The Sad Demise of The NCL Upgrade/Upsell Fairy as he bids farewell

The Upgrade/Up Sell Fairy would like to extend his heartfelt wishes to all as he departs for the final journey across the sea to the Magical Fairyland Forest. He says that it has been a pleasure after all these years to Upgrade the few, Up Sell the many and now must sadly leave us all to prosper in the bidding war known to us now, as what we fondly call, eSway.

Wave goodbye folks, as he casts his spell one last time upon you!

So sad that everyone abused the upsell desk/number. You all just gave NCL the bright idea that if everyone is so hip to upgrade, then why not try to make a better buck out of it. Bid till your hearts content. Me, I'll just book what I am happy with in the first place. ;)

The demise is the result of people playing the system. Everyone seem to want something for nothing. In the end you get what you pay for.

Curiously, I got an upsell offer today. Instructions were to call the old upsell number. So its not shut down yet.

Curiously, I got an upsell offer today. Instructions were to call the old upsell number. So its not shut down yet.

Hoooray! Perhaps the Up Sell Fairy has not yet departed. Do tell, what ship are you sailing on?

Gem March 9 -- All cabins appear to be sold since the entire sailing is off all travel sites, but the offer was for penthouse suites, family suites, haven family suites or garden villa. The offers are much too high for me. I could have gotten the penthouse suite for $1000 more when I got my balcony, and now they want $1500 A PIECE for the upsell.

Funny thread. We've never gotten a call or email. I did call on last trip and the upsell price was too high.

I'm sure they'll catch some folks on the bid process where the top range of the bid is higher than the running category difference.

Funny thread. We've never gotten a call or email. I did call on last trip and the upsell price was too high.

 

I'm sure they'll catch some folks on the bid process where the top range of the bid is higher than the running category difference.

I created this thread sort of tongue in cheek, because for years I would post the Fairy Pic (though not in his fairy forest) as the Upgrade/Up Sell Fairy and now it seems that he won't matter much anymore with the new pre-selected eSway bidding process.

Unfortunately some of us saw this coming.

The new way plays on folks being inpatient and getting them to keep upping there bid . People do not realize they are bidding against there self.

I do see some of the trips being closed out on suites a lot earlier than when the upgrade bids first came out.

When they started they waited until a few days before the cruise date to award most of the rooms with the few exceptions of folks getting nervous and bidding too high.

Now I am seeing haven rooms going from 20 left to sold out the next day in the 30 day area.

Unfortunately for most this will end up pricing folks out of the haven. The days of getting a Have room for 2 for $3500 are over we will see $5000 and up.

We have turned down 3 upgrades over the years as we book the cabin we want (always aft).

I don't think the phase out of the upsell department has anything to do with over abuse or people playing the system. NCL knew the phone number was out there and kept it. The move to upgrade advantage is strictly because it's more cost effective for NCL to have the process automated. It also prevents the occasional ocean view to garden villa moves, which were not in NCL's best interest but made the upsell people's job easier. NCL started the game. All that talk about not doing last minute discounting was complete garbage, upper level suite prices have been put at insane levels and that leaves piles of suites empty weeks before many sailings. I think part of the high suite prices are to drive some kind of bidding frenzy. I think half the upsell advantage winning bids are barely savings at all - at least not from suite to suite. NCL needs to realize they are losing their loyal suite cruisers with this strategy. In the past I booked suites directly, but after a couple of sailings where my neighbors paid half what I did, I went with the upsell also. Now with no cabin choice I'm less willing to take chances and have to be totally content booking a lower cabin. Maybe that is NCL's intent - to force people like me into booking the suite we want. The problem is it did the opposite and I am moving to other cruise lines. I refuse to pay full price for the suite when I know many others will upsell later. Best of luck to NCL with the new program.

Well I think that is one of the reasons we got this upsell. We have an aft balcony and they are always in high demand and we're always very happy in this cabin. But sometimes the upsell's have been too hard to resist.........(i.e.$750 for a DOS last year).

All four times we received a call to upsell we had an aft cabin booked.

cruiseguys2009,

I thought it was a very nice and funny good-bye.

I've been on this board for a long time....Like maybe 10 plus years. Back then you didn't call the upsell desk. In fact, no one knew the number for the upsell desk. You waited for the upsell desk to call you! This was common knowledge on this board.

I remember early on when the phone number did get out, early on people would call to request an upsell and got told specifically....."You don't call us.....we call you"

So yes, I think it has to do with too much attention to the upsell desk. If they can fill those rooms online with bidding and avoid people calling and calling and calling, they will do that.

