What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[Ostrichman]

15 minutes ago, 3kidsncats said:

We won our upgrade bid into the Haven last year, maybe a week beforehand.  There were no reservations that I was aware of, for the Haven dining room.  We never had a problem getting seated the entire 12 days.  Pretty much just checked in with the hostess, and within moments were escorted to a table.  Each cruise is going to have some variants of number of guests, whether they prefer more or less specialty dining, etc., that will affect availability in the Haven dining room, but I doubt you would have any issues

 

to keep this thread on topic, you should look in the forum for Haven amenity threads — there are loads of them.  🙂.  My vote is, anytime I can swing it, I would sail Haven

Thanks much!  I will also check out the threads on Haven amenities to help me decide!

[Koali]

On 11/19/2019 at 1:35 PM, RNRcruisers said:

We just had our bid accepted for the January 19th sailing on the Encore! We were in an inside and are upgraded to a balcony. I think our bid was about the middle of the range so not a super bargain but still quite a bit less than paying it upfront. I didn't really figure we would get it, have never won one in the past, so I bid a little bit higher than I might have 🙂

 

This is our 15th cruise and we have never had a balcony so I'm pretty happy about it. 

Do you know the price difference between what you bid vs directly purchasing full price for balcony? I put in a bid for inside to balcony and the difference is $300. I wonder if I should increase it a little. 

[zebrazeb]

Received my rejection e-mail Friday (2 days before cruise about 1:00 Eastern).  This leaves this Sunday for xmas cruise, so really did not expect to be upgraded, as it is a full ship.  We are already staying in a forward facing Haven suite, so it is going to be a great cruise already!!   for informational purposes all of my bids were the lowest possible, except one went to the next lowest level.

[RNRcruisers]

On 12/20/2019 at 2:23 PM, Koali said:

Do you know the price difference between what you bid vs directly purchasing full price for balcony? I put in a bid for inside to balcony and the difference is $300. I wonder if I should increase it a little. 

 

I don't remember how much more it was to book a balcony outright but as of the time we received the upgrade it was probably only about $100 more than our bid. I have been checking off and on and it goes up and down a lot. 

[kahoosbt]

I am enjoying reading this thread! Thanks to all who contribute!

 

I have some questions. First, on our upcoming 21 day cruise (Jewel, Sydney / South pacific), we booked a midship inside. On our upgrade offer, the slider for a balcony ranges from 0 to $250 each. But on the oceanview upgrade, the slider ranges from 0 to $450. This seems strange. Why would they do this? More open balcony cabins or ??

 

Second, if one puts in a high or maximum bid for an upgrade, would they be more likely to get an upgrade sooner, rather than right before sailing? Or perhaps get a better location cabin, as compared to a successful lower bid? Or are these things just random? 

 

Thanks!

[mking8288]

12 hours ago, kahoosbt said:

... on our upcoming 21 day cruise (Jewel, Sydney / South pacific), we booked a midship inside ... slider for a balcony ranges from 0 to $250 each. But ... oceanview ... ranges from 0 to $450 ... 

 

... a high or maximum bid ... likely to get an upgrade sooner, rather than right before sailing? Or perhaps get a better location cabin, as compared to a successful lower bid? ... just random? 

 

Just my 2 cents - we just sailed the Gem last week, similar/sister ship in the same class.  We successfully bidded up from midship "IA" sideway on Deck 8 & awarded an "OA" pictureview OV on Deck 5 midship, starboard below the smaller MDR ... it was quiet 98.5% of the time, very pleased.  "Paid" a little more than what our previously successful bids for an OV, $75 x 2 in the Fair range.  Bid $125 x 2 for balcony and not taken ... ship was nearly/sold out at that point, nothing for new bookings, except possibly Insides, when the outgrade came thru at 9 days out.  A # of other CC'er on the roll call did NOT get upgraded at all - none reported/shared success stories (possible if they chose not to reveal) ... not to OV, not to Balcony, not to Mini's, not to Haven. 

 

Ship wasn't "selling" and moving with their huge cabin inventory at 90 to 100 days (already beyond final payment/cancellation)  ... prices droped around the 80 days mark, several called NCL & got upgraded free, keep your eyes open for it.  One possible reason, one or more T/A booked a large block of cabins and helped NCL unloaded their inventory ... on a typical, slow time/week cruising just before the holidays, with maybe 2,500 souls on this class of ships - there're 400+ with foreign passports and 500 children/teens (usually 50 to 100, not a holiday cruise).  Among the adults, a very substantial # of Asian/Chinese nationals traveling with a group escort.  

