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8 Easiest And Proven Ways To Get CRUISE CABIN UPGRADES
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Jan 28, 2025
What is the best and easiest way to get a cruise cabin upgrade on your next and future cruises? I discuss the 8 things that I do that have helped to me getting a cruise cabin upgrade on my cruises, and things that I have seen work for others using these cruise cabin tips to get an upgrade. So, why not discover how you too can get a cruise cabin upgrade in a proven and easy way? Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0 Things You Can’t Do On A Cruise Any More: https://youtu.be/zas6F4wMD0Q Should You Pay Cruise Gratuities: https://youtu.be/QBYzqxXjEXQ
View Video Transcript
0:00
I'm gay Bembridge are now about to share
0:02
with you eight proven and tested ways
0:04
that you can get a upgrade on your next
0:08
cruise these are all things that I have
0:10
done myself and have consistently worked
0:12
for me so let's start by taking a look
0:14
at the very first tip persistence
0:17
persistence persistence there are three
0:20
key times when you can angle get
0:22
yourself an upgrade and every single
0:24
time you're gonna cruise make sure that
0:26
you're working it at each of these three
0:27
times first of all when you book
0:30
secondly after you've booked and thirdly
0:33
once you're onboard and I'll share with
0:35
you specific things to do at each of
0:36
those times it's also really important
0:38
to understand that no matter whether you
0:41
sell at the quiet time of the year or a
0:43
busy time of the year
0:44
many of these tips will work and I'll
0:46
point out which ones work better
0:48
depending on the time of year that
0:49
you're cruising so persistence is the
0:52
absolute key keep working it at each of
0:56
these three times the second way of
0:57
getting an upgrade and probably the
0:59
easiest way of all of the tips of
1:01
getting upgrade is to only book when
1:04
there are upgrade promotions your family
1:06
Cruise Lines run promotions where
1:07
they're offering you an upgrade to the
1:09
next level these happen a couple of
1:11
times during the year one of the big
1:13
times that they happen is when cruises
1:15
are launched for the very first time
1:17
whose companies normally launched twelve
1:19
to eighteen months or sometimes even
1:20
longer new voyages and they'll often do
1:23
promotions because they obviously want
1:24
to get as many bookings in as possible
1:26
so did incentivize people and
1:28
centralized agents they'll offer upgrade
1:30
promotions very often so keep a look out
1:32
for when item is launched in a key way
1:34
of doing that is sign up for email
1:35
newsletters with all of the Glines
1:38
attorneys just in all mater that your
1:40
agent lets you know second key time of
1:42
the year is what's known as the wave
1:43
period many countries have a wave period
1:46
this normally happens at the beginning
1:47
of the year when cruise lines look to
1:49
sell a lot of the imagery for the coming
1:51
year because they know at the beginning
1:52
of the years when most people start to
1:54
plan vacations so a wave period is a
1:56
very competitive time and so the cruise
1:58
lines will often offer upgrade
2:00
promotions the third really good time to
2:03
get upgrade promotions is 60 to 90 days
2:07
before a cruise go so if you're booking
2:08
last-minute you have a really good
2:11
chance of finding one of these
2:12
promotions what
2:13
happens is most cruise lines require
2:15
people to pay 90 to 60 days before a
2:17
cruise they know how busy the ship is
2:19
full and or not full and they want to
2:22
fill the ship as much as they can
2:23
they'll often offer promotions which
2:25
involve upgrades to get people to book
2:28
the third great way of getting up late
2:30
and this is something that has worked
2:31
for me many many times is once you've
2:33
booked keep a track of the price of that
2:35
cruise and if the cruise price starts to
2:38
come down or certainly the great above
2:40
you comes down much closer to what you
2:41
paid for the cruise this is a great time
2:44
to ask for an upgrade and you will
2:46
normally be able to get one so how do
2:48
you actually track prices there's
2:50
obviously the you can just keep looking
2:52
yourself and that's quite time-consuming
2:54
you can ask your agent to keep an eye on
2:56
it or what I actually do is I use a site
2:58
called cruise watch calm or sometimes I
3:01
also use cruise critic what you do is
3:03
you put in your specific cruise you set
3:05
up an alert and it will tell you when
3:07
prices are going down as I mentioned
3:09
there have been a number of times when I
3:11
have seen prices go down contacted the
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cruise line and got some fantastic
3:15
upgrades the good news about this is you
3:17
often also get to choose your very
3:19
specific cabin when you go for an
3:20
upgrade this is a very important thing
3:23
and many people don't do this track
3:25
prices and when prices come down chase
3:27
and demand and ask for an upgrade
3:30
another simple way which doesn't require
3:32
a lot of effort of getting an upgrade is
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make sure you select the auto upgrade
3:37
option when you book many many cruise
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lines offer the auto upgrade when you
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book so normally is just a box you need
3:42
to take call you just need to tell your
3:43
travel agent and the cruise line make
3:45
contact you very close to the cruise you
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normally only find out plus the cruise
3:49
and let you know that you've got an
3:50
upgrade if you are looking to go the
3:52
auto upgrade option there's a couple of
3:54
tips or things that you need to think
3:56
about if you want to go this route as a
3:58
way of getting an upgrade because again
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it doesn't involve much work from you
4:01
first of all what you'll generally find
4:03
is the lower grade of cabin you've got
4:05
for more chance you have of getting an
4:07
upgrade simply because there are
4:08
obviously more cabins above you so if
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you books an ocean view or an inside
4:12
you're more likely to get an auto
4:14
upgrade the reason for that is very
4:15
simple partly as I mentioned because
4:17
there are more cabins often available
4:18
there that higher grade really balcony
4:21
cabins but also importantly if the ship
4:23
isn't full the easiest cabins for the
4:26
crew
4:26
to discount and sell our inside and
4:29
oceanview cabins there are a lower
4:30
pricepoint and they're just simply easy
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to sell also if they discount those
4:34
cabins they're not going to have the
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problem that I mentioned earlier lots of
4:37
people then asking for upgrades because
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they've seen the prices come down so
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normally what they'll do is they'll move
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people up to be able to sell the cheaper
4:44
cabins so that's definitely one thing to
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think about if you're going for the auto
4:47
grade option another thing that I've
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also seen happen quite a lot is if
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you've booked a guaranteed fare level so
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guaranteed fare is one where you buy a
4:56
category not a specific cabin so you
4:58
don't choose your cabin the cruise line
5:00
allocates the cabin what you'll find is
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if a particular grade is really busy so
