RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[Biker19]

6 minutes ago, gerig said:

The website has all the suites listed as sold out so why doesn't show my bid as cancelled. 

Royal Up availability (or bid status) does not depend on cabin availability.

[gerig]

36 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Royal Up availability (or bid status) does not depend on cabin availability.

So the third party vendor used doesn't know that the junior suites are sold out.  I should be getting my cancelled email anyday now.

 

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, gerig said:

So the third party vendor used doesn't know that the junior suites are sold out.  I should be getting my cancelled email anyday now.

 

They probably do, but status and availability doesn't depend on that. The denial e-mail usually comes on the night before sailing day, or, sometimes, on the night of the sailing.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Biker19

[MandyMooToo]

24 minutes ago, gerig said:

So the third party vendor used doesn't know that the junior suites are sold out.  I should be getting my cancelled email anyday now.

 

Junior suites can be sold out but you have to remember that people in the JS are getting RoyalUp emails as are those in higher suites.  If they make a bid and move up then there will be JS available for people like you that bid on them.  I bid on a balcony cabin when they were all sold out on my sailing but now there are tons open (we always travel in inside cabins due to my husband's need for complete darkness when he sleeps but I thought a balcony might not hurt with covid quarantines always being possible).  Since we booked our cruise two years ago we got a great deal and now the cost to do a straight upgrade to a balcony is two and a half times what we paid for the inside cabin so I bid and will wait to see what happens...  

[gerig]

39 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

They probably do, but status and availability doesn't depend on that. The denial e-mail usually comes on the night before sailing day, or, sometimes, on the night of the sailing.

I thought some people were noticining their royal up offer being cancelled about a week before the cruise and then they remained with one open bid and got at least the pending upgrade.  Still learning about this process.  I'm okay with my extra large balcony but I do like the anthem junior spa suites and wouldn't mind getting an upgrade.

[gerig]

14 minutes ago, MandyMooToo said:

Junior suites can be sold out but you have to remember that people in the JS are getting RoyalUp emails as are those in higher suites.  If they make a bid and move up then there will be JS available for people like you that bid on them.  I bid on a balcony cabin when they were all sold out on my sailing but now there are tons open (we always travel in inside cabins due to my husband's need for complete darkness when he sleeps but I thought a balcony might not hurt with covid quarantines always being possible).  Since we booked our cruise two years ago we got a great deal and now the cost to do a straight upgrade to a balcony is two and a half times what we paid for the inside cabin so I bid and will wait to see what happens...  

Good luck on your bid.

[Biker19]

11 minutes ago, gerig said:

I thought some people were noticing their royal up offer being cancelled about a week before the cruise and then they remained with one open bid and got at least the pending upgrade. 

There are lots of reports of various state of the bid status, timing, and other things, but I wouldn't read anything into any of them. Be flexible, bid what's reasonable to you, assume you won't get it, but be thankful when something comes through with less than a week to go.

[gerig]

So set to board the Anthem of the Seas Sunday and rumor has it there will be 2600 passengers on board for a ship that holds 4900.  I still have received an acceptance or rejection of my multiple bids which I would think by this time the manifest is final and with only about 55% capacity they would be accepting or rejecting bids.  

[BecciBoo]

I think we're done with Royal Up.  We had a perfectly great location near the elevators booked and then upgraded to a better room, but wore ourselves out walking to get to it.  On Allure, it was a looonnnggg way down to it.  I think we like picking the location better than more space.  We are getting too long in the tooth to walk a mile to the aft or front of the ship anymore.  We will be conveniently located midship from now on.

[cruisin from florida]

I haven't read all 232 pages of this thread, so apologies if this has been hypothesized before...

 

My guess is that within a week of the sail date, they award the highest cabin upgrade to the highest bidder(s). That frees up lower level cabins. Rinse and repeat all the way down. No idea how they handle ties.

 

If anyone wants to test this theory, book an inside guarantee, and bid BIG on some suites. Let us know how it works out.🤣

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, cruisin from florida said:

If anyone wants to test this theory, book an inside guarantee, and bid BIG on some suites.

You can't, bidding is limited to a few categories above what you booked - only up to balconies if you book X GTY. There's been a lot of guessing in this thread and many others on how Plusgarde awards upgrades - some guesses may be closer to the truth than others, but unless you work for them and are willing to divulge the criteria, no one knows.

[ZoeyVictoria]

On 11/9/2021 at 1:39 PM, ZoeyVictoria said:

I received an email on September 27 to bid $300+ for a GS on the Mariner on November 11.  On November 3, I received another email to bid $90+ for the GS.  

