What recent experiences have you had with room upgrades?

[Elaine5715]

Cruise lines do upsells for their own reasons not because they like some customers more than others.  If you don't get a targeted email, your booked stateroom doesn't meet their criteria.  Once they have their needs met, they end the offers.

[Elaine5715]

On 12/27/2021 at 5:51 PM, Joebucks said:

So my 7-day cruise is less than 2 weeks away. We booked an interior as we normally do. I logged into Carnival and saw a link for my "exclusive upgrade offer". We can upgrade to a balcony for $210 more. I'm probably going to jump on it for that price.

 

What has been your experience? Who got upgrades at no charge? Will these prices go up or down? Anything else you've noticed?

Free upgrades are done when either Carnival needs your assigned stateroom or when they remove staterooms from service. Upsells are done when Carnival wants some cabins to be resold

[ciera123]

May I ask about how far out you got your upgrade offers? We sail January 22. 

[Bevv]

2 hours ago, ciera123 said:

May I ask about how far out you got your upgrade offers? We sail January 22. 

We got an up-sale offer two weeks ago for a Feb 5th cruise. Not a good deal for us.. $320 for an upgrade from a balcony to a suite. Not worth the $$ for us and did not like the new location so we declined. 

 

[ciera123]

5 minutes ago, Bevv said:

We got an up-sale offer two weeks ago for a Feb 5th cruise. Not a good deal for us.. $320 for an upgrade from a balcony to a suite. Not worth the $$ for us and did not like the new location so we declined. 

 

Thanks! We probably won’t get one, as we have a B2B with in same room. 

Edited December 30, 2021 by ciera123

[ajk911pd]

Has anyone who booked under the P5Y rate — the cruise from $25 per person offer - received an upgrade offer?

Wondering if this offer is upgrade-exempt since it’s such a reduced rate.

We are booked on the 02/24/22 Elation, Main deck, with an interior room…hoping for a balcony upgrade offer if possible.

[wikoffclan]

1 hour ago, ajk911pd said:

Has anyone who booked under the P5Y rate — the cruise from $25 per person offer - received an upgrade offer?

Wondering if this offer is upgrade-exempt since it’s such a reduced rate.

We are booked on the 02/24/22 Elation, Main deck, with an interior room…hoping for a balcony upgrade offer if possible.

We booked a Really cheap casino rate (about $25 each) for our January 6th cruise on Valor out of NO. With all that's developing I figured it was worth a call today to see if I could snag an upgrade to a balcony. (I'd rather be quarantined, if necessary, on a balcony than in an Interior). I called the Customer Service number. Angie was a Dream. She searched and searched and finally found, though we weren't on the list for the Upgrade Fairy, she was able to move us to a Balcony for $159.52 with a Casino offer that include $200 of OBC. SCORE!!! Though Angie isn't a PVP, she is the BEST Customer Service Rep EVER!!

[cruisinqt]

On 12/27/2021 at 6:28 PM, mpcaruth said:

I have sailed 19 cruises (13 with Carnival), and I have never received an offer to upgrade. I am sailing on a cruise this weekend and have been checking daily for upgrade offers, but nothing. 

I never got any either and we are Platinum but I always used a travel agent. A few years ago I started booking my own cruises straight through carnival online or through a carnival pvp. I’ve been getting lots of offers ever since then. 

[Joebucks]

13 hours ago, ajk911pd said:

Has anyone who booked under the P5Y rate — the cruise from $25 per person offer - received an upgrade offer?

Wondering if this offer is upgrade-exempt since it’s such a reduced rate.

We are booked on the 02/24/22 Elation, Main deck, with an interior room…hoping for a balcony upgrade offer if possible.

 

I'd be surprised if they didn't offer it to these people. I'd imagine there's probably a decent amount of rooms left due to cancels/limited capacity/unbooked rooms/whatever the reason. If Carnival could take someone who is in an interior under ANY rate and put them in an unused balcony and make $210 more, I don't see why that wouldn't be a good deal for Carnival. Not to mention, you got the reduced rate because Carnival really wants you to sail. Why would they leave you out of this?

 

When sailings are full, this all goes out the window. However, these are desperate times.

[tattoos]

On November 15, 2021, I called Carnival and booked a 4J Interior on the Horizon sailing on November 12, 2022.  I usually access Carnival's web site every couple of days to do a mock booking to check my cruise price.  On November 30, 2021 I proceeded to check prices not only for Interior rooms but OV and Balcony as well.  When I clicked on OV, a thin banner appeared at the top of the page offering a free upgrade from an OV to a Balcony.  Like other posters above, I could not proceed any further so I called Carnival right away.

 

The Carnival Rep transferred my booking from an Interior to an OV then upgraded me to a Balcony.  The total cost to go from an Interior room to a Balcony was $190.00.

 

Persistence and diligence, in my case, paid off.  

 

 

[Elaine5715]

15 hours ago, ajk911pd said:

Has anyone who booked under the P5Y rate — the cruise from $25 per person offer - received an upgrade offer?

