Complimentary cabin upgrade question ....

[Cruise Raider]

Just out of curiosity - that last minute upgrade wasn't on the Regal for the TA this April, was it? We had to cancel our cruise two days prior to sailing. Somebody probably got to enjoy our mini suite! :)

 

No, it was actually on the Crown Princess out of LA in December about 5 years ago. We booked an inside cabin for next to nothing for a week long sailing down to Mexico. We ended up getting an obstructed OV on the Emerald deck midship but its only obstruction was a radar device or compass of some sort. It was only up while we were in port and so we had an excellent non-obstructed view. Best upgrade I've ever gotten on Princess.

[Cruise Raider]

Going with a guarantee cabin isn't for everyone. We had a great cruise in spite of the bad cabin we had on the CB. And many times we've been extraordinarily lucky to get great cabins through booking guarantees. My favorite was getting upgraded to a cabin with a balcony on our Sapphire Princes cruise to Alaska. Other times we have lucked out and been assigned to Caribe Deck balcony cabins on Grand class ships. We even had an accessible cabin once. It was assigned just a couple of weeks before sailing.

 

We've also received cabins that some would not like--such as above the theater. But the noise did not bother us since we were usually at the second show each night and eating dinner during the first one.

 

I usually book our cruises after the final payment date, and frequently going with a guarantee is the only way to get the lowest price.

 

We just never really fared very well with guarantee cabins on Princess. On the other hand, we've come out way ahead on Celebrity so will still choose a guaranteed cabin now and then for that line. We went from an inside to one of the corner aft family verandas ... best upgrade EVER! Another time, we went from an inside to an oceanview, once from an inside to a balcony and on a recent sailing, we were upgraded from an oceanview to an aft concierge balcony. We certainly have lucked out on Celebrity with the guarantees ... just not really the case on Princess. It's just not something we expect so we're never too disappointed. I did receive that upgrade from an inside to an obstructed OV that one time and it really was a true upgrade with no real obstruction and midship to boot. The only thing is, we never received our mail throughout the whole sailing. We tried to get it corrected but finally just went down to meet the room steward for the original cabin we booked and she saved it for us for our daily pick up. It worked out ok.

[Pet72Vet]

We have done many cruises especially with Princess but we've always been too chicken to opt for "cabin upgrade" for fear we may end up with a worse cabin or location. What are your experiences with this option? Has it been always better cabin and or better location? Also, once a free cabin is offered, do we have the option to turn it down? Or is the cabin upgrade done automatically?

We have been upgraded once on a Regal Princess transatlantic cruise from a forward balcony to a so-called premium rear facing larger balcony. While a larger balcony, we did not spend a lot of time on the balcony because of a soot problem from the stacks. It is not heavy soot...but definitely noticeable, on a daily basis, particularly if you run your hand across the table top. I wouldn't want to sit in the chairs with white pants/shorts on without first wiping them down with a towel. Have read abut this issue, previously. Princess is aware of the soot issue as they make it a point to put a throw rug just inside the sliding balcony door on these aft facing staterooms to catch the soot from tracking onto the carpet. We would not accept that upgrade, again, as we did not consider it an upgrade at all. Makes one wonder about air quality aft of the stacks, as well.

 

Another time we were offered an upgrade, but declined. You do need to respond promptly to an email upgrade offer to get your pre-selected stateroom back.

[1AL]

Our best ever upgrade on Princess:

Booked last-minute 28-day cruise out of Los Angeles to Hawaii & Tahiti, fall 2016.

Booked guarantee inside, last-minute rate of just under $2K per person including port charges/taxes/fees.

Princess kicked in just under $900 on various obc between loyalty, future cruise certificate, shareholder and military.

To sweeten the deal, 3 days before the sailing we were upgraded to an unobstructed balcony, second from front on Lido Deck.

28 glorious days those were.

