Room upgrade offer

[Gunther1]

Typically, how many days prior to sailing are room upgrade offers made ?

[BS102]

I saw on a Princess board they are doing some upgrades on ships leaving in February.

I just looked at Zuiderdam in Oct 21, and that ship is almost empty.  It was supposed to be at 50% capacity controlled...but it is no where near that.  If there was ever a time when upgrades made sense, it is now.  Lots of cabins are available, and passengers are going to considerable trouble, ie vaccination, testing, mask, port cancellations, restrictions on activities, etc.  An upgrade would be an appropriate gesture.  It is quite possible that we will have restrictions...both on shore and outside our rooms.  Having a nice balcony might be where we are spending most our time.

[Evilmuffin]

4 hours ago, BS102 said:

I saw on a Princess board they are doing some upgrades on ships leaving in February.

I just looked at Zuiderdam in Oct 21, and that ship is almost empty.  It was supposed to be at 50% capacity controlled...but it is no where near that.  If there was ever a time when upgrades made sense, it is now.  Lots of cabins are available, and passengers are going to considerable trouble, ie vaccination, testing, mask, port cancellations, restrictions on activities, etc.  An upgrade would be an appropriate gesture.  It is quite possible that we will have restrictions...both on shore and outside our rooms.  Having a nice balcony might be where we are spending most our time.

Where can you find how many are booked on the ships?   

[Daniel A]

4 hours ago, BS102 said:

If there was ever a time when upgrades made sense, it is now.  Lots of cabins are available, and passengers are going to considerable trouble, ie vaccination, testing, mask, port cancellations, restrictions on activities, etc.  An upgrade would be an appropriate gesture.  It is quite possible that we will have restrictions...both on shore and outside our rooms.  Having a nice balcony might be where we are spending most our time.

I agree it would be a nice gesture, but I think it would not be a very good business decision.  If word were to get out that everybody is getting free upgrades, who would want to pay the published rate for a balcony or suite?

[DaveOKC]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

I agree it would be a nice gesture, but I think it would not be a very good business decision.  If word were to get out that everybody is getting free upgrades, who would want to pay the published rate for a balcony or suite?

I agree.  I do expect to see alot more upsells being offered thought - that makes alot of sense (and cents) for HAL.

[Gunther1]

I didn’t say it would be free.  We often are offered the “opportunity” to upgrade…..for a fee. 

[kazu]

My experience is that HAL offered upsells before they do upgrades.

Better cabin category offered at reduced price.  

 

In the past they were offered 2-3 weeks before sailing.  But that was B.C. (Before Covid).

[Daniel A]

32 minutes ago, Gunther1 said:

I didn’t say it would be free.  We often are offered the “opportunity” to upgrade…..for a fee. 

Actually, when you used the word "upgrade" that is free.  You may be referencing "upsells" which require some additional payment.  Lots of times, the cost of an upsell isn't worth it.

[vswan]

Last time I was offered an upsell on HAL the emails started arriving almost instantly after we booked. I will say that we tend to book close to the cruise date though - usually no more than 3 months out. What I noticed was that the price of the upsell continued to drop the closer we got to sail date. The first couple were close to what we would have paid if just booking the upgraded cabin initially. We finally bit when we could upgrade from an OV to a balcony for $150PP for a 10 day cruise. We had a number of comments from crew - check-in, etc - that we got a very good price.

[Gunther1]

14 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Actually, when you used the word "upgrade" that is free.  You may be referencing "upsells" which require some additional payment.  Lots of times, the cost of an upsell isn't worth it.

You are correct…my error 🙂

[BS102]

2 hours ago, Evilmuffin said:

Where can you find how many are booked on the ships?   

Not easy. I use an online booking agency, like Cruise.com.  I go thru the drill like I was booking a cruise.  One of the last items is picking a cabin. The problem is, they don’t show it all at once.  So you have to look at each category, and there are dozens.

live heard there is an app that shows all available cabins on a particular cruise...but I’ve never found it.

