Is there a possibility of paying to upgrade a IGT, OGT, VGT at the port?

[KSDisneyDad]

IGT, OGT and VGT are very restricted. In exchange for a deep discount you are allowing DCL to choose your stateroom and you must accept the one they choose - no changes. I'm guessing you will probaby not be able to upgrade these at the port because you have already paid deeply discounted rates for them. It is not the same as a regular GTY stateroom.

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.

That said, I really don't know how I feel about this issue. If there is a lot of availability at the port, why not let everyone upgrade regardless of what they paid. However, if there is extremely limited liability, perhaps it could be done for certain guests up to say Noon and after noon, let anyone upgrade.

I can't wait to hear the offical word from your friends! We're waiting for our VGT assignment for Fantasy June 2nd. I've been checking and checking to see if we are assigned which makes my mind start going and going thinking of all the possibilities While I know that these are restricted fares meaning you can't choose your stateroom, I'm just wondering if we're not thrilled with our assignment (really the only cat. I would not be thrilled with is a 7A) I'm thinking that at port if there are other verandah cabins available and if DCL won't switch us because of our restricted fare...I'm wondering if we can pay to upgrade to another verandah.

Yes, perhaps I am thinking about this way too much...but it helps me pass the time waiting for our cruise!

Good luck! We're on the same cruise and even with your VGT, I bet you still paid more than our Day one price. I'll be curious to find out what the official answer is on this. I can truly see both sides to this debate. For example, if we wanted to upgrade, it's my understanding that I'd pay the same today as when I first booked. Based on the fact that VGT's are going for more than what we paid, I could probably upgrade for less you. So why not let you upgrade if there's availability. I see nothing wrong with that.

That said, on our last three cruises, there were no upgrades available at the port.

 

[Bear3412]

Someone posted recently that they did indeed upgade a Fully restricted fare at port. I unfortunately couldn't find that post. Not sure which port or ship, but I know I read it. HTH

 

[226ra]

I can confirm from first hand experience that an IGT fare CAN INDEED be upgraded at the port. I presume that this is also true for OGT and possibly VGT. I had my choice of two rooms on my Apr. 14 Fantasy sailing:

-an ocean view on deck 5 (not sure what category) for ~$450
-a verandah on deck 5 (again, no idea of category) for ~$900

In either case it was about 25-30% cheaper than if I had booked OGT or VGT in advance. They used a printed matrix chart (original fare/category on top, new category on the side) to determine my cost for upgrading.

 

[sandgrace]

Good luck! We're on the same cruise and even with your VGT, I bet you still paid more than our Day one price. I'll be curious to find out what the official answer is on this. I can truly see both sides to this debate. For example, if we wanted to upgrade, it's my understanding that I'd pay the same today as when I first booked. Based on the fact that VGT's are going for more than what we paid, I could probably upgrade for less you. So why not let you upgrade if there's availability. I see nothing wrong with that.

That said, on our last three cruises, there were no upgrades available at the port.

I'm sure that we did pay more...we usually do since we're kind of last minute vacation planners! I'm really very thankful that DCL is doing VGT fares since we just aren't the kind of people that plan our vacations very far in advance so a discounted rate on DCL is a really great thing for us.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Yes, you can.

- Dreams

 

[sandgrace]

I can confirm from first hand experience that an IGT fare CAN INDEED be upgraded at the port. I presume that this is also true for OGT and possibly VGT. I had my choice of two rooms on my Apr. 14 Fantasy sailing:

-an ocean view on deck 5 (not sure what category) for ~$450
-a verandah on deck 5 (again, no idea of category) for ~$900

In either case it was about 25-30% cheaper than if I had booked OGT or VGT in advance. They used a printed matrix chart (original fare/category on top, new category on the side) to determine my cost for upgrading.

Thanks for posting this it's good to know! I'm wondering how they would determine the price for a VGT upgrade at port though since booking a VGT in effect, you've really already booked a verandah and you're just preferring to pay for another stateroom. Of course, if you were moving to concierge or a suite that would be a different story....

 

[jilljill]

I can confirm from first hand experience that an IGT fare CAN INDEED be upgraded at the port. I presume that this is also true for OGT and possibly VGT. I had my choice of two rooms on my Apr. 14 Fantasy sailing:

-an ocean view on deck 5 (not sure what category) for ~$450
-a verandah on deck 5 (again, no idea of category) for ~$900

In either case it was about 25-30% cheaper than if I had booked OGT or VGT in advance. They used a printed matrix chart (original fare/category on top, new category on the side) to determine my cost for upgrading.

