Doing the 'Upgrade After Final Payment' Dance

[londongal796]

I just want to say THANK YOU to every Cruise Critic member who has offered advice, even if it wasn't directed at me, as I have been reading these boards daily for the past few months and I have learned so very very much.

 

In particular I feel like I have achieved the impossible. As we booked this cruise through the UK, we weren't entitled to many of the offers that others are able to take advantage of, such as price drops or honouring credits after final payment date etc.

 

Well somehow -- call it luck or perseverance, whichever you prefer -- we have done all of the above!!!

 

And the end result is just so fabulous, I feel like we'll be some of the luckiest cruisers on board our upcoming cruise!!!!

 

First I managed to get a price drop honoured which was to the value of £200 per person! This was on a Z-category Inside Stateroom 'Guarantee'. Not the top of the line room for sure but certainly getting any kind of significant price drop on a 14-night Mediterranean cruise is worth celebrating. ESPECIALLY when you are in the UK and really aren't supposed to have those honoured.

 

I have since been studying the cruise daily, checking for any price drops. Nothing really happened until this past week when some of the Oceanview cabins came down to the same price as the Inside cabins. But we weren't really that fussed about having a window. Instead we were after a balcony, if we could, but I could tell this was very unlikely.

 

So last night I noticed another price drop on the Oceanview's along with a new category which suddenly appeared -- Family Oceanview. Hmmm... A few checks on CruiseCritic revealed that these are sometimes opened up to guests of a party of 2 closer to the sail date if they haven't managed to book a family in them. I then realised that one of these was the coveted 8500!! Okay, not the 8200, but I'd call it second best.

 

Of course I discovered this just after the UK customer services had finished for the night. I had trouble sleeping as I waited and waited for 8:30am to roll around. I called the second the lines were open and got straight to the point with the man on the phone. He very quickly realised the importance of this find and booked us into 8500!! And then offered us £42 back for our troubles -- as the room was actually at a lower rate than what we had already paid!!

 

I have NO IDEA how or why we are getting a refund, that's NOT supposed to happen after final payment in the UK and even in the US they usually only issue onboard credit. Not sure how it happened but I am NOT complaining!!!

 

And for anyone not familiar with the 8500: It has a separate bedroom, living area, and a bunk bed area as well. Normal bathroom but it's about as close to a Junior Suite that one can get without actually getting a Junior Suite. No balcony, but I'll take 4 huge porthole windows at the front of the ship instead!! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you RCCL and THANK YOU Cruise Critic and all of you fantastic members!!!!!!!!!!!

[Adayatatime]

Well done you. And I a, sure you will enjoy every minute.

 

We have just booked an inside Z room guaranteed for the summer. I think if you go with an open mind things happen!

[YadaYadaJodi]

What an amazing upgrade! Congrats!

 

And I must say "DITTO!" to your first sentence! Thanks CC friends and advisors!!:D

[marci22]

I have NO IDEA how or why we are getting a refund, that's NOT supposed to happen after final payment in the UK and even in the US they usually only issue onboard credit. Not sure how it happened but I am NOT complaining!!!

 

Congratulations and just for the record, in US there are NO adjustments of any kind after final payment. No cash, no OBC.

 

However, in UK, in certain instances, people are getting credits/refunds after final, so always be persistent.

[Irish Cath]

Congrats. What a great bonus to the joys of a 14 night Med cruise !

[Esmerelda]

What a great story! I hope the two of you have a fabulous time on your cruise. Be sure to come back and update to let us know how you liked your cabin.

 

Happy sails...

:D

[jules815]

Congrats to you! Enjoy your cruise.

[Karma5]

Well done……have a great cruise!

[*Libby*]

Wow! That's one fantastic upgrade!

 

After reading this I too tried to bag an upgrade. We booked an inside guarantee & were allocated an accessible cabin on deck 10 which we were more than happy with. However a balcony guarantee is now less than we paid so I asked if my TA cld give RCCL a phone to see if an upgrade was possible, even if I had to pay a reasonable amount. Well my TA came back to me saying RCCL were looking for £150 EACH!!! So we'll be staying where we are. Do any of you experts think it's worth my while getting my TA to keep checking?

 

Enjoy your cruise OP :)

[londongal796]

Congratulations and just for the record, in US there are NO adjustments of any kind after final payment. No cash, no OBC.

 

However, in UK, in certain instances, people are getting credits/refunds after final, so always be persistent.

 

Thanks for clarifying this -- there are so many rules that seem to apply to one country or another but not elsewhere, etc, it can get quite confusing!! I thought we wouldn't get ANYTHING back, so to get a refund was surprising!!!

 

Well done you. And I a, sure you will enjoy every minute.

 

We have just booked an inside Z room guaranteed for the summer. I think if you go with an open mind things happen!

