Are Upgrades worth asking for and/or can we change our cabin?

[jtsbusiness]

Having read various comments on upgrades, I wonder whether I was right not to ask for an upgrade.

 

My TA offered various upgrades when I made the booking, and each of the cabins were next to the doors in the corridors. I therefore turned them down as I did not want to hear them banging shut at night. She has therefore put on my booking sheet "No upgrade required". I did not realise that you could be upgraded to a mini-suite from a balcony. We are in an allocated BC cabin.

 

Is it worth changing this "No upgrade" on personaliser, and if I do, could they just move me along the corridor to the next grade which might not be as quiet as the cabin we have been allocated?:(

 

Decisions, decisions!!!

 

We booked early because we are cruising to celebrate a special event, and were limited to cabin availability then (March of this year). I have since found out/assumed that they offer limited availability of cabins so that you feel you need to book early. Is there any way that I can check to see if there is a better cabin I can change to, and if so, will they allow me to do so????:eek:

[Setme2sail]

Having read various comments on upgrades, I wonder whether I was right not to ask for an upgrade.

 

My TA offered various upgrades when I made the booking, and each of the cabins were next to the doors in the corridors. I therefore turned them down as I did not want to hear them banging shut at night.

 

I don't think that doors in the corridors would be an issue. They remain open and only close in case of an emergency. The only time I have seen doors that were closed was a cabin we booked on Carnival. It was an aft cabin and you had to open a door to a small hall that lead to 3 cabins. I would discuss my concerns with my TA. Hope this helps.

[regnig]

Setme2sail is correct if the "doors" you are talking about the the firewall doors in the hallway. They don't bang shut at any time.

 

If you decide you want to try for an upgrade let your TA take care of it for you. If one becomes available Princess is supposed to notify them and is supposed to allow you a few hours to accept or reject the new cabin assignment. Upgrades can be from your BC to a BB or BA (any location), a mini-suite or full suite. Or, like a lot of us, nothing at all!

 

You can go to princess.com or some other on-line travel site and try checking on currently available staterooms. No web site will list ALL the available cabins though. Just keep in mind since you are not sailing until March that inventory of available staterooms will be ever changing.

[-Lew-]

I agree, I have never seen corridor doors closed. That shouldn't be an issue.

 

I would warn you that Princess' idea of an upgrade my not jibe with what you consider an upgrade. There are many stories here on CC about upgraded cabins being less favorable than the one originally booked.

 

My TA has warned me to not depend on Princess giving me a notification and time to accept or decline an upgrade. They can just assign a new cabin without notice. That is why we book the category and cabin location we prefer and decline any upgrades.

 

Enjoy your cruise...

 

Lew

[MBP&O2/O]

"Is it worth changing this "No upgrade" on personaliser"

 

I can't find this 'No Upgrade' thingy on mine? Any clues please? :o

[jtsbusiness]

Thanks for all your comments.

 

I tried to go on Princess website to look at available cabins, but couldn't seem to access them. Can anyone tell me how to do it please?

 

We were on a Celebrity cruise two years ago, and their doors were shut each night. You often heard them clunking to, and as I am a very light sleeper, they became annoying - hence my concerns. Obviously this is not something that all ships do.

[MandE-UK]

I have a letter from Princess UK Customer Relations that states that they do not as a policy give upgrades or other financial advantages, such as price drops' once you have booked, to UK customers as the market is not big enough. Therefore they do not need to give incentives as they do in the USA. Also bear in mind that we normally pay at least one third more than US cruisers. So I would not bother.

Mike Pilkington:cool:

[DrivesLikeMario]

Your TA can mark your reservation as "Will accept upgrade" or "Do not upgrade".

 

The advantage of having it marked "no upgrades" is that you get the cabin you paid for and in the location you chose.

 

If you have it marked the other way, many things could happen:

 

1. You could stay right where you are in the cabin you booked

2. You could be moved up one category or many categories

3. You could end up in a bad location - at the very front of the ship, next to the pool pumps that run through the walls, under the pool deck or the jogging track, all the way aft, etc.

 

If location isn't important to you, then it's a good idea to have your TA mark that you would accept upgrades.

 

Do NOT count on Princess to e-mail or fax your TA when a move has been made. They usually make the move and you discover it on your own in the Cruise Personalizer. If you don't like the move, your TA can call Princess and ask them to move you somewhere else. Most likely the cabin you had has already been filled, so you'll end up somewhere else.

 

In some cases, it could mean a really good upgrade. It's just not something you should expect.