Wondering if this offer is upgrade-exempt since it’s such a reduced rate.

We are booked on the 02/24/22 Elation, Main deck, with an interior room…hoping for a balcony upgrade offer if possible.

Your original booking offer has no bearing on whether an upsell or upgrade offer is made.  Offers are solely dependent on your booked stateroom location and type.   

[mikebisch]

Hello, newb here.  I joined just to post about my experience and frustration with the upgrade offer.  This is my first Carnival Cruise since '98, so I am not familiar with the ins and outs of Carnival.

 

My wife and I are booked on Horizon for 2/5/22 out of Miami.  I had booked a ocean view which was on deck 1 IIRC.  About two or three weeks ago I got a notice that I was being moved and the new room is an upgrade.  Deck 2 in some family section for some reason (its just my wife and I).  I question us being in a family section, but whatever...

 

The other day I noticed there was a link for an offer on my online account.  $120 to upgrade to a balcony.  Sounds good to me!  I start the online process, but have to go run an errand.  I come back and the web site refreshed on its own and the offer disappeared.

 

The next morning I call Carnival, wait on hold for for ever and end up with what felt like computer tech support in a far away land.  The rep didn't really seem to know much of anything, put me on additional hold two more times only to tell me that she sees no offers associated with my account.  Best she could do was upgrade me to balcony for $650.  The "nice" lady also was a bit condescending because I had already received a free "upgrade" and was like what more do you want?  I didn't ask for the move to the family section!  LOL.

 

This better be a nice cruise or I will not cruise with Carnival again.

 

 

[Elaine5715]

55 minutes ago, mikebisch said:

Hello, newb here.  I joined just to post about my experience and frustration with the upgrade offer.  This is my first Carnival Cruise since '98, so I am not familiar with the ins and outs of Carnival.

 

My wife and I are booked on Horizon for 2/5/22 out of Miami.  I had booked a ocean view which was on deck 1 IIRC.  About two or three weeks ago I got a notice that I was being moved and the new room is an upgrade.  Deck 2 in some family section for some reason (its just my wife and I).  I question us being in a family section, but whatever...

 

The other day I noticed there was a link for an offer on my online account.  $120 to upgrade to a balcony.  Sounds good to me!  I start the online process, but have to go run an errand.  I come back and the web site refreshed on its own and the offer disappeared.

 

The next morning I call Carnival, wait on hold for for ever and end up with what felt like computer tech support in a far away land.  The rep didn't really seem to know much of anything, put me on additional hold two more times only to tell me that she sees no offers associated with my account.  Best she could do was upgrade me to balcony for $650.  The "nice" lady also was a bit condescending because I had already received a free "upgrade" and was like what more do you want?  I didn't ask for the move to the family section!  LOL.

 

This better be a nice cruise or I will not cruise with Carnival again.

 

 

Your original stateroom will be out of service on your cruise thus you were moved.  The cruise contract gives them the ability to reassign you for any reason.  The $120 upsell order would have gone once others accepted it and was given because they wanted to resell your family area stateroom.  

[ray98]

2 hours ago, mikebisch said:

 

 

The other day I noticed there was a link for an offer on my online account.  $120 to upgrade to a balcony.  Sounds good to me!  I start the online process, but have to go run an errand.  I come back and the web site refreshed on its own and the offer disappeared.

 

 

 

Those offers are capacity controlled.  You must book when it is an option.

 

I recently upgraded on the Mardi Gras from an inside to a balcony.  When I first checked the offer I could choose from 15 or so cabins.  When I finally booked an hour later there were 4 remaining.  If I had waited longer it would have disappeared.

[Ilovesailaway]

4 hours ago, mikebisch said:

The other day I noticed there was a link for an offer on my online account.  $120 to upgrade to a balcony. 

I would not be surprised if you are given this same upsell offer again. Keep an eye on your to do list in your planner. With omicron, democratic leadership, and the media reminding people everyday of how unhealthy, dangerous, and irresponsible it is to be around vaccinated people who had to present a negative test to board.... 

Well let's just say the ships are sailing way under capacity and upsell offers are very common right now.

 

[edudansil]

We sailed on 12/26 on the Legend. Originally we booked an interior. On 12/22 I called Carnival to see if they had any upgrade offers and they said no. On 12/23 we got the email saying we could upgrade to a balcony (extended or regular) for $250. As others have mentioned, the link in the email did not work (tried different browser, incognito mode, etc.). Had to call them and by time we called it was the last remaining offer left and we snagged it. 

[Cinnamon2]

I booked an "interior" cabin with portholes on Freedom for the Jan. 29, 2022 cruise.  A couple of weeks ago I was notified that I was moved to an ocean view cabin; I think because they wanted the forward deck 1 to be available for possible quarantine.  Not sure, just speculating.  Tonight I got an upsell offer for a balcony for $128.  Great deal, I grabbed it.  

[CruiseBro16]

I just checked the planner for my cruise next week and got an offer to upgrade from an interior to a balcony for $120. I'm declining said offer, but it still excited me. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by CruiseBro16