What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[surfone]

1 hour ago, tracyfitzs said:

I’m on the dawn cruise after you, I bet I’ll find out my fate next week. I know your cruise was much less full- but do you know how many balcony rooms were available before you got your upgrade? I currently have a bid for $60 for ocean view and $140 for balcony- I’m wondering if I should lower the balcony bid as I have heard I few now get it for under $100. Anyone feel free to chime in. 

Actually yesterday morning just hours before the email of my upgrade there were about a dozen balcony's showing available. Not sure what to tell you on lowering your bid as your cruise is definitely fuller.  You never know, but seems they are sending out the emails 3 to 4 days out prior to cruise day on the Dawn this month.  Personally if I really wanted the balcony I would keep my bid as is,  still a great deal.  I didn't bid on a OV by the way.  Didn't want to take a chance on being placed on a lower deck. Good luck and enjoy your Christmas cruise!!!

[tracyfitzs]

9 minutes ago, surfone said:

Actually yesterday morning just hours before the email of my upgrade there were about a dozen balcony's showing available. Not sure what to tell you on lowering your bid as your cruise is definitely fuller.  You never know, but seems they are sending out the emails 3 to 4 days out prior to cruise day on the Dawn this month.  Personally if I really wanted the balcony I would keep my bid as is,  still a great deal.  I didn't bid on a OV by the way.  Didn't want to take a chance on being placed on a lower deck. Good luck and enjoy your Christmas cruise!!!

Thanks! Hope you have a great time as well!

 

Im currently on deck 4 in an IF so I’ll take any upgrade they will give me. Looks like there are about 12 ocean view and 10 balcony left at the moment. I’m going to keep my bids steady since really it would be a steal to get a balcony from my bottom of the line room. Even an ocean view would likely take me off the medical/tender deck. 

[Jcdcruise]

We just put in our bid for an upgrade from inside to balcony! We still have so much waiting to do but we are already crossing our fingers!

 

When did you get your answer if your bid was accepted or declined ?

[JamieLogical]

41 minutes ago, Jcdcruise said:

We just put in our bid for an upgrade from inside to balcony! We still have so much waiting to do but we are already crossing our fingers!

 

When did you get your answer if your bid was accepted or declined ?

 

The range is huge. I have heard of some people's bids being accepted at 60 days out and some right at 48 hours before sailing. It seems like the *normal* time is in the 3-7 day range prior to sailing.

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

Yes, I agree 3 successful bids now, all within 3 to 5 days ou including my best deal where I continually lowered my bid since it was a off season Escape cruise last early dec

[Gregor4500]

On 12/12/2018 at 3:49 PM, aamobbss said:

Breakaway 12/16/18 upgrade confirmed today. 

 

Booked family Mini-suite (M3) upgraded to Haven Spa Suite (H9).

Minimum bid was 500 per person.  I bid 600 per person.  Poor range. 

That's good to hear. Gives me some hope.

[fridaythe13th]

On 12/12/2018 at 3:49 PM, aamobbss said:

Breakaway 12/16/18 upgrade confirmed today. 

 

Booked family Mini-suite (M3) upgraded to Haven Spa Suite (H9).

Minimum bid was 500 per person.  I bid 600 per person.  Poor range. 

Do you happen to know the different it would have cost to upgrade on your own?  Just curious!  My upgrade bid won for about half of what I would have to pay outright to upgrade.  Enjoy!!

[megaphone84]

Upgrade website says "processing" and the others say "expired" so I think I have won my bid for an H5 on 12/21 Escape. It hasn't hit my credit card yet though, so I'm a little nervous that I'm jumping the gun. That said, I'll happily post all details of my bidding and slightly obsessive tracking as soon as I can confirm the results. :) 

[PrincessEsq]

Cruising on the Bliss tomorrow! Booked balcony guarantee and received a BA. My sister and mom are also traveling in BA and bid on all Haven categories. Their bids were denied yesterday. Today, they got a call from NCL asking if they were still interested in the upgrade. There was a last minute cancellation so they’ll be in a haven courtyard. I’ll update with the bid amounts.

[RedwingHockeyFan]

If I had to guess, I would say that they start filling the upgrades from the top to the bottom. For instance, they would do the H2 to H1 upgrades first, if there aren't any then it would be H3 to H1 then H4 to H1 so on.  Then H3 to H2, H4 to H2....  you get the picture.  Every time there is an upgrade confirmed their original room becomes available for a lower room to upgrade to.  That is why every cruise would have different prices for what upgrade bids were accepted or not.

Edited December 14, 2018 by RedwingHockeyFan

[JamieLogical]

17 minutes ago, PrincessEsq said:

Today, they got a call from NCL asking if they were still interested in the upgrade. There was a last minute cancellation so they’ll be in a haven courtyard. I’ll update with the bid amounts.

 

That's a new one! Interesting to know that's a possibility!

[xcell]

Something screwy is with the NCL website -- H4 are now H6 but when I pick it, they are the aft Havens?

 

1 hour ago, megaphone84 said:

Upgrade website says "processing" and the others say "expired" so I think I have won my bid for an H5 on 12/21 Escape. It hasn't hit my credit card yet though, so I'm a little nervous that I'm jumping the gun. That said, I'll happily post all details of my bidding and slightly obsessive tracking as soon as I can confirm the results. 🙂

 

Congrats -- I wonder if my friends got it....

[megaphone84]

Escape

December 21-28

Won bid 7 days before sailing, sailing now showing as sold out

Original room: BA, 15th floor for $1279.00 on 11/18/ 18

Bid won: H5, for $900/ pp, minimum was $500

 

I was able to see my confirmation first on the upgrade website, followed by my credit card about 30 min later, and then an email from NCL 15 minutes after that. 

 

I wonder if I bid too high, but with a nearly sold out Holiday sailing and having read horror stories about the number of children expected to be on board I decided to risk it and hope for the peace and quiet the Haven supposedly offers. Still a savings of $2,240.00 over booking it outright. 

 

I read some articles at the beginning of this process on other industries that use Plusgrade to handle their upgrades such as airlines. They posited that they were winning their bids by covering about 40% of the difference between a coach seat and first class. I think this works much better on planes and I'm now more inclined to think that NCL is really just trying to make as much money as possible on unsold rooms so original price paid doesn't matter, but it helped me to set some parameters to get started and in this case resulted in a winning bid. 

 

Heres' a link to the way I tracked the info which I personally enjoy nearly as much as actually cruising. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xv2jsBge7vjIdEzUQOhkx1oygPoe0clhtdxD3B8GNnU/edit?usp=sharing

[xcell]

Congrats.

 

Did you bid for a H4? And would you mind letting me know how much...

 

Also did you find your bids for the rooms went from strong to poor often?

 

 

Edited December 14, 2018 by xcell

[xcell]

1 hour ago, megaphone84 said:

Escape

December 21-28

Won bid 7 days before sailing, sailing now showing as sold out

Original room: BA, 15th floor for $1279.00 on 11/18/ 18

Bid won: H5, for $900/ pp, minimum was $500

 

I was able to see my confirmation first on the upgrade website, followed by my credit card about 30 min later, and then an email from NCL 15 minutes after that. 

 

I wonder if I bid too high, but with a nearly sold out Holiday sailing and having read horror stories about the number of children expected to be on board I decided to risk it and hope for the peace and quiet the Haven supposedly offers. Still a savings of $2,240.00 over booking it outright. 

 

I read some articles at the beginning of this process on other industries that use Plusgrade to handle their upgrades such as airlines. They posited that they were winning their bids by covering about 40% of the difference between a coach seat and first class. I think this works much better on planes and I'm now more inclined to think that NCL is really just trying to make as much money as possible on unsold rooms so original price paid doesn't matter, but it helped me to set some parameters to get started and in this case resulted in a winning bid. 

 

Heres' a link to the way I tracked the info which I personally enjoy nearly as much as actually cruising. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xv2jsBge7vjIdEzUQOhkx1oygPoe0clhtdxD3B8GNnU/edit?usp=sharing

I meant to put this in my other post.

Edited December 14, 2018 by xcell

[megaphone84]

Just now, xcell said:

Congrats.

 

Did you bid for a H4? And would you mind letting me know how much...

 

Also did you find your bids for the rooms went from strong to poor often?

 

 

Yes, you can see all my bids in that link. I bid 1,100 for the H4 and did not get it- I hope it went to your friends tho! The third tab on the sheet I linked shows that the offer strength changed often. Some days it would say "excellent" and a few minutes later it would say "poor". 

[xcell]

Sorry I didn't open up your attachment.

 

Some of my bids (my cruise is the following week) my bid is lower than the min bid. Do they change the min bids as time goes on?

 

 

[megaphone84]

1 minute ago, xcell said:

Sorry I didn't open up your attachment.

 

Some of my bids (my cruise is the following week) my bid is lower than the min bid. Do they change the min bids as time goes on?

 

 

I'm not sure if the minimum officially changes or if the website just isn't great as it seems to change by just reloading the page. That said, Plusgrade is currently hiring developers and we need someone on the inside so if anyone here is qualified I think you should apply, lol. 

[kmurph22]

I also won my bid, for the H6 Haven Aft, Escape on 12/21!   I am very happy as I wanted an Aft the most.  In total, between my initial pament and the accepted bid, I paid about 77% of the sticker price for the cabin. Not a huuuuge bargain,  but for a holiday cruise with a lot of sea days and cool weather out of NY, plus I don't have to fly since I live near the port,  I was willing to go there.    My bid was in the middle of the "good" range.  

 

I started in a balcony "BF" on deck 11.

 

There were 7 Haven aft cabins available as of this morning.

 

Some of my other Haven bids were "Strong" or even "Excellent",  but I got this one -  interestingly,  it was NOT  my most aggressive bid in terms of the % of the price difference or the % of the maximum bid;  my H5 Courtyard bid was higher when measured this way.  However,  this bid was more total $ (because the price of the cabin is higher).    So -  maybe that implies that actual $ are more important than where you are on the slider or what you are offering relative to what the cabin is currently priced at.   They got several hundred more $ out of me for the Aft than they would have for the Courtyard.     Although, I bid even more for the DOS and didn't get that one.

 

Good luck to everyone!

Edited December 14, 2018 by kmurph22

[PrincessEsq]

This is a summary of my sister’s winning bid

 

Bliss

December 15-22

 

Original booking

Balcony guarantee $2200 for cabin 

Assigned BA in October

 

Bid range

H5 $400-$2000

H9 $400-$2000

H7 $400-$2000

 

Bid H5 $1170 pp

Denied 48 hours before cruise 

 

NCL called 24 hours later and said that an H5 had become available and asked if still interested in the Haven

 

Total paid $4540 

Awesome savings because the cruise has been showing sold out for weeks. Back when we booked in October the H5 was $6500

 

 

 

[Skipper305]

5 hours ago, megaphone84 said:

... hope for the peace and quiet the Haven supposedly offers.

 

Just a heads up, a holiday cruise will have many rambunctious children staying in The Haven. It would be unrealistic to expect the area to be quiet and, at times, not too peaceful either.

If you’re looking for a quiet adult sanctuary I would recommend a spa pass.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Skipper305

[mugtech]

We have an inside, deck 9, on the Jewel 12 night Singapore to Hong Kong sailing on March 4, 2019.  Just got an email saying the minimum bid for an OV is $50/pp, for a balcony it is $75/pp.  I am thinking of bidding on the balcony, but have no idea as to what will work. In addition we will be traveling in the Philippines a week before the cruise then flying in to Singapore for 2 nights stay.  Don't use a cell phone, so I don't know where or when I could print out new boarding passes.  What would be a reasonable balcony bid?  The difference on the website is $1049 to $2449.

[don't-use-real-name]

3 hours ago, mugtech said:

We have an inside, deck 9, on the Jewel 12 night Singapore to Hong Kong sailing on March 4, 2019.  Just got an email saying the minimum bid for an OV is $50/pp, for a balcony it is $75/pp.  I am thinking of bidding on the balcony, but have no idea as to what will work. In addition we will be traveling in the Philippines a week before the cruise then flying in to Singapore for 2 nights stay.  Don't use a cell phone, so I don't know where or when I could print out new boarding passes.  What would be a reasonable balcony bid?  The difference on the website is $1049 to $2449.

 

so I don't know where or when I could print out new boarding passes.

Print out your boarding passes anywhere there is a printer linked to the internet - i.e. hotel lobby - internet café (Starbucks?) -

worse case scenario have NCL print them out at the Registration desk - NCL can use the old cabin documents for reference.

Just make sure your checked luggage has the correct cabin number for delivery to your new cabin not the old one.

 

 What would be a reasonable balcony bid?

Really a loaded question - How full is the sailing - how many available empty cabins can you see - Bid a couple of notches

above the minimum - as you get closer to sailing has the balcony inventory changed radically - maybe bid higher or lower -

available inventory increasing lower bid but not by much - inventory decreasing competition is working the field maybe bid

a notch or two higher on the scale - if you have to bid upward toward the max - simply compare what it is worth to your

budget to just upgrade for the amount that NCL is requesting - and of course if your bid is rejected nothing lost but if you

don't bid you can't play the game on the cheap side. There is no right positive answer to give you here - read the previous

posts to see how others have done. Another parameter to watch is the OV cabin inventory how much in flux is it that ?

That is a factor to consider in competition for your balcony bid. Should be noted that you are able to bid two cabin

categories above you present which is an Inside so OV and Balcony - those in the OV can bid Balcony and mini-suite -

balcony can bid for the mini-suite and the suite - thus there can be an awful amount of upgrades and bidding to contend with.

CC members do not have access to the crystal ball with the answers (yet) !

JamieLogical is our resident guru sage of the bidding enterprise - please thanks for any comments advice - - - 

 

[mugtech]

Thank you for your response, Don't-Use-real Name.  Will bid a few $$$ over the minimum just to play the game, would be worth it for a balcony no matter where it is.

[xcell]

8 hours ago, mugtech said:

We have an inside, deck 9, on the Jewel 12 night Singapore to Hong Kong sailing on March 4, 2019.  Just got an email saying the minimum bid for an OV is $50/pp, for a balcony it is $75/pp.  I am thinking of bidding on the balcony, but have no idea as to what will work. In addition we will be traveling in the Philippines a week before the cruise then flying in to Singapore for 2 nights stay.  Don't use a cell phone, so I don't know where or when I could print out new boarding passes.  What would be a reasonable balcony bid?  The difference on the website is $1049 to $2449.

 

You can just use your old boarding passes to get in and they will take care of the rest if you win your bid.

 

 

14 hours ago, kmurph22 said:

I also won my bid, for the H6 Haven Aft, Escape on 12/21!   I am very happy as I wanted an Aft the most.  In total, between my initial pament and the accepted bid, I paid about 77% of the sticker price for the cabin. Not a huuuuge bargain,  but for a holiday cruise with a lot of sea days and cool weather out of NY, plus I don't have to fly since I live near the port,  I was willing to go there.    My bid was in the middle of the "good" range.  

 

I started in a balcony "BF" on deck 11.

 

There were 7 Haven aft cabins available as of this morning.

 

Some of my other Haven bids were "Strong" or even "Excellent",  but I got this one -  interestingly,  it was NOT  my most aggressive bid in terms of the % of the price difference or the % of the maximum bid;  my H5 Courtyard bid was higher when measured this way.  However,  this bid was more total $ (because the price of the cabin is higher).    So -  maybe that implies that actual $ are more important than where you are on the slider or what you are offering relative to what the cabin is currently priced at.   They got several hundred more $ out of me for the Aft than they would have for the Courtyard.     Although, I bid even more for the DOS and didn't get that one.

 

Good luck to everyone!

 

Congrats -- they took the cruise off of NCL site, so I guess all rooms have now been assigned.