points per night.  Correct?

You will both get double points if you book any category of suite, including JS.

 

1 hour ago, Noreen411 said:

Question #2.  For the sailing we’re looking at he was offered a free junior suite and I was offered a free balcony.  I’m assuming we can’t combine the offers together to get something higher for free.

Yes, you can combine your comp offers and upgrade your "free" cruise(s) to 1 category higher.  In your case, it sounds like if you combined both of the offers it would be for a GS since the highest offer you  have is for a JS.  I have never tried to combine 2 offers this high so I don't know what happens once you get past JS but I have been told, by Club Royale, that combining offers yields the next highest category, which should be GS for you.

 

The nice thing about these offers is, there is no limit to how "high" a category you can use it for.  I currently have 4 Star Class rooms that have been upgraded from comped offers.  In general, you will find that the discount on a comp offer upgrade is about 60% off the published ALREADY DISCOUNTED price....so if the current "sale" is for BOGO 60% off, your additional 60% discount will be calculated from the net 30% discounted price. When you start going into higher end suites, it saves a bundle...or you can just stick with the "free" Grand Suite, which is, by no means, slumming it !

 

Good luck !  Call right away and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Noreen411]

Hi

 

Thank you very much for the info.

 

I called and upgrading from the free junior suite to the grand suite ended up costing about $800 including taxes/fees.

 

I mentioned that we both had offers but the person at Casino Royale never mentioned anything about combining them

 

I had my travel agent on the phone with us as well.

 

She called me after we hung up concerned because she called back to question something else and was told it’s fully non refundable now.  I assumed that similar to booking any suite $100 per person is non refundable and if you have to change/cancel the rest comes back as future cruise credit.  He said No.  Doesn’t sound right to me so we’re going to call back again a little later when the travel agent it back.

 

I think I’ll also have her ask about combining the offers.

 

It doesn’t sound like they gave me that great of an upgrade offer - it’s not bad, but it’s closer to the difference I see online than anything special.

 

If you know anything about the refundable/non refundable portion - let me know

 

Thank you for the all the info you provided

 

Noreen

[Noreen411]

Hi

 

Just wanted to come back with an update...

 

After reading your note about combining the offers, my travel agent called back to ask about that as well as the non refundable question

 

Turns out the first person booked it completely incorrectly.

 

The lady that fixed it was able to combine the offers and it’s costing so much less for us to have the Grand Suite.

 

I’m very happy how it ended up and thankful that you mentioned all the info that I shared with my travel agent and they were able to make those changes.

 

Thank you again

Noreen

[Casino Comp Chick]

On 1/18/2019 at 11:57 AM, RFerrington said:

Yes.

 

You will both get double points if you book any category of suite, including JS.

 

Yes, you can combine your comp offers and upgrade your "free" cruise(s) to 1 category higher.  In your case, it sounds like if you combined both of the offers it would be for a GS since the highest offer you  have is for a JS.  I have never tried to combine 2 offers this high so I don't know what happens once you get past JS but I have been told, by Club Royale, that combining offers yields the next highest category, which should be GS for you.

 

The nice thing about these offers is, there is no limit to how "high" a category you can use it for.  I currently have 4 Star Class rooms that have been upgraded from comped offers.  In general, you will find that the discount on a comp offer upgrade is about 60% off the published ALREADY DISCOUNTED price....so if the current "sale" is for BOGO 60% off, your additional 60% discount will be calculated from the net 30% discounted price. When you start going into higher end suites, it saves a bundle...or you can just stick with the "free" Grand Suite, which is, by no means, slumming it !

 

Good luck !  Call right away and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Hiya can I ask what comp level you were getting that the star level difference was 60%. I have my first cruise with Royal (usually sail NCL/CAS) and am looking at a star level Aquasuite and wanted to know what comp level I should be looking at. Thanks in advance

[RFerrington]

My husband and I are both Prime tier. 

[Casino Comp Chick]

Thank you!