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Upgrading on Embarkation Day

bnurick

By bnurick,
in Celebrity Cruises

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bnurick "Live from...." Rare

bnurick

Posted
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Good evening. Does anyone have any experience upgrading the day of embarkation if there are last minute cancellations?  Any information on the best process would be appreciated.  Upcoming cruise was full for Aqua and Suite class.  Thank you.

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Arizona Wildcat

Arizona Wildcat

Posted
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36 minutes ago, bnurick said:

Good evening. Does anyone have any experience upgrading the day of embarkation if there are last minute cancellations?  Any information on the best process would be appreciated.  Upcoming cruise was full for Aqua and Suite class.  Thank you.

Lots of threads on this.  After reading my reply do a search.

Simply go to customer service desk on board and NICELY ask.  Thats it.   You might ask again late the day you board.

You really cannot tell if there are vacancies because last minute cancellations are possible, but would c likely be filled via MoveUp 48 hours before.

If there are no shows and they have not contacted Celebrity with travel delays, an upgrade is possible.  Check out the MoveUp page so you could have an idea of the $ and if you are even interested.

They happen rarely on a ship 90% full.  But possible.   Good luck.

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Chrissit "Live from...." Rare

Chrissit

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Doesn’t hurt to ask. 
We asked on embarkation Nov ‘21 on the Equniox and could have from Aqua Class to a Sky Suite (opted not to due to price). In Nov ‘22 on the Reflection, we could have moved from a balcony to Concierge later on day 2, but opted not to since we had already unpacked. We did see someone else taking them up on the offer which was great. Ask early upon boarding and they will add you to a list.

 

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miched

miched

Posted
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1 hour ago, Chrissit said:

Doesn’t hurt to ask. 
We asked on embarkation Nov ‘21 on the Equniox and could have from Aqua Class to a Sky Suite (opted not to due to price). In Nov ‘22 on the Reflection, we could have moved from a balcony to Concierge later on day 2, but opted not to since we had already unpacked. We did see someone else taking them up on the offer which was great. Ask early upon boarding and they will add you to a list.

 


Same happened to us.    Move up min was $1500 pp to a SS from AQ.   On the 2nd day of a 7 day cruise we’re got a call that we could move up for $1500 pp.  For us the move up min was too much and now 2 days were gone, no thanks.   The only reason we inquired was to see if there would be cheaper price on board since there were many SS available a few days before the cruise.   It would have had to be a fantastic deal for us to do it.  =

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

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Longboysfan

Longboysfan

Posted
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I ran into this last cruise.

The line does not offer discounts.

 

Celebrity was sending emails on bid to move up to Aqua.

I did it last time for $410 on my cabin.

This was through Celebrity site.

 

This time.....

I talked to my TA.

There were 4 of us in the group - two cabins.

 

She called Celebrity and we moved up to Aqua - the four of us in two separate Cabins.

Only $110 total.

 

I don't know if your TA has that much clout with Celebrity - but mine did.

 

Oh...  We picked up $250 OBC per cabin.

 

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LizzGo

LizzGo

Posted
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As a sidebar here: was listening to Patricia Frommer ( yes, THAT Frommer) on the radio. She said the best use of a TA is when booking a cruise, if your TA is a cruise specialist, and if your TA is affiliated with your preferred cruise line. She said the TA can often get you special perks like upgrades, OBC etc not available to mere mortals booking on their own. That has certainly been our experience. 

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mrgabriel

mrgabriel

Posted
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It never hurts to politely ask!

 

We were on a New Year's cruise this past January and the weather was terrible the day before we sailed with a bunch of major North American airports closed or with severe delays. We were told by one of the crew that over 100 cabins were empty because people missed the ship. We counted, and there were 8 suites on our deck that had keycards at the door at 8 pm that first night. That would have been a good cruise to request an upgrade 🙂 

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cruisinfly

cruisinfly

Posted
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31 minutes ago, mrgabriel said:

It never hurts to politely ask!

