What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[Tw in OR]

One thing I haven't seen considered in this discussion is the relative number of cabins in the type you're coming from and bidding on. For instance, on the Breakaway there is something like 450 inside cabins, 156 ocean view cabins, and like 998 balcony cabins. I would guess this means there is relatively less chance of getting an ocean view cabin with your bid up from inside, compared to a balcony cabin. I don't know how many mini suites or haven cabins there are, but if there are less than 100, and most of the 900 balcony cabins bid on them... your bid would need to be much more competitive than the bids from inside or oceanview to balcony.

Theory: a poor bid from inside or OV to balcony has a good chance, but winning a suite of any kind would require coaxing the dial past fair to good, because more people are bidding on fewer cabins. 

[kayteecat]

3 minutes ago, Tw in OR said:

One thing I haven't seen considered in this discussion is the relative number of cabins in the type you're coming from and bidding on. For instance, on the Breakaway there is something like 450 inside cabins, 156 ocean view cabins, and like 998 balcony cabins. I would guess this means there is relatively less chance of getting an ocean view cabin with your bid up from inside, compared to a balcony cabin. I don't know how many mini suites or haven cabins there are, but if there are less than 100, and most of the 900 balcony cabins bid on them... your bid would need to be much more competitive than the bids from inside or oceanview to balcony.

Theory: a poor bid from inside or OV to balcony has a good chance, but winning a suite of any kind would require coaxing the dial past fair to good, because more people are bidding on fewer cabins. 

I think there is some truth to this, but you have to figure a couple of things:

• Not all cabins are created equal. I would posit there are more balcony cabins because a balcony is a pretty popular category to book in. It makes sense to me that there would be less oceanview rooms as they take up prime real estate on the perimeter of the ship that could go towards a balcony room that would make more money. As opposed to an inside that you can stick many more places, and there will always be budget cruisers or those who don't spend too much time in their room. So I would guess that there are many in oceanviews or insides that want to move up to a balcony for less than the full balcony booking cost, but relatively less demand for something like a mini-suite (which is really just a balcony with some fringe benefits). Obviously the Haven is in a class of its own, but even at bid prices you're still spending a larger percentage more in comparison. So my theory is that you have to consider the number of available cabins, but the demand for those cabins as well.
• You have to remember that you can't think of the upgrades in terms of simple "I started in a balcony and moved to a mini-suite." For the balcony I vacated, someone else from an oceanview or an inside likely moved into my balcony, and now that cabin may be available for someone else to scoop up at a bargain price. If everyone wants to move to a balcony, it makes sense to bump up the people in balconies who are willing to pay more to another room.

I say this as someone who was bumped from a balcony to a mini-suite with a bid that was towards the low end of fair range. Of course, the ship had a lot of availability before my upgrade was processed, so you can never consider something in a vacuum. All in all, I agree with you that you do have to consider the overall number of cabins with your bid, but ultimately you have to consider not only the demand for the cabin you want to upgrade to, but also the demand for the cabin you're currently in.

[Tw in OR]

Can balcony cabins bid on balcony spa? Or aft balcony? 

[TRex7]

32 minutes ago, Tw in OR said:

Can balcony cabins bid on balcony spa? Or aft balcony? 

We are in a midship balcony and received an upgrade offer to balcony spa, but not aft balcony.

[StormiB]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I'm curious about that as well! Since I have yet to find any site that will show me more than 15 categories available in a single category.

I go to the Costco website. They show all cabins available. I watch the pricing on there and NCL. 

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, Humblebtuna said:

Hi! I just did a mock booking on both ncl.com and Priceline. Was able to see which rooms were available for me in those categories. 

 

And I wasnt quoting capacity for the whole sailing. Just for the two room types I’m bidding on. 

 

 

Both of those sites will only show a maximum of 15 rooms available in each category. So there is no way to know if there are only THOSE 15 rooms available or 60 rooms available and you just aren't seeing them all...

[dubroben22]

sometimes the upgrade offer is super strange.

I am in the Haven cabin on Gem and get an upgrade e-mail

they offer 750 pp to upgrade to DOS while straight upgrade costs only 400 total

[JillK]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

Both of those sites will only show a maximum of 15 rooms available in each category. So there is no way to know if there are only THOSE 15 rooms available or 60 rooms available and you just aren't seeing them all...

There is a large internet cruise-only agency that shows more than the standard 15 rooms availability.

 

Figuring out cruise availability is contingent on who is able to publish all the cabins available (hope the bold type helps). 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, JillK said:

There is a large internet cruise-only agency that shows more than the standard 15 rooms availability.

 

Figuring out cruise availability is contingent on who is able to publish all the cabins available (hope the bold type helps). 

 

 

Will you marry me?

[JillK]

55 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

Will you marry me?

 

You won’t be as happy when you’re obsessively checking availability on all your future cruises! 

[Phaedrus78]

5 hours ago, JillK said:

There is a large internet cruise-only agency that shows more than the standard 15 rooms availability.

 

Figuring out cruise availability is contingent on who is able to publish all the cabins available (hope the bold type helps). 

 

My God, it’s beautiful. 

 

Bless you and and curse you for that. 