 

I guess we had a REALLY open mind -- I feel like we really lucked out!!!

 

What a great story! I hope the two of you have a fabulous time on your cruise. Be sure to come back and update to let us know how you liked your cabin.

 

Happy sails...

:D

 

Thanks so much -- I promise to provide a very thorough review of our tour, I'll be keeping all of the Compasses, and I'll take a ton of photos of our cabin! I did this for our last cruise and I really enjoyed the process :)

[racerxspeedy]

Wonderful success story! Thanks for sharing how this actually worked out. I never would of known that 8200 or 8500 could be available for 2 - last minute. Now that I know this I will keep my eye out before my Indy cruise!!

 

Thanks to all!

[Chase101]

You will love the EXTRA room!!! I had 2 balconies booked on the Brilliance, and a FOV became available for $1500 less. I told my DD's who are in mid 20's, that since I'm paying, we are all staying in the FOV. It was bigger than a JS, but a little smaller than a GS. We used to cruise all together in a regular balcony room thru their teen years. We loved the extra room and the savings paid for all the extras & more. Enjoy!!! Barbara

[heatherb1958]

Well done you londongal, it is especially heartwarming when someone from the UK/Europe has a success story re a price drop/ free upgrade.

We get on as you get off. Our cabin is the result of the cheapie inside GTY they just had and we got one on the little corridor on deck 8 forward. Having stayed here before in 8121 we are more than happy.

Independence is a lovely ship, she will be sorely missed by many who have enjoyed her sailings out of SOU the past few years.

[ttnc4me]

Congratulations!! A great room on a fantastic itinerary!

[karmacats]

Wonderful success story! Thanks for sharing how this actually worked out. I never would of known that 8200 or 8500 could be available for 2 - last minute. Now that I know this I will keep my eye out before my Indy cruise!!

 

Thanks to all!

 

We booked an April cruise on Liberty about 3 weeks before sail date, and the FOVs were on a "singles special" - my friend who was traveling with us solo ended up booking 8200 for about $100 more than the inside room she originally wanted. So, it's definitely worth asking about!

 

OP, enjoy the room - it's great! Just make sure you close the curtains completely at night - my friend got a couple grumpy calls from the bridge asking her to close her curtains (which were only open the tiniest crack) because the light was affecting their view. :D

[londongal796]

OP, enjoy the room - it's great! Just make sure you close the curtains completely at night - my friend got a couple grumpy calls from the bridge asking her to close her curtains (which were only open the tiniest crack) because the light was affecting their view. :D

 

I have to admit -- I am really confused about this!! I am sure we will close the curtains completely anyway, because I actually have a preference for an Inside cabin over Oceanview due to the light coming in (I rise with the sun, so the chances of me sleeping in during a cruise are greatly increased if we are in an Inside, but this cabin is too fabulous to worry about that!). Anyway -- my confusion is, how does the light affect their view?? The bridge appears to be a smidgen above it and set back a tiny bit, but ... seriously?? Surely they KNOW that the front of the ship is a lot further forward than a tiny sliver of light coming from DIRECTLY BELOW...? Hahahaha. That could be very very interesting.

 

Thanks again for all of the positive comments everyone, we are just SO excited. What a fantastic find! There's still a few other Family rooms available on my cruise, I wonder if anyone will snag them from the forums! Not as fabulous as ours but even a standard one is a steal for all the extra cabin space!

Edited May 22, 2014 by londongal796

[RICO72]

I have to admit -- I am really confused about this!! I am sure we will close the curtains completely anyway, because I actually have a preference for an Inside cabin over Oceanview due to the light coming in (I rise with the sun, so the chances of me sleeping in during a cruise are greatly increased if we are in an Inside, but this cabin is too fabulous to worry about that!). Anyway -- my confusion is, how does the light affect their view?? The bridge appears to be a smidgen above it and set back a tiny bit, but ... seriously?? Surely they KNOW that the front of the ship is a lot further forward than a tiny sliver of light coming from DIRECTLY BELOW...? Hahahaha. That could be very very interesting.

 

Thanks again for all of the positive comments everyone, we are just SO excited. What a fantastic find! There's still a few other Family rooms available on my cruise, I wonder if anyone will snag them from the forums! Not as fabulous as ours but even a standard one is a steal for all the extra cabin space!

 

In very dark places, as it always is at night in open water, the human eye will gain a small degree of night vision. Even small amounts of light will ruin that night vision and make it much harder to scan the waters by naked eye.

[Lpppsp]

I am so glad I read this thread this morning so huge thanks to the OP, had noticed price had dropped last night for Js which we are already booked for in July, final payment made a few weeks ago. Any way rang Rcl this morning and they have given me the drop and am getting a refund of £1082 woooohoooooo:D

Lynn