What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[RedwingHockeyFan]

Just now, spanishguy1970 said:

I will try to let you know. We almost always bid either for a balcony of spa balcony, from fair to good range but grand majority in the poor range and we have never won the bid. I heard some people have won in the poor range and fair bids so who knows what the guidelines are. In most instances when the price goes down we have moved up for free or just pay the small difference :-)....

My last cruise 1-8 FEB on the Breakaway, we won a bid for a spa balcony from a balcony for min +$5.  3 weeks before sail date there were still 26 spa balcony & spa suites available.  Bid was accepted 2 weeks prior to sail date.  Balcony's and OV bids were awarded 4 weeks out.

[spanishguy1970]

14 minutes ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

My last cruise 1-8 FEB on the Breakaway, we won a bid for a spa balcony from a balcony for min +$5.  3 weeks before sail date there were still 26 spa balcony & spa suites available.  Bid was accepted 2 weeks prior to sail date.  Balcony's and OV bids were awarded 4 weeks out.

oh  I see , ours right now is a 21 day cruise and usually our cruises are over 14 days so maybe they take into account the amount of days. We have fair bid on this one for one category and poor on the other.

[Dizzy8888]

First time with NCL Need some strategy suggestions....How are people seeing cabin inventory availability? We have a B2B coming up and have already had our upgrade bid accepted for the 2nd leg of cruise. We are still waiting to hear about our bid(s) for the first leg, which sails in 8 days. I am wondering on strategy here. We have bids on both a balcony and balcony mini-suite, upgrading from oceanview. Is it true that if we have bids on more than one cabin upgrade, the likelihood (if either are accepted), is that they will take the lowel cabin level. We are bidding a little higher on the higher cabin level--if granted, it would give us the same cabin type for both legs (and then we would keep fingers crossed that we'd be able to just keep the same cabin for the entire B2B. Is this just a pipe dream, or feasible? Again, any workable bidding strategies/suggestions please! And, are we notified at 2 days out if our bid is not accepted?  Again, if anyone has access to cabin inventory, which category is more available right now? (sailing Feb 29th). Thanks!!

[julig22]

35 minutes ago, Dizzy8888 said:

First time with NCL Need some strategy suggestions....How are people seeing cabin inventory availability? We have a B2B coming up and have already had our upgrade bid accepted for the 2nd leg of cruise. We are still waiting to hear about our bid(s) for the first leg, which sails in 8 days. I am wondering on strategy here. We have bids on both a balcony and balcony mini-suite, upgrading from oceanview. Is it true that if we have bids on more than one cabin upgrade, the likelihood (if either are accepted), is that they will take the lowel cabin level. We are bidding a little higher on the higher cabin level--if granted, it would give us the same cabin type for both legs (and then we would keep fingers crossed that we'd be able to just keep the same cabin for the entire B2B. Is this just a pipe dream, or feasible? Again, any workable bidding strategies/suggestions please! And, are we notified at 2 days out if our bid is not accepted?  Again, if anyone has access to cabin inventory, which category is more available right now? (sailing Feb 29th). Thanks!!

Chances of you getting the same cabin on your first leg are pretty much nill.  At this close date, you could do a mock booking for the mini-suite and see what (if anything) is available.  If everything is gty, then I would assume your chances of an upgrade are very slim as well.  If there is a list of available cabins, consider just paying for the upgrade assuming it isn't cost prohibitive.

 

Yes you will get a sorry e-mail 2 days out if your bid isn't accepted.  Hard to say if they do lowest cabins first - the only bid I have won did fall into that category, but it was also shortly after final payment and they had already sold out of OV, so they upgraded a number of people into balconies.

[hamrag]

42 minutes ago, Dizzy8888 said:

.....Is this just a pipe dream, or feasible?......

 

It is both, but the %'s are stacked waaaaaaaaaaaaay in favour of the former! 😉

[Dizzy8888]

26 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Chances of you getting the same cabin on your first leg are pretty much nill.  At this close date, you could do a mock booking for the mini-suite and see what (if anything) is available.  If everything is gty, then I would assume your chances of an upgrade are very slim as well.  If there is a list of available cabins, consider just paying for the upgrade assuming it isn't cost prohibitive.

