Upgrades

[D10S]

Hello,
I'm new to cruising and will be going on my first cruise next month with Princess.
What is the best way to upgrade your cabin? I assume that as we get closer to the departure that there will be some cabins available that I could upgrade to.
What is the best (and cheapest) way to go about upgrading? And when do you do it? Once on board? Or prior to boarding? Do you deal with Princess or your cruise agent?

[penny3333]

Hi D10S, I'm assuming you mean you will pay for an upgrade? Depending on your itinerary, there may not be any cabins to upgrade to. We'll be on our 6th Princess cruise in a couple of months, and our 5 previous cruises have had zero available cabins. I normally book my cruises direct through Princess, but if you have a travel agent, I would suggest having them try to get you an upgrade. Travel agents, on the whole, will have better luck obtaining their clients what they want due to their volume of business. However, with that being said, I've always had very good response from the Princess representatives when I've worked with them. I've never asked for an upgrade because I book a room I know I want. If I get an upgrade, that's fine, if not I'm happy with what I've booked. If you wait until you're on board and the cruise is sold out, you will have absolutely no chance of an upgrade. So, if you're looking for one, I'd suggest trying to obtain it before you board. Best wishes and good luck.

[f-mattox]

Just to add a little perspective to what Penny told you; I booked a 15 day Princess Cruise last January for next April. The catagory we booked is today $700 pp more than what we paid and is waitlisted only. In fact the only cabins available are inside cabins--and the cruise is still seven months out.

So unless you want to take your chances with a Guaranteed catagory booking (meaning you will get at least the catagory you paid for, and possibly an upgrade), you need to book early and book the cabin you want. The closer you get to departure the less choices you have and (most of the time) the higher the price.

[Murphy123]

f-mattox what kind of cabin have you booked on princess and have you been on diamond princess

[f-mattox]

I have a mini-suite on Baja deck on Island Princes, the same cabin I had for a Hawaii cruise last April.

I've also had mini-suites on Dolphin deck on Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess on Mexican Riviera cruises.

[BJS]

Originally posted by f-mattox:
Just to add a little perspective to what Penny told you; I booked a 15 day Princess Cruise last January for next April. The catagory we booked is today $700 pp more than what we paid and is waitlisted only. In fact the only cabins available are inside cabins--and the cruise is still seven months out.

So unless you want to take your chances with a Guaranteed catagory booking (meaning you will get at least the catagory you paid for, and possibly an upgrade), you need to book early and book the cabin you want. The closer you get to departure the less choices you have and (most of the time) the higher the price.

I totally agree and prices sure are increasing. In August we booked a mini on a 32 day cruise for April 2009 and today the price is $1,000 pp higher.