[Thrak]

We were upgraded a couple of times. The first time we were moved from the farthest forward balcony where the Promenade steps up and every body walks past your balcony. We were moved to a mid-ship Aloha deck balcony. Many would say, "Oh, no!" and tell me I would have lots of noise from MUTS and chair scraping. Nope. Totally peaceful 15 days.

 

On another cruise we booked a forward cabin, inside on Lido deck. Cheap cabin for sure. A couple of weeks or so before the cruise I noticed my personalizer now said we were in a HC Accessible balcony, midship on Caribe deck. Huge room. Huge balcony. Huge (but different) bathroom. We were quite happy.

 

We have a cruise booked for November and I'm hoping they don't "upgrade" us. We have an ocean view that we like. It's a OD category which is an aft-facing Ocean View. It's right next to the aft viewing deck (with loungers) on Baja deck of Coral Princess. We've sailed in that cabin before and liked it a lot. My fear is being "upgraded" to a "Premium Ocean View" cabin. I don't want to give up our huge "balcony" for a larger room.

[1AL]

We were upgraded a couple of times. The first time we were moved from the farthest forward balcony where the Promenade steps up and every body walks past your balcony. We were moved to a mid-ship Aloha deck balcony. Many would say, "Oh, no!" and tell me I would have lots of noise from MUTS and chair scraping. Nope. Totally peaceful 15 days.

 

On another cruise we booked a forward cabin, inside on Lido deck. Cheap cabin for sure. A couple of weeks or so before the cruise I noticed my personalizer now said we were in a HC Accessible balcony, midship on Caribe deck. Huge room. Huge balcony. Huge (but different) bathroom. We were quite happy.

 

We have a cruise booked for November and I'm hoping they don't "upgrade" us. We have an ocean view that we like. It's a OD category which is an aft-facing Ocean View. It's right next to the aft viewing deck (with loungers) on Baja deck of Coral Princess. We've sailed in that cabin before and liked it a lot. My fear is being "upgraded" to a "Premium Ocean View" cabin. I don't want to give up our huge "balcony" for a larger room.

 

Ask them to mark your booking with a "No complimentary upgrade" notation, Princess will do that for you.

[rockdoctor]

My TA has standing instructions to tell Princess “no upgrade, thank you”. For the vary reason other posters have mentioned. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[worldtravella]

We must be marked as we seem to get awful supposed upgrades and guarantee cabins on a regular basis.  Were supposedly 'upgraded' from our personally selected forward Balcony with nothing anywhere near it to an awful mid-ship balcony with a lifeboat right in front of it.  It ruined my cruise.  Was unaware that TA had not marked booking No upgrade. 

Guarantee cabins have been next to a very loud live music venue where it sounded like the band was in the room until late every night, another one was next to the butlers pantry and crew door so noisy all day and night, another was the last inside cabin at the back with the closest lifts mid-ship and I was injured and needed a walking stick and couldn't walk more than about 50 m (spent most of the time in the cabin as I couldn't get to anything), another was in the front outside cabin located just above water level with two portholes that looked like front load washing machines for most of the cruise (I kept expecting to see fish to go past), and the list goes on.  Have only had one that I thought was even a slight improvement and that was from an inside to one of the cabins overlooking the internal promenade on a RCCL ship so it had a window but then you had to keep the blinds drawn all the time anyway as people from the cabins on the other side as well as entertainers on the overhead gantry could see in and it was located over the pub so it was noisy until the early hours with rowdy drunks 'singing' at the tops of their voices so not that great really as an inside would probably have been quieter.  Not really a glowing review for 'upgrades' or guarantees.

[JF - retired RRT]

On 6/14/2018 at 6:04 AM, rockdoctor said:

My TA has standing instructions to tell Princess “no upgrade, thank you”. For the vary reason other posters have mentioned. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

FYI: "no upgrade" is a request. Princess can still upgrade you if they want your cabin. The only solution is to watch your booking and if your cabin changes call Princess/TA immediately to get your old cabin back.