 

We were on a New Year's cruise this past January and the weather was terrible the day before we sailed with a bunch of major North American airports closed or with severe delays. We were told by one of the crew that over 100 cabins were empty because people missed the ship. We counted, and there were 8 suites on our deck that had keycards at the door at 8 pm that first night. That would have been a good cruise to request an upgrade 🙂 

It's possible those passengers may join the cruise at the first port of call so the rooms may not have been available to upgrade.

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mrgabriel

mrgabriel

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4 minutes ago, cruisinfly said:

It's possible those passengers may join the cruise at the first port of call so the rooms may not have been available to upgrade.

 

True. But in this case, many of the passengers had already informed the ship that they chose not to join. 

 

 

It never hurts to politely ask 🙂

 

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cruisegirlppp

cruisegirlppp

Posted
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Many, many years ago we were booked in a balcony room on the Mercury for an Alaskan cruise...after embarkation we were inexplicably upgraded to a sunset veranda.  I surmised that some other passengers probably needed adjacent rooms and we were the lucky winners asked to move!

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Ferry_Watcher Excellent Advice! Rare

Ferry_Watcher

Posted
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Although most folks already probably know this, the folks at the check-in counters can not do any upgrades.  It's not like a hotel where they know what staterooms are still available.  If an upgrade is going to happen, it will be done on the ship by ship staff.

 

Last season on the Alaska sailing, some passengers upon arriving at the cruise terminal found that they were upgraded.   Their booking was flagged and they were sent to the check-in desk where there was a personalized letter from the ship congratulating them on being upgraded.  Many times it was from a lower deck like Deck 3 to a higher balcony deck.  It seemed that it most likely had to do with the ship holding back a number of staterooms to be used as quarantine rooms, if needed. 

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lorilea

lorilea

Posted
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On 4/18/2023 at 10:53 AM, mrgabriel said:

It never hurts to politely ask!

 

We were on a New Year's cruise this past January and the weather was terrible the day before we sailed with a bunch of major North American airports closed or with severe delays. We were told by one of the crew that over 100 cabins were empty because people missed the ship. We counted, and there were 8 suites on our deck that had keycards at the door at 8 pm that first night. That would have been a good cruise to request an upgrade 🙂 

We actually missed embarkation for one of our Celebrity Cruises and joined the ship 2 days later at the first port.   I’d have been pretty sad if our room had been given away when we finally arrived😥.  Since then we have never made the mistake of flying in on the day of embarkation.  Lesson learned the hard way!

 

Also - we have been able to upgrade with Celebrity on arrival day. Just visited customer service and asked if there were any upgrades available and there were for a very reasonable price!

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WrittenOnYourHeart Great Review Rare

WrittenOnYourHeart

Posted
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7 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Although most folks already probably know this, the folks at the check-in counters can not do any upgrades.  It's not like a hotel where they know what staterooms are still available.  If an upgrade is going to happen, it will be done on the ship by ship staff.

 

This may well be cruise line specific. Disney Cruise Line, for example, has a supervisor's desk at the port where people may go to see if there are any available upgrades and what the cost would be.

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Arizona Wildcat

Arizona Wildcat

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Several folks have said, “it never hurts to politely ask”. I’m left to wonder if there are actually people out there who are so brazen as to ask about upgrade availability in a rude manner. What does that even look like?  

Saying, I don't like my cabin.  You need to move me to a better location.

Have heard exactly that 

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NutsAboutGolf Holiday Sharing Rare

NutsAboutGolf

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Even in a no-show situation, it’s possible those passengers board on another port.  Boarded the Solstice the weekend of the Southwest software meltdown resulting in days of cancelled flights; several passengers simply joined the sailing from another port.  My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is they’re only filling confirmed cancellations such as when the passengers calls the call center to notify them they won’t be making due to an unexpected emergency or whatever reason.
 

Good or bad, it’s first come first serve as you get added to a list so you should plan on getting there early.  We were AQ put on the list, was told if we were awarded a room they would call room phone and leave a VM if we weren’t there

 

I’ve spoken to three passengers who stated they all went from insides to balconies immediately upon asking GS at no charge yet there was availability as these sailing were 40-60% capacity 

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