[Tak8]

Is it worth it? Do you like what you have? There have been stories of pasengers upgraded and not knowing it. You may end up with a great upgrade, no upgrade, or a horrible upgrade. My first Princess cruise I went with upgrade option and was upgraded to a VS. This year I booked a Vista suite and wouldn't want some upgrades, so I went with no upgrade to avoid moving from the aft location.

[jtsbusiness]

I think we'll stick where we are. It is a balcony mid-shippish and on Baja Deck, so hopefully it should be ok.

 

Thanks everyone for the input

[AnDeNo.UK]

I have a letter from Princess UK Customer Relations that states that they do not as a policy give upgrades or other financial advantages, such as price drops' once you have booked, to UK customers as the market is not big enough. Therefore they do not need to give incentives as they do in the USA. Also bear in mind that we normally pay at least one third more than US cruisers. So I would not bother.

Mike Pilkington:cool:

One of the reasons why we almost always book through the US. ;)

[caribill]

"Is it worth changing this "No upgrade" on personaliser"

 

I can't find this 'No Upgrade' thingy on mine? Any clues please? :o

 

 

Only your travel agent (or Princess if you booked directly) can change this option.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I agree with those who say if you have a cabin you like, consider getting it marked "no upgrade." We've had at least one upgrade that was a downgrade for us as it was noisy. The last couple of cruises, we've selected a cabin and said that's it.

[jtsbusiness]

Thanks again.

 

Ann, who do you book with? Is it easy to do it through the USA? Do you have the same safe guards as in this country?

 

Certainly we always seem to get ripped off one way or another in the good old UK!!

[Sitfur]

I'm going to ask another question in this round-about regarding up-grades, as we're debating about changing to no up-grades in our listing.

 

We're pretty happy with our current cabin location, as A 318 (category BB) on the side of the ship that we definately want for our cruise (Star Princess). And of course, we want the balcony that we've booked.

 

We are currently marked as up-grade only for same side of ship (here's my ignorance, that I haven't gotten the sea/ship terms in place in my mind --- but rest assured, that they're on our preference list!).

 

Any advice from our Cruise Critic friends if we should cxl the conditional up-grade option on our current booking?

 

thanks for any comments / advice!

Marcia

[jtsbusiness]

Is there a better side to the ship? When we did our last cruise we docked on different sides. We are doing the Caribbean this time. Will it be different? We are in 617

[skf]

If you got the cabin you really wanted you should probably stick w/ it. You are much more likely to be "upgraded" to a similar cabin (possibly in a less-desirable location) than to the next type of cabins or minisuites.

 

Also to OP, do not worry about the interior fire doors. If they close you won't hear it over the General Alarm.

Steve

[cb at sea]

Side of the ship doesn't matter, as the ship doesn't dock in the same direction everytime, or even in the same 'slip'...

[AnDeNo.UK]

Thanks again.

 

Ann, who do you book with? Is it easy to do it through the USA? Do you have the same safe guards as in this country?

 

Certainly we always seem to get ripped off one way or another in the good old UK!!

 

Better safe guards in the US. Can't name names here on CC so if you email me, I can tell you of our experiences. (Look at my profile. ;)) I can steer you hopefully in the right direction. :)

[Times Prince]

I'm going to ask another question in this round-about regarding up-grades, as we're debating about changing to no up-grades in our listing.

 

We're pretty happy with our current cabin location, as A 318 (category BB) on the side of the ship that we definately want for our cruise (Star Princess). And of course, we want the balcony that we've booked.

 

We are currently marked as up-grade only for same side of ship (here's my ignorance, that I haven't gotten the sea/ship terms in place in my mind --- but rest assured, that they're on our preference list!).

 

Any advice from our Cruise Critic friends if we should cxl the conditional up-grade option on our current booking?

 

thanks for any comments / advice!

Marcia

If you are really happy with the cabin location you've selected, then have it marked as No Upgrade.

 

I have never heard of a conditional upgrade and suspect that the upgradability (is that a word?) is simply a Yes/No option in Princess' computers.

 

We have selected No Upgrade on occasions when we've booked an enclosed balcony (our preference), and there was a possibility of an upgrade to a mini-suite with totally open balcony.

 

 

To jtsbusiness - we have never heard the internal fire doors close on Princess ships.

[Sitfur]

Thank you to all of our fellow Cruise Critics, for your replies! I will be calling tomorrow to change our listing to "no up-grade", based on your advice and the fact that we do think we will like our cabin location.

 

 

---- and we choose the (left) side of the ship because we're cruising around South America from LA to Rio, and want our balcony views to be of the land as we round the Horn and approach / depart ports.

 

We are so excited for our trip, and are counting the days!

Happy Cruising to us all!

Marcia

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree mark it no upgrade. ;)