What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[JamieLogical]

All bids officially rejected for my sailing on the Escape this weekend. I am in a BE balcony and my bids were as follows:

 

Spa Mini-suite: $130 pp

Spa Haven: $510 pp

Haven Courtyard: $420 pp

Forward Haven: $420 pp

Edited April 5, 2019 by JamieLogical

[Baatman]

I wonder what the winning bids were?

[RedRover96]

On 3/6/2019 at 2:45 PM, cruiseguy2424 said:

15 minutes ago, Baatman said:

I wonder what the winning bids were?

That is the $1,000,000 question and no one will ever know!!!  

 

[vllygrrl]

Just won our bid on the Pearl 10 day 4/18. $300/pp went from Oceanview to a mini-suite.  Very thankful for the extra space, since we are traveling with our teen. 

[firstimecruiseronncl]

13 hours ago, RedRover96 said:

 

My bids for the April 14th sailing on the Escape:

 

We were in a spa mini-suite.

We bid per person:

 

Haven Spa Suite $900

Haven Forward Facing Balcony $1100

Haven Courtyard Penthouse $1000

 

We were notified on April 1st that the Haven Courtyard Penthouse was our winning bid. This was earlier than expected! I didn't even have to check my account multiple times a day since I wasn't expecting an upgrade yet. 😁I was checking inventory a lot though! 

[NY1sttimers]

1 hour ago, firstimecruiseronncl said:

My bids for the April 14th sailing on the Escape:

 

We were in a spa mini-suite.

We bid per person:

 

Haven Spa Suite $900

Haven Forward Facing Balcony $1100

Haven Courtyard Penthouse $1000

 

We were notified on April 1st that the Haven Courtyard Penthouse was our winning bid. This was earlier than expected! I didn't even have to check my account multiple times a day since I wasn't expecting an upgrade yet. 😁I was checking inventory a lot though! 

Congrats!! What was inventory like?

[Htristan]

On Escape from NY this weekend.  Got upgraded on Thursday.  I was constantly monitoring inventory (both for what I was trying to upgrade to and our current room) availability and looking at my bids during the 3 weeks leading up to this one.

 

One thing to note, is that I think when NCL is doing the upgrade analysis, they are looking at total ROI for them, so what you paid originally for your room probably factors in.  If you got your room on a really cheap sale or deal, your likelihood to be upgraded probably goes down a bit depending on what other people are bidding.  Definitely the room you currently are booked into factors in anyhow.

 

We had booked an M6.  Important to also watch inventory for your current room, as that will likely give an indication of how much NCL wants to move you out of that so they can use your room as an upgrade for someone else.  M6's on our cruse sold out about 2 weeks ago.

 

I had options to upgrade to an H6 or H7 (or above, but those were way too much money).  I was paying in CAD, but I converted back to USD here for everyone else.

H7 - Min bid $375pp - I ended up bidding $520pp - my bid was rated as "weak"

H8 - Min bid $735pp - I was contemplating this but ended up passing as it was too much and I saw there was still some H7's left

 

I doubt the weak/strong/etc scale really means anything (other than to encourage you to bid more), it's going to ultimately just be looking at the total revenue to NCL and they'll choose what works out the best for them.

 

Thursday, they called me and said they unfortunately were now sold out of H7, but would we be interested in an H4 (2 bedroom Haven suite) instead for the same price I had bid on the H7!  I said yes of course, the H4 is pretty sweet.  Kids are super excited.

 

Hopefully that's helpful info for anyone else currently doing bidding.

[All-ready2cruise]

Congrats for winning  your bid and very good explanation on your bidding experience. 

Have a great cruise. 

[firstimecruiseronncl]

30 minutes ago, NY1sttimers said:

Congrats!! What was inventory like?

There was a lot of availability. 9 Haven Spa Suites, 8 Haven Forward Facing, and 15 Haven Courtyard Penthouse. There is still availability so there is still hope for anyone with bids in. Last July we won an upgrade from spa mini suite to Haven Spa Suite the week of. At that time there were 5 rooms left in that category.  

