5 Ways to UPGRADE Your Royal Caribbean Cruise (on a small-ish budget)

Cruising can be a great way to get a lot of bang for your vacation buck. Lines like Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL, and Disney offer a large variety of dining and entertainment options for the original price of the cruise, but sometimes you just want a little something extra! This video gives you 5 ways you can upgrade your Royal Caribbean cruise, even if you have a small-ish budget.
#cruise #royalcaribbean #budgetfriendly

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[JourneywithJosh]

Great job on the show. Very well done.
I know by some comments it's difficult to know if people appreciate your effort.. I do.

[Susan-hrqj]

I got an upgrade on NCL Escape. I paid 1000.00 extra but it was for a two bedroom, two bath cabin. We had our adult daughter with us and the cabin worked out perfect. The cabin door opened to a living room so when she stayed out late we were never disturbed when she came in

[campaignteam]

We are among the cruisers who sail without spending any extra money

[andreagriffiths]

Back in 2020 I paid $1300 to upgrade from balcony to mini suite on Pacific Explorer. The cruise then got cancelled, shifted to a different destination and I was refunded the money…BUT my upgraded booking carried through. So I got a mini suite for the price of a balcony on my on my 14 night Melbourne to New Zealand round trip cruise…. and got isolated in for the last day and a half with Covid which they refunded me $700. All up it was absolutely awesome.

[MrJJSimonds]

Once on board the Jewel Of The Seas in '09, once on board the ship I went to the Guest Services Desk and inquired about an upgrade from my inside to a balcony. I returned to my room later to see the phone blinking and sure enough, there was one, and they would have someone meet me at the room to allow me to see it. I waited by the room for too long and went to the front desk, told them the situation, and they sent me back up to the room to await someone, who shortly showed up... $400.. which I later won in the casino. Come to find out the ship was very full and the only reason I got the balcony was because someone had a medical emergency just before departure.

So... book the inside and ask once on board if there are better cabins available. Booking off season and or repositioning cruises can increase those chances.

[basq]

I've bid via RoyalUp twice, didn't get the upgrade (and didn't expect to as there were very few of the cabin type I was bidding on).

One thing that people don't seem to understand with RoyalUp is that just because you can bid on it, doesn't mean it's actually going to be available. If you do choose to bid, you should look at it as bidding on a cabin IF it opens up. For top-tier suites, for example, the chance that the suite isn't booked or someone has to cancel last-minute is usually very unlikely. Lower level cabins that there are lots of, such as standard balcony ones, may be easier to snag via RoyalUp.

So I guess the tl;dr here is set your expectations low in advance so you're not disappointed and it'll be a very nice surprise if you do wind up getting upgraded!

[sarahmoores]

We won a Royal UP bid on our first cruise in 2019. Oceanview balcony to spacious Oceanview balcony.

[lisaanderson]

I like all these tips! Especially the one about specialty dining at lunch time. 👍That works on land too! Going out to lunch is a great way to try a new place or a place that might be pricey at dinner. 🍽️

[SoSueMe]

I’ve done Royal Up twice, won once. I had an ocean view balcony and got upgraded to a Family Surfside Suite on Icon of the Seas. I knew at the time of booking what the prices were for the different categories and I bid under that for the different types we were interested in. We got the upgrade for less than I would have booked it for originally, plus it came with Star Suite perks. Disclaimer: Cruise points earned are for your original cabin type so I didn’t get double points for being in a suite.

[juliewilson]

I live in the UK so to hear that your having a heatwave in Germany makes me very jealous as it’s currently raining for last two days . Also we’ve basically had about 10 days of sunshine since April lol 😜. Enjoy yourself in the sunshine, we’re off to Furteventura to get some !!

[kimberlyfamoly]

I don't have a problem not spending extra money at all inclusive resorts or cruises, however my husband and children always want the extras. I am just happy to relax and enjoy what is offered.

[readyroamrv]

I try not to spend more than $100 more once I've paid for the booking. I will buy a couple of drinks and spend a little in the casino for "entertainment" (I rarely win my money back, LOL). On my last cruise on Royal, I used on-board credit to purchase the beach cooler with 6 beers. I used those for when I went to Cocoa Cay and to the adult only area pool or hot tub. I'm not a big drinker, so buying the drink package is ridiculously expensive and wasteful. This little "hack" really helped...and that cooler really kept those beers cold! 😉

[Molly-hjm]

Mmmm... those buttery shrimpies look so delicious!!

[MrAadamAbdulAlim]

Yeah, they don’t make the old style magic bands anymore, it’s only magic band + now.
On one of our Disney trips when we got to the cruise terminal, I decided to ask if they had an upgrade for our room. I need an accessible cabin and chances are that one would be there was very low. To my surprise, they did say they had one accessible balcony room available, and it was only I believe $800 more. needless to say we took it. We did post it on our channel that we switched rooms.

[TracyKMainwaring]

One cruise when Allure was new, we got an inside guarantee, even though our last experienced sucked. 3 days before cruise, we finally got our cabin....a balcony!! We bid on our upcoming VV TA but didn't hear anything after a couple weeks ago canceled it. They resent the offers at a tiny bit lower (the prices seen really high even for a 2 week cruise). We know our cabin, it's okay. We'll ask when we get on board if there's anything. That way, we'll also know the cabin before committing

[andrewsabol]

I got one ! Lowes commercial 😊
We have bid for an upgrade on NCL and got upgraded once. Great video Morgan 👍

[liveskide]

I try to pay for everything BEFORE the cruise if I can. I sail mostly on Princess, but recently on P&O and Cunard. Princess Plus is the best package around, and covers internet, gratuities and drinks. Compared to what was offered on P&O & Cunard, it was worth the money. We often will have onboard credit (stockholder, military, future cruise booking credits), so will use them for booking things like excursions. I always tell people plan to spend 3 x the base fare when budgeting for a cruise. Princess has been using the medallion in place of a key card since about 2018. Looks like an apple air tag. That's what I pimp; the holder to use. I have some bling holders and probably 5 or 6 other types of holders so I am not wearing a lanyard around my neck. Love my watch style holder. Sadly they don't reuse the medallions, but they make great magnets on my fridge and remind me of cruises. (11 on the fridge right now!)

[mickiesadventures]

Upgrade bids has never worked for me, but I can definitely say that when I planned a group vacation years ago 10 of my cabins were upgrades form ocean view to balcony occupied with only couples, and I was upgraded to a JS once.

[Knightnurse]

We were offered an upgrade years ago from a connecting balcony room with our kids to - Junior suite for just my husband and I. It was not a great part of the ship so we kept our assignment because we liked having the two bathroom two bedroom situation. But we are going on independence in November for my son, “make it to diamond cruise “lol I did call and they offered me an aft balcony for $98 above what we’re paying for an interior room😮!

[timyak]

We upgraded on HAL to “above our knowledge of the perks” for $200 each and we were on a upper floor next door to the suite area yet we were not allowed in the special lounge/bar. It was neat yet finding out we missed out on cool upgrade stuff as we were ignorant