 

Yes you will get a sorry e-mail 2 days out if your bid isn't accepted.  Hard to say if they do lowest cabins first - the only bid I have won did fall into that category, but it was also shortly after final payment and they had already sold out of OV, so they upgraded a number of people into balconies.

Did the mock booking, categories at and above ours say  “Call”, so don’t know availability.....guess we wait and see how it shakes out.....

[Koali]

I booked an inside cabin and after regretting it, I wanted to purchase an upgrade directly. However balcony rooms were going to cost me an additional $1200 which was outside of my budget. About a week out, the prices for ocean view were within reason but they would not let me upgrade because the fare for the first 2 passengers were less than what I had paid even though overall I would be paying more since I would have to give up the Free 3rd passenger promo. Anyways, I had an upgrade bid in that I kept lowering to match the cruise prices but decided to up it to what we were originally willing to pay for if we upgrade directly. It was in the “good” range. Our Oceanview upgrade bid was accepted 3 days out. 

[Named-Tawny]

2 hours ago, Dizzy8888 said:

 Is it true that if we have bids on more than one cabin upgrade, the likelihood (if either are accepted), is that they will take the lowel cabin level.

 

The basic rule of thumb is that NCL is going to make their upgrade decisions based on what makes them the most money - I assume we can mostly all agree on that?

 

There's two ways that NCL can maximise their takings from the upgrade programme i) have people give them more money for an upgrade and ii) have more people upgrading.

This will play out with a fairly complex algorythm - remember they're not trying to maximise just the amount they earn on one upgrade, but for the ship as a whole.  So if they can get a balcony to upgrade to a mini-suite, and then get an ocean view to upgrade to that (now empty balcony) and then get an inside to upgrade to that newly vacant oceanview, they've gotten three upgrades - while if they have the B upgrade to an M, and then an I to that B, they'e only gotten two upgrades - so the $$$ amount of giving up that additional upgrade would have to be worth it.

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, Named-Tawny said:

 

The basic rule of thumb is that NCL is going to make their upgrade decisions based on what makes them the most money - I assume we can mostly all agree on that?

 

There's two ways that NCL can maximise their takings from the upgrade programme i) have people give them more money for an upgrade and ii) have more people upgrading.

This will play out with a fairly complex algorythm - remember they're not trying to maximise just the amount they earn on one upgrade, but for the ship as a whole.  So if they can get a balcony to upgrade to a mini-suite, and then get an ocean view to upgrade to that (now empty balcony) and then get an inside to upgrade to that newly vacant oceanview, they've gotten three upgrades - while if they have the B upgrade to an M, and then an I to that B, they'e only gotten two upgrades - so the $$$ amount of giving up that additional upgrade would have to be worth it.

And don't forget moving people around to maximize capacity.  If they have a bunch of families (3 or 4 in a room) in a particular area, they can move a solo into a cabin that might otherwise be empty because of capacity in that area, and possibly free up a cabin elsewhere for 2 or more.

[raejc]

On 2/20/2020 at 7:01 PM, trish4bruce said:

I am a Canadian Cruiser and previously all my bids have been in CDN dollars as that is the currency that my cruise rate is booked at.  I cancelled my bids today as I need to change my CC and when I went to resubmit my bid the amounts are now in US amounts.   Has any other CDN cruisers experienced this?

 

This happened to us as well. Now I see them in USD only.

[gmbhardy]

1 hour ago, raejc said:

 

This happened to us as well. Now I see them in USD only.

 

In my experience, If you start the upgrade process through the message board in your account the bids are in US. If you enter through the email NCL sends you, it’s in Canadian.

[RedwingHockeyFan]

Does anyone know if the min bid changes for a particular category depending on which category you are already in?  Like would the min bid for a Haven be higher for someone in an inside than someone in a balcony?  Apologies if this was previously asked.

[Linda1111]

1 hour ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

Does anyone know if the min bid changes for a particular category depending on which category you are already in?  Like would the min bid for a Haven be higher for someone in an inside than someone in a balcony?  Apologies if this was previously asked.

