azgkrudi

In our case, they accepted our low-blow bid (a mere $5 per person over the minimum bid) - 32 days before sailing, which surprised me. It was a long way out and they weren't getting much. I was happy as a clam. I thought maybe the sailing was pretty empty but on board (the Dawn) it was as crowded as we've ever seen a ship.

I'm not really sure what their rhyme or reason is for this bidding thing...? But I was happy with it!

Good luck to each of you - this has sure been an interesting read across the months.

I'm the OP - Just an update on what we ended up doing, in case anyone else is in the "same boat"...we dropped off our rental car (Avis) at the Embassy Suites, were NOT staying at the hotel but they allowed us to use their shuttle to the port of Tampa. So we didn't have to walk to the port and schlep our luggage. The shuttle runs about every 1/2 hour. The Port of Tampa itself (Terminal 2) was an embarkation disaster for the NCL Dawn, but that's a whole 'nother story. Let's just say, we'll never sail in or out of Tampa again.

The poster didn’t take the time to understand where they were suppose to be. It wasn’t the stardust theater.

Oh! I guess you were with me the whole time, so you would know ;p:)

A quick call to Roel, the concierge at 7070 would have saved you a lot of time and hassle. Concierge service is a suite perk. Lots of house phones located throughout the ship.

We did, the night beforehand. And indeed, we were told the Stardust.

Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention about so-called "priority disembarkation": Our butler told us, "Feel free to have all of your friends (non-suite, non-priority) join you in the priority disembarkation...it's OK!" I said, "Really? We are on a group cruise and none of the rest of them are priority." He laughed and said, "Well, as long as it's not the whole ship."

You have GOT to be kidding me.

NCL sure has gone downhill, in my opinion...

This is an excerpt from my review of the Dawn 2/25 to 3/4 sailing:

Stood in line for hours, no queues, mass entry that was nowhere near organized. No priority embarkation for suite guests, just a massive cattle call to the door. At check-in, there was supposed to be a priority embarkation line (which we were in), but the reps kept taking people from the general crowd because we were standing way at the side of the check-in desk and were seemingly forgotten. No organization whatsoever. Finally get up to the NCL rep to check in. He was soooooo slowwwww. Each of the reps on the other sides of him had checked in 3 parties by the time we were done. This guy had to redo each of our photos 3 times. Finally the rep next to him helped him.

I have severe back problems and constant pain and numbness. There was nowhere to sit down while waiting through this whole process. I had been standing for 3 hours by the time we actually boarded. It was excruciating, and it took all day and night to recover from it, so right off the bat, vacation time was wasted. If it was that bad for me, I can't imagine how the elderly had gotten through this.

A week later, we realized reason why we were so late getting on. This same thing must have happened to the passengers disembarking as we were embarking. Our disembarkation: non US citizens wouldn't come forward to clear immigration - the ship had to call their names (40+ people!) for over 1.5 hours while the rest of us US citizens waited. I guess they are special and entitled and feel they can get off the ship whenever they please, and don't have to abide by the rules or laws.

So we were told to go to Stardust Theater for priority disembarkation. It was "closed for rehearsals". Really?! So we were directed here, there, everywhere,by NCL people who obviously didn't know what was going on. Finally we were getting pretty ticked off after walking up and down the ship through all the crowds with no rhyme or reason. So we showed our gold tags to an NCL employee and asked, "So where do suite guests disembark as priority guests?" He directed us to the END OF THE LINE. Great. So much for priority disembarkation. Meanwhile, we had a car service arranged andhe had long been waiting for us. We had to (embarrassingly) keep calling him and giving him updates. We were charged an extra $49.00 for the wait time, and this was booked through NCL's website (Groundlink). Thanks, NCL. Not at all our fault, but thanks, NCL.

The whole process (if you can call it that) was so disorganized. Color tags were never called, as they usually are. It was just a mass of passengers waiting to get off the ship, period.