 

If you are thinking of offering the maximum or high bid range, for those $$$ - you might want to call NCL directly & see if you can move up directly AND get any/all "current' promotions - and, not lose existing ones associated with the current booking (i.e. double points, OBC, etc.)   This is even true for an offer in the Fair to Good range, if you are fine & comfortable with giving that extra $$.  Worst, they say no - we did asked too, didn't like their "quote" for the balcony.  We've twice booked a sideway Inside and lost our chances to stay in one, including this month. 

 

Now, caution with the OV upgrade GTY assignment ... you can end up with an Obstructed OV on Deck 8 (that's one of our favorite, bargain sub-category) or end up on the "steerage" - Deck 5 or 4, with a Forward Porthole ... but, those are fine with us too, plenty of natural lights & the cabin is very, very slightly larger than an Inside. 

 

Have you check inventory on NCL to see availability for the upgrade cabin types, possibly lot more unsold balcony.  Bid with an amount that you are comfortable with ... personally speaking, all of our bids had been successful, one way or another (yet, to get into a Mini, or higher) and awarded often at 1 to 2 weeks out, closer one at 3 to 5 days, closest one was less than 55 hours from saling (48 hours being the cutoff).  One of our BIL bidded in Fair/Good range & got their balcony offer accepted at a month out.  

 

A matrix of luck, money offered & inventory, nothing is random ... and I'm keep an eye on pricing pattern and NCL's use of "RateGain" that started earlier in 2019 - quite possibly a game changer.  Haven was fully sold OUT at 30+ days out, virtually zero chance to win a bidn, then suites were gone a matter of days later, then the minis followed ... ditto, nearly all the balconies (with prices climbing & going higher insted of lowering ... no solo deals)  "Something is in the air" lately.  

 

Good luck & happy holidays !

[TrinaLC]

What is RateGain?

[mking8288]

41 minutes ago, TrinaLC said:

What is RateGain?

 

Ha, my bad - I've thought it was posted on this thread, "not"   A somewhat different pattern or trend lately, exclude the holiday cruises as those are nearly always sold out entirely - need to hear from others with their success in recent bids and also unsuccessful ones, with off-peak sailings, to see if this has anything to do with it.  This is the relevant post, snipped, shared on our recent "Gem" Roll Call

 

...

 

• Sales must knew what they're doing in filling the ship's cabin ... insiders, travel agency deals, last minute partial group charter, maybe an overseas group package ??  Just read this article on NCL using "RateGain" lately for revenue management ... this might explain their changing/evolving pricing strategies, changing the parameters on the playing field. 
• https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/norwegian-cruise-line-selects-rategain-to-lead-the-market-with-comprehensive-price-intelligence-300962031.html
•  
• What's odd about this puzzle, that the roll call is relatively quiet, now at 23 days out.   Whatever ... 
•  
• ...  I noticed that earlier, went to the other site to check ... there are still some availability for I/S and OV, mostly GTY's ... but not much & priced higher than the rates for Balcony Sail Away w/o offers last month.  These moves, effectively choked off the odds for scoring any kind of Upgrade Advantage bids, changing the timing, etc. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by mking8288

[kahoosbt]

2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Just my 2 cents - we just sailed the Gem last week, similar/sister ship in the same class. 

Thanks for your detailed and very informative reply!

 

I am thinking about bidding for just a balcony... not an OV. When we booked our IE cabin, we caught it at the very lowest prices... $887 pp for 21 days in the South Pacific! I don't recall what the price of a balcony was, at that time, but now it's $1869+. Given this, I doubt a direct price for a balcony would come anywhere close to 1137. or less pp. (887 + 250, if we bid the maximum listed on the slider.) Of course, we know that, even if we bid the maximum, there's no guarantee of getting a balcony upgrade. But--if not--we have been very content in our inside cabins on other cruises. --Most of our cruises have been in insides (although we have also had oceanview and balcony cabins), and we have no problem with it.

 

Anyway, nothing definite, yet, but those are our thoughts at this point!

 

Thanks again for your thoughts! We welcome any and all ideas / feedback! 

[MaryZ]

ehhh...I'm not sold on the idea that rategain chokes off upgrade advantage.

 

I do believe that the cruise lines have added so much inventory that they will have issues in the upcoming years filling those cabins. 
Which is why they turned to rate gain.   The cruise lines are late in the game to figuring out pricing modes and timing. 
Just looking at my next NCL cruise shows disaster mode because they keep raising pricing when the ship is not selling well but at the same time they are trying to convince people that it's a special sale. 
 
If rate gain is helping them with that cruise....lol...they should fire them.  I fully expect lots of people to be winning their bids.

