Cruise and Travel experts ??? tips??

[Hello-Kitty]

Why is it that when i go to book a cruise i am told its all sold out and they cannot upgrade me, then i get on the ship and there are a ton of cabins empty??

Now i am going to book a trip for November and i know i can get a deal, Nov usually very inexpensive b/c of date, hurricane season, etc

how do i make this work for me as far as the fare goes.

Should i wait until i book or do it now and hope to get an upgrade??

 

Any tips appreciated i know we all have our little secrets:D

TIA

[WeBeGone]

I don't know what ship/itinerary you have been on where there are "tons of cabins empty". Usually all ships are sold out prior to sailing. Each ship does "save back" a few cabins to move passengers to in the event of an major repair, but in 5 years, I've yet to see a ship with cabins available at the time of sailing (except transatlantic sailings).

[sunsetbeachgal]

I am Platinum on Princess and I have never received an upgrade, beyond a higher deck with the same type of cabin. We book as much in advance as we can and assume we will "get what we pay for". All cruises we have been on in the past few years have been sold out.

[Hello-Kitty]

i just got off the Emerald i was on Dolphin deck i can count about 8 or 9 mini suites empty, my room steward said the sailing was no wheres near full:confused:

 

sunsetbeach gal... a good agent, someone u give alot of business too should upgrade u at times, dont u think?

[Toto2Kansas]

i just got off the Emerald i was on Dolphin deck i can count about 8 or 9 mini suites empty, my room steward said the sailing was no wheres near full:confused:

 

sunsetbeach gal... a good agent, someone u give alot of business too should upgrade u at times, dont u think?

 

There are no tips or tricks or ways of getting a complimentary upgrade. Even if the ship isn't totally sold out (which is quite rare on most sailings), there are times that the cruise line fills the higher staterooms, and times they don't. It honestly is just the luck of the draw. The agent really has very little to do with these upgrades, if anything! And they have no pull (in most cases) to get you a complimentary upgrade without shelling out the money out of their own pocket.

 

Heck, we have sailed close to 250 days with Princess on 22 cruises, and the only upgrade we have ever gotten (true upgrade to the next class of stateroom) was on our very first Princess cruise.

You read occasionally about those on CC that were given upgrades by the cruise line, not their TA. If you count how many members post here and how many actually received upgrades to the next category, the percentage is very very low.

 

Always book the category stateroom you really want, it is the only way to be sure and not disappointed when you don't get a complimentary upgrade. Good Luck though!

[bubbadog]

We never count on an upgrade,and we book as far out as possible,and book the room we want,Then we keep an eye out for any price drops,and book our own airfare,which is usually cheaper than princess,hope this helps you,have a great time:)):p

[Traveling52]

We always book guaranteed.Which mean we get the minimum we request. We have always been upgraded at least a couple of categories, usually a higher deck and a couple of times a better cabin. It is not as often you get a better cabin, since they have so many balcony rooms now. But alway a higher deck. The only thing is sometimes you don't get your cabin assignment until a week or two before and once we did not know until we checked in, which cabin we would have. It is always a nice surprise. We have never been dissapointed.

 

Now many of the ships are not sailing full. It depends on where you are sailing.

 

Have a great trip

[Andee]

To each his own--for us, being "upgraded" to a higher deck would be a negative, as my husband gets motion sick and prefers to be as low and midships as possible.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We got offered an upgrade to a balcony from an inside cabin on our first Princess cruise, but if we postponed our cruise for a few weeks. We declined. If you're willing to take a "move over" offer (which you can't ask for, it's up to Princess to make the offer to you), then you might be able to get a sweet deal.

 

We've marked our last two bookings "no upgrade" as we picked a specific cabin. An upgrade to Princess may not be a great thing for the passenger if they get stuck in an undesirable place.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I don't know what ship/itinerary you have been on where there are "tons of cabins empty". Usually all ships are sold out prior to sailing. Each ship does "save back" a few cabins to move passengers to in the event of an major repair, but in 5 years, I've yet to see a ship with cabins available at the time of sailing (except transatlantic sailings).

 

How does one know if there are tons of empty cabins once you board?

 

Bill

[cruiserbryce]

huh...all the ships we have been on seem to have been quite full. How dod you know there were lots of empty cabins?

Upgrades are a funny thing...I dont think there's a science to it that you will find here...we have been on 8 cruises and have recieved an upgrade once, recently on Princess but also got bumped from Inside to OV on our upcoming 2 CCL cruises. Funny thing is though...like some posters mentioned above, many people have cruised quite often and have never been upgraded. A lot of luck involved I think

[Bescotti]

I'm going on the Crown Princess next month and booked in January through my TA for a guaranteed balcony, happy to be in the lowest class. Within a couple of days I noticed on Cruise Personaliser that I had been assigned a BA cabin in a great location. My TA is a preferred Princess agent and puts a lot of business their way!

 

Also when I sailed with HAL during the horrific 2004 hurricane season, at embarkation I was upgraded from a balcony to a suite as there were lots of cancellations and the ship wasn't full.

[h3rjp]

huh...all the ships we have been on seem to have been quite full. How dod you know there were lots of empty cabins

 

You just walk around the ship and you just count up the cabins with no names on them

[Toto2Kansas]

You just walk around the ship and you just count up the cabins with no names on them

 

Counting missing name tags isn't in any way accurate. Many people remove their name tags upon arriving at their stateroom, for varied reasons. So, a missing name tag does not always mean an empty cabin. Also, many times we have seen the cruise line will leave the old name tag on the door from the previous cruise IF the stateroom is empty.

 

You actually spend time walking up and down the halls counting staterooms without name tags?

[Hello-Kitty]

You just walk around the ship and you just count up the cabins with no names on them

 

lmao that was funny!!

 

how i knew was b/c i was staying at the aft and sometimes i walked from the front all the way back in the mornings from the gym and saw the empty suites, the stewards had all their supplys stacked in these rooms.

Trust me there was alot of empty cabins.

I also asked my steward.

 

Thanks for all the comments i appreciated them, just making sure i am not missing out on something:D

[kruisey]

Counting missing name tags isn't in any way accurate. Many people remove their name tags upon arriving at their stateroom, for varied reasons. So, a missing name tag does not always mean an empty cabin. Also, many times we have seen the cruise line will leave the old name tag on the door from the previous cruise IF the stateroom is empty.

 

You actually spend time walking up and down the halls counting staterooms without name tags?

 

What a way to spend ones vacation time that would be....:eek: