75 days before cruise - no bid email

[CPOCMAN]

We are booked on a 11 day Western Caribbean cruise on Epic and have 75 days until sailing.   Booking was through CAS using a cruise certificate through Caesars.  I have been checking daily both email, junk email and also my Ncl.com account for the ability to place a bid but nothing yet.  Is it unusual to not have it show up yet.  From what I can tell, the cruise looks like there are quite a few categories available for purchase and notice that prices have fallen for insides, balconies and mini suites for sailaway categories.  Tried calling for upgrade prices to do it direc.   $500 pp to go frominside to balcony is a bit too much for my budget.  Happy with our cabin but having a chance to get something better for a lower price is even nicer.  Also, I like having something to hope for each day until sailing as it adds to the fun of waiting for your next cruise.  Am I worrying too much that there won’t be any opportunity to bid at all?  Appreciate anyone sharing their experience if they didn’t get the initial opportunity to bid until they were closer to their sailing.  Thanks!

[Samstress]

2 minutes ago, CPOCMAN said:

We are booked on a 11 day Western Caribbean cruise on Epic and have 75 days until sailing.   Booking was through CAS using a cruise certificate through Caesars.  I have been checking daily both email, junk email and also my Ncl.com account for the ability to place a bid but nothing yet.  Is it unusual to not have it show up yet.  From what I can tell, the cruise looks like there are quite a few categories available for purchase and notice that prices have fallen for insides, balconies and mini suites for sailaway categories.  Tried calling for upgrade prices to do it direc.   $500 pp to go frominside to balcony is a bit too much for my budget.  Happy with our cabin but having a chance to get something better for a lower price is even nicer.  Also, I like having something to hope for each day until sailing as it adds to the fun of waiting for your next cruise.  Am I worrying too much that there won’t be any opportunity to bid at all?  Appreciate anyone sharing their experience if they didn’t get the initial opportunity to bid until they were closer to their sailing.  Thanks!

 

I am certainly no expert on this; but I think you might have had a better chance if your cruise was booked directly thru NCL.  We have done many cruises & never been offered any upgrade until this year when I decided to book directly with NCL.  In the past I've used an online travel agent. As soon as my final payment was made I was offered a couple of upgrade options.  And the offer has remained on my NCL.com page since then & our cruise is only a little over a week away. 

So my next cruise is also booked directly & I will be interested to see what happens.

This is JMHO though and I'm sure there are others out there who have had different experiences.

Wherever you end up...have a wonderful cruise!

 

 

[CPOCMAN]

Seamstress.  Thanks for the reply.  Our booking was direct with NCL with their CAS - Casinos at Sea Department.   I failed to mention also that our NCL Gem sailing last year was done through CAS also, but we had the ability to place a bid at exactly 80 days before sailing. However that cruise appeared to have a greater number of bookings based on the “sold out” categories from my recollection.  Thanks for taking the time to reply and the details from your own experience.

Edited October 30, 2018 by CPOCMAN
Typo

[don't-use-real-name]

There may be restrictions on the bidding due to your cabin booking category ???

The situation maybe that you can not bid on a category of discounted cabins when you are already in a discounted cabin.

Suggestion: Call NCL and find out.

If not satisfied with your booked cabin see about doing the upgrade without the bidding process.

Have you perchance done a dummy booking ?

Is the ship sailing full or appears to be ?

Are there still cabins you would desire ?

[nchr]

Did you made your final Payment? I was told by NCL, that Invitation will come if final Payment was done. And really, one Day after, I got the Notice via my.ncl

[JohnChiang]

I also booked my cruise with CAS from a casino promotion. Got the offer to upgrade email a few weeks ago, about 60 days before my sailing date.

[heelfan94]

My email didn't come as quickly as it popped up on My NCL.  I had a message when I logged into NCL's site 2 days before the email arrived.  

[tbo]

13 hours ago, CPOCMAN said:

We are booked on a 11 day Western Caribbean cruise on Epic and have 75 days until sailing.   Booking was through CAS using a cruise certificate through Caesars.  I have been checking daily both email, junk email and also my Ncl.com account for the ability to place a bid but nothing yet.  Is it unusual to not have it show up yet.  From what I can tell, the cruise looks like there are quite a few categories available for purchase and notice that prices have fallen for insides, balconies and mini suites for sailaway categories.  Tried calling for upgrade prices to do it direc.   $500 pp to go frominside to balcony is a bit too much for my budget.  Happy with our cabin but having a chance to get something better for a lower price is even nicer.  Also, I like having something to hope for each day until sailing as it adds to the fun of waiting for your next cruise.  Am I worrying too much that there won’t be any opportunity to bid at all?  Appreciate anyone sharing their experience if they didn’t get the initial opportunity to bid until they were closer to their sailing.  Thanks!

We are on the same cruise as you and also no bid invite. I called this morning asking about it and was told it is just random and not every cabin is eligible. We booked direct with NCL.  We are in a category B1 Aft facing balcony, which are sold out for our dates.  We wanted to bid on a Haven spa suite since we've never tried the Haven. There appears to be plenty of availability in most categories. Fingers crossed it comes in soon!

[travelnap]

I just booked an NCL cruise last week that leaves at the end of November.  Since it is short term the final payment was due at booking.  Since then I have received two emails wanting to know if I wanted to bid on an upgrade.  Perhaps they wait until shortly before the cruise departs before they send out the emails.  I don't know for sure but I think that once it gets closer to the departure date then you might get the emails for the upgrade bidding as well.  Good luck.

