Starry Eyes

I agree withTulsacoker that you ought not get your hopes up: at this point many are bidding, few CL are available, so few are winning. If you do win, you must be willing to take whatever CL you are assigned. Theoretically, if another CL you like better happens to still be available if and when you win, you might be able to swap, but, as the other CL’s are apt to be already be filled, you should not factor that into your bidding. If you would not be happy in the “worst” CL, you probably should not bid. I, for one, could be happy in any CL; others might only want a side facing CL.

Nobody looked at anything outside lately. Inside signage and personnel verbally separated passé into two security lines (regular vs suites+PC). As D+, we went through the regular security line (nothing new there; the special D/D+ security line was discontinued before the shut down). After security, personnel have recently been directing us to the suite/PC check in area, which was a shorter wait with perhaps a tad more space. Not a big deal; we go wherever they direct us.

That’s the way I see it, too. Of course, one of the nice things about the UDP is that you can go to more than one restaurant per night. So, you could, for example, have heavy appetizers at one restaurant (sushi at Izumi perhaps) then later go to Wonderland. If you are not very hungry, make selections with the waitstaff.

Yeah, I get it. I come from a long line of bargain hunters and took up the habit at an early age. My earlier post was not meant to be critical. Had the posters on the other site solicited advice sooner, no doubt you’d have suggested checking upgrade prices vs RoyalUp.

Well, I guess if those cruisers are posting their winning bids, they are happy. Frugal frequent cruisers may look differently at the situation than those non-frugal, non-frequent cruisers posting winning bids. Perhaps maximize their infrequent days on a ship is more important to them than getting a great deal. If they are happy, I’ll be happy for them (and as a shareholder, I should hope they spend freely on board, too)

Recently at Port Canaveral as D+ we have been directed by personnel to check in lines with the Pinnacles and Suites. The personnel do seem to be attentive to length of the various lines as they direct us, so YMMV not only by port but perhaps by happenstance. This happened at both T1 and T5.

I really varies. Tonight I paid 40% more to upgrade from my oceanview gty to a suite gty. Balconies are sold out on my cruise, so I called as soon as I saw a suite gty price appear for a nice price.

Yes, all are connecting staterooms in same category. I’m glad to hear the you suggest deck 4 rather than deck 3; I was unsure with public areas on deck 5. Thanks for the help.

We have not been on Radiance class or in an OV cabin for years, so I could use so help picking the best cabin from my list of options, please. My choices are: 3562, 3620, 4020, 4028, 4540, 4556, and 4058.

Well, standby is not the answer. I’ve been cruising for a while. Sometimes I waited, thinking a price would go down…sometimes it went up and sometimes it went down. Be especially careful if you want a balcony cabin. Royal Caribbean has a bidding program called RoyalUp. People booked in less expensive cabins can bid for upgrades. So people booked in an inside cabin can bid; if their bid is accepted they may fill the balcony cabins and inside cabins will be vacant instead.

I’m not aware of a standby list for Royal Caribbean. If the cruise you are interested in is inexpensive, why not go ahead and book it? If the price is attractive others might book it and prices might then rise. Also remember, just because you can select from 180 balcony cabins, they may not have that many to sell. There might be any number of guests holding guarantee balcony bookings who have not yet been assigned cabins.

Does your booking include FCC’s? My invoices seemed more complicated and I found it more challenging to figure out upgrade costs or price drops when I had FCC’s. Phone Reps also sometimes seemed to struggle with them (for example, one rep promised me a refund I later learned I was not due).

If your regular insurance provider could not give you the coverage you desired, why didn’t you buy Royal’s insurance instead (or in addition)? We generally only purchase travel medical and evaluation coverage. We assume cancellation risk ourselves. After many cruises without having to cancel, we have saved enough premiums to be ahead of the game. We will suck it up if we have to cancel some day.

As John and Pam already see a muster station and floor, odds are extremely high the bar code trick will work now if they try it.

OK, next explain the crockpots on Harmony’s naughty table. She is sailing in the Caribbean.

Quite possible. Nobody knows how Plusgrade determines bidding ranges. I recall a poster a few months ago whose max bid for JS to GS was startlingly low; that poster likely had plenty of company at max bid. I would think they would have a very high max bid, leaving room for the big spender who really wants the cabin if it opens up.

Now that the ships are sailing pretty full again, there is more luck involved. In fact, it may not only be your good luck in having your bid selected but also sometimes another party’s bad luck caused them to cancel, bring their cabin up for bidding. I’m in a balcony on my upcoming cruise. All the JS and suites have been booked for quite a while. A JS and GS made brief appearances, perhaps due to cancellations, but suite availability looked minimal for weeks. My odds of RoyalUp bid acceptance are low, though a cancellation is always possible so so leave the bids in place.