[JamieLogical]

I am confident NCL has been using AI to determine pricing for a long time. It sounds like RateGain is just giving them potentially a more sophisticated model. We'll see how it plays out in the long run. I have caught prices doing some unexpected, seemingly illogical things on some specific sailings I'm tracking. For instance, on my March 22 Bliss sailing, pricing had already gone up quite a bit since I booked, but it had leveled off this past weekend at its highest price to date. Over the entire weekend, only 2 cabins sold of the hundreds remaining. Then yesterday, to my surprise, they raised the price another $50pp per cabin across all categories. If inventory wasn't moving at the current prices over a weekend, I don't know how they expect it to move at an even higher price, but there must be some logic to it.

[ollienbertsmum]

14 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

. Over the entire weekend, only 2 cabins sold of the hundreds remaining. Then yesterday, to my surprise, they raised the price another $50pp per cabin across all categories. If inventory wasn't moving at the current prices over a weekend, I don't know how they expect it to move at an even higher price, but there must be some logic to it.

 

Jamie, I am not really one to follow prices, but I wonder if this price rise is more to do with the time of the year.  Two possible scenarios.  

 

1.Last weekend a lot of folk would be rushing around buying gifts and turkey and would not have time to think about vacation.  Sudden pause, everyone sitting around the Christmas table, looking out of the window saying “Wouldn’t a cruise be nice? Let’s check the prices.”  

 

2.  The company are thinking about slashing prices in the New Year sales when people will be thinking about booking vacations.  They have to raise the prices a tad in order to be able to afford to slash them.  

 

JMHO

 

[dbrown84]

I'm on the Breakaway leaving 1/11/20.  I've put two bids to upgrade from my inside, $150 to go to a balcony (it's in the poor range) and $250 to go to a spa balcony (it's just over the fair line).  Both categories still have cabins available at 16 days out.  We'll see how it goes.

[soxfanattic]

8 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

I'm on the Breakaway leaving 1/11/20.  I've put two bids to upgrade from my inside, $150 to go to a balcony (it's in the poor range) and $250 to go to a spa balcony (it's just over the fair line).  Both categories still have cabins available at 16 days out.  We'll see how it goes.

Hi. I am on this same sailing and just received an upgrade from inside to aft balcony for $200/person

 

[Koali]

59 minutes ago, soxfanattic said:

Hi. I am on this same sailing and just received an upgrade from inside to aft balcony for $200/person

 

do you know how much is the difference with the upgrade compared to the going price for a balcony? We bid $110 per person from inside to balcony. It would be about $300 difference for the current balcony price. I’m trying to decide if I should bid a little more. 

[Losnab]

On 12/10/2019 at 12:59 PM, alwysonvctn said:

Sun leaving 12/12/19. Booked a Sailaway OV for cheap at the time a balcony Sailaway was going for $100 more. Immediately assigned a great OV picture window on deck 9 and got the upgrade email the next day. I bid $55pp for a balcony and $75 for a mini-suite, both the minimum bid plus $5. Well today, 2 days before departure we got the balcony upgrade to a mid-ship balcony on deck 9. I thought for sure when I saw the email it was going to say sorry. Time to pack!

Sun leaving 1/8.  Booked late last month ov guarantee and received porthole promenade deck 2 days later, was not thrilled and a little concerned with lack of privacy. We Received an upgrade email earlier this month  and bid 75 ea for a balcony.  Email yesterday confirmed upgrade accepted, deck 8 family balcony.  (2 people).  

[dbrown84]

16 hours ago, soxfanattic said:

Hi. I am on this same sailing and just received an upgrade from inside to aft balcony for $200/person

 

Nice!  Congrats.  15 days away!!!

[mking8288]

17 hours ago, Koali said:

do you know how much is the difference with the upgrade compared to the going price for a balcony? We bid $xxx per person from inside to balcony. It would be about $300 difference for the current balcony price.  

 

Careful, I don't recommend disclosing the winning bid amount until it is less than 48 hours from sailing.  Someone else lurking might now just outbid yours by xxx plus $5 or $10, or whatever, to possibly win that last cabin at a higher amount than yours. 

 

Good luck, we always embargoed ours until all bids on a given sailing are final, one way or another for everyone.

[Koali]

19 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

Careful, I don't recommend disclosing the winning bid amount until it is less than 48 hours from sailing.  Someone else lurking might now just outbid yours by xxx plus $5 or $10, or whatever, to possibly win that last cabin at a higher amount than yours. 

 

Good luck, we always embargoed ours until all bids on a given sailing are final, one way or another for everyone.

 Thanks for the heads up! I will try to edit my original post! My cruise is still 2 months out so it looks like I just have to be patient as it seems like upgrades are given out closer to sailing date. 

