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8 Easiest And Proven Ways To Get CRUISE CABIN UPGRADES - YouTube
Channel: Tips For Travellers
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I'm Gary Bembridge want to share
with you eight proven and tested ways
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that you can get a upgrade on your next
cruise. These are all things that I have
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done myself, and have consistently worked
for me. So let's start by taking a look
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at the very first tip: persistence,
persistence, persistence. There are three
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key times when you can angle to get
yourself an upgrade, and every single
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time you're going to cruise, make sure that
you're working it at each of these three
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times. First of all, when you book,
secondly after you've booked, and thirdly
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once you're onboard - and I'll share with
you specific things to do at each of
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those times. It's also really important
to understand that no matter whether you
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sail at the quiet time of the year, or a
busy time of the year,
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many of these tips will work and I'll
point out which ones work better
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depending on the time of year that
you're cruising. So persistence is the
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absolute key, keep working it at each of
these three times. The second way of
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getting an upgrade, and probably the
easiest way of all of the tips of
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getting upgrade, is to only book when
there are upgrade promotions. Your favourite
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Cruise Lines run promotions where
they're offering you an upgrade to the
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next level. These happen a couple of
times during the year. One of the big
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times that they happen is when cruises
are launched for the very first time.
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Cruise companies normally launch twelve
to eighteen months, or sometimes even
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longer, new voyages and they'll often do
promotions because they obviously want
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to get as many bookings in as possible.
So they incentivise people and
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cruise agents, and they'll offer upgrade
promotions very often. So keep a look out
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for when itineraries are launched. A key way
of doing that, is sign up for email
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newsletters with all of the cruise
lines and ensure that your
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agent lets you know. Second key time of
the year is what's known as the Wave
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period. Many countries have a Wave period,
this normally happens at the beginning
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of the year when cruise lines look to
sell a lot of the itineraries for the coming
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year, because they know at the beginning
of the year is when many people start to
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plan vacations. So the Wave period is a
very competitive time, and so the cruise
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lines will often offer upgrade
promotions. The third really good time to
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get upgrade promotions is 60 to 90 days
before a cruise goes. So if you're booking
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last-minute, you have a really good
chance of finding one of these
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promotions. What
happens is most cruise lines require
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people to pay 90 to 60 days before a
cruise, they then know how busy the ship is,
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full and or not full, and they want to
fill the ship as much as they can, so
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they'll often offer promotions which
involve upgrades to get people to book.
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The third great way of getting upgraded,
and this is something that has worked
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for me many times is, once you've
booked keep a track of the price of that
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cruise, and if the cruise price starts to
come down (or certainly the grade above
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you comes down much closer to what you
paid for the cruise), this is a great time
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to ask for an upgrade, and you will
normally be able to get one. So how do
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you actually track prices ? There's
obviously you can just keep looking
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yourself, and that's quite time-consuming, or
you can ask your agent to keep an eye on
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it or ,what I actually do, is I use a site
called Cruisewatch.com or sometimes I
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also use Cruise Critic. What you do is
you put in your specific cruise, you set
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up an alert and it will tell you when
prices are going down. As I mentioned
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there have been a number of times when I
have seen prices go down, contacted the
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cruise line and got some fantastic
upgrades. The good news about this is you
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often also get to choose your very
specific cabin when you go for an
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upgrade. This is a very important thing,
and many people don't do this, track
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prices and when prices come down chase
and demand and ask for an upgrade.
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Another simple way, which doesn't require
a lot of effort, of getting an upgrade is
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make sure you select the auto upgrade
option when you book. Many cruise
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lines offer the auto upgrade when you
book, so normally is just a box you need
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to tick or you just need to tell your
travel agent and the cruise line may
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contact you close to the cruise. You
normally only find out close to the cruise,
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and they let you know that you've got an
upgrade. If you are looking to go the
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auto upgrade option, there's a couple of
tips or things that you need to think
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about if you want to go this route as a
way of getting an upgrade, because again
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it doesn't involve much work from you.
First of all, what you'll generally find
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is the lower grade of cabin you've got,
the more chance you have of getting an
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upgrade - simply because there are
obviously more cabins above you. So if
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you book an ocean view or an inside,
you're more likely to get an auto
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upgrade. The reason for that is very
simple, partly as I mentioned because
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there are more cabins often available
in that higher grade ( balcony
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cabins) but also importantly if the ship
isn't full the easiest cabins for the
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cruise
to discount and sell are inside and
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oceanview cabins. They are a lower
price point and they're just simply easy
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to sell. Also if they discount those
cabins, they're not going to have the
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problem that I mentioned earlier with lots of
people then asking for upgrades because
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they've seen the prices come down! So
normally what they'll do is they'll move
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people up to be able to sell the cheaper
cabins. So that's definitely one thing to
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think about if you're going for the auto
grade option. Another thing that I've
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also seen happen quite a lot is if
you've booked a guaranteed fare level, so
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guaranteed fare is one where you buy a
category not a specific cabin and you
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don't choose your cabin and the cruise line
allocates the cabin, what you'll find is
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if a particular grade is really busy, so
say for example you've booked a
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guaranteed cabin in an ocean view but
lots of people come in and they have
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booked the option where they choose
their cabin, as they sell out more and
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more of those, they have a whole bunch of
guaranteed cabin people that they'll
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need to do something with. So often what
they'll do is they'll offer them the
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upgrade. So that's something important to
know about. So definitely lower the grade
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and guaranteed cabin fares can be an
advantage with the auto upgrade. Big
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watch out with Auto upgrade is you
normally do not get to choose your cabin,
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so even if you get Auto upgraded you're
probably going to be allocated cabin. So
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it might not be a fantastic cabin, but
just bear that in mind as a potential
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watch out. The fifth and really basic way
of getting out grade is pay! Now you
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don't really have to pay a huge amount,
but paying is an option. To pay where
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to ask? First of all if you're
working with an agent, make it clear to
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your agent that if any deals and offers
come up offering upgrades for a small
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fee that you're very interested. This
really works to your advantage if the
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ship is not sailing full, and the cruise
line has a bunch of cabins at a
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particular grade that they want to get
rid of, but they don't want to go out and
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advertise those, because again as I
mentioned, people are tracking prices and
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they put a lot of pressure on pricing for
people demanding upgrades, so what they
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often do is they'll offer those cabin upgrades at special prices to
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agents. They don't advertise them more
broadly, so if you've got a good
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relationship with your agent and they
know that you're happy to pay a small
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fee to upgrade, they could be a great
source of upgrades without having to pay a
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huge amount of money. The second time to
ask and you may have an opportunity to
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pay to upgrade is at the ship.
