Port upgrades are great. We've upgraded from verandas to suites twice. After you check-in at the port proceed down to the Supervisor's desk (if you ask when checking in the CM will point you in the right direction). This is where the magic happens. They'll have lists of what's available and give you the price to upgrade. To calculate they use a chart that uses the current stateroom category and the category you want to upgrade to. It doesn't matter how much you paid, if you used a discount, if you have 2 people or 4, it's a pre-calculated number from category to category. The prices are often (but not always) at a great savings over what you might have paid if you'd upgraded categories before embarkation day. The earlier you can get to the port and check-in the better. Port upgrades can go fast. Good luck!
It depends a lot on your length of cruise and which category verandah you are upgrading from. Its so hard to remember the amounts we paid now. The first time was a 5-night on the Magic & I think it was like $1200? I'm pretty sure it was over a grand but I'm really not sure. Its in my May 2012 report. The second time was a 3-night Dream. I think that one was under a grand like $700-$800? I it's in my Sept 2012 report. I know in both cases the amount we paid for the cruise + the upgrade paid was a huge savings over what we would've paid for the suite from the get-go. I've heard of a family being offered a Royal suite upgrade on the Fantasy for a week. Pretty sure they upgraded from a verandah. Anywhoo, I want to say that upgrade was in the neighborhood of $8k (hard to remember). The total they paid with the room they had booked initially + upgrade was obscenely lower than what they would've paid full rack rate for that suite. Consider Royal suites run $25k-$30k for a week. They were in it for roughly 1/2 to 1/3. Royal upgrade availability is pretty rare. Those book solid quickly after the itineraries release for booking.