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say for example you've booked a
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guaranteed cabin in an ocean view but
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lots of people come in and they have
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booked the option where they choose
5:12
their cabin as they sell out more and
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more of those they have a whole bunch of
5:15
guaranteed cabin people that they'll
5:17
need to do something with so often what
5:19
they'll do is they'll offer them the
5:21
upgrade so that's something important to
5:23
know about so definitely lower the grade
5:25
and saunas guaranteed cabin fares were
5:28
to advantage with the auto upgrade big
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watch out with Auto upgrade is you
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normally do not get to choose your cabin
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so even if you get Auto upgraded you're
5:36
probably going to be allocated cabin so
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it might not be a fantastic cabin but
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just bear that in mind as a potential
5:42
watch out the fifth and really basic way
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of getting out grade is pay now you
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don't really have to pay a huge amount
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but paying is an option to keep people
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to ask here first of all if you're
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working with an agent make it clear to
5:55
your agent that if any deals and offers
5:57
come up offering upgrades for a small
6:00
fee that you're very interested this
6:02
really works to your advantage if the
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ship is not selling full and the cruise
6:07
line has a bunch of cabins at a
6:09
particular grade that they want to get
6:10
rid of but they don't want to go out and
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advertise those because again as I
6:13
mentioned people are tracking prices and
6:15
they put a lot of pressure on pricing or
6:17
people demanding upgrades so what they
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often do is they'll offer those cabins
6:21
those upgrades at special prices to
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agents so they don't advertise them more
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broadly so if you've got a good
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relationship with your agent and they
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know that you're happy to pay a small
6:30
fee to upgrade they could be a great
6:33
source of upgrades without him to pay a
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huge amount of money the second time to
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ask well you may have an opportunity to
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pay to upgrade is at the ship
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there's two very important points here
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first of all when you check-in ask are
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there any upgrade deals available and if
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the ship isn't selling full and they
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haven't sold them there's a very strong
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possibility that they are available but
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a tip that I like to use and has worked
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quite well is on the morning of the
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second day of the cruise so and you've
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had your first overnight you've set sail
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go to reception
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we'll get services in the morning and
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ask them if there's any upgrades
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available because it has been no any
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no-shows for example there may actually
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be cabins available to do upgrades and
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I've actually managed to get upgrades by
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going in the morning of that very first
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next day of the cruise so that's a
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really good little tip to watch out for
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my sixth tip is one that also can work
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pretty well but as involved paying and
7:24
that's bidding some of the cruise lines
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have introduced a system where you can
7:28
bid for an upgrade so for example or the
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recent cruises I had booked with
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Norwegian Cruise Line you had an
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opportunity where you could bid an
7:34
amount to upgrade and they give us
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suggested range they're obviously trying
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to encourage people to bid higher but if
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your cruise line offers bidding and you
7:44
do have a bit of money you're happy to
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do even if you bid low there's a good
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chance you may get it depending on how
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many people bid so bidding is something
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to watch out for I think we started to
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see more and more cruise lines starting
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to look at that as we've seen with
7:55
Airlines as well so bidding is something
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to keep an art as a way of getting an
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upgrade without having to pay a huge
8:00
amount of money another way of getting
8:02
upgrade and this is one that has worked
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for me really really successfully is if
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you have a special event so if you're
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getting married you perhaps going on
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your honeymoon or you've got a big 50th
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or 60th wedding anniversary or it's a
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big significant birthday or 50th 60th 40
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is the 80th whatever it is make sure the
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cruise line knows you can either do that
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fire your agent or just when you're on
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board let it get known we once had a
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phenomenal upgrade on Queen Mary 2
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crossing just after I got married it was
