does Celebrity grant upgrades?

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tg_lindo

Guest
Naturally I'll ask my TS about this but meanwhile ---

I've already made my deposit for a cruise in early Oct, 2004. Outside cabin.

What are the factors that will influence whether I can get an upgrade to another outside cabin that is either more amid-ship or on a higher deck?
 
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urbanian

Guest
The best way to get upgraded is to book a "guarantee". Rather than choosing a specific cabin, you choose which category of cabin you require. The guarantee is that you will get -at least- a cabin as good as what you paid for, and perhaps one quite nicer.

The other way to get an upgrade on Celebrity is to buy an upgrade on the dock before you board. According to their literature, they subtract the brochure rate of your booked cabin from the brochure rate of the cabin you desire to determine the price of the upgrade.

Other than that, Celebrity doesn’t award upgrades very often at all.

On our last cruise on Constellation, we booked a guarantee category 9 inside, which is the best inside cabin. We were bumped up to a category 5, which is second best outside.

Since we scored so well on our guarantee upgrade, we enquired how much more it would cost us to get a verandah. We expected the price to be about $250pp, but they charged us only $150pp. So, for only $300 more than the price of an inside cabin, we got a verandah on a 14 day cruise.

Persistency at the upgrade desk on the dock will serve you well. When we first inquired about upgrades, they said the only thing available was a suite. With a little pleading from my wife, they finally found our one little verandah room. Later during the cruise, we know of two instances where passengers were involuntarily relocated into verandah cabins that were better than ours, but a lot less than the “only available suiteâ€Â.

Incidentally one relocation was due to a small fire in a cabin, and the other was due to a passenger’s illness. Illness, HA! He said he ate too much pizza and knew it would upset his sensitive stomach. When his bride (they were on their honeymoon) went to get some Alka-seltzer at 2 AM, they sent the doctor to his room. When they found he had been vomiting, they hauled her behind out into another cabin and quarantined her for 24 hours, and locked his door for 48 hours. Happy Honeymooning!!!

Point being: if you want to try your luck getting an upgrade at the port, be persistent and know exactly what you want. It’s probably available.

Good luck. Hope you do as well as we did on the upgrades.

Dan
 
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MikeMary945

Guest
And it doesn't always work either. We're on the July 8 sailing of the Millie, from Venice to Barcelona. We booked a year ahead of time, and our TA got us two cabins dead midships on the Vista deck. After reading lots of upgrade info here and on Cruise Critic, we backed off to a guarantee. We ended up far forward, and almost under the superstructure overhang. A real disappointment. When our TA called Celebrity to ask about a change, they told her the sailing was sold out, and there was nothing they could do. From now on, we'll pick the cabin we want, and stick with it.

Mike and Mary
 
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urbanian

Guest
MikeMary945,

Your TA booked your guarantee wrong.

Cat. 4-8 are outside, and 9-12 are inside. You can guarantee any specific category; each is individually priced. We booked 9, the best inside (high midship), so any upgrade at all would be to the outside. Sounds like your TA booked the wrong category for you.

Hopefully you saved enough money on the guarantee so you can upgrade on the dock. They SAY the ship is sold out, but I assure you, there are cabins left. All unsold cabins are available in port, and cabins belonging to the no-shows are available the second day of the cruise.

Good luck,
 
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ljeanbrown

Guest
We were upgraded one time on the Century, from a Cat.2 mini suite(now a Celebrity suite) to a Cat 1 suite(now a Sky suite). It was a great price to begin with and with the upgrade we were very happy, loved that butler service and free Capuccino in our cabin :thumb
 
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Marytutor

Guest
We just returnned on the May 22 Baltic Constellation. I know of several upgrades to CC . We were one from 2A and did not know of it until we got to the dock. When we were booking another cruise the future cruise manager said that it was a marketing thing. The ship had been sold out for some time and they had been volunteering $2500 vouchers to take other cruisses.

Go figure
 
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MikeMary945

Guest
Dan,

Sorry I hadn't seen this earlier and replied. I'm not sure I understood what you said (Not that it matters anyway now), but what our TA booked was a 2B Guarantee. We ended up in 7023, with our friends next door in 7025. If we had just left our orgininal 2B cabin booking, we would have been in 7124 and 7126. It will be a wonderful cruise, but next time we'll do the smart thing and pick the cabin we want.

Mike and Mary
 
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