Upgrading at the Pier

[ShawninFL]

Good Morning,

 

We leave on Star Princess on April 23rd, 2011....a little more than 2 weeks away. My parents have reserved an inside cabin and will be perfectly happy with it; however, my mother asked me last night if it was possible to upgrade their room. Since we are fully paid and inside the final payment I know we can't do it now without forfeiting the existing reservation and monetary penalty. But does Princess offer upgrades for purchase at checkin if the ship isn't full?....which it doesn't appear to be as of now. If so, is there any special procedure to inquire about this. I know on Royal Caribbean you have to go to a special desk after you check in to inquire on upgrades. Just wondering what Princess' procedure is.

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Shawn

[1025cruise]

I would check now. Princess tends to sail full, so there won't be an upgrade to be had.

[Toto2Kansas]

Good Morning,

 

We leave on Star Princess on April 23rd, 2011....a little more than 2 weeks away. My parents have reserved an inside cabin and will be perfectly happy with it; however, my mother asked me last night if it was possible to upgrade their room. Since we are fully paid and inside the final payment I know we can't do it now without forfeiting the existing reservation and monetary penalty. But does Princess offer upgrades for purchase at checkin if the ship isn't full?....which it doesn't appear to be as of now. If so, is there any special procedure to inquire about this. I know on Royal Caribbean you have to go to a special desk after you check in to inquire on upgrades. Just wondering what Princess' procedure is.

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Shawn

Your parents can still attempt to upgrade now, even though paid in full, without penalty. The problem is that they will end up paying what they would have paid a month or more ago to upgrade. Princess does not do 'pier upgrades' as some of the other cruise lines do. In fact, at check in, there is no way to upgrade (even if there are cabins available, which is very rare). They would have to check with the purser's desk once onboard, and usually any higher cabins have already been given as complimentary upgrades by the cruise line.

I would suggest that your parents call princesss now, or contact their TA to see if they might be able to upgrade and pay the difference ASAP, IF there are any higher category cabins available. Best of Luck!

[Embracedbylife]

It's my understanding that you can pay to upgrade anytime even after final payment. I don't think they would have to forfeit your existing reservation or cancel it - they would just upgrade it and you'd pay the difference. That's my understanding anyway. Do you have a travel agent telling you otherwise? If so it might be an agent policy, but I don't think it's a princess policy to cancel and rebook you - just upgrade you with you paying the extra.

[Tralynn]

Princess handles last minute upgrade request very differently. You have to contact Princess or your TA to request an upgrade. You'll also usually have to pay whatever the rate was at the time you booked with Princess instead of the last price listed.

 

Princess doesn't really keep the upper rooms open. They usually just upgrade to fill those cabins. Close to cruise date, they either give complimentary upgrades or they upsell to fill them.

 

Good luck!

[The Big Booper]

...>>>snip<<<... But does Princess offer upgrades for purchase at checkin if the ship isn't full?....which it doesn't appear to be as of now. If so, is there any special procedure to inquire about this. I know on Royal Caribbean you have to go to a special desk after you check in to inquire on upgrades. Just wondering what Princess' procedure is. ...>>>snip,,,...

 

Shawn

 

To directly answer your question, Princess does not upgrade at the pier for last minute cancellations such as snowstorms in London preventing hundreds of people from flying to New York and Florida from Heathrow right before Christmas in 2010. The NY sailing on the sold-out Ex had 300 cabins unused with less then 2 days before sailing so there was a lot of activity at the pier coordinators' desk for low cost upgrades during the check in period.

[FLACRUISER99]

To directly answer your question, Princess does not upgrade at the pier for last minute cancellations such as snowstorms in London preventing hundreds of people from flying to New York and Florida from Heathrow right before Christmas in 2010. The NY sailing on the sold-out Ex had 300 cabins unused with less then 2 days before sailing so there was a lot of activity at the pier coordinators' desk for low cost upgrades during the check in period.

So do they or don't they? Are you saying no unless there are extraordinary circumstances?