In my experience yes. I was originally in an inside room with a bid on a balcony. When prices dropped after final payment I called and they gave me an ocean view room at no additional cost. I now have the opportunity to bid on a balcony and a mini-suite. The minimum bid AND maximum bid is now $100 lower for the balcony now that I am in the ocean view.

[Linda1111]

Just now, Linda1111 said:

In my experience yes. I was originally in an inside room with a bid on a balcony. When prices dropped after final payment I called and they gave me an ocean view room at no additional cost. I now have the opportunity to bid on a balcony and a mini-suite. The minimum bid AND maximum bid is now $100 lower for the balcony now that I am in the ocean view.

I would add that if you are in an inside room you are not going to have the opportunity to bid on Haven (only 2 categories above what you have)

 

[LinnieRed]

Question: I just called and upgraded myself (paid) from a balcony cabin to a spa balcony. I noticed my upgrade advantage possibilities still include the spa balcony. Does this mean they haven’t updated it yet and I should wait overnight do you figure minute bids to get into the Haven? TIA. 

[myk249]

13 minutes ago, LinnieRed said:

Question: I just called and upgraded myself (paid) from a balcony cabin to a spa balcony. I noticed my upgrade advantage possibilities still include the spa balcony. Does this mean they haven’t updated it yet and I should wait overnight do you figure minute bids to get into the Haven? TIA. 

We did the same thing and it took a day to update both the offerings and our reservation. 

[Sand and Seas]

If you are in the lowest category of Haven, do you know what bids start at to move to a higher category?

[beccahoke]

we are currently on the 5/31 to the Caribbean on the Breakaway. We were offered to bid on all other havens, except spa, because I guess that's a lower category.   We booked the forward facing penthouse,  which we won a bid for last year, and I will never not sail haven again.   Our lowest bid amounts was for a haven penthouse suite for 300/pp.  Which was pretty insane to me because we have a much larger suite already.  Obviously we didn't bid.  Not wrapped up in sleeping in the actual haven.  We just can't say enough about the actual haven experience.   But depending on the category you start, for us, it was anywhere 300 to 750/pp for a dos

[kell113]

We are sailing on the Epic June 7th and just got the upgrade offer.  We are in a spa mini suite.  we were offered the  2 bedroom suite for $850 for 2 people and no charge for 3rd person.  Obviously we would split the fee by 3 ways.   we bid $1900 .  Our sailing has had a lot of cancellations due to the virus.  Many Many balconies are avail.  I don't know how this will all go with the virus in Europe spreading and what the cruise ships will do.  Hoping for the best!  

[Beachmomm]

Did the $300 bid win?  And I don’t understand, you already had a larger suite and still placed a bid?  What is the difference between the forward facing penthouse and the haven rooms. First time going, thanks so much for your help!  

[Beachmomm]

Beccahoke 

[Beachmomm]

Kell113 did they offer any haven rooms to bid on? I think spa mini suites sell out quickly, perhaps that will help with the bidding?  Thanks! 

[kell113]

11 minutes ago, Beachmomm said:

Kell113 did they offer any haven rooms to bid on? I think spa mini suites sell out quickly, perhaps that will help with the bidding?  Thanks! 

 

They did offer the standard Haven but we have 3 to a room so we had to bid on the 2 bedroom Haven.  

[beccahoke]

1 hour ago, Beachmomm said:

Did the $300 bid win?  And I don’t understand, you already had a larger suite and still placed a bid?  What is the difference between the forward facing penthouse and the haven rooms. First time going, thanks so much for your help!  

No, we did not bid on the 300$ upgrade, the forward facing penthouse haven suite that we originally bought cost more than the opening upgrade bid.  If you already booked the haven, you should be happy with what you spent.  The only bid it would even make sense to put in would be an owner suite.  Any other bid on haven you should just call to upgrade 

[IRMO12HD]

@JamieLogical, I noticed that you mentioned a difficulty in 

"You have to click into each category, copy/paste the list of room numbers into a line counter, and divide by 2, because it's double-spaced. "  I find that if I select/copy the table items as a whole (cabin #, category, sleep# I think) and then paste as plain text into a worksheet, it eliminates the line spacing problem . . .