We've been upgraded!

That's awesome!

That is great.....they must know you are a "Princess" Robyn!

Wow, awesome news! How do you find out your room number?

Lucky, lucky you! You are going to have a fabulous time!

Whoo hooo!! That's fantatsic!

It's a veranda room for your cruise portion? You're going to love that! I really enjoy stepping outside every morning and taking in the ocean, it's so wonderful.

Nice!

What great news!!

Now, is this your honeymoon trip, or have you already taken that trip?

A verandaaaaahhhh....LUCKY, LUCKY girl!!

Order room service and enjoy the verandah!

Hurrah for surprise upgrades!

Wohoo! How awesome is that! Something to make the suprise for hubby even more special!

I'm looking forward to talking with you about the trip. I loved the Dream

That's fantastic! Wonder how you scored an upgrade. Have you sailed with them before? Was it in your notes that it was his birthday celebration? We're getting ready to book one out of Galveston in February. It will be a pre deployment trip. We usually take our trips in the summer, but my hubby leaves for Afghanistan in April so we want to go on a nice trip before he leaves out since we won't see him again till after the New Year.... An upgrade would be sweet! lol

So, a little non specific room upgrade theory from my days in hospitality management. Not saying this is how or why it happened, but this is a standard upgrade scenario for many cruise lines.

It's always easier to sell a cheaper guest room, be in on land or sea. When people book early those easily sold less expensive rooms fill up before the rest of the ship/hotel does. But obviously, you always want as many rooms as possible full. You don't want to "discount" more expensive rooms because that cheapens your brand and gives guests the expectation of a "sale" in the future, which could limit outright bookings. As your dates get closer, you bump the people who booked early into the more expensive rooms, because a) it promotes good will with an already established customer, and b) it opens up the more affordable rooms for new guests to book at what they consider to be a reasonable rate.

On a cruise ship, the balcony is usually where people cut corners and save money. They figure that they don't really need one and just get a room with a porthole. This is one of the easiest places to upgrade a guest. They've already paid a premium rate compared to an inside cabin, so sliding them upwards to empty balcony rooms, fills space, gives a greater chance of someone else taking that empty porthole room.

In addition to filling up more rooms, upgrading a guest on a cruise line gives a higher rate of return for future cruises. Most guests don't want a room that's "less" in form or function than the room that they enjoyed on their most recent cruise. If the thing you loved most was having that balcony to stand out on in the morning, next time you're going to book the more expensive balcony room from the start.

Good point Kristen, on our honeymoon cruise we had a balcony, now I dont think i could cruise with out one.

Sometimes I think they do it to A... make it a bit more special... and B... next time ya book... your booking a more expensive room. Nothing wrong with that... but I bet B is what they are thinking about.

We're downgrading to an inside cabin from a verandah for one cruise. Then back to our verandah in 2014, It's a bonus trip and I wanted to see the magical portholes on the Dream.