Everyone loves getting a room upgrade, whether it is on a Disney Cruise or at Walt Disney World. While it happens from time to time on the Disney Cruise, don’t ever count on it. When booking your Disney Cruise, I usually suggest to book the cheapest stateroom that you can live with on your cruise. If you must have a veranda on your cruise, then book a veranda room. If you don’t really care about your stateroom, then book the cheapest one available for your cruise.
Many of the Disney Cruises do not sell out, though many do. If you are lucky enough to be one one that is not full, not only will the ship be a little less crowded, but you have a chance at getting a stateroom upgrade. Make sure you arrive at the cruise terminal early, sometime around 11 AM should be fine, and check in as soon as you can. First thing you need to say is that you want a stateroom upgrade, and if any are available, they will offer them to you. It is very unlikely that they will just give you an upgrade (it has happened, but it is rare), but what they will do is offer you an upgrade for a price. So, let’s say you booked a category 11 stateroom, and the price difference to book a category 8 stateroom, one with a window, was about $1,000 at the time of booking. You don’t really care much about your stateroom, but you thought a window would be nice, but it wasn’t worth $1,000. So, at check in, they may offer you an upgrade to a category 8, but instead of the price difference being $1,000, it may be $200. You can at that time decide if it is worth the extra $200 to upgrade or not.
Now, all these figures are just examples, and availability of upgrades will depend on how full your cruise is, and what stateroom categories are left available at the time you are checking in. Disney already has you booked, and it doesn’t matter to them which stateroom you stay in, and they aren’t booking any new customers for a cruise that leaves in a few hours, so it is in their best interest to get a little bit more money out of you and upgrade your room. Feel free to ask what upgrade options are available to you.
Please note that it is completely possible that your cruise may be completely full, and there may not be any options available to you at check in. That is why you need to book the stateroom you will be happy with, and don’t ever count on getting an upgrade.
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We booked a Disney cruise for May 16-23. It’s our honeymoon and we got a cat 9 room and when our tickets came in the other day they were for cat 6 room.
How early should we book for a cruise for the best prices? We have 5 people in our family, so we would need a bigger room. Thanks!!
Katie
For the most part, you should book as early as possible. As the boat fills up, the rates just get more expensive. Usually, if Disney comes out with any deals, they do so early enough that you can cancel your reservation and rebook with the deals.