RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[grapau27]

11 minutes ago, 3bzmom said:

Booked on Liberty for 2/17 sailing and received the email today. Currently booked in an Oceanview room. Minimum is for a balcony is $100, Junior Suite for $250. We booked well over a year ago, and I’ve watched prices. We got a good deal, and we are financially a little better off, So bidding makes sense for us.

 

I’m not familiar enough with a Jr Suite to know what other benefits you get. Any?  We have also booked The Key. If I got a Jr Suite, should we cancel The Key?

 

The website shoes all balcony and and suites sold out for that sailing, so none of this makes sense. I’d love a balcony room, but I’m afraid if we get a Jr Suite (assuming we won) my first-time cruiser husband will never cruise in anything less haha

A JS gets you a bigger cabin and balcony plus a bath and a kettle to boil water for hot drinks and a lounge area with some comfy seats.

If your original booking was a JS you would also get double C&A points but I understand you don't get double points in the Royal Up Program.

[bilyclub]

Got the Royal UP email this morning. We are 28 days out.  I had a Inside Guarantee, but upgraded to a Balcony yesterday for free.

The email still had us in an Inside. They wanted $700 for a JS.    $600 for a Panoramic. $300 for a Balcony.    The website shows no Suites or Balconies available.

[kamabet]

Hello all!! I received an offer but I have a couple of questions and wondering if anyone knew. I hope I can write this to make sense. I have 2 balcony rooms booked. 1 for my husband and I and a second my 3 kids. I got an offer for a 2 bedroom AquaSuite. According to the e-mail only the first and second guest will be charged. If I bid on this and would by some miracle win it would they allow my kids from balcony room 2 come in the AquaSuite seeing there is enough room therefore freeing up 2 balcony rooms? And if they would allow that would I need to pay additional for the kids to move too? Thank you!! 

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, kamabet said:

Hello all!! I received an offer but I have a couple of questions and wondering if anyone knew. I hope I can write this to make sense. I have 2 balcony rooms booked. 1 for my husband and I and a second my 3 kids. I got an offer for a 2 bedroom AquaSuite. According to the e-mail only the first and second guest will be charged. If I bid on this and would by some miracle win it would they allow my kids from balcony room 2 come in the AquaSuite seeing there is enough room therefore freeing up 2 balcony rooms? And if they would allow that would I need to pay additional for the kids to move too? Thank you!! 

 

I'd be wary of that.  It's very possible they would look at the movement of the kids to the suite as a cancellation of your second balcony room, with potential loss of fare on that stateroom.

[kamabet]

50 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I'd be wary of that.  It's very possible they would look at the movement of the kids to the suite as a cancellation of your second balcony room, with potential loss of fare on that stateroom.

I was afraid you were going to say that. I would love that room but for only 2 ppl would be silly. My Daughter's room also got the same offer. To bad there isn't a way to combine them. 

[molly361]

1 minute ago, kamabet said:

I was afraid you were going to say that. I would love that room but for only 2 ppl would be silly. My Daughter's room also got the same offer. To bad there isn't a way to combine them. 

If your bid was accepted what's to stop you from keeping your kids room but then just move them into your suite once on board and the other room sits empty

[lovelife]

Received the offer today for Allure 1/27/19 but all suites show sold out. I currently have an ocean view balcony.  Curiously, of my 14 booked cruises I have received offers only on the three not booked through a TA.  Two are casino comps and one a large casino discount. 

[3bzmom]

I only have 1 cruise booked. We booked through a TA, and we got an offer.

 

i placed bids on balcony, Jr suite, and panoramic jr suite...all balcony and suite rooms show sold out, so we will see.

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

Delete

Edited January 6, 2019 by DiamondSuiteCruiser
Delete - old post

[TravelerMK]

Hello,

 

Sailing on Oasis 1/13 in a Jr. Suite and received the RoyalUp offer. We are interested in the Crown Loft Suite, but wouldn't want to face the sports area. I can't tell if this is L1, L2 or 'whatever is available'. The latter is my guess. Does anyone have any insight into this process?

 

Thank you,

Mindy

[TravelerMK]

After sitting on hold for 45 minutes, I found out that it's a GTY offer. We could pay all of that money (it was $600/pp additional minimum bid) and have a view of the basketball court. No thanks...

 

🙂

Mindy

[coaster]

New twist. Self upgraded from inside to outside over a week ago. Got email below yesterday saying my upgrade request was cancelled. It has been over 24 hours and no new email to submit a new request for a balcony. There are apparently issues in this new paid upgrade process. ___________________________________       This email is to let you know that we’ve cancelled your requested RoyalUp upgrade due to a change in your reservation.

® TPA $105USD per guest (2) Ocean View Balcony Cancelled Within the next 24 hours, you will receive an email invite to place bids on stateroom upgrades according to the updated details of your reservation.

We can't wait to welcome you onboard

Edited January 6, 2019 by coaster

[Duck111]

37 minutes ago, TravelerMK said:

After sitting on hold for 45 minutes, I found out that it's a GTY offer. We could pay all of that money (it was $600/pp additional minimum bid) and have a view of the basketball court. No thanks...

