Why This Cruise Cabin “Upgrade” Was Worse (Don’t Let This Happen to You)!

I often book “Guaranteed” cabins for me or my family when I cruise.

This saves money – and that money can be used for things like drinks, speciality meals or excursions instead.

I fully appreciate that this approach isn’t for everyone, some travellers like to carefully pick their cabin location and study the deck plans before picking their perfect location.

Others let their travel agent pick the best available cabin on their behalf.

On our last cruise though, my parents received an upgrade that really wasn’t an upgrade at all, it was much worse.

What are Guaranteed Cabins?

A guaranteed cabin is when you book the category of stateroom (inside, balcony etc), but not the location of the specific cabin. You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked, if not higher. You can book guaranteed insides, guaranteed outsides or guaranteed balconies or suites.

Guaranteed Cabins are normally the cheapest option when booking a cruise.

The cruise line will assign your cabin just before sailing or on departure

You are guaranteed to get at least the grade you booked – if for example, you booked the lowest grade of inside cabin, you might find yourself upgraded to a better inside cabin or an oceanview at no extra cost.

The Drawbacks of Booking Guaranteed Cabins Are:

• You may be given a cabin right at the front or right at the back of the ship.
• The cabin you’re given may be close to a late-night venue like a nightclub or theatre.
• You may be given a cabin grade that you wouldn’t have booked.

I have had all of the above happen to me, as guaranteed cabins are usually the leftover cabins.

Find out about the cheap; guaranteed inside cabin, I booked on Cunard’s newest ship, Queen Anne, below. It was very close to the nightclub, so we were disturbed by noise late at night:

The Guaranteed Cabin I Booked For My Parents

I booked a guaranteed cabin for my parents. I was guaranteed a balcony cabin – but it could have been an obstructed view balcony, a sheltered balcony cabin or a standard balcony cabin.

They were allocated a cabin at the centre of deck eight. The cabin would have had the view obstructed by a lifeboat.

As we sailed across the Atlantic, once we had left New York, the only views would be of the ocean. We were sailing straight across to Southampton, with no ports of call along the way.

They would get the daylight but not an uninterrupted view – and that didn’t seem important, so we were all happy with the allocation.

Is It Possible To Avoid Upgrades?

If you aren’t booking a guaranteed cabin – you have booked an Oceanview cabin for example, there is often a box to tick to decline any upgrades. You will then stay in your Oceanview cabin.

If you don’t tick the box you might end up in a obstructed view balcony – a higher cabin grade.

You have been guaranteed to get your oceanview room, or something “better” than that.

Again, this is something I often do – or get my Travel Agent to do on my behalf.

I sometimes book a particular cabin that I would like to review, and it spoils my plans if I am then upgraded to a higher grade – but less interesting – cabin.

An example of this happening would be when I sailed on MSC World Europa. I booked a Promenade Balcony cabin, which would give me a view of the central promenade area rather than out at the open ocean.

I had carefully studied the deck plans and chosen this precise cabin – but clearly, I had forgotten to tick the box to say, “Don’t upgrade me”.

Just before the sailing, MSC decided to move me to a standard balcony cabin with a view of the ocean, not over the central promenade.

That is clearly an upgrade, but is wasn’t what I wanted. Luckily, I did manage to negotiate with MSC and was able to go back to the original cabin I had booked- but it wasn’t easy!

Find out more about that here:

You Can “Bid” For An Upgrade

Some cruise lines will contact you shortly before your sailing, to offer you the chance to “bid” for an upgrade.

Basically, you tell them how much you want to pay to secure a higher-grade cabin, and they will choose whether or not to accept your bid.

MSC do this all the time, but in my experience we find that MSC often upgrade guests for free anyway.

This could be to do with the fact that we have a loyalty status with the cruise line. We have certainly never Paid for an MSC upgrade.

It is easy to match your loyalty status with other cruise lines with MSC. It is well worth doing.

I matched my Norwegian Cruise Line loyalty status many years ago and now have diamond membership perks with MSC. This entitles me to things like a free speciality meal, sparkling wine and chocolates in the cabin.

Find out how to match your loyalty status with MSC here:

MSC Status Match – What Is it And is it Worth Doing? A Step-by-Step Guide

Queen Mary 2 Cabin Upgrade

The week before our sailing, I received an email telling me that my parents had been upgraded at no extra cost to a standard balcony cabin.

They were pleased with the upgrade and thought no more about it. Little did they know what they had let themselves in for…

They had been moved from a central location on Deck Eight with an obstructed view to a balcony cabin at the front of Deck Eleven.

The views of New York City were amazing when we checked the cabin out on embarkation day.

We had a stunning sail away from New York that we actually watched from an upper deck. Once we had left New York, there was nothing to be seen from their balcony but ocean.

We hit some winter storms in the Atlantic (not unexpected in January), and we soon realised that the location of their cabin was far from good.

When the seas are rough, you are best to be on a lower deck, as centrally as possible, because this is where you will feel the least movement.

Being so high up – and at the front of the ship – the movement could be felt far more in their cabin than in mine.

When a ship’s bow plows into waves during rough seas, it sometimes creates a loud noise because the force of the water hitting the hull is concentrated at that point. This causes a large impact and displacement of water.

This generates vibrations that resonate through the ship’s structure and can produce a booming sound.

There was also vibration of the room at certain points, loud enough to wake them up at night as the whole bed shook! They are not particularly light sleepers…

Add that to the pitching and rolling sensation, it was hard to get a good night’s sleep!

Another problem was that the winds were so strong, it was hard to even open the balcony door to get outside anyway. You certainly wouldn’t want to sit outside in the cold, hail and snow.

They didn’t get any real use out of the balcony, and an obstructed view balcony cabin would have been far more comfortable for this voyage.

Find out what is the best cabin location if you do suffer from seasickness here:

What is The Best Cabin Location on a Cruise For Avoiding Seasickness? (I’ve Tried Them All!)

Towards the middle of the cruise, my Dad started to feel quite rough despite taking regular seasickness tablets.

We got into the routine where he would come and lie down in my central deck 8 Atrium-view cabin during the day, as the movement was far less here.

If we were spending time in the cabin during the day, My Dad and I would stay in my cabin on deck eight, whilst my Mum and my brother went up to the cabin on deck eleven. They don’t suffer from seasickness at all – which must be lovely!

With hindsight, I would definitely carefully pick my own cabin location if I was taking another Transatlantic crossing – although I don’t think I would ever take another one…

Queen Mary 2 is the last Ocean Liner at sea and was designed for rough transatlantic crossings such as this. I can only imagine how much worse the crossing would have been on a regular cruise ship!

Before You Go

Find out the important differences between Ocean Liners and Cruise ships here:

Ocean Liners and Cruise Ships Differences

Find out about my top seasickness tips here:

13 Actionable Tips to Prevent and Treat Seasickness on a Cruise