Lets use this thread to track Port Upgrades

[geekboy]

I haven't even tried on the last two cruises. The concierge and suites have all been sold out well before the embarkation date.

 

[lah3hh]

We head out on 10/1 hoping to snag an upgrade for my DB and DSIL from an inside to either a window or verandah...I will let you know!

 

[disneymommy1979]

Bump

 

[Sarafromcanada]

We are booked in a CAT V and are interested in upgrading to a one bedroom suite. There aren't any available online. Would I be wasting my time trying to upgrade at port if there aren't any showing any available now? We are two weeks from sailing. Any experience with this? If you were successful, what was the upgrade cost?
Thanks in advance

 

[deedisneydream97]

How exactly does one go about trying to get an upgrade at the Port? Where do you go? Do you have to get on board the ship first? I just don't have time to read thru all these pages (but looks like some people have good luck with upgrades). Thank you in advance.

 

[samily]

How exactly does one go about trying to get an upgrade at the Port? Where do you go? Do you have to get on board the ship first? I just don't have time to read thru all these pages (but looks like some people have good luck with upgrades). Thank you in advance.

You have to go through the check in process at the port first. After you are checked in, you go to the supervisor's station (in Port Canaveral this is all the way at the end of the check in counter - to your right when facing the counter). They will let you know what is available and the cost to upgrade.

 

[deedisneydream97]

Thank you samily! We have a nice verandah room on an upper deck, but would sure love the one bedroom suite! You never know. I'll check back in if I have any success.

 

[uflaw]

We are going on the Wonder out of Miami. How does the process of requesting an upgrade go there? Is it the same as POC?

We are in concierge, however, our family is not. We are hoping to get them an upgrade to concierge as well.

 

[lah3hh]

We sailed on the Wonder on 10/1/14 which was a 5 night double dip cruise. My DSIL tried to get an upgrade at the port but there was none to be had. Possibly there was one person in front of her that might have gotten one but she was not sure what type of upgrade was offered to them. She was quite disappointed but we had a great cruise anyways!

 

[BalooHoo]

We are going on the Wonder out of Miami. How does the process of requesting an upgrade go there? Is it the same as POC?

We are in concierge, however, our family is not. We are hoping to get them an upgrade to concierge as well.

Yes, the process in Miami is the same as PC. The upgrade desk is all the way to the right as you look toward the check-in desks. It will be to your immediate right as you enter the check-in area, but you'll have to walk past it to check in. After that, just walk over to the upgrade desk.

When we sailed out of Miami in March there were no concierge upgrades available, but we still managed to get a different upgrade.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Port upgrade report. # 1. Was upgrade available? Please fill out even if NO. #2. What category did you pay for? (please make sure you put the category you paid for and not the category you were assigned. For *GT reservations please put whether it was IGT, OGT or VGT). #3. Which Ship? #4. Number of Nights? #5. Month/day/year of Sailing #6. What time did you check-in? #7. What category were you offered for upgrade? #8. How much was the upgrade? Anyone attempted an upgrade regardless of whether you accepted or not. A year ago this thread was hopping. Did DCL change the upgrade opportunities? Tell us what happened to you please.


No upgrade available on thanksgiving showed sign that said ship was full

 

[disneymommy1979]

Bump..... Any fall upgrades to concierge?

 

[ccmystic16]

Port upgrade report.

# 1. Was upgrade available? Yes

#2. What category did you pay for? VGT was given a 5E

#3. Which Ship? Fantasy

#4. Number of Nights? 7

#5. Month/day/year of Sailing 10/11/14 Western Caribbean

#6. What time did you check-in? 11:00

#7. What category were you offered for upgrade? 1 Bd Concierge

#8. How much was the upgrade? $1900

No other upgrade was available above our category everything else (although slim) was below our booking. It was an amazing anniversary upgrade.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Any bumps on the Magic ship? All ships greatly appreciated.

 

[disneymommy1979]

Any port upgrades on the southern Caribbean sailings?

 

[zymurgy1999]

Just off of the Wonder today:

Port upgrade report.

# 1. Was upgrade available? Yes

#2. What category did you pay for? 9B

#3. Which Ship? Wonder

#4. Number of Nights? 5

#5. Month/day/year of Sailing 10/31/14

#6. What time did you check-in? 10:30

#7. What category were you offered for upgrade? 5A or 6A

#8. How much was the upgrade? 5A was $375/room (we had three in each room) so $750 total or 6A, $215/room for a total of $430.

We took the two 6A rooms, but this ended up being a huge mistake for us and we will not make this mistake again. We booked our 9B rooms with Florida resident rates and for $205/room more we could have booked the 5A rooms when we initially booked. We decided to book the 9B rooms and hope to get a better deal at the port. Wrong.

