I see a lot about cruisers who seem to want free upgrades. When you think about that from company's viewpoint, having free cabin upgrades just does not make sense unless the ship experiences a big backlog of people wanting the lowest priced cabins and willing to pay a competitive rate for them. I've talked to some booking folks who work for the cruise lines and they basically all say the same thing, When you book a certain cabin category with a guarantee, the line is free to slot you into any cabin in that category. So if a specific location/room is really important to you, you should probably not choose this option. When you do choose this option, you are guaranteed that category of cabin and may move up one cabin category. Generally, this move up is from an inside to an inside, unless there is a vacant cabin with a portholoe and it's your lucky day. There are other factors, of course--number of times you have cruised, etc., but in general, that's what you can expect. You can always ask at boarding, but keep in mind that until everyone checks in, no one on the staff will know if something becomes available. (Sort of like taking your seat on a full flight and waiting till the door closes before you know if you can stretch out.) Come to think of it, there was a time when you could be bumped into first class without paying a surcharge because---who knows, It happened to us just once (sigh) but I don''t hear of it happening anymore. And we were upgraded from an inside to a cabin with a porthole once--the cabin was way at the "pointy end" of the ship and it was quite a hike from the elevators, but it was pleasant to have the little round porthole to peer out of.