It gets better:

Trying to claim our bags after disembarkation? Another huge hassle. Our tags were gold colored. We looked up and down the terminal and there was no gold designation. We walked back and forth through a zoo of people, skipping over their luggage. We asked the reps where gold was. They directed us to the far end of the building. No gold. Well, come to find out, the gold bags were tucked WAY back in a corner that is BEHIND the sea of people who had already claimed their bags and were waiting to go through customs/immigration. DUH - we can't see through a massive bunch of people. Why wouldn't NCL put the priority bags right smack at the entry, the most convenient place, where you can clearly see them, claim them and be on your way? There was just no logic at all in the way they do both embarkation and disembarkation. We won't be sailing in or out of Tampa ever again! The combination of inept NCL reps and Tampa port employees was a recipe for complete chaos.

 

Over bid needs watched too. We noticed that bidding would actually allow paying as much as directly booking if not a bit more.

That was definitely something I paid attention to. We booked a year in advance and our original cabin was at $2499pp. The fare kept dropping across the months, and I got our booking adjusted accordingly. But then the bidding email came and it was a bit enticing. Now net-net, we are paying $285 per person less for the upgraded cabin than for the cabin we originally booked. We thought that substantiated our bid. We can't wait to sail!!! One week from today...

Our upcoming is in a Foward Suite on the Pearl- we bid on the Suites above us but not going to be disappointed if we are in the forward penthouse either.

Exactly. I always say, book the minimum stateroom you'd be happy with and don't expect or anticipate anything more. And then don't "over-bid" with an amount that makes you uncomfortable. If you get your bid accepted, great. If not, you know you are still good with what you originally booked.

Not sure you understand the category part. Or are thinking upgrade vs bidding.

 

Cabin categories are.

 

Solo-(not available on all ships)

Inside

Ocean view

Balcony

Mini Suite

Suite (not available on all ships)

Haven.

 

 

Within each category you may have options within but they are still within the category.

 

To say you were able to bid on all would be that you booked a inside studio solo and had options to bid on OV, Balcony, Mini Suites, and Haven including the DOS and GV. I highly doubt a solo in a studio bid on a GV in the haven.

NCL themselves call their staterooms "categories" on their website, and designates them by their lettering system, so that's what I go by. Ours was not a paid upgrade, it was a bid. I think I posted it a few weeks ago on this thread. We originally booked the lowest category suite (Family Suite - SJ) on the Dawn. We received invitations to bid on every suite above ours - 7 of them, which original fares are at escalating price points, so like NCL does, I consider that 7 different categories:

1. Aft-facing PH

2. Forward PH

3. Family Suite with Balcony

4. 2-Bedroom Family Suite with Balcony

5. Owner's Suite with 2 Balconies

6. Deluxe Owner's Suite

7. 3-Bedroom Garden Villa

Each one had the scale to place our bid(s), so we could submit 7 bids at whatever price points they were offering. We bid $15pp above the minimum bid on a Family Suite with Balcony (SD) which is a 3-category jump, and were granted it 32 days from sailing.

You can only bid up 2 levels from booking.

So inside can go to balcony.

OV to mini

Balcony to suite

Etc.

 

Not in our case. We received an offer to bid on upgrades to all 7 categories above our booking. We bid on (and received) the category that was 3 levels above our original booking.

My son's family is from NY. He told me that a large number of schools in NY have that same week off. Thst is why we had to choose that week, which was more expensive than normal, to take them on vacation. I am the one who mistakenly called it Spring Break. My bad. Chill out.

 

Back to discussion on the bidding process...

That Monday is also President's Day. A lot of people have that day off.

OK, thank you both! We should be able to use our shipboard credit for those items, I would think.

Does anyone know what's included, and is it replenished throughout the cruise? I think we'll get a bottle of champagne (errr-sparkling wine ;p) at the beginning and that will be the only one on the cruise. But how about bottled water, soda, coffee pods, etc?

Wow, excellent! Thanks everyone!

It is walkable depending upon how many bags you are dragging, but I think the car rental agency there (either Avis or Hertz?) will shuttle you. If not I would ask about the hotel shuttle or just grab a taxi/Uber (tip well for the short trip! ;) )

Great! Thanks so much for your quick reply!