[nhquilter1]

1 hour ago, firstimecruiseronncl said:

There was a lot of availability. 9 Haven Spa Suites, 8 Haven Forward Facing, and 15 Haven Courtyard Penthouse. There is still availability so there is still hope for anyone with bids in. Last July we won an upgrade from spa mini suite to Haven Spa Suite the week of. At that time there were 5 rooms left in that category.  

 

Maybe this has been asked before, but I can't find the answer...how do you know what's still available and what's not? Especially since you know exact numbers here. Hoping to get the opportunity to upgrade for our 9/1 sailing.

TIA

[Htristan]

25 minutes ago, nhquilter1 said:

 

Maybe this has been asked before, but I can't find the answer...how do you know what's still available and what's not? Especially since you know exact numbers here. Hoping to get the opportunity to upgrade for our 9/1 sailing.

TIA

You open a browser window in in-cognito or something like that on your computer and you do a mock-buy.  You pretend to buy the same sailing, and then you look at what inventory is available, what the prices are, what's sold out, etc.

[bluesky8130]

On 4/2/2019 at 4:15 PM, BIG POOCH said:

Has anyone heard anything about the April 13th Epic Cruise yet?  My bids still say pending.

My bids still say pending too for next week's cruise....

 

Getting so excited and can't wait to get into the heat 🙂

[dexddd]

2 hours ago, Htristan said:

You open a browser window in in-cognito or something like that on your computer and you do a mock-buy.  You pretend to buy the same sailing, and then you look at what inventory is available, what the prices are, what's sold out, etc.

Up to 15 rooms on NCL site.

[Budget Queen]

On 4/5/2019 at 1:20 PM, 5onadime said:

I confess..... I haven’t read the 113 pages of this thread....   why do they offer bids to cabin categories that are already sold out?   We are already booked in a suite and received an email to bid, but ALL categories above us say sold?

 

There is no such thing as "sold out"   until the ship sails.     With offering bids irregardless of inventory ,  then NCL can act quickly and has a ready pool  of bids to choose from,  when cabins come available.   

 

[Htristan]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

Up to 15 rooms on NCL site.

Based on our experience this week, I would say while NCL is probably doing some upgrades here and there before the sailing, they probably leave the bulk of them until Wednesday night or Thursday morning for a cruise leaving on a Sunday.  This means if you haven't been upgraded already and are hoping to, you should likely be looking at the inventory available and making sure that on Tues or Weds the week prior you are making sure your bid is optimized based on all the factors (class booked/inventory available or not/price paid/etc) so that when they look at it on Thursday morning and start upgrading and/or calling people you are in the best position on the list.

 

Sure - that isn't going to work every time, but seems like the best optimization you can do with the limited informaiton you have.

[Pugs]

On 4/3/2019 at 12:34 PM, Deb and Jack said:

Sailing 4/13 on Star. Booked IF was assigned an ID. Bid 180pp barely in fair range for balcony right on 80 day mark. Credit card charged today and new confirmation received. Assigned B1 AFT BALCONY!!! So excited!! Also sailing 4/20 hope my answer is just as early.  

 

Update: bid accepted for 4/20 assigned BA same deck as 4/13 so easy relocation.  10 days to go. So excited!

If you booked through a travel agent do they email you a bid request or the travel agent ?

 

[Pugs]

If you booked through a travel agent do they send you a bid request or the travel agent 

[vacation44]

7 hours ago, Htristan said:

On Escape from NY this weekend.  Got upgraded on Thursday.  I was constantly monitoring inventory (both for what I was trying to upgrade to and our current room) availability and looking at my bids during the 3 weeks leading up to this one.

 

One thing to note, is that I think when NCL is doing the upgrade analysis, they are looking at total ROI for them, so what you paid originally for your room probably factors in.  If you got your room on a really cheap sale or deal, your likelihood to be upgraded probably goes down a bit depending on what other people are bidding.  Definitely the room you currently are booked into factors in anyhow.

