Upgrades on Royal Caribbean

[Coralc]

Let's see if this works. There are repeated questions about the possibility of upgrades. Let's find out what your experience has been...

[Host Kewlguy]

Never once on any cruise line. I'm getting a complex. ;)

[Coralc]

I would never make it as a marketing person. It is very difficult to word a poll correctly. I think that the actual percentage of upgraded cruisers might be low. But I think we all might be interested in the responses, and I will post the results. :)

[Coralc]

That last choice should have said booked stateroom and HAD no changes, which would probably be the majority. If I ever post another poll, I will try to do better. Comments are appreciated, because it will keep it up enough..briefly to get responses.

[KoolKruzer81]

My one and only free upgrade was from an Inside to Promenade View on Mariner.

[SHARONB]

30 cruises with Royal Caribbean. Never got an upgrade. Finally just gave in & I book the cabin I want. That won't work much longer with prices getting higher & higher. Kind of got spoiled with OS & GS during run of lower prices.

Sharon

[madforcruising]

Was upgraded once from my first balcony to a JS.

 

It was a bad move from RCCL and I still blame them for it, as from there I was spoiled and never went back to anything below JS except one time when there wasn´t anything higher than a D1 available:eek:

[glgolfer]

Upgraded at the pier twice for the list price. From D1 to JS for $400 total and from SO to JS (Sovereign) for $200 total.

Never got a free upgrade in 21 RCCL cruises and 5 on other lines.

[isujim]

Never recieved one, never bought one, never asked for one............now I'm pretty cabin specific and probably wouldn't accept one:)

[webecruzin2]

Twice I've booked balcony guarantees and twice I was given better than the lowest category. Does that count as an upgrade? I certainly think so, the first guarantee I booked we were given the much coveted hump cabin.The second was a D2.We never book anything less than what we actually want so as not to be disappointed. Now, we have been upgraded on Celebrity quite a few times but that's a supposed perk for being an elite Captains Club member or at least it was at one time. RCI is a little more stingy with their free upgrades, but their pier paid upgrades are really not a bad deal and we might consider doing that some time in the future if the price and cabin are right.

[cb at sea]

Since we always book JS's, I guess it's hard to upgrade from there, since there are so few real "suites' avail. Never been upgraded! Have known 2 couples who were, tho!!!!

[rubrrick]

Actually we have been upgraded a couple of times that I remember. Both times we had booked a GS because and OS was not available......and then we received a call from our TA telling us we were upgraded, gratis, and the second time we arrived onboard, got to our cabin as the phone was ringing, and told not to unpack as we were being moved.:)

[mrzip]

We booked a Promenade on the Mariner for $707 and upgraded to a balcony for a total of $98.

[greatdanemom]

No freebies here...the upgrade fairy must be afraid of the Great Dane...:(

 

Cheryl

[lorilea]

Just returned from Radiance of the Seas. Before final payment, received a price drop. After final payment, received an upgrade from 3rd deck Oceanview to 9th deck deluxe balcony!

Awesome!

 

Note - 3 of 5 couples at our dining table(none of us were travelling together) were also upgraded as were the people in the cabin next to us.

[Phaedra_11]

I've booked guarantees every time I've sailed with Royal Caribbean (will be my 4th in April). Been upgraded three times. Once from a D1 to a JS. Once from a oceanview guarantee (y) to an oceanview F. Then once from an e2 to a d2.

[bob c]

On just my second cruise with RCI on 2/3/07 I got upgraded from an inside to an outside cabin. Not sure how it happened as I did not request it.

[KeiEdy]

Booked a Junior Suite and was upgraded to a Grand Suite. This was our 7th cruise with RCCL.

[ricko1]

First and only upgrade, D1 to JS on British Isles cruise. Difference being 5000. :)

[jillybabes]

Booked a JS guarantee on Mariner in Dec. got an upgrade to a GS...

On Enchantment paid with RCI points for an upgrade to a JS...Later, Jill:cool:

[Coralc]

OK. It's not working very well either. According to the very unscientific poll results and based on number of responses...you should have about a 1 in 6 chance of getting a free upgrade. That has not been our experience. 13 cruises on RCCL, and no upgrades. Based on respondents, about 3 times as many report no upgrades.

 

Close to 1 in 7 have also purchased upgrades. We recently did that for the first time. We are traveling with 2 seniors on the next cruise and a higher category became available at the senior citizen rate. We have switched to downgrades before, when balcony guarantees became available at super low prices. :)

[krusin']

:) I always ask TA to give me two or three different level quotes. Last week booked an E3 deluxe balcony because discount applied for diamond status made it cheaper than oceanview which was not discounted. Also as shareholder received additional OBC altogether saved $400!:cool:

[webecruzin2]

I've booked guarantees every time I've sailed with Royal Caribbean (will be my 4th in April). Been upgraded three times. Once from a D1 to a JS. Once from a oceanview guarantee (y) to an oceanview F. Then once from an e2 to a d2.

 

I'm a little confused, you say you've been upgraded from a D1 to Js when you booked a guarantee. Are you saying they changed your cabin after it was initially assigned to you? Can they do that? Not that I would mind if it was to a higher cat.

[Cahroozer]

We were upgraded from a D1 to a JS on the second of our four cruises. We learned about it at check-in.

 

While it's true that free upgrades would be a great perk for Frequent Sailors, I suspect RCCL's marketing strategy is usually to upgrade those who are fairly new to the line so as to help make them regulars.

 

The airlines seem to do that, from my experience. I've flown quite a bit but had only two automatic upgrades on airlines in my life: One was my first trip on British Airways and the other my first trip on Airtran.

 

Something that seems to perplex, if not bother, most people (as evidenced by this thread) is the unpredictability of upgrades.

 

I think it would be great if another perk of frequent sailing were an equal chance at an upgrade. Perhaps if unsold cabins were "raffled" randomly to Diamond/Platinum members in the next cabin category below, people would be even more eager to get to Platinum (or whatever).

 

Thus, if you're booked in a D1, there are two JS's left open at the 72-hour deadline, and you're a Diamond/Platinum, you know you have a fair shot at the drawing for the suites.

 

Back to my day job :)

 

 

[mollyeilis]

OK. It's not working very well either. According to the very unscientific poll results and based on number of responses...you should have about a 1 in 6 chance of getting a free upgrade. That has not been our experience. 13 cruises on RCCL, and no upgrades. Based on respondents, about 3 times as many report no upgrades.

 

Close to 1 in 7 have also purchased upgrades. We recently did that for the first time. We are traveling with 2 seniors on the next cruise and a higher category became available at the senior citizen rate. We have switched to downgrades before, when balcony guarantees became available at super low prices. :)

 

 

Surveys are really REALLY hard to do well and to get the info you want. You'd really need to have a survey that took into account how many cruises each and every person had taken, and each time they had gotten an upgrade, etc etc etc.

 

I think to get a percentage it's going to have to be percentage of total cruises out there, rather than within one specific person. "there is an x% of something happening" isn't the same as "I have an x% chance of it happening", ya know?

 

 

One cruise, booked guarantee, got relatively bleah cabin within my category. thpppth.