Upgrading at the port....any good deals??

[markmyboy]

I have been keeping an eye on my sailing (1/15 Wonder) to see if the price drops anymore (booked with DU...I'm sure they'd let me know...but you know.... )

I have noticed that there are a LOT of empty cabins in almost ALL categories. We have a cat. 10 secret porthole booked, but if I could CHEAPLY upgrade to a verandah....I WOULD DO IT!! Right now it would be about $500 to make that upgrade, is it likely to be any cheaper than that at the port??

I am very happy with the room we have, but with a 1 year old...even on a 3 day cruise....the balcony would be nice to have!! If I couldn't get a cheap upgrade, no biggie.....just WONDERing if it is even a possibility!!

Thanks for any info!!

 

[DisneyKids]

If there are rooms available, I have seen upgrades go cheaper at the port. We have done it a few times. Never count on it but it's woth asking. Good Luck!

 

[CaliforniaDreaming]

When we went on our 4 day last year, they were doing inside to verandah upgrades for $579.

 

[Jestocost]

We did a four-day cruise on Wonder over Thanksgiving week and were able to upgrade from a Cat. 8 deluxe outside stateroom to a Cat. 5 room with verandah for $298 at the port. If I recall correctly, the lowest the difference would have been in advance was about $600, so we definitely saved some money.

If you want to try to upgrade, you'll need to see one of the supervisors who are located at the far right (as you are looking at it) of the check-in counter (just past the Castaway Club check in).

I did the upgrade after I checked in and got my KTTWs, and there was nothing for me to do or change other than putting the cost on my credit card. You will need to track down your checked bags, however, since they will be delivered to your original room that appears on the luggage tag. We moved just a few doors down the hall, so all I needed to do was alert our cabin attendant and they were there in moments.

 

[pjpoohbear]

I called last week to see what it would cost to upgrade on my upcoming cruise before we arrive at the port. It would have given me the option of knowing we had moved up and we would have had the chance to chose a cabin that we were comfortable with.

It was cheaper then what the DCL web site was telling me.

From an 11 to an 8 was $400 for two people. And to a 5 was $1200. This is for a seven night eastern, Jan 24th. Doing a fake booking on the DCL website it was $800 more for the Cat 8 and I think it was $1600 or so for the Cat 5.

You should get your agent to actually call and see what the paid upgrade would be for your sailing.

Penny

 

[AnnaS]

I did this for our last July West. cruise. We had two cat. 11 rooms. I asked if one with verandah was available not too far from my sons room. We paid $675.

 

[AnnaS]

I forgot, just like jestcost said. For the first few days everything, castaway towels, exersion notifications were delivered to our original cabin. No biggie.

 

[Alex]

I asked about paid upgrades on the cruise I am on now.
I was told they just weren't doing them. I know there were cabins available a week or two before we sailed but apperantly they filled them with cast members etc....

 

[Keggy]

On our four day in November we had two friedns upgrade. One went from an 11 to a 7 and it was 600. Our other friends went from a 7 to a 3 and I believe it was 1000.
Our ship was only at 70% capacity (at least that is what we were told).

Kelly

 

[karina]

We'll be on the Wonder the same time. Just booked today!! We're booked for a CAT 10 too and will be traveling with a 2 year old. I noticed that there are a lot of available cabins for this date and asked the agent if Disney would just upgrade our cabin on their own and her reply was, "probably not".

 

[kcashner]

Dis does do free upgrades. I have no idea how they decide who to upgrade. They do it when they are near to the sailing date and have sold out on low end cabins but not higher ones. That way, they upgrade a few low end ones and can again offer them at a cheap price...filling the ship a little more. Obviously, it is in their best interest to have the ship reasonably full. If they upgrade a few people and re-sell the lower cabin, two families are happy and DCL brings in a few more $.

We have been upgraded. We have also wished for and not been upgraded.

Even if the sign is up that says "no upgrades" (at the port), you can always ask. Worst case, they politely point out the sign. I guess the rule is to book something that you will be satisfied with, and if you get an upgrade, consider it fortunate.

 

[Buckleybunch]

Originally posted by markmyboy
I have been keeping an eye on my sailing (1/15 Wonder) to see if the price drops anymore (booked with DU...I'm sure they'd let me know...but you know.... )

I have noticed that there are a LOT of empty cabins in almost ALL categories. We have a cat. 10 secret porthole booked, but if I could CHEAPLY upgrade to a verandah....I WOULD DO IT!! Right now it would be about $500 to make that upgrade, is it likely to be any cheaper than that at the port??