[debnjoe1438]

11 hours ago, Losnab said:

Sun leaving 1/8.  Booked late last month ov guarantee and received porthole promenade deck 2 days later, was not thrilled and a little concerned with lack of privacy. We Received an upgrade email earlier this month  and bid 75 ea for a balcony.  Email yesterday confirmed upgrade accepted, deck 8 family balcony.  (2 people).  

Congratulations

[MoniMommy]

On 12/25/2019 at 10:58 AM, mking8288 said:

 

Just my 2 cents - we just sailed the Gem last week, similar/sister ship in the same class.  We successfully bidded up from midship "IA" sideway on Deck 8 & awarded an "OA" pictureview OV on Deck 5 midship, starboard below the smaller MDR ... it was quiet 98.5% of the time, very pleased.  "Paid" a little more than what our previously successful bids for an OV, $75 x 2 in the Fair range.  Bid $125 x 2 for balcony and not taken ... ship was nearly/sold out at that point, nothing for new bookings, except possibly Insides, when the outgrade came thru at 9 days out.  A # of other CC'er on the roll call did NOT get upgraded at all - none reported/shared success stories (possible if they chose not to reveal) ... not to OV, not to Balcony, not to Mini's, not to Haven. 

 

Ship wasn't "selling" and moving with their huge cabin inventory at 90 to 100 days (already beyond final payment/cancellation)  ... prices droped around the 80 days mark, several called NCL & got upgraded free, keep your eyes open for it.  One possible reason, one or more T/A booked a large block of cabins and helped NCL unloaded their inventory ... on a typical, slow time/week cruising just before the holidays, with maybe 2,500 souls on this class of ships - there're 400+ with foreign passports and 500 children/teens (usually 50 to 100, not a holiday cruise).  Among the adults, a very substantial # of Asian/Chinese nationals traveling with a group escort.  

 

If you are thinking of offering the maximum or high bid range, for those $$$ - you might want to call NCL directly & see if you can move up directly AND get any/all "current' promotions - and, not lose existing ones associated with the current booking (i.e. double points, OBC, etc.)   This is even true for an offer in the Fair to Good range, if you are fine & comfortable with giving that extra $$.  Worst, they say no - we did asked too, didn't like their "quote" for the balcony.  We've twice booked a sideway Inside and lost our chances to stay in one, including this month. 

 

Now, caution with the OV upgrade GTY assignment ... you can end up with an Obstructed OV on Deck 8 (that's one of our favorite, bargain sub-category) or end up on the "steerage" - Deck 5 or 4, with a Forward Porthole ... but, those are fine with us too, plenty of natural lights & the cabin is very, very slightly larger than an Inside. 

 

Have you check inventory on NCL to see availability for the upgrade cabin types, possibly lot more unsold balcony.  Bid with an amount that you are comfortable with ... personally speaking, all of our bids had been successful, one way or another (yet, to get into a Mini, or higher) and awarded often at 1 to 2 weeks out, closer one at 3 to 5 days, closest one was less than 55 hours from saling (48 hours being the cutoff).  One of our BIL bidded in Fair/Good range & got their balcony offer accepted at a month out.  

 

A matrix of luck, money offered & inventory, nothing is random ... and I'm keep an eye on pricing pattern and NCL's use of "RateGain" that started earlier in 2019 - quite possibly a game changer.  Haven was fully sold OUT at 30+ days out, virtually zero chance to win a bidn, then suites were gone a matter of days later, then the minis followed ... ditto, nearly all the balconies (with prices climbing & going higher insted of lowering ... no solo deals)  "Something is in the air" lately.  

 

Good luck & happy holidays !

What is a sideways inside cabin? Thank you

[mianmike]

12 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

Careful, I don't recommend disclosing the winning bid amount until it is less than 48 hours from sailing.  Someone else lurking might now just outbid yours by xxx plus $5 or $10, or whatever, to possibly win that last cabin at a higher amount than yours. 

 

Good luck, we always embargoed ours until all bids on a given sailing are final, one way or another for everyone.

 

I think you meant a person doesn't want to disclose their bid.  Disclosing a "winning bid" is fine as it indicates NCL has notified the bidder they have been awarded a higher category cabin, a cabin number has been assigned and their credit card has been charged.  The deal is closed and the bidder is "stuck" in their new cabin. 

[SilkShirt]

I'm on the Bliss sailing January 5th. Anyone else have bids for that cruise? I haven't heard anything. Have you?

[JamieLogical]

44 minutes ago, SilkShirt said:

I'm on the Bliss sailing January 5th. Anyone else have bids for that cruise? I haven't heard anything. Have you?

 

It's a bit early to hearing about sailings on the 5th. Likely you will hear early next week if it's accepted and sometime Friday if it is not.

[SilkShirt]

Thanks Jamie!