[dexddd]

16 hours ago, Tw in OR said:

One thing I haven't seen considered in this discussion is the relative number of cabins in the type you're coming from and bidding on. For instance, on the Breakaway there is something like 450 inside cabins, 156 ocean view cabins, and like 998 balcony cabins. I would guess this means there is relatively less chance of getting an ocean view cabin with your bid up from inside, compared to a balcony cabin. I don't know how many mini suites or haven cabins there are, but if there are less than 100, and most of the 900 balcony cabins bid on them... your bid would need to be much more competitive than the bids from inside or oceanview to balcony.

Theory: a poor bid from inside or OV to balcony has a good chance, but winning a suite of any kind would require coaxing the dial past fair to good, because more people are bidding on fewer cabins. 

I'd have to count again, but BA Haven cabins number roughly 100.

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, JillK said:

 

You won’t be as happy when you’re obsessively checking availability on all your future cruises! 

 

But I already do that! I keep a spreadsheet with every single category, currently available rooms (previously only up to 15), and prices for every sailing I am considering or already booked on. I am an insane person.

[JillK]

6 hours ago, Phaedrus78 said:

 

My God, it’s beautiful. 

 

Bless you and and curse you for that. 

It's definitely a mixed blessing. It can and WILL eat you alive if you let it. 

 

Enjoy!!

[Shattered__minds]

Sorry but what is the site i must be missing the bold? any addtl clues would be appreciated :)

 

[spacedaisy]

6 minutes ago, Shattered__minds said:

Sorry but what is the site i must be missing the bold? any addtl clues would be appreciated :)

 

 

Figuring out cruise availability is contingent on who is able to publish all the cabins available 

[spacedaisy]

55 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

But I already do that! I keep a spreadsheet with every single category, currently available rooms (previously only up to 15), and prices for every sailing I am considering or already booked on. I am an insane person.

Me, too! We can be friends when they put us away for cruise tracking syndrome. :)

[Shattered__minds]

Here is my upgrade data:

Sailing out of San juan 1/27 Dawn

Orig booked Obstructed ocean view with a ton of "perks" (free tax day, distinctive voyages, etc etc) 1249 guest fare 1265 out the door.

offer to upgrade to Balc or Mini suite. Chose mini suite bid at low fair range, still under the going guaranteed rate for mini on the site now w. the 20% latitudes reward promo. (1549 guest fare 1710 out the door)

Considered rebooking but would lose all the "perks" so we cant do that bit.

Question to you all is with all the things NCL may or may not consider when granting upgrade bids....do you think the bonus perks you select have a bearing? ie since we didn't chose the Unlimited drinks would that make a difference? or is the consensus that they go on base fare?

[Phaedrus78]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

But I already do that! I keep a spreadsheet with every single category, currently available rooms (previously only up to 15), and prices for every sailing I am considering or already booked on. I am an insane person.

 

I may have just finished creating a spreadsheet just like this for my Jan. 23 sailing...

[fridaythe13th]

15 hours ago, JillK said:

There is a large internet cruise-only agency that shows more than the standard 15 rooms availability.

 

Figuring out cruise availability is contingent on who is able to publish all the cabins available (hope the bold type helps). 

I hear they have a good Black Friday sale too!  Do you know anything about that??

[Cruisennerable]

1 hour ago, Phaedrus78 said:

 

I may have just finished creating a spreadsheet just like this for my Jan. 23 sailing...

Spreadsheet ..... omg I’ve been keeping hand written notes and rewriting them - how did I not think of spreadsheets Yay more assistance for my ocd 

[JillK]

41 minutes ago, fridaythe13th said:

I hear they have a good Black Friday sale too!  Do you know anything about that??

I believe they do but I don't do business with them. They assess a $100/pp cancellation fee and I have a TA who doesn't have fees. 

[fridaythe13th]

1 minute ago, JillK said:

I believe they do but I don't do business with them. They assess a $100/pp cancellation fee and I have a TA who doesn't have fees. 

Good to know, thanks!

[Phaedrus78]

Well after using some of the information provided and crunching some availability numbers... I don't have high hopes for getting a bid through for Epic on 1/23.  

 

From what I can determine, right now there are 60 balcony rooms, 28 mini-suites and 30 Haven class rooms available.  Inside rooms are sold out completely.  My bids to upgrade to balcony or mini-suite are both in the Good range, but with 75 days still left before departure I'm not optimistic there will be much left to upgrade into.  

 

I suppose there could be more available... apparently there are a total of 62 BF-class balcony rooms and 60 MD-class mini-suites on the boat.  Since those are listed as GTY options, it's impossible to get a count of how many might be remaining.  

[heelfan94]

23 minutes ago, Phaedrus78 said:

Well after using some of the information provided and crunching some availability numbers... I don't have high hopes for getting a bid through for Epic on 1/23.  

 

From what I can determine, right now there are 60 balcony rooms, 28 mini-suites and 30 Haven class rooms available.  Inside rooms are sold out completely.  My bids to upgrade to balcony or mini-suite are both in the Good range, but with 75 days still left before departure I'm not optimistic there will be much left to upgrade into.  

 

I suppose there could be more available... apparently there are a total of 62 BF-class balcony rooms and 60 MD-class mini-suites on the boat.  Since those are listed as GTY options, it's impossible to get a count of how many might be remaining.  

Don't forget the balcony people are bidding on higher categories, so theoretically the number of balcony cabins available will go up with those approved bids.  I think you have a good shot.