That is a wonderful upgrade, though I bet you started bidding from a very nice suite.

Were all gty’s assigned after all other cabins were booked (ie when cruise is sold out) and if people had access to full inventory, then it would be accurate that all others had passed by the cabins that went to the gty’s. However, that is simply untrue. First, we know some gty cabins are assigned relatively early, and most are assigned before the ship is sold out. Secondly, when booking people do not have access to all cabins. There may be hidden inventory. There are categories people may not have access to when they booked if ever (example: triple balcony cabins were never released for bookings by parties of two on a recent cruise yet I was assigned one as a gty). The other point is that, depending on pricing pattern, substantial percentage of bookings on a cruise may be gty. If only a small percentage of cabins are hand selected by knowledge cruisers (rookies might hand select inferior cabins, like right below the pool deck for convenience), the large number of gty assignments move closer to random.

At a few days before sailing, they likely have a limited number of vacant cabins and they may still have a limited number of unassigned gty bookings. With RoyalUp, the company can make money even though if the vacancies are suites and the unassigned bookings are inside gty. The best bid on the suite is accepted, in this example leaving a JS vacant. The best bid on a JS is accepted, in this example leaving a balcony vacant. The best bid on a balcony is accepted, in this example leaving an OV vacant. The best bid on the OV is accepted, leaving an inside vacant. The inside gty can now be assigned the vacant cabin. If they do not have any more inside gty’s , Royal can advertise them until the very last minute.

Well, Steph, you probably would not sign yourself “desperately seeking upgrade”; it would not match your post. I totally get your point. It is a large part of the reason bidding exists. I share many of your sentiments. I do watch for price drops that will allow me to upgrade myself (it is nice to catch one), but generally I bid. I simply bid what I feel the upgrade is worth to me. While I hope to win, I am not upset or surprised if I lose.

Dear Desperately Seeking Upgrade, Honestly if you really were truly desperate for an upgrade, you probably should have pulled the trigger at some point and upgraded yourself by paying the listed price for the cabin you desired. Though more expensive, that is the surest route to a better cabin and the route most people sailing in better cabin take now, leaving few for RoyalUp bidders. If full price was over your budget and you really, really want an upgrade, perhaps you should have bid as high as you comfortable paying. There are many other potential bidders on the ships now so it is easy to be outbid. If you bid as much as you as willing to pay and still lose, then that’s that; you stay in your original cabin. Some rando on the internet in a different cabin going for a different upgrade on a different sailing (perhaps when capacities were lower or on a ship that had cancellations for some reason or just lucky) will post about their winning low bid. And now and then randos on the internet are fibbing (to encourage others to bid low to make it easier for them to win in future? Or just for fun?) Thousands and thousands of others could post about their losing low and moderate bids; it would go on for pages and pages and pages to balance each winning minimum bid. Of course, if a minimum or low bid is all the upgrade is worth to you, that is what you should bid. In fact, sometimes the minimum might be more than the upgrade is worth to you and you don’t bid at all. There are not many cabins available via RoyalUp, so most bids lose.

During the restart, Royal did have some offer special considerations, including OBC, to lure cruisers back; you are coming back too late for that program. I’ve never booked through the casino department, so I cannot help you on that point. I think Royal does have some sales that are for “new bookings only.” So, it is possible that you will see a upgrade price after final payment, call in and hear you do not qualify. Consider yourself forewarned, so you will not be shocked or angry if it happens. If it does happen and that same price continues to show day after day, perhaps call back and see if you get the same answer; sales terms might change. Edit: Also notice that (unlike NCL) many of Royal’s best fares have “nonrefundable deposits.” Before you book nonrefundable, be sure you have the right ship/sail date. If you are forced to change your plans before final payment, try to pick a new ship/sail date so you can transfer your deposit ($100 pp fee) rather than lose the whole deposit.

Well, once several years ago when our initial destination was damaged by hurricane, we booked a gty cabin the day before sailing (I assume somebody else had to cancel their cruise due to same storm). We showed up at port with a reservation number and smiles. We booked too late to do check in so we did not have set sail pass and certainly not a cabin assignment or luggage tag. Fun and memorable cruise. More relevant: A couple months ago, we received a balcony gty assignment on Harmony 5 days before sailing. We booked that one about 30 days out😊

People learn about the requirement in different ways. A nurse mentioned an upcoming Bermuda cruise during an appointment. She had not heard of the travel authorization and asked me for the details.