It also makes it fair. It voids the guy out who's willing to call daily and pester the upsell desk. It voids the salesman guy who can manage to sweet talk an upgrade.

Gem March 9 -- All cabins appear to be sold since the entire sailing is off all travel sites, but the offer was for penthouse suites, family suites, haven family suites or garden villa. The offers are much too high for me. I could have gotten the penthouse suite for $1000 more when I got my balcony, and now they want $1500 A PIECE for the upsell.

The Gem hasn't gone to the automated bidding system yet. We upgraded to the OS in December-worth every penny.

I've been on this board for a long time....Like maybe 10 plus years. Back then you didn't call the upsell desk. In fact, no one knew the number for the upsell desk. You waited for the upsell desk to call you! This was common knowledge on this board.

 

I remember early on when the phone number did get out, early on people would call to request an upsell and got told specifically....."You don't call us.....we call you"

 

So yes, I think it has to do with too much attention to the upsell desk. If they can fill those rooms online with bidding and avoid people calling and calling and calling, they will do that.

 

It also makes it fair. It voids the guy out who's willing to call daily and pester the upsell desk. It voids the salesman guy who can manage to sweet talk an upgrade.

You are soooo right. I remember those days. Our first true Up Sell was 8 years ago from Aft Suite to the Owners Suite on The Norwegian Dawn, three days before the cruise and "They" called us. The price was silly reasonable, and we nabbed it as we most likely, at that time, thought that we would never be in an Owners Suite again. And that would be correct, we have never sailed in an Owners Suite ever again.

I wanted also to say that over your ten years on Cruise Critic, you only chime in when you feel it will be an important contribution, and that is impressive, and I so appreciate you posting on this thread. That you posted here, really and truly makes me feel valued and a worthwhile contributor to this board. Thank you very much.

I guess I need to change my named to "DumpedByAFairy" :p

I guess I need to change my named to "DumpedByAFairy" :p

Very Funny!

I guess I need to change my named to "DumpedByAFairy" :p

Now that there is funny. Thanks for a chuckle.

I don't think the phase out of the upsell department has anything to do with over abuse or people playing the system. NCL knew the phone number was out there and kept it. The move to upgrade advantage is strictly because it's more cost effective for NCL to have the process automated. It also prevents the occasional ocean view to garden villa moves, which were not in NCL's best interest but made the upsell people's job easier. NCL started the game. All that talk about not doing last minute discounting was complete garbage, upper level suite prices have been put at insane levels and that leaves piles of suites empty weeks before many sailings. I think part of the high suite prices are to drive some kind of bidding frenzy. I think half the upsell advantage winning bids are barely savings at all - at least not from suite to suite. NCL needs to realize they are losing their loyal suite cruisers with this strategy. In the past I booked suites directly, but after a couple of sailings where my neighbors paid half what I did, I went with the upsell also. Now with no cabin choice I'm less willing to take chances and have to be totally content booking a lower cabin. Maybe that is NCL's intent - to force people like me into booking the suite we want. The problem is it did the opposite and I am moving to other cruise lines. I refuse to pay full price for the suite when I know many others will upsell later. Best of luck to NCL with the new program.

Well said and how we feel. DMH Donna also said something similar recently.

The unintended consequence is we either don't book a trip at all on NCL or we have booked YC on MSC and will be sailing them for the first time this August. What I've seen so far is very impressive of the YC except room size.

Gem March 9 -- All cabins appear to be sold since the entire sailing is off all travel sites, but the offer was for penthouse suites, family suites, haven family suites or garden villa. The offers are much too high for me. I could have gotten the penthouse suite for $1000 more when I got my balcony, and now they want $1500 A PIECE for the upsell.

I knew something was afoot!!

I had been checking the suite availability about a month ago and there were 14. Two weeks later someone wanted to join us: the cruise had disappeared and I was told it was completely sold out.

We are new to NCL, our first time was in November on the "Getaway" and we are boarding the "Escape" March 4th. We received an "upgrade email" on February 8th. I didn't respond because I am happy with my room assignment and the "starting bids" were ridiculously high!

Wishing everyone smooth sailing and peaceful sunsets......

This will be my third cruise on NCL, and I received the "bid to upgrade" email a week ago. While I appreciate the offer, and I am sure that this will make it much easier for them to upgrade the people who are willing to pay extra, I like the cabin that I reserved.

For some people, the 400-1000 bids are worth the money to get into a mini-suite or Haven. But for me? The only perk that would make me change my cabin would be a Spa Balcony with Spa access.

Hoooray! Perhaps the Up Sell Fairy has not yet departed. Do tell, what ship are you sailing on?

Replaced by someone younger or an H-1b, perhaps:eek: