How To Bag Yourself A Cheap Cabin Upgrade

This month both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines have launched a new scheme that lets you bid for a cheap cabin upgrade. So how does it work?

Should there be availability the the cruise line will e-mail guests directly with an introduction to the scheme so you can see step by step how it all works. This will show you all the cabin upgrades available to choose from. At this point if there is a cabin grade you’d like to go for you would place a bid. You can bid for more than one type of cabin to upgrade to which would give you more chance of a winning bid.  Guests are asked to register their credit/debit card details at this point. The prices are a per person price based on the first 2 passengers in the cabin, so if there is a 3rd or 4th guest sharing they get the upgrade for free. If your bid is successful then you are sent a link to confirm the payment. It’s that simple!

NCL & Azamara (a sister company of both Royal Caribbean & Celebrity) have run similar schemes successfully for quite some time now, so it’s no surprise that the other 2 have jumped on board (excuse the pun)!

One thing to bear in mind is that you won’t have any say in the location of the cabin. The cruise line will just allocate you a number, so you need to be prepared to be happy to accept any cabin in the grade that you’ve bid for. Another thing to remember is that some suites have a higher daily gratuity charge to pay, so you would be liable for the increase in those too.

Obviously there is always a chance that the sailing you’re booked on may be pretty well sold, so this won’t apply to every cruise, but as long as you don’t rely on it I think this is a great idea. At the end of the day there’s nothing wrong with putting in a cheeky bid for a suite. What have you got to lose?

What do you think? Is this something that you would take a punt on? Comment below.

TTFN!

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About Me

Hi There!  My name is Collette and as the blog suggests I am a big lover of cruising and have travel in my blood. I have worked in the travel industry for 25 years, starting as a holiday rep in Turkey back in 1993. After 4 years I returned to the…

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