What is this elusive "Free room upgrade?"

[BigKarl]

I was just wondering how many of you have received a "Free room Upgrade" after purchasing your cruise. As a Diamond Plus Member this is one of the perks listed but I guess I am not booking the right cruise or just not lucky enough to receive one of these yet.  There is still hope.  If anyone has been selected for a free room upgrade could you please describe your booking and circumstances.

[Marc]

The only upgrades I've gotten have been from monitoring the price close to sailing and finding times when an upgraded category ends up costing less than what I paid for mine, so they give me a free upgrade upon request.

[WAAAYTOOO]

On my cruise on the Oasis in Jan 2015 I was called by RCCL about 3 night before the cruise and offered to upgrade my Boardwalk balcony to a D1 oceanfront balcony. It was our first cruise as D+. We took it. No additional cost. Other than that...never.

[jticarruthers]

1 out of 2 on Disney, never on RCI.

[Bryan]

Has anyone ever heard of Royal upgrading a Grand Suite to an Owners or Royal Suite for free? Are there better Grand Suites on the Jewel I should be aware of and ask to be upgraded to as I am approaching the 75 day mark? I've heard that more cabins become available after the 75th day before embarkation because people change their minds.

[WAAAYTOOO]

I have never heard of a suite upgrade but perhaps they happen. Unless you are a D+ or Pinnacle I wouldn't count on it

[Bryan]

Thanks very much for the input. I just want make sure I am getting the best deal here. The Grand Suite looks nice, but I want to make sure the actual room I signed up for is the best in it's class.

[clmsnskr]

I was once offered an upgrade to a JS from a D1.  I accepted it.  A couple of weeks later I got another call offering to upgrade me from a JS to a GS.  I did not accept that one as we were more interested in the larger balcony at the time being our JS was on the bulge and the GS wasn't.  However, being offered 2 upgrades for the same sailing was kind of nice.

[donolog]

For my cruise on Jewel in January 2014 we had booked an ocean view but when we arrived for embarkation we had been upgraded to a balcony. No explanation was given and we didn't ask questions -- just said "thank you". At the time there was a lot of weather mayhem going on with airports shutting down due to big storms, and we were checking in fairly late in the day, so it's possible we were the beneficiaries of someone else's misfortune who had to cancel a balcony at last minute. It was also our first cruise with Platinum status.

[bcarney]

On our first RC cruise were were upgraded to a handicapped accessible JS.  At the time I didn't realize how big of a deal that was, as it's not happened since. :)

[DocLC]

We were upgraded last year from an ocean view to a balcony cabin without notice it approval. We had to fight to get our cabin back, but ended up with a compromise and some onboard credit.

[Matt]

Has not happened to me yet.

[JohnUK]

We were fortunate enough to be upgraded from a Grand Suite to an Owners Suite on Navigator, back in 2012. But that has been the only time. However, on a cruise around Australia and New Zealand, when we originally booked a Grand Suite on Radiance (with $1,000 OBC) we saw the price of all rooms fall dramatically. So we were able to change our booking to an Owners Suite for less that our original booking, even taking into account the loss of the OBC and our deposit (UK ts&cs). Effectively, an upgrade by a different means.