Paid-for upgrades

[Daniel A]

3 hours ago, teenieleek said:

It was a waiting list for that particular category of cabin. We were on the list from the day we booked (nearly a year in advance), as were the friends we were holidaying with.  They got the desired cabin weeks before we did but it all worked out in the end.  We paid for the upgrade, £300 pp for eighteen nights.  It wasn’t a rebooking just an amendment. I don’t know if this is relevant but we hadn’t been allocated a cabin number before that, just guaranteed a mini suite.  We do have a cabin number this year so that might make a difference.  I’m not sure how it all works which was why I asked the original question.

You got me intrigued by the whole concept of waitlists, so I've done a little research on several threads on CC.  Of the threads I read,  almost universally people who have done waitlists for a particular category said don't wait for Princess to notify you of an available waitlist upgrade.  The reason is a little long, but this is what was written on other threads:  It seems that assigning wait list upgrades is done manually in an office in California.  Often times a cabin will open up late in the day and it shows right away on the website.  People who keep checking their sailing online end up seeing the new availability before an office worker in California does because of time zone differences.  The available cabin gets scooped up before the waitlist is applied to the vacancy.  Bottom line was if it is important enough to you to get that category cabin the suggestion is to frequently check online to see if a cabin opened up.  I can't attest to this information but generally this was the advice on the other threads.

 

BTW if you want to read some of these comments yourself, I looked up "Princess Cruise waiting list" on Google and found some CC threads right away.

 

Good luck and I hope your cruise is everything you want...😊 

[teenieleek]

Thank you very much for doing the research for me.  I had tried myself and had no luck. I must have been putting the wrong words in the search box.  Very interesting about the time differences, potentially we might see vacancies in the U.K. earlier or might miss them altogether.  There’s more to worry about right now but I will start checking the website next year.