[The Big Booper]

So do they or don't they? Are you saying no unless there are extraordinary circumstances?

 

We have firsthand experience (twice) of Royal doing upgrades at the pier for peanuts, since they keep the fare of the missing passengers, who have to put a claim in for insurance. Makes up for the missing on-board spenders of those who miss the ship and can't catch up at a stop, such as St. Thomas.

 

Toto, earlier in the thread, said that Princess doesn't do this.

 

The OP was not talking about upgrades after the final payment date but before the sailing date.

[Loonbeam]

Princess will be happy to upgrade you on the ship IF there are rooms available that you want. However, the upgrade price will be at the last Rack price for that room less the cost of yours. Example. If a mini-suite was advertised a week ago for $1000 as a flash sale and the normal rate is $1800, you will pay the difference between your fare and $1800.

 

There may also be some restrictions based on the original rate paid, some group rates may not be eligible for upgrades at all.

 

Princess does NOT do 'fill the cabin' upgrades for discounts like some do, instead they give complimentary upgrades.

[southpawsdakota]

Just call your TA or Princess now (with whoever you booked through). We did it and paid the difference from and oceanview obstructed to a balcony.

[RickEk]

So do they or don't they? Are you saying no unless there are extraordinary circumstances?

 

I think he was referring to X.

[SwissDave]

Same topic, but very slightly different question.....hope you'll forgive me :)

 

I am on a B2B in May/June. I have different cabins for each cruise, in different categories, but directly next door to each other. Cabin on first part is higher category than the 2nd part.

 

If the cabin that I was in was still available for the 2nd cruise, would it be possible to upgrade when I am onboard to stay in the same cabin for the 2nd part of the B2B? Assuming of course that the cabin was still available, which as of today it still is but of course there are a few weeks to go...

[Toto2Kansas]

Same topic, but very slightly different question.....hope you'll forgive me :)

 

I am on a B2B in May/June. I have different cabins for each cruise, in different categories, but directly next door to each other. Cabin on first part is higher category than the 2nd part.

 

If the cabin that I was in was still available for the 2nd cruise, would it be possible to upgrade when I am onboard to stay in the same cabin for the 2nd part of the B2B? Assuming of course that the cabin was still available, which as of today it still is but of course there are a few weeks to go...

If you are willing to pay the difference and it is still available, no problem. Or perhaps Princess will take it upon themselves to give you a complimentary upgrade (if it is still vacant) for the second leg of your B2B. You can always hope! Good Luck!

[SwissDave]

Thanks ToTo. I have had everything crossed for weeks, checking the personaliser each day just in case they already decided to upgrade me. Not expecting a free upgrade but one lives in hope.

[caribill]

Same topic, but very slightly different question.....hope you'll forgive me :)

 

I am on a B2B in May/June. I have different cabins for each cruise, in different categories, but directly next door to each other. Cabin on first part is higher category than the 2nd part.

 

If the cabin that I was in was still available for the 2nd cruise, would it be possible to upgrade when I am onboard to stay in the same cabin for the 2nd part of the B2B? Assuming of course that the cabin was still available, which as of today it still is but of course there are a few weeks to go...

 

Chances are the cabin you are in for the first segment is already booked by someone else for the second segment, so the chances of your getting it are slim.

 

Early in the first segment, let the Purser's desk know you would like to stay in the same cabin if possible. It may not be possible.

 

(For what it is worth, when we have had two different cabins like this, we often receive a letter onboard from Princess saying they are sorry but our request to have the same cabin for the second segment cannot be done---even when we have made no such request. In one case when we received this letter, our cabin attendent for the first segment was surprised we were moved since the original cabin remained unused the second segment.)

[ShawninFL]

Hi all,

 

Thank you very much for your responses, it's definitely been an help. I'm glad I asked as Princess handles these issues differently than my experiences with Royal Caribbean. I know most ships sail full; however, I'm thinking this specific cruise will have available cabins. There are still many many rooms available and we're two weeks away. Of course you never know.....they may lower the price even more.

 

Have a great day all.

 

Shawn