[littleboy]

We put in for a bid and have 4 days to go no yes or no yet I am expecting a no but we will be happy with our cabin

[jpcdds6]

So, the upgrade program is not offered to people who have booked with a TA? It has to be booked directly with NCL?

[tbo]

1 minute ago, jpcdds6 said:

So, the upgrade program is not offered to people who have booked with a TA? It has to be booked directly with NCL?

From what I understand the TA has to agree to participate with NCL, so some do and some don't. We booked our cruise with an online agency last year and right at the 80 day mark the invitation banner was on my NCL account when I logged in. Funny that for this cruise I booked directly and am 74 days out and got nada.

[Cruiser_1977]

Terms and Conditions of Upgrade Advantage:

https://www.ncl.com/ch/en/content/upgrade-advantage-terms

Note #3 - "Sending an Invitation to anyone and at any time is entirely within Norwegian Cruise Line’s sole discretion."

Not all cabins will receive an invite. Not all invites will be sent at the same time. You will not necessarily know why.

 

Another tidbit from a TA website on the launch of the program-- "The program applies to guests who have paid in full, have an email address in their pre-guest registration, and who are not booked in a studio T1 cabin. Guests will be selected and sent an email invite to bid based on a variety of criteria including but not limited to what they already paid and the type of cabins available on their specific sailing."

Edited October 30, 2018 by JennyB1977

[NRWPA]

22 hours ago, CPOCMAN said:

We are booked on a 11 day Western Caribbean cruise on Epic and have 75 days until sailing.   Booking was through CAS using a cruise certificate through Caesars.  I have been checking daily both email, junk email and also my Ncl.com account for the ability to place a bid but nothing yet.  Is it unusual to not have it show up yet.  From what I can tell, the cruise looks like there are quite a few categories available for purchase and notice that prices have fallen for insides, balconies and mini suites for sailaway categories.  Tried calling for upgrade prices to do it direc.   $500 pp to go frominside to balcony is a bit too much for my budget.  Happy with our cabin but having a chance to get something better for a lower price is even nicer.  Also, I like having something to hope for each day until sailing as it adds to the fun of waiting for your next cruise.  Am I worrying too much that there won’t be any opportunity to bid at all?  Appreciate anyone sharing their experience if they didn’t get the initial opportunity to bid until they were closer to their sailing.  Thanks!

I currently have 3 cruises booked through CAS. One of them is not until May, so I won't be receiving bid offers any time soon on that. The other 2 are in December and January. I never received an email at my yahoo account. I checked each one at the 80 day mark on My NCL and the banner was there, as well as a message that I could bid. The December cruise was originally for an inside cabin and I paid an extra $150 to upgrade to midship oceanview. I have since been offered bids on balcony and mini-suites and did so but only in the poor range. The January cruise was originally for an outside cabin and have only paid taxes, admin fee and service charge for drink package. As of yesterday (the 80 day mark), I received no email but My NCL once again showed the invitation to bid. Again, I bid in the poor range for balcony and mini-suites. So, if you haven't looked at your My NCL page recently, you probably should. It may be there and like me, you just won't receive an email at your personal email address. Note: after placing the bids for both cruises, I DID receive email acknowledgement sent to my yahoo account. Good luck!

[CPOCMAN]

Thanks for all of the replies.  Been looking at your NCLonline account daily and no banner shows up.  In response to Nchr above, we made final payment at about 125 days before sailing,  Looking online, many insides are already sold out but balconies appear wide opened.  Price for sailaway went up $30 to $579 for inside sailaway.  Currently in an IA room at the moment.  Jenny, thanks for the T&C’s.  I had not read that prior so it makes a lot of sense.  Will keep everyone posted if we do get the email or if I can see the banner on my NCL account.  Either way will be a good cruise.  Looking forward to smelling the ocean again in a few months!

[zqvol]

Invitations to bid are not sent to everyone, and not necessarily on every sailing. All you can do is keep watching.

[MaryZ]

In the beginning they were sending out emails to nearly everyone at the 80 day mark.  Now I think that they have an expected amount of return, they put up the banners or send emails at different times.

 

I think they are doing this to help the pricing go higher.  The threads about bidding are very active.  So if everyone doesn't get the banner at 80 days, they will jump at it at 60 days.  And by 45 days they will bid higher because NCL is conditioning people to believe they have less of a chance.

 

They don't have to change the algorithm, they just needed to change how they sent out banners.

 

And Presto, everyone will fall in with higher bids. 
 

[newmexicoNita]

17 hours ago, jpcdds6 said:

So, the upgrade program is not offered to people who have booked with a TA? It has to be booked directly with NCL?

No, that is not the case at all. Apparently some agents do not work with upgrade bidding but most do. I know our agent does. We made final payment a few days ago, are 98 days away from sailing and haven't been offered the bid process yet. We will bid for sure when it is offered to us which should be in about 3 weeks.   

[CPOCMAN]

Update - bidding just became available on MYNCL.  Didn’t get an email but glad I was checking daily.  This is 72 days before sailing.  Let the bidding begin!

[HBCcruiser]

Note: The upgrade banner does not always show when you first log into your NCL trip page. You may have to scroll through the banners to find it.