Casinos at Sea question

[margoula]

Been offered an inside on NCL thru CAS Total Rewards do they let you upgrade to a balcony 

[esm54687]

Yes

[iamalmond]

Yes, but the price difference is almost always more than the difference for a paid cruise.  CAS always claims there's a "fixed" price for upgrades through them.

[17cruisesnsl]

They do but it's the going list price between the cabin you want and your CAS offer.  

[Sand and Seas]

If you book and watch to see if the cost between your category and the higher category narrows,  you can always call back to CAS and ask about upgrading at any time before your cruise.  We called once when we were in a comped OceanView and the Balcony prices were very close to the OV prices (about $30?).  They just gave us the upgrade for free.  Never hurts to call and ask! 

You may also be given the option to bid for an upgrade.  We book all our cruises through CAS now and we always get that option.  (See all the threads about upgrade advantage for details.)

[Sand and Seas]

6 minutes ago, Battle Bots said:

The current list price is not part of the equation.  The CAS upgrade is a fixed amount and has nothing to do with the current selling price for the respective cabins.

I'm not talking about the category cost at booking.  It's worked for me before when we have gotten closer to the actual cruise date.   The CAS agents have been very nice about checking prices again for me.

[Shidah]

Agree with everyone that says it cost 600, that is what I paid both times I upgraded to a balcony.  When I booked the Haven usind a casino certificate, three times it took about 2000 off the list price.

[TonyFred]

I have paid 500 on two cruises to upgrade from inside to balcony. I travel solo. RCCL has a better program but I am addicted to the Breakaway class of ships.

[Shidah]

Not sure if he 600 is pp though, I thought it was a flat upgrade fee.  But both times I did this I traveled solo.  I could have added another person free, well for the 140 admin fee plus port fees and taxes, but that would have taken away all the fun of going solo!

[RHilla619]

I think there's a sliding scale for the upgrade cost. I booked a "comp" cruise using a certificate from my land based casino, Casinos at Sea charged me $650 per person to upgrade from a inside to a mid-ship balcony on deck 13.

[Petroplex]

I sailed on the Norwegian Sky in July 2018, and I have received a couple of offers from NCL for a free casino cruise. I wrote on my blog about the details of the free offer but, yes, you can upgrade to a balcony. I wasn't able to take the offer, because I did not gamble enough to receive much flexibility with dates. I also had problems waiting on hold for an extremely long time. However, the deals seemed pretty good and they were delighted to have me pay extra for a balcony if I wanted.

[Krisco]

The bummer when you upgrade is you only get the inside cabin offers. 

[Stlcardsfan79]

1 minute ago, Krisco said:

The bummer when you upgrade is you only get the inside cabin offers. 

We also book our cruises with land based casino. And if you do just get the inside perk and you have to pay the administrative fees which for our 10 day cruise in Jan was about $200 for each of us, how much do you really save by booking with the offer if you upgrade to OV or balcony and don't get the extra perks but pay for say dining pkg? 

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, Battle Bots said:

The current list price is not part of the equation.  The CAS upgrade is a fixed amount and has nothing to do with the current selling price for the respective cabins.

They are not using fixed upgrade costs any more. Haven't in a while. 

[samiam0403]

16 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

They are not using fixed upgrade costs any more. Haven't in a while. 

 

BirdTravels is correct. I called in early January to see what my offer was for an Epic sailing last week. I was offered a spa mini-suite, and asked about upgrading to a spa Haven suite. I was quoted $1000 per person, then was placed on hold. The agent came back and asked if I would like a 2 bed/2 bath family villa Haven suite for the same price as they had one left. I booked immediately, and we just returned today from one of the best cruises I've done in a while. (We also added a 3rd person for a whopping $161.) That was definitely not a fixed upgrade cost!

[Shidah]

For my next cruise I was comped by my land casino an ocean view, and booked it during the ocean view and above gets all promo before Thanksgiving, so got all the perks.  So there is a way to get more than just 1 perk if you qualify for it and book it at the right time. At the level I am, I get 2 ocean views a year, and then they offer certificates for two additional insides per year.  Typically.  They are changing their entire rewards system later this year.

[dznymom]

I booked a land based casino offer last month, and got the fixed upgrade cost to a balcony.    Have they changed it in the last few weeks?  It might be worth another phone call.

[Nola26]

On 2/9/2019 at 9:37 PM, Shidah said:

For my next cruise I was comped by my land casino an ocean view, and booked it during the ocean view and above gets all promo before Thanksgiving, so got all the perks.  So there is a way to get more than just 1 perk if you qualify for it and book it at the right time. At the level I am, I get 2 ocean views a year, and then they offer certificates for two additional insides per year.  Typically.  They are changing their entire rewards system later this year.

You were comped an OV so the available perks for that room category were an option for you. Most posters here have indicated Inside certificates and that usually equates to one perk, no matter if I upgrade via bidding or pay the CAS fee.

 

I've booked a balcony then called CAS to see if I'm eligible for a discount, no certificate. In those scenarios I have gotten the perks that come with the balcony. 

[deefer]

On 2/9/2019 at 10:19 PM, dznymom said:

I booked a land based casino offer last month, and got the fixed upgrade cost to a balcony.    Have they changed it in the last few weeks?  It might be worth another phone call.

 

The answer is “it depends”.....for a few cruises we just paid the difference in price posted on the ncl website for our upgrade.  

 

Our next cruise is a 14 day through the Panama Canal,   When we upgraded the cabin the price difference on the ncl website was $200pp, when I phoned CAS they quoted $800pp.   I asked why we couldn’t just pay the difference as posted on the website as we had done in the past.   The said that for “premium” cruises they have set rates.  Why our Panama cruise is a premium and our Asia cruise was not....no idea.

 

P.S.  It’s always worth another phone call😎

 

 

[Sand and Seas]

3 hours ago, deefer said:

 

The answer is “it depends”.....for a few cruises we just paid the difference in price posted on the ncl website for our upgrade.  

 

Our next cruise is a 14 day through the Panama Canal,   When we upgraded the cabin the price difference on the ncl website was $200pp, when I phoned CAS they quoted $800pp.   I asked why we couldn’t just pay the difference as posted on the website as we had done in the past.   The said that for “premium” cruises they have set rates.  Why our Panama cruise is a premium and our Asia cruise was not....no idea.

 

P.S.  It’s always worth another phone call😎

 

 

Agree!  Another phone call a few days later can give you another answer. I always keep an eye on the cabin categories available and watch those prices.  If you are in an OceanView (not so many cabins) and there are a lot of Balconies available you could get a cheaper upgrade closer to sail date.    It definitely IS worth another phone call!