 

We had booked an M6.  Important to also watch inventory for your current room, as that will likely give an indication of how much NCL wants to move you out of that so they can use your room as an upgrade for someone else.  M6's on our cruse sold out about 2 weeks ago.

 

I had options to upgrade to an H6 or H7 (or above, but those were way too much money).  I was paying in CAD, but I converted back to USD here for everyone else.

H7 - Min bid $375pp - I ended up bidding $520pp - my bid was rated as "weak"

H8 - Min bid $735pp - I was contemplating this but ended up passing as it was too much and I saw there was still some H7's left

 

I doubt the weak/strong/etc scale really means anything (other than to encourage you to bid more), it's going to ultimately just be looking at the total revenue to NCL and they'll choose what works out the best for them.

 

Thursday, they called me and said they unfortunately were now sold out of H7, but would we be interested in an H4 (2 bedroom Haven suite) instead for the same price I had bid on the H7!  I said yes of course, the H4 is pretty sweet.  Kids are super excited.

 

Hopefully that's helpful info for anyone else currently doing bidding.

Thank you very much for your detailed post as it is very helpful to me.   Congratulations and have a great sailing,

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

42 minutes ago, Pugs said:

If you booked through a travel agent do they send you a bid request or the travel agent 

You might not even get offered to bid it depends on whether your ta participates or not, a lot of the big box ta's do not. If they do you might or might not get an email. At the 80 day mark or so go your my ncl account and check the various banners to see if you have the let's get you upgraded banner also in you my ncl account at the 79 or 80 day mark it will be with your other ncl emails. Good luck

[Deb and Jack]

47 minutes ago, Pugs said:

If you booked through a travel agent do they email you a bid request or the travel agent ?

 

You will get an email and see the banner ad on myncl IF your travel agent participates in the bid program.  Not all do. I don't use a travel agent. I book direct with NCL. Good luck

[mianmike]

7 hours ago, Htristan said:

One thing to note, is that I think when NCL is doing the upgrade analysis, they are looking at total ROI for them, so what you paid originally for your room probably factors in.  If you got your room on a really cheap sale or deal, your likelihood to be upgraded probably goes down a bit depending on what other people are bidding.  Definitely the room you currently are booked into factors in anyhow.

 

We had booked an M6.  Important to also watch inventory for your current room, as that will likely give an indication of how much NCL wants to move you out of that so they can use your room as an upgrade for someone else.  M6's on our cruse sold out about 2 weeks ago.

 

 

 

I seriously doubt NCL factors how much you paid for your cabin.  Everyone on the ship is past final payment.  Your cabin category is what's important.  If you're in a highly desired cabin moving you out and vacating that cabin so another person who's got a sizable bid can move into it is where they make their money.  It's a 3D level chess game.  The computer is always checking the variables.  They want to make the most money, so to maximize ROI they need to look at taking the highest bids from the most lucrative cabins.  Which means if your booked in a highly desirable cabin, you may bid less and have paid less for your cabin than some else but you are awarded the upgrade because they would make the most money moving you out of your highly desirable cabin and up a level.    

[Pugs]

33 minutes ago, Nclgetawaymenhoney said:

You might not even get offered to bid it depends on whether your ta participates or not, a lot of the big box ta's do not. If they do you might or might not get an email. At the 80 day mark or so go your my ncl account and check the various banners to see if you have the let's get you upgraded banner also in you my ncl account at the 79 or 80 day mark it will be with your other ncl emails. Good luck

Thanks

[Tando6771]

I booked through "big box ta"I got my bid offer at 80 days when I logged into the NCL website. "Big box ta" never contacted me about the upgrade opportunity. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Tando6771
mention of travel site

[jethrojam]

Re: TA’s and upgrade offers.  My mother booked through costco and never got a chance to upgrade.  I thought it weird, but apparently it does depend on participation of TA. 

[Pugs]

1 hour ago, Deb and Jack said:

You will get an email and see the banner ad on myncl IF your travel agent participates in the bid program.  Not all do. I don't use a travel agent. I book direct with NCL. Good luck

Thanks