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With ships sailing full, and all the major cruise lines saying that on average they're sailing at 104% capacity, the techniques that I used to use and spoke about in the past, even as recently as this video from two years ago, to get cruise cabin upgrades no longer work. But after some rethinking, I’ve successfully cracked how to still get upgrades today.
I know you can score upgrades like I have, as I’ve just helped people booking on one of my future group cruises land upgrades on that one too.
Links mentioned in the video: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/cruise-ship-fare-tracking/
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0:00
With ships sailing full and all the major cruise lines saying that on average they're sailing at
0:04
104% capacity, the techniques that I used to use and spoke about in the past, even as recently
0:10
as this video from two years ago, to get cruise cabin upgrades no longer work. But after
0:16
suddenly thinking, I've successfully cracked how to still get upgrades today. Welcome on
0:22
board. I'm Gary Bembridge and I know you can score upgrades like I have because I've just
0:27
helped a whole bunch of people booking on one of my future group cruises land upgrades on that one too
0:33
Now in the past I found one of the easiest ways to get an upgrade was to wait until I was
0:38
actually on board the ship and simply ask guest services what better cabins were available
0:42
pay a small token fee and upgrade. But now every cruise I go on has the sign at guest services
0:48
saying there can be no cabin changes because the ship is sailing full. These days instead
0:54
of leaving it late, I now have to start early in fact. fact, looking at upgrading when actually booking. This year I see cruise lines, especially during
1:03
key sales periods, offering promotions where I book one grade but get given a grade or two higher
1:09
so I can lock in an upgrade when I book to get more bang for my buck. This is now actually
1:14
one of my main tools for getting upgrades these days. For example, just a few weeks before I made
1:20
this, by waiting for one of those sales, I booked one of my bucket list cruisers and got a bigger cabin
1:26
two grades above at the price of a standard entry-level balcony cabin
1:32
The cruise itself is going down the west coast of Africa, from Barcelona all the way to Cape Town
1:37
It's a long cruise 25 days, so it was a big budget stretch anyway
1:42
I really didn't want to be in a small cabin cruising for all that time. So that upgrade promotion got me what the line calls a concierge grade cabin
1:50
Not only is it bigger, but it then came with perks like a pre-cruise hotel stay
1:55
transfers, things like coffee machine in the cabin and laundry. So for the same price as an
2:01
entry-level balcony cabinet any other time, I was able to get an upgrade by doing it this way
2:07
The key sales period to look out for include the wave season. This is normally at the start
2:12
of every year when many people are looking to book cruises and the lines have to offer appealing
2:16
promotions to stand out. Also, at the end of every quarter of the year, I see them often
2:21
doing flash sales, I assume, because they're trying to hit some particular sales targets. Of course
2:25
Black Friday as well. I've already seen these upgrade deals in the past year from cruise lines of all
2:31
categories. I've seen them for Carnival, Norwegian, MSC cruises, celebrity, princess cruises and virgin voyages
2:38
I also see these, by the way, often when cruise lines launch new itineries because they want to lock us
2:43
into future cruises way ahead of time and so offering us upgrades is a good way of doing that So how do you make sure that you know when these upgrades are being offered Well I get my agent to watch out for them of course but also I signed up to receive email newsletters from all the
2:58
cruise lines that I'm interested in. I also follow them on social media because those two things
3:02
are where I most often see them announce these upgrade deals. As many of these are run as flash sales
3:08
lasting eight hours, 24 hours, you need to be on top of it. This tip is how I've just
3:13
generated upgrades on several of my cruises that have booked for this and into next year, including
3:18
that Africa one that I've already mentioned. Now the second tip is one I used to be way more wary of
3:23
but these days definitely plays a much bigger role in getting upgrades, particularly when booking
3:28
it inside, Ocean View or one of the lower grade balcony cabins. This is bidding for upgrades
3:35
The opportunity to do these kicks in the run-up to a cruise usually roughly about a month before
3:41
Only a few lines used to offer this, but now it seems this year most offering it
3:45
Even the stayed premium cruise line Kuhnard has ditched offering free upgrades to cruises
3:51
like me with high loyalty status, instead inviting me to bid for an upgrade in the run-up
3:57
for example, to my recent Queen Anne cruise. In the weeks before other cruises that I've done in the last year, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian
4:04
Cruise Line, MSEC cruisers, every single one of them send me emails offering the chance to bid
4:09
to be upgraded. With free upgrades more of a thing of the past, bidding is now more of a way to get an
4:16
upgrade than ever before. But a couple of things to watch out if you are thinking of bidding. First of all
4:23
I always make sure that I don't bid too high and I check how much it would cost me to simply
4:28
upgrade. I've met so many people on board cruises who discover that they got carried away
4:34
and they bid more to upgrade than if they'd just simply done it themselves
4:39
Next, I check the cabin grades I'm being invited to bid on, to see if there's any availability
4:45
If there are several at those grades above me, it suggests there's a good chance of getting an upgrade if I bid
4:50
Now, on that Q0 trip I was talking about, we're actually going there to celebrate my partner and my birthdays
4:56
and we've splashed out on a higher grade cabin, and all the grades above it were completely sold out
5:00
so I knew there was no or little chance to get an upgrade anyway
5:05
And thirdly, linked to that, bidding usually works best when booked in lower grades, like
5:09
inside ocean view or entry-level balcony cabins, because those are the cabins that the cruise
5:15
lines are most trying to get passengers like you and me to shift up from. First, because of course
5:20
they're going to make more money if we do upgrade from those cabins, but also it's way easier
5:25
to resell and clear any of those left-over cabins in the run-up to a cruise to people who are
5:30
looking for a last cruise bargain Another big watch out if planning to bid for an upgrade is if you are like me often cruising solo the bid is a price per person based on double occupancy So I will usually not
5:45
bid because I will end up paying double. So it's a huge, huge cost. This leads me to what is going to
5:51
sound a slightly unusual tip for upgrading, but one that can work enormously well. It's one many of my
5:57
friends used to upgrade these days right now. And this is a
6:01
And this is to cruise on repositioning cruises or to sail out of season because you can usually get on a better cruise line or into a bigger cabin than any other time of the year for way less money
6:14
Repositioning cruises are when cruise lines move their ships from one region at the end of a season to another region that is coming into season
6:21
The main repositioning cruises are between the Mediterranean and Alaska heading to and from the Caribbean and they happen in April and October
6:28
but they also happen to and from Asia and Australia, but in way smaller numbers
6:34
The prices for cabins are usually much, much lower on repositioning cruises because they
6:39
have many sea days, they're longer cruises, so they appeal to fewer people
6:43
Friends of mine, for example, are huge fans of the small ship luxury Viking cruise line
6:48
but they simply can't afford to cruise Viking on their regular cruises in the seasons
6:53
so every year they book on a Viking repositioning cruise between the Caribbean and Europe
6:58
because they're able to get onto a Viking ship and in fact in one of the higher-grade cabins
7:02
for what it costs them on other premium lines like Connemarica or Princess for the rest of the year
7:09
Others that I meet use reposition cruises to be able to cruise in a suite, for example
7:13
on a ship versus the normal balcony cabin that their budget normally allows to do
7:18
Two years ago, I used out-of-season sailing to be able to sail on Viking
7:22
I sailed in March in the Mediterranean and I could afford to upgrade, in fact, even to a high-grade penthouse veranda suite for the price of a regular entry-level balcony
7:31
cabin in the season. So out-of-season sailings are another way of upgrading your cabin within your
7:37
budget. Although these next two tips used to be very successful at getting upgrades
7:42
they're proving less so right now, but I still recommend that you should try them
7:47
but just be aware that I'm seeing less frequent success. And of course that hopefully will
7:52
change as things evolve. As cruise lines now get us to bid for upgrades and ships are selling
7:58
so full, auto upgrades are less common these days it seems. But still, on most cruise lines
8:03
when you book, you can either opt in or opt out of being considered for an auto upgrade
8:08
This means if there are higher cabins free, there is a chance that you'll be upgraded if you've
8:14
said you allow an auto upgrade. Now I personally tend not to do this because I don't get
8:19
anything in the cabin that I being upgraded to I literally just get moved I have no chance to refuse it I can keep the cabin that I booked Now I don like that because I quite fussy about my cabin location But importantly by the way many lines require you to
8:33
actively opt out of auto upgrades when booking if you don't want to be considered
8:37
for once that's important to bear in mind. Another technique which used to be very
8:41
successful for me was fair tracking. I would input my cruise into sites like cruise
8:46
watch and other sites and you can find what those sites are and how to do fair tracking
8:50
on a post on my blog at tipsotravers.com cruise-ship-fair tracking. If I saw fares go down, I would contact the cruise line and basically negotiate to get a
9:02
refund of the fare extra onboard credit or in most cases get upgraded to the cabin that
9:07
the fare I was paying had now moved to. This had been the most effective way that I was getting upgrades, but cruise lines are
9:15
not really playing ball anymore. First of all, because the ships are so full, so they actually don't feel
9:20
the need to and secondly we're seeing it so much and then arguing nowadays that when i kind of book
9:27
the price is locked in it's kind of a promotional price is locked in and they will not match so it's
9:31
proving to be less successful but it is still worth tracking and asking the line to upgrade your
9:36
cabin to match the new fare i believe it is do keep trying it expected to be less effective
9:41
but some people are having success if the fair moves down contact the cruise line and see if they
9:47
will upgrade you another amazing upgrade trick that i do want to want to talk about, I discovered, and it's specific to Holland America
9:55
Holland America has something called Club Orange, which anybody can buy from inside cabin
10:00
upwards. Club Orange costs from around $15 US a day per person, and one of the key perks
10:07
is a guaranteed stateroom upgrade to the next available grade. Now I'm arranging a group
10:13
cruise in 26 on Holland America, and the travel agent I'm working with to do those bookings
10:19
discovered that if we got people to book and buy Club Orange at the lowest grade of balcony
10:26
cabin, not only were they upgraded to a higher available grade, but intergrade that would have cost
10:31
them if they booked directly way more than the combined cost of the lower grade and Club
10:36
Orange. They saved a nice chunk of money. Plus, of course, then with Club Orange comes other
10:42
upgrade perks like a bigger room service menu, priority seating areas in the dining room
10:47
a concierge service, tote bag, priority invulcation, disembarkation and so much more
10:53
So there's lots of added upgrades there too. We managed to get many people on my group cruise upgraded on that future group cruise while
11:01
also saving their money. If you'd like to know more tips that smart cruises use like this, join me over in this video
11:06
where I talk about seven more, including one that also saves you money and loads of stress
11:11
every time. See you over there
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