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, Evilmuffin said:

Where can you find how many are booked on the ships?   

You can't; that's privileged information. 

Sometimes a good number of available cabins are showing for selection, but that doesn't take into account how many guarantee cabins are yet to be assigned. 
For example, you might find 15 cabins available in a category, but as soon as one is chosen, the category is closed. That's because there are 14 guarantees in that same category, so the remaining cabins are reserved for them. 

If other categories are similar, it can look like there are few passengers booked, but the ship can be almost full. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It depends on the cruise..

[Mary229]

I have never gotten an upsell offer before final payment date.  I have gotten an upgrade as late as at the dock.  

[DaveOKC]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

I have never gotten an upsell offer before final payment date.  I have gotten an upgrade as late as at the dock.  

Neither have we.  I thi k the earliest we have received one was 5 weeks prior to sailing.  It was not very good so we waited and received a much better one (which we accepted) about 2 weeks prior.

 

We do tend to sail in off peak times and I think this is why we almost always get upsell offers.  Depends on the ship and category you are in also.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by DaveOKC

[SAPMAN]

I know with Royal and NCL they have a bidding system to get to a higher category cabin.   They show a "low bid" amount (starting bid) and then show you the chance to win the higher you bid.  You can bid on many categories and, of course, they will look at what your original cabin price is to determine who wins.   We went from Balcony to Owner Suite on Royal for 7 days for $700 last week.  But cruise was only about 30% full, so lots of empty cabins.   Of course, I could not find out if my bid could have been lower and still win - but that is the way it works.    I did hear some bid the miniumum to increase category one level and got accepted.  I did not hear of mine being accepted until 2 days before the cruise.

 

I guess HAL (I should know, but forgot) does not have bidding system, but just offer you an "upsell" and it seems not much before cruise date.  Correct.   

[bennybear]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:05 AM, vswan said:

Last time I was offered an upsell on HAL the emails started arriving almost instantly after we booked. I will say that we tend to book close to the cruise date though - usually no more than 3 months out. What I noticed was that the price of the upsell continued to drop the closer we got to sail date. The first couple were close to what we would have paid if just booking the upgraded cabin initially. We finally bit when we could upgrade from an OV to a balcony for $150PP for a 10 day cruise. We had a number of comments from crew - check-in, etc - that we got a very good price.

How would they know?   I wasn’t aware that they knew how much each passenger paid.  

Edited September 22, 2021 by bennybear

[kazu]

9 minutes ago, bennybear said:

How would they know?   I wasn’t aware that they knew how much each passenger paid.  

 

Good question.  I’ve taken upsells and the crew have never commented on the price I paid.  Perhaps the poster told the it was an upsell?  To the best of my knowledge the crew do not know the price you pay for a cabin.

[FlaMariner]

Have we heard of any upsell offers in the post Covid world?

 

 

[Nodakboiler]

We got an upsell offer on 9/8 for a 10/6 cruise next month.

[Mooregre]

Just got an upsell offer for 10.2 NA Seattle to Panama Canal.  Thought it was a good and fair deal and I accepted!

[echoshipmate]

Mind sharing from what to what? Did you book direct w HAL or TA?

[Mooregre]

18 minutes ago, echoshipmate said:

Mind sharing from what to what? Did you book direct w HAL or TA?

Direct with HAL and offer came via email today.  Inside to outside w confirmed cabin.  

Edited September 22, 2021 by Mooregre

[vswan]

4 hours ago, bennybear said:

How would they know?   I wasn’t aware that they knew how much each passenger paid.  

I have no idea how they knew, and it's been a few years, but I do remember at least one comment on the price we paid. Think it was at check in.

[vswan]

Has anyone gotten an upsell offer when booking a casino room. I got a free inside cabin but was not interested in upgrading at the time to a balcony. I wasn't interested in giving them any more money with covid still leaving things questionable and the cost to move up at that point was not a really good deal.