Opinions on Upsell possibilities

[Pat]

I look for cruises that are less than full and then book them closer to time of sailing in hopes I can score an upsell. I've been quite successful doing this for a reasonable amount of $$. This year, I booked a 10 day on the Gem in March out of NYC. I have an aft balcony so its a great cabin, but there were lots of empty cabins above my category when I booked, two weeks ago. All of a sudden all cabins are gone except for lower level inside or OVs. Does anyone know what might have happened? And is there any chance those cabins are "hiding" and I should call the upsell number at around 30(or 20 or 10) days and see? Just really curious........Thanks for your help,

[japit]

We just got an e-mail yesterday about upsells available. We had a balcony and got and Aft haven suite. Yesterday was exactly 1 month out. I have been hearing that they are doing away with that and effective some time in February it will become bidding.

[UnaPalomita]

I look for cruises that are less than full and then book them closer to time of sailing in hopes I can score an upsell. I've been quite successful doing this for a reasonable amount of $$. This year, I booked a 10 day on the Gem in March out of NYC. I have an aft balcony so its a great cabin, but there were lots of empty cabins above my category when I booked, two weeks ago. All of a sudden all cabins are gone except for lower level inside or OVs. Does anyone know what might have happened? And is there any chance those cabins are "hiding" and I should call the upsell number at around 30(or 20 or 10) days and see? Just really curious........Thanks for your help,

 

I would call the upsell line and try every day until the cruise. They say 3 days before you leave that rooms start opening up, but husband called 4 days before and got a balcony upsell for 500 or 600 extra. They also had a family haven open, etc.

 

Usually travel agencies block off rooms and as it gets closer to the sail date they start releasing these. Or people cancel, etc :) But there is a bid system in place or soon? It's going to start changing things.

 

We did get the same offered upsell email about a balcony room/ balcony mini suite the following day after we called. So sometimes they do send an email. :)

[DinaS]

I look for cruises that are less than full and then book them closer to time of sailing in hopes I can score an upsell. I've been quite successful doing this for a reasonable amount of $$. This year, I booked a 10 day on the Gem in March out of NYC. I have an aft balcony so its a great cabin, but there were lots of empty cabins above my category when I booked, two weeks ago. All of a sudden all cabins are gone except for lower level inside or OVs. Does anyone know what might have happened? And is there any chance those cabins are "hiding" and I should call the upsell number at around 30(or 20 or 10) days and see? Just really curious........Thanks for your help,

 

Which sailing are you on? We are on the March 19th Gem. We booked around 2-1/2 weeks ago, trying for a balcony (BC) category. When we booked (through an NCL PCC) we ended up with a balcony guaranty cabin, which we would NOT normally do. It seemed there were all categories available, but then shortly after that, it seemed many were sold out. Now it shows just about ALL balcony cabins sold out.

 

We still don't have our cabin assignment - yet everyone else on our roll call who booked an actual guaranty (booked before and after us) has been assigned already.

 

We were going to try calling to see what we could do, but we are unwilling to pay the big bucks for a Haven (which seems to be the only thing available other than insides and oceanviews).

 

How did you do it in the past when you did your upsell?

[Pat]

We're on the 3/9 sailing. What I did before was call the upsell number starting about 2 weeks out. I called every day. At first they said nothing had been released. Then at about 10 days they had availability, but it was too much for me, but I kept calling because there were LOTS of empty cabins. (not like this time when there are NO empty cabins above my category) and at 7 days I got an okay deal, I tried to get haggle a better deal but she told me they hadn't even "sent out upsell emails yet" so they wouldn't entertain offers. I decided I wanted the upgrade bad enough and went for it. I think I might have been able to wait on that cruise until 48 hours before and gotten a better deal because one of the other cabins in my upsell category sailed empty. That's what I wanted to do this time, but all of a sudden there is no availability in upper level cabins.