Booking interior, then upgrading as price drops ....

[downundermatt]

Last cruise I met a lady who told me her booking strategy.

 

Initially she always books the cheapest possible cabin (interior). When prices drop she claims she upgrades, paying the additional. She told me she finished up in a suite, for less than I had paid for a balcony.

 

Obviously this would only work for cruises with availability, and when prices drop as well.

 

Has anyone had success with this strategy ?

[iancal]

Never heard of this. We book a verandah. Usually inside the final payment window when prices have dropped. We follow one or two itineraries, a few ships/cruise lines on each and then buy when 'our price' hits. So far so good.

[cruiserking]

Last cruise I met a lady who told me her booking strategy.

 

Initially she always books the cheapest possible cabin (interior). When prices drop she claims she upgrades, paying the additional. She told me she finished up in a suite, for less than I had paid for a balcony.

 

Obviously this would only work for cruises with availability, and when prices drop as well.

 

Has anyone had success with this strategy ?

 

If you diligently check the prices for your cruise at a cruise booking engine, you can stay on top of the latest flash sales. When you find your cabin or another more appealing grade is available at a better price, contact your cruise agent asap.

 

I too have switched cabins as better deals become available. If you are a dogged pursuer it will pay off. ;)

 

Jonathan

[leaveitallbehind]

We've had cruises where we've upgraded due to price drops and ended up in suites with only a nominal increase in rate over our original booking. Its not so much a strategy as a matter of timing and taking advantage of what is often a short lived price decrease. We don't book with the intent of this happening but have been fortunate with the result when it does. But unlike the lady's strategy, we don't book interiors and have always initiated our booking with a balcony when our upgrades have occurred.

Edited January 9, 2016 by leaveitallbehind

[pseudoware]

I did this on Liberty of the Seas in the Med a couple years ago. Booked an inside, ended up with a deluxe ocean w/balcony for essentially the same price. I checked prices daily, just got lucky.

 

I've booked other cruises where it became evident the price of certain categories wasn't coming down that far, if at all.

 

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[138east]

Last cruise I met a lady who told me her booking strategy.

 

Initially she always books the cheapest possible cabin (interior). When prices drop she claims she upgrades, paying the additional. She told me she finished up in a suite, for less than I had paid for a balcony.

 

Obviously this would only work for cruises with availability, and when prices drop as well.

 

Has anyone had success with this strategy ?

 

The first thing you need to do is to thoroughly understand the rules for your cruise line that apply to where you are booking from - in your case Australia. This strategy would work if upgrades are allowed before and/or after final payment. For RCL most bookings outside North America cannot take advantage of price drops before final payment. I think many North Americans book the cabin level they really can live with and watch for price drops because they then have the choice of keeping their cabin and getting a price drop or keeping their price and upgrading. These two choices are not available for Australian bookings on RCL, so the strategy you described is the only possibility.

[zqvol]

I did this on Liberty of the Seas in the Med a couple years ago. Booked an inside, ended up with a deluxe ocean w/balcony for essentially the same price. I checked prices daily, just got lucky.

 

I've booked other cruises where it became evident the price of certain categories wasn't coming down that far, if at all.

 

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Of course if you had waited to book, you would have still gotten the cabin that you ended up with for exactly what you paid for it without all the hassle of constantly watching for price changes.

[iancal]

We have also downgraded our cabin. We took advantage of a sale and downgraded from a specific balcony category to a balcony guy. We saved just under $300 each. We were assigned a better cabin than our original purchase.

[CowPrincess]

Last cruise I met a lady who told me her booking strategy.

 

Initially she always books the cheapest possible cabin (interior). When prices drop she claims she upgrades, paying the additional. She told me she finished up in a suite, for less than I had paid for a balcony.

 

Obviously this would only work for cruises with availability, and when prices drop as well.

 

Has anyone had success with this strategy ?

 

I won't book anything lower than the lowest cabin I would be comfortable in. That means an oceanview of some sort, for me. I wonder how pleased that person would be if the prices do not drop, and she gets that cheap interior cabin for a week or more.....

 

We've had success with upgrading as prices dropped on a few cruises, but on several others, we were happy we booked when we did, in a cabin we wanted, because the cabin prices kept going up.

[calliopecruiser]

Last cruise I met a lady who told me her booking strategy.

 

Initially she always books the cheapest possible cabin (interior). When prices drop she claims she upgrades, paying the additional. She told me she finished up in a suite, for less than I had paid for a balcony.

 

Obviously this would only work for cruises with availability, and when prices drop as well.

 

Has anyone had success with this strategy ?

 

I would recommend you never book anything less than what you are comfortable with on the expectation that you might be able to upgrade. That would be like marrying someone and hoping that he/she will lose weight, get a better job, and become more pleasant in the future. You have to enjoy what you've got -- it might get better, but it might not.

 

Once you've book a cabin you like (are comfortable with location, size, and price), you can THEN keep your eye out for any future deals to improve on what you've already got (in terms of location, size, or price).

[SuiteTraveler]

I agree with booking the minimum you would find acceptable. For us, that's a balcony cabin. I have been able to upgrade many times however. First off, I find the website that offers the cheapest prices on my specific cruise line and book with them. Then I watch the website like a hawk and when there is a 1 day flash sale, I upgrade. I have gotten us from a verandah on Celebrity into a 2 bedroom suite and from a Penthouse on NCL into a 1 bedroom Haven Villa, all at a very nominal price. I will say my hunting drives my husband a bit crazy as some cruise lines update prices more than once a day or at various times of day, so I tend to check at least 3- 4 times per day, but he cannot argue with my success. I remember on the Celebrity cruise I mentioned above, he yelled at me the night before I caught the upgrade for being on the computer "all the time". Then I got the upgrade and he decided he didn't mind so much. LOL!

[pseudoware]

Of course if you had waited to book, you would have still gotten the cabin that you ended up with for exactly what you paid for it without all the hassle of constantly watching for price changes.

Yeah, stupid me. I always use my crystal ball now for all vacation planning.

 

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