Post-Restart Upgrade Offers

[geaux_aces]

With ships sailing well below full capacity, has anyone heard of people being offered upgrades (paid or free) in the days/weeks before their cruise. The "upgrade fairy" used to be a regular topic of discussion here, but I haven't seen anything since the restart. Maybe she got Covid...

 

We have a standard balcony in a really good spot on our MG cruise in Sept, so I'm happy where I am, but it looks like there are tons of suites and specialty categories still available. Just wondering if it'd make sense for Carnival to move people into their best rooms in cases like this.

[DivaAAC]

I was checking back on this post to see if there'd been any upgrades offered.  I'm on the 10/2 sailing for Mardi Gras and I'm hoping that the opportunity to upgrade comes up

 

[geaux_aces]

24 minutes ago, DivaAAC said:

I was checking back on this post to see if there'd been any upgrades offered.  I'm on the 10/2 sailing for Mardi Gras and I'm hoping that the opportunity to upgrade comes up

 

Obviously, nobody replied to my post and I haven't heard of a single person being offered a free/cheap upgrade.  That's surprising since there are a lot of upcharge rooms that are still bookable on my Mardi Gras sailing in 10 days.  

[Razor_Poke]

My guess is that they were intentional in spacing people out. Therefore it would complicate things further if they started moving people around. 

[Rudyard]

My October 11th FB group has had a couple of people report getting free upgrades recently. Most recent was a couple of days ago when someone with a Deck 2 interior was bumped up to a Lido balcony. 

[Don Kehote]

Have a aft extended balcony on Pride in December, and I was *really* hoping to get a once in a lifetime offer on the wrap 🙂

[DTL321]

Have a Magic sailing on August 30. There are plenty of suites open... That would be nice but probably not going to happen. I am ok with paying just not $1k more! haha

[Elaine5715]

"Free" upgrades only happen when the original booked cabin is removed from service for planned or unexpected maintenance (plumbing leak, trashed, smoked in, etc).  Upsells happen when Carnival needs your originally booked cabin, most frequently when minor children need to be placed near parents.  Since not that many kids are sailing, no need to entice you to move with an upsell offer.  

[DTL321]

Thanks Elaine for the input! With Celebrity they usually let you bid for an upgrade, because at this point they are not going to sell any more cabins BUT they can make some more money by people bidding to fill those empty cabins. A few hundred dollars per cabin is better than nothing.

 

I guess prior to COVID Carnival was able to fill their ships up to 95% so that a program like Celebrity wouldn't really work. Just thought with the ship I am sailing on which is 50% sold... Maybe they would try upselling us on the cruise? I am very happy in the cabin I have.

[noleguy84]

3 hours ago, DivaAAC said:

I was checking back on this post to see if there'd been any upgrades offered.  I'm on the 10/2 sailing for Mardi Gras and I'm hoping that the opportunity to upgrade comes up

 

I'm on this sailing and have been wondering the same. I emailed my PVP and she asked me to call her...which I haven't done yet. I can only assume they want another $1K out of me to move into a suite. If I get offered something more reasonable I'll let you know.

[geaux_aces]

5 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

"Free" upgrades only happen when the original booked cabin is removed from service for planned or unexpected maintenance (plumbing leak, trashed, smoked in, etc).  Upsells happen when Carnival needs your originally booked cabin, most frequently when minor children need to be placed near parents.  Since not that many kids are sailing, no need to entice you to move with an upsell offer.  

Fully understand this is typically how it worked in regular times. I received numerous upsell calls (some good deals some not).  These, however, aren’t normal times as the ships aren’t sailing full which almost never happened before.  I’m happy with the room we have book on MG, but would consider a good offer to upgrade. 

[BlasianGrl]

I asked my new PVP about the upgrade fairy.  I was told the entire department shut down and now they have just two employees working it.  It still exists but it's much smaller.  I wish I would get a call about an upgrade, I'll pay but not the $1400 that an upgrade is priced at right now.

[Elaine5715]

They are doing some upsells but to the grand suites.