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so like a honeymoon trip and our agent a
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good relationship with Cunard let them
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know and we were upgraded into a
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phenomenal penthouse suite it really was
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quite magnificent and they laid on all
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sorts of champagne and all sorts of
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things as well so there is definitely
8:44
opportunity to get upgrade and
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particularly cruises on from sailing
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massively full this is a good time to
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let them know one area does seem to work
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particularly well is if you're going on
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a honeymoon
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so that tends to look better than
8:55
special anniversary and a special
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birthday because often a lot of people
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are cruising for that reason my next tip
9:00
is the one that is actually of all of
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these tips being the most successful for
9:05
me for getting upgrades and it is around
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complaining but complaining in a very
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measured and specific way but this has
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worked for me
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phenomenally successful on a wide range
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of cruising its by letting the cruise
9:17
company know that there is an issue with
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your cabin obviously there needs to be
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an issue with it and there's a couple of
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key times you should do this in a couple
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of very important ways that you should
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manage this process to get the greatest
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chance of success when going through the
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whole complaining process it's very
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important to work with your cabin
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steward or if you're in a suite with
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your Butler to let them know about the
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problem and what I've discovered is if
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you involve them in the problem and
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explain what the problem is the issue is
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often they know it's an ongoing issue
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because that cabin may have an ongoing
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issue they can escalate it to their
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supervisor who can often escalate it in
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to the front desk or the hotel manager
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and that's very important whenever I've
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made complaints I've done it that way so
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first of all when you get onboard a ship
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and you go to your cabin check it out
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really carefully so often it's very you
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get very excited head in and you dump
10:05
your stuff and head out but what I do
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when I go into cabbage is check
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everything's working is it all okay are
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there any issues if there's an issue get
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your cabin steward they'll come and see
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you when you check in let them know
10:14
about the issue is it a noise issue is
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it some problem with the cabin so let
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them know there's an issue or when you
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set sail and you see problems arising
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let them know so for example I've had
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cabins which have had some noise
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problems or something hasn't really
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worked particularly well there's been a
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problem with the shower or whatever and
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I have been upgraded into better cabins
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probably the most successful of all of
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the complaining opportunities to get an
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upgrade is on cruise lines where they do
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an interim survey so I've been for
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example on silver sea and I've been on
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some other cruise lines acosta where
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they were doing a survey which came from
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the hotel manager or hotel director
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which asks you how the cruise is going
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and I've laid down in very careful
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detail some issues I had with the cabin
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which were often noise related and both
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of those times I got upgraded to a
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fantastic cabin within hours the hotel
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director because they're real
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things contacted me understood the issue
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guests checked in with the chemistry and
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I have been moved to better cabins so
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definitely it's about complaining in a
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considered careful way and involving the
11:18
key crew in that getting a cabin upgrade
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can look quite complex but these are
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things that have proven to work for me
11:25
and I've been able to get upgrades
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through those so hopefully this will
11:29
help you on your next cruise to get a
11:31
great cabin upgrade I have loads more
11:33
videos
11:34
packed with advice and tips about
11:35
cruising so why don't you watch another
11:37
one of those right now
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