 

🙂

Mindy

This was great advice!  I just canceled my bid for the Crown Loft after watching a few videos showing the view!  Thank you!!

[coaster]

Wished the bugs in this time involved paid upgrade process were worked out prior to it being rolled out to the mainstream. I understand it is a third party company involved, but it is still a poor experience as RCI chose them to manage this upgrade process for them.

Edited January 7, 2019 by coaster

[TravelerMK]

1 hour ago, Duck111 said:

This was great advice!  I just canceled my bid for the Crown Loft after watching a few videos showing the view!  Thank you!!

 

 

Gah! Yeah, I can't imagine paying $5k for that view!

 

-Mindy

[The_Big_M]

What bugs? Not aware of any.

[khm1]

On 1/5/2019 at 5:21 PM, bilyclub said:

Got the Royal UP email this morning. We are 28 days out.  I had a Inside Guarantee, but upgraded to a Balcony yesterday for free.

The email still had us in an Inside. They wanted $700 for a JS.    $600 for a Panoramic. $300 for a Balcony.    The website shows no Suites or Balconies available.

 

3 hours ago, 3bzmom said:

I only have 1 cruise booked. We booked through a TA, and we got an offer.

 

i placed bids on balcony, Jr suite, and panoramic jr suite...all balcony and suite rooms show sold out, so we will see.

I bid on a Panoramic Suite and got it for $350 total. I sail January 20th on Freedom. I bid around 4 weeks out and got the upgrade email a few days after I bid. I upgraded from a large balcony. I didn’t think I would get it since both Panoramic suites showed as unavailable on the RCL website at the time of my bid and the following days until my bid was accepted. There is no way to know whether you will get it or not. It is a total shot in the dark, IMO. You may be surprised like I was. My parents ( also in a large balcony) bid much more than I did for a Grand Suite. They were showing as 4 available until a few days ago and are now sold out. They have not won their  bid yet. Who even knows how this works?!?!?   

[3bzmom]

7 minutes ago, khm1 said:

 

I bid on a Panoramic Suite and got it for $350 total. I sail January 20th on Freedom. I bid around 4 weeks out and got the upgrade email a few days after I bid. I upgraded from a large balcony. I didn’t think I would get it since both Panoramic suites showed as unavailable on the RCL website at the time of my bid and the following days until my bid was accepted. There is no way to know whether you will get it or not. It is a total shot in the dark, IMO. You may be surprised like I was. My parents ( also in a large balcony) bid much more than I did for a Grand Suite. They were showing as 4 available until a few days ago and are now sold out. They have not won their  bid yet. Who even knows how this works?!?!?   

Well maybe I can hope an owner’s suite open’s up and someone who bid on that opens up a lower category and we can catch a wave haha

[coaster]

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

What bugs? Not aware of any.

Bug.  An email that says you will get another email within 24 hrs to resubmit your bid. Nothing after 37 hrs later. A lie or a bug?

 

I give RCI credit and the third party company that handles this upgrade process as being an IT issue. It is new and I believe there might be an issue communicating  cabin availability between RCI and the company that they contracted to do this upgrade process. I am not blaming  one specific technical issue at this point. I believe it is a combination of factors.

Edited January 7, 2019 by coaster

[oh2bonh20]

I received an upgrade offer on my sold-out 6 night Adventure of the Seas cruise for the following rooms:

JS--minimum $350 pp bid

Panoramic Suite--minimum $300 pp bid

Balcony--$150 pp bid

 

I am currently in an interior, usually do balcony but this time wanted to save some money.  I might would put a bid in if the min was lower pp, but not worth it to me to upgrade at these costs to an unknown location personally.  Going to be interesting to watch how this program does from this point.  

[BEENSAILING]

Are staterooms being held for the bid up program? People have reported getting their paid for upgrade even though their cruise was showing sold out in certain category rooms.

[oh2bonh20]

10 minutes ago, BEENSAILING said:

Are staterooms being held for the bid up program? People have reported getting their paid for upgrade even though their cruise was showing sold out in certain category rooms.

That is a great question!  I would love to hear if that is the case.  

[mringenoldus]

13 minutes ago, oh2bonh20 said:

That is a great question!  I would love to hear if that is the case.  

 Members of the travel industry have always been aware of inventory that is held back from public view and even the view of the agents which answer their customer service lines. This is done for a variety of reasons. Whether that’s being held specifically now for the bidding process, none of us could know. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by mringenoldus

[Nemomof3]

Just noticed we got our paid upgrade. We planned to try an inside again, we had one on our first cruise but have done balcony since. I wanted to see if we could go back (hubby wasn't thrilled) now we will have a midship oceanview instead for $80. It saved us $600 from oceanview prices last week. Now all inside and oceanview are showing sold out.

 

[Sharenamichele]

I am so excited to see royal up is a possibility.  Our cruise isnt until March 2020 on Harmony of the Seas but hoping we are offered the opportunity to royal up.  We always book an ocean view balcony would love to upgrade to a junior suite or Grand Suite.