I am very happy with the room we have, but with a 1 year old...even on a 3 day cruise....the balcony would be nice to have!! If I couldn't get a cheap upgrade, no biggie.....just WONDERing if it is even a possibility!!

Thanks for any info!!

how do you check to see if there are empty cabins?

Thanks
Linda

 

[CGC33A]

to look to see a selection of what is available, go to www.orbitz, expedia, cruise-locators etc & look up a cruise: start the process to "book" a cruise. They will show you (up to 8) available, "best" staterooms, so you can get an idea from this. If 8 show, there are probably more in that category. If only 2 show, it is probably close to being sold out or being put on "guarantee" status.

 

[Lisa F]

We cruised last January on a 7 day western and changed our room quite a bit. We started with an early booking discount and it was about $3k for both of us for a cat 6. After a while we decided to downgrade to a cat 10 because a SPH room was available, it was about $2k (decided that the $1k difference wasn't worth it at that point). Then about a month before our sailing, Disney announced $599/person rates for cat 11. Our cat 10 hadn't gone down from $2k, so we decided for antoher $800 that we would downgrade once again to a cat 11. I just couldn't justify that much money for a porthole (we had sailed in a porthole room before but for us decided it wasn't worth paying that much more for). Cat 6 at this point was even more than $3k for both of us.

We also decided that if we could upgrade to a verandah for $800 or less at the port that we would do so. When we checked in, we were able to upgrade I think for just under $800 (2 people, western cruise). We could have upgraded to cat 3 for an additional $1k but decided not to (that $1k pretty much covered all of our spending on the ship that week, good decision for us!). So essentially we ended up getting the verandah cabin for the same price we would have paid for a cat 10. It was worth it to us but we also had to be prepared to be happy in our cat 11 (and goign on a western cruise for less than $100/person/day made me happy with it!)

At the port they have upgrade categories. Inside, outside and verandah (and then the suites are separate). Whether you are in a cat 12, 11 or 10 it costs the same to upgrade to an outside (which could be either a 9 or 8) or verandah (which could be either a 6, 5 or 4). If you want to upgrade to a suite it is basically the cost to upgrade from your current category to a verandah and then the cost to upgrade from a verandah to a suite added on to that. They have a chart that they go by for the upgrades. There is a different one for the magic and for the wonder (and I THINK, but am not sure, that it's the same chart for the 3 and 4 day wonder).

Hope that helps some! We are in a cat 11 for our upcoming wonder trip and are not expecting to upgrade since the ship has been completely booked for months (NYE cruise) so we will FINALLY get to try out our cat 11

Lisa

 

[Kimnicki]

We booked a 7day eastern for a family of 4 this past March for March 2004. We were originally were booked in a cat. 11 and upgraded, by phone with DCL, to a cat 9 for and extra $500. I was very happy with that price. If you looked online the difference was almost $1500. I didn't want to take a chance and wait until we got to the port and find out that we couldn't upgrade.

 

[markmyboy]

Linda,

my fav. site to look up available rooms is travelocity...I just like the way it is set up the best!!

Thanks Lisa, I wasn't sure if they had the set rate for port upgrades, I know RCCL does, it is good to know DCL has a similar policy!!

On our last cruise (on NCL) we were upgraded from a minisuite (about the size of a DCL verandah cabin & the only verandah that would fit 4) to a Penthouse suite....the cabin was AWESOME....the nicest place I ever stayed, I'm guessing it would be similar to a cat. 3 on DCL. We are feeling VERY spoiled & hoping we will still feel comfy in the cat. 10 secret porthole, but with only 3 days, we hope to not be in there too much!!

THANKS everyone, for all the info. & advice!!

 

[Bellewish]

On the 11/30 Wonder 4 night we were able to upgrade from a Cat 9 (2566) to a Category 5 (7024) for $298. Worth every penny!

 

[Mjasp]

Originally posted by Alex
I asked about paid upgrades on the cruise I am on now.
I was told they just weren't doing them. I know there were cabins available a week or two before we sailed but apperantly they filled them with cast members etc....

Alex...What do you mean they just weren't doing them. You can't upgrade at the port anymore?

 

[Alex]

Apperantly it goes cruise by cruise, on this particular cruise they weren't doing any. I don't know if the cruise was totally full or they just weren't doing them, when I asked the agent asked another agent but she phrased it something like "So an So said we aren't doing upgrades today?"