Thanks for confirming this. My friends were on a B2B cruise and I'm still waiting to hear back from them on their experience.

 

[abbyar]

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.

It really depends on the cruise and demand. The EBPC in December has IGT rates, which are about 25% less than a standard Inside Cabin - and that's after several price reductions. I guess no one wants to go on a cruise that doesn't visit Castaway Cay!

 

[lark]

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.

Yeah, I don't think the xGT rates are really for people who book that far ahead, although when I looked at the issue comparing the July 2012 Fantasy IGT, OGT and VGT rates to day 1 pricing, I actually wasn't seeing the spread you got. (Sounds like you got a great deal.) It looked to me like Cat 5 for 2A and 2C was around the low to mid $5k range, while IGT was as low as just over $4k for 2A 2C for July Fantasy just a few months ago.

There isn't a ton of data for July 2012 day 1 pricing on the boards, but from what I saw, VGT fares were comparable to 7A and 6B day 1 pricing, unless you also had the on board booking discount.

We didn't have day 1 pricing, but we had pretty close, having booked very shortly after rates came out, and also had the on board discount. For pretty much the same cost, we were able to move from two 11C GTY cabins to an IGT and VGT and buy trip insurance. We also got our on board booking cabins back to use later, which I think has some value given the changes to on board booking rules.

 

[kcashner]

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.


That said, on our last three cruises, there were no upgrades available at the port.

WOW...there were IGT/OGT/VGTs available for our upcoming cruise, but the IGT was still more than I paid for our inside cabin on a day 1 booking. However, they were a lot less than a verandah cabin would have cost.

And, as you made clear, upgrades at the port are available sporadically. You can't count on them being available at any price!

 

[jilljill]

I just heard from my friends about upgrading the ?GT at the port. They asked at the port on 4/14 about upgrading their IGT, the CM looked very confused as to what they were asking and told them to ask on board about upgrading. They went to GS and GS was just as confused and told them they should ask at the port to do that. On 4/14 they didn't ask since they were in a cabin they liked, but had heard that someone was able to upgrade an IGT.

The best thing to do is to ask at the port if upgrades are available no matter how you booked your cruise.

 

[buckeyemom16]

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.

According to the opening day pricing thread my VGT for June was less than an opening day 5C & 5D, which are the only verandah rooms I could get comparable information on (2A, 2C).

 

[scottygirl]

Ironically, the IGT, OGT and VGT rates for this summer are often higher priced than "Day 1" pricing. I noticed that for our upcoming cruise, even the IGT price was more than we paid for our Cat 5c room.

That said, I really don't know how I feel about this issue. If there is a lot of availability at the port, why not let everyone upgrade regardless of what they paid. However, if there is extremely limited liability, perhaps it could be done for certain guests up to say Noon and after noon, let anyone upgrade.



Good luck! We're on the same cruise and even with your VGT, I bet you still paid more than our Day one price. I'll be curious to find out what the official answer is on this. I can truly see both sides to this debate. For example, if we wanted to upgrade, it's my understanding that I'd pay the same today as when I first booked. Based on the fact that VGT's are going for more than what we paid, I could probably upgrade for less you. So why not let you upgrade if there's availability. I see nothing wrong with that.

That said, on our last three cruises, there were no upgrades available at the port.

We paid about $250 dollars per room less than the opening day prices for our June 30 cruise.

 

[ktb2002]

Our VGT is 300.00 less than the opening day price, now just gotta wait almost 2 more weeks to find out which room

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Ours is prob close to $1000 less than opening day. Hard to get a specific # due to limited entries on the thread for our dates.

 

[luv2sleep]

Someone on our recent cruise upgraded their VGT to a higher category veranda at port.

 

[lark]

Someone on our recent cruise upgraded their VGT to a higher category veranda at port.

Seems like there are enough reports now to conclude it's at least possible some of the time. I guess we still don't know technically how they do it or what baseline they use, though, although that's a pretty inside baseball piece of trivia.

It would be nice if the next person who asks maybe asks a follow up question. For example if you have an IGT and upgrade at the port, maybe ask, "how much would the upgrade have cost if I had been booked in 11C instead of IGT?" Or when upgrading a VGT asking the same question as compared to 7A.

Our cruise isn't until July, but I'll try to ask that question if nobody else has before then.

 

[sandgrace]

Someone on our recent cruise upgraded their VGT to a higher category veranda at port.

Thanks for the info! Do you happen to know how much they paid to do this?

 

[luv2sleep]

She paid 'one hundred something' to go from a 7A to a 4B. She told me how much but I can't remember the exact amount.

 

[mhawk4]

Where does one go to find the discounted priced cruises?