 

[HollandmillerFamily]

Before getting on the ship, I was tracking concierge availability and they still had 3 V-cat rooms left. To increase our chances, we stayed at the airport Hyatt and used Disney ground transfers. Our plan was to be on the first bus but we ended up on the second. However, I believe the first and second arrived at about the same time. I know there were a few others--I met one of them in the concierge lounge--who had plans to get there early to make a play for the remaining rooms so I'm pretty sure I got lucky as much as anything.
#1. What catagory did you pay for? VGT. I was assigned a 7A but the line on the chart they used to determine my upgrade rate was for VGT not 7A. (The difference between the two appeared to be about $40.)
#2. Which Ship? Fantasy
#3. Number of Nights? 7
#4. Month/Year of Sailing November 1, 2014
#5. What was your Port of Arrival time assignment? 12:30 (meaning, if I hadn't gotten the upgrade, we would have had a loooonnnngggg wait)
#6. What time did you check-in? About 10:15
#7. What catagory were you offered for upgrade? Category V
#8. How much was the upgrade? $1225
I did not check pricing on anything but concierge because the port rates for an upgrade are usually the same as booking the different category in advance. As I've noted before, the real port upgrade deals appear to get better the higher the category, starting with the V cat. Even though the cat T and R were not available, I noted what the costs would have been if they were:
V $1225
T $2975 (I'm a little concerned I got this one wrong; when we upgraded two years ago to T from VGT, it was about $2K. I'm wondering if it was $1975 and I noted it incorrectly...?)
R $3675
In retrospect, I spent a lot of time worrying about getting there early enough, making special arrangements to get there first, and generally being stressed about it. As many others have said, if you're going to try for an upgrade, be absolutely sure that you're already happy with your assignment and that it won't be a big disappointment if you don't get it. Otherwise, just pay the difference up front. And if you're hoping to upgrade to a non-concierge room (and you didn't book IGT/OGT/VGT or similar room that cannot be changed beforehand), then definitely do it before you get to the port. You'll have better options the sooner you do it and it appears you won't really save money by doing it at the port.
Good luck!

 

[LocaRoja]

Before getting on the ship, I was tracking concierge availability and they still had 3 V-cat rooms left. To increase our chances, we stayed at the airport Hyatt and used Disney ground transfers. Our plan was to be on the first bus but we ended up on the second. However, I believe the first and second arrived at about the same time. I know there were a few others--I met one of them in the concierge lounge--who had plans to get there early to make a play for the remaining rooms so I'm pretty sure I got lucky as much as anything.
#1. What catagory did you pay for? VGT. I was assigned a 7A but the line on the chart they used to determine my upgrade rate was for VGT not 7A. (The difference between the two appeared to be about $40.)
#2. Which Ship? Fantasy
#3. Number of Nights? 7
#4. Month/Year of Sailing November 1, 2014
#5. What was your Port of Arrival time assignment? 12:30 (meaning, if I hadn't gotten the upgrade, we would have had a loooonnnngggg wait)
#6. What time did you check-in? About 10:15
#7. What catagory were you offered for upgrade? Category V
#8. How much was the upgrade? $1225
I did not check pricing on anything but concierge because the port rates for an upgrade are usually the same as booking the different category in advance. As I've noted before, the real port upgrade deals appear to get better the higher the category, starting with the V cat. Even though the cat T and R were not available, I noted what the costs would have been if they were:
V $1225
T $2975 (I'm a little concerned I got this one wrong; when we upgraded two years ago to T from VGT, it was about $2K. I'm wondering if it was $1975 and I noted it incorrectly...?)
R $3675
In retrospect, I spent a lot of time worrying about getting there early enough, making special arrangements to get there first, and generally being stressed about it. As many others have said, if you're going to try for an upgrade, be absolutely sure that you're already happy with your assignment and that it won't be a big disappointment if you don't get it. Otherwise, just pay the difference up front. And if you're hoping to upgrade to a non-concierge room (and you didn't book IGT/OGT/VGT or similar room that cannot be changed beforehand), then definitely do it before you get to the port. You'll have better options the sooner you do it and it appears you won't really save money by doing it at the port.
Good luck!

I was on this fantasy cruise too (Nov 1) and spent a long time trying to decide on booking concierge ahead of time or trying for an upgrade at port. (I was watching remaining concierge cabins like a hawk too and actually had someone in our group switch from 12028 to 11000 to get the larger cabin at the last minute). We originally booked an 8B cabin for this trip. Last year, we did upgrade at the port to a cat V for our Dream vacation and we played the same system as you (stay at MCO Hyatt, first bus out, and we were the first people let into the port check-in area). I agree, it was a lot of effort and stress to get the upgrade. In the end, I paid to upgrade before this Fantasy cruise. This cost us about $2.2k out of pocket, but we had to move from a lower category than you started out at, so I wonder what the cost at the port would have been for us? I'm sure cheaper than what we paid, but I did get a leisurely morning without worry for embarkment, we were able to stay at MNSSHP as long as we wanted on Halloween (my son needed to trick or treat), and we were able to pick a cabin with a HUGE balcony (11004) which has value to me as well. In some regards, the port upgrades for even concierge are becoming less of a bargain.

 

[tup1830]

Bump

 

[Zandy595]

#1. What catagory did you pay for? 6B
#2. Which Ship? Dream
#3. Number of Nights? 3
#4. Month/Year of Sailing October 31, 2014
#5. What was your Port of Arrival time assignment? 10:30am
#6. What time did you check-in? 11:00am
#7. What catagory were you offered for upgrade? Asked for 4C
#8. How much was the upgrade? In the terminal $250. We didn't take it, but when DH saw the size of the 6B he wanted to upgrade. Went to GS onboard and the price went up to $300. We took it anyway. This was for 3 adults.