Does anyone know if this is walkable, with luggage? We are renting a car prior to our NCL cruise and the nearest dropoff is the Embassy Suites. We are not staying at that hotel, so not sure if they would allow us to use their shuttle. It looks like it's less than a mile away which is doable for us, but we don't know the "lay of the land" - is it pedestrian-friendly? Some places aren't!

I saw this "free" thing about a year ago and I started to book a cruise on NCL's website thinking, "Great! Freebies!" Then I got to the end of the booking and saw the "Choice Promo Service Package" was added at around $300. Then you still have to pay the service charge that every guest pays. So I posted on it here basically saying "What's going on here? It's not free". And of course I got flamed by all the NCL board "experts". Shame on me...I was used to sailing on Regent and Silversea, and when they say it's free, it's free - or I should say, included in the cruise fare that's published. No extra added charges at the time of booking. I wish NCL would follow suit.

We got our bid accepted today - 32 days out from sailing date.

NCL Dawn

Paid for SJ Family Suite originally (has no balcony, but does have floor to ceiling windows)

Bid $315pp to upgrade to SD Family Suite with Balcony (minimum bid was $300pp)

We didn't care too much if we got the upgrade because we booked the minimum cabin we wanted. But having the balcony will be nice. The way we looked at it, we are still paying less of a fare than what we originally booked way back in February 2017. Our fare on the original cabin dropped $600pp across all these months, so essentially we are "saving" $570 total and getting the balcony. :cool:

We have done cruises and all-inclusive resorts for 25+ years, and we always book the minimum category room that we would personally be satisfied with. IMO, everyone should do that to make their vacation what they want and expect. If we get upgraded, great. If not, it's not the end of the world.

But that being said, we did submit a bid for an upcoming cruise on the Dawn. If we get it, great. If not, we know that we still have a cabin that meets our expectations. I do think this online bidding system is better than what NCL used to have (where they phoned you and had you "on the spot" to decide whether you wanted to upgrade or not for whatever dollar amount, no negotiation).

I did read the terms and conditions before posting here, but it wasn't completely clear to me as to "promotions" offered stay the same. I really don't understand why on a forums where people interact and exchange information there is such rudeness. I hate posting for this very reason. People act as if there is an inconvenience to a question being ask and offer no help actually answering the question.

 

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I agree. I didn't post here for months (maybe even over a year?) because of this very reason. You get cyber bullying and outright rudeness when you ask a simple question. But I came back and started posting again -- I decided if someone flames me, I'll just kill them with kindness, tell them to have a wonderful day and enjoy their life. Sorry if they are unhappy...but for me, life is too short and I am going to go the positive direction.

You can only bid up 2 categories

Not in our case. We were offered every cabin above our current booking (an SJ Family Suite on the Dawn) - seven choices of categories above ours at various minimum bid levels. I do like the way they are doing this now, instead of doing it by phone like they did before.

Tags are only sent in advance to Haven Suite guest.

 

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We are in a Family Suite (not Haven) and today we received six tags via snail mail. They are self-adhesive and appear like tearing/ripping won't be a problem. Similar to what airlines use when they tag your bags when you check them.

OK, thanks for your replies! I did go ahead and submit the minimum bid for a cabin that's two categories above what we booked. Our cabin fare has dropped so much since we booked it that even if we get our bid accepted, it's still several hundred dollars less than the fare we booked for our original cabin, so I figured - why not? I'll report in on the other thread when I find out if/when it is accepted.

I wasn't able to find the answer to my question: after the initial upgrade offer, does NCL lower their minimum bids for upgrades as time goes on, if their inventory is wide open? Has anyone had a "second chance" or "third chance" bid offer?

They do send the tags out if you are in a suite. Otherwise others gave you great advice.

How far in advance do they send out suite luggage tags? And are they laminated in some way? I was about to print my docs at home and do the strapping tape thing - otherwise I will wait for them to come by snail mail...