There's two very important points here,
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first of all when you check-in ask if there are any upgrade deals available, and if
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the ship isn't sailing full and they
haven't sold them, there's a very strong
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possibility that they are available. But
a tip that I like to use, and has worked
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quite well, is on the morning of the
second day of the cruise and you've
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had your first overnight after you've set sail, is
go to reception /
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guest services in the morning and
ask them if there's any upgrades
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available, because it has been no any
no-shows. For example there may actually
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be cabins available to do upgrades, and
I've actually managed to get upgrades by
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going in the morning of that very first
next day of the cruise. So that's a
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really good little tip to watch out for.
My sixth tip is one that also can work
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pretty well but also involves paying, and
that's bidding. Some of the cruise lines
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have introduced a system where you can
bid for an upgrade, so for example on
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recent cruises I had booked with
Norwegian Cruise Line, I had an
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opportunity where I could bid an
amount to upgrade and they give a
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suggested range. They're obviously trying
to encourage people to bid higher, but if
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your cruise line offers bidding and you
do have a bit of money you're happy to
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spend, even if you bid low, there's a
chance you may get it depending on how
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many people bid. So bidding is something
to watch out for. I think we starting to
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see more and more cruise lines starting
to look at that, as we've seen with
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Airlines as well, so bidding is something
to keep an eye on as a way of getting an
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upgrade without having to pay a huge
amount of money. Another way of getting
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upgraded, and this is one that has worked
for me really really successfully, is if
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you have a special event - so if you're
getting married you perhaps going on
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your honeymoon or you've got a big 50th
or 60th wedding anniversary or it's a
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big significant birthday or 50th 60th 40
is the 80th whatever - is make sure the
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cruise line knows. You can either do that
via your agent or just when you're on
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board let it get known. We once had a
phenomenal upgrade on Queen Mary 2
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crossing just after I got married, it was like a honeymoon trip, and our agent who had a
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good relationship with Cunard let them
know and we were upgraded into a
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phenomenal penthouse suite. It really was
quite magnificent and they laid on all
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sorts of champagne and all sorts of
things as well. So there is definitely
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opportunity to get an upgrade and
particularly cruises not sailing
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massively full, this is a good time to
let them know. One area does seem to work
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particularly well is if you're going on
a honeymoon,
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so that tends to work better than
special anniversary and a special
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birthday, because often a lot of people
are cruising for that reason. My next tip
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is the one that is actually of all of
these tips has been the most successful for
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me for getting upgrades, and it is around
complaining - but complaining in a very
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measured and specific way. But this has
worked for me
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phenomenally successful on a wide range
of cruising is by letting the cruise
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company know that there is an issue with
your cabin. Obviously there needs to be
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an issue with it, and there's a couple of
key times you should do this and in a couple
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of very important ways that you should
manage this process. To get the greatest
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chance of success when going through the
whole complaining process, it's very
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important to work with your cabin
steward, or if you're in a suite with
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your Butler, to let them know about the
problem. And what I've discovered is, if
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you involve them in the problem and
explain what the problem is or the issue is,
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often they know it's an ongoing issue
because that cabin may have an ongoing
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issue, they can escalate it to their
supervisor who can often escalate it in
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to the front desk or the hotel manager.
And that's very important, whenever I've
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made complaints I've done it that way. So
first of all when you get onboard a ship
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and you go to your cabin check it out
really carefully, so often you
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get very excited head in and you dump
your stuff and head out, but what I do
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when I go into my cabin is check
everything's working, and that it is all okay or if
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there any issues. If there's an issue get
your cabin steward, they'll come and see
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you when you check in, let them know
about the issue - is it a noise issue, is
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it some problem with the cabin, so let
them know there's an issue, then when you
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set sail and you see problems arising,
let them know. So for example I've had
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cabins which have had some noise
problems or something hasn't really
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worked particularly well, there's been a
problem with the shower or whatever, and
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I have been upgraded into better cabins.
Probably the most successful of all of
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the complaining opportunities to get an
upgrade is on cruise lines where they do
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an interim survey. So I've been for
example on Silversea and I've been on
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some other cruise lines like Costa where
they were doing a survey, which came from
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the hotel manager or hotel director,
which asks you how the cruise is going.
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And I've laid down in very careful
detail some issues I had with the cabin,
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which were often noise related, and both
of those times I got upgraded to a
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fantastic cabin within hours by the hotel
director, because they read these
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things and contacted me, understood the issue, checked in with the cabin steward and
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I have been moved to better cabins. So
definitely it's about complaining in a
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considered careful way, and involving the
key crew in that. Getting a cabin upgrade
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can look quite complex, but these are
things that have proven to work for me
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and I've been able to get upgrades
through those. So hopefully this will
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help you on your next cruise to get a
great cabin upgrade. I have loads more
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videos
packed with advice and tips about
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cruising so why don't you watch another
one of those right now?
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