Our bid for the GS showed “pending” without change from the time we made the bid eight days ago until 1:30 p.m. today.  We got to our original cabin, 1388, took one look at it, and immediately canceled the bid.  We had mixed emotions about even bidding, but spent way too much time checking for a charge on our BOA account once we did it.  I don’t think I am interested in trying again in the future.  In part because we love 1388, and in part because I am one of those people who need to know what is going on and what to expect, so the suspense drove me crazy!

[Espn]

I thought I would share our experience with RoyalUp just for info purposes. Sailed on Allure October 24th, booked in a 2 BR GS, nice cabin that we have cruised in before, so we were happy with it. At 60 days out we got the RoyalUp email to bid, all the options were suites above ours and all the Star class levels. Because we had 4 people, our options were limited so I bid on a 2 BR Aqua Theater Suite and the Royal Loft Suite. Minimum on the AT suite was $850 pp and I bid $1600 pp, so almost double, and there was one of these available. On the RL suite the minimum was $3200 pp and I bid that just cause it would be amazing, but expensive. Neither of my bids ever changed from pending and neither one become locked even as I saw people on the roll call saying theirs had changed. We got the sorry email about 8 pm on the first night, so no luck with either.
 

There were 10 Crown Loft Suites and several Star suites available a few days before departure so there was a lot of room for people to move up, and all the suites were occupied by the time we left PC. It would be interesting to know how many upgrades were made with so many at the top of the pyramid. We had 2650 passengers on our cruise but as the numbers go up the success stories will become fewer and fewer.

[gerig]

1 hour ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

Our bid for the GS showed “pending” without change from the time we made the bid eight days ago until 1:30 p.m. today.  We got to our original cabin, 1388, took one look at it, and immediately canceled the bid.  We had mixed emotions about even bidding, but spent way too much time checking for a charge on our BOA account once we did it.  I don’t think I am interested in trying again in the future.  In part because we love 1388, and in part because I am one of those people who need to know what is going on and what to expect, so the suspense drove me crazy!

So your bid still showed as pending as you checked in at the pier for your cruise?

[dswallow]

I think it's to be expected that capacity limitations will generally be handled at the lowest/cheapest cabin categories. Which means every suite will be available for sale. Which of course means there's unlikely to be suites available for RoyalUp aside from last-minute cancelations/no-shows/COVID-19 positives/incorrect vaccination documentation at the port.

[Jenzoe888]

I just got my Royal Up email for a cruise at the end of December. I was curious before I bid on a suite and I went to try to price out a suite on the website to see what they are going for now. I have a cabin with 3 people and I could not book a new reservation for any cabin for 3 people from inside up to a suite. I tried to price it for 2 people and there are plenty of cabins including lots of every kind of suite which obviously fit 3 people. Are they not letting anyone book 3 person cabins anymore for this sailing because of limiting numbers for covid?

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, Jenzoe888 said:

Are they  not letting anyone book 3 person cabins anymore for this sailing because of limiting numbers for covid?

There could be several reasons for that limitation, including an RCI IT issue. You may try calling to confirm, but that availability should not limit you to bid on Royal Up. 

[amc80]

19 hours ago, Espn said:

I thought I would share our experience with RoyalUp just for info purposes. Sailed on Allure October 24th, booked in a 2 BR GS, nice cabin that we have cruised in before, so we were happy with it. At 60 days out we got the RoyalUp email to bid, all the options were suites above ours and all the Star class levels. Because we had 4 people, our options were limited so I bid on a 2 BR Aqua Theater Suite and the Royal Loft Suite.

Thank you for posting! We are in a 2BR GS on Harmony. There are 5 of us so our options are even more limited, but we bid on the 2BR Aquatheater Suite. We sail 11/28 and there are none available. The only cabin above it available is 1 star loft suite. So, we either need a lot of luck or for someone to cancel in order for us to get it. Fingers crossed but I know it's a long shot.

[George C]

5 hours ago, amc80 said:

Thank you for posting! We are in a 2BR GS on Harmony. There are 5 of us so our options are even more limited, but we bid on the 2BR Aquatheater Suite. We sail 11/28 and there are none available. The only cabin above it available is 1 star loft suite. So, we either need a lot of luck or for someone to cancel in order for us to get it. Fingers crossed but I know it's a long shot.

We have a grand suite on allure 11/27 , we bid on both the two bedrooms GS and 2 bedrooms aqua suite, it’s just the two of us, like the extra bathroom, got spoiled in July bid and got the penthouse on celebrity edge.

[bajathree]

4 minutes ago, George C said:

We have a grand suite on allure 11/27 , we bid on both the two bedrooms GS and 2 bedrooms aqua suite, it’s just the two of us, like the extra bathroom, got spoiled in July bid and got the penthouse on celebrity edge.

If it's just 2 of you and 2 baths you are looking for....why don't you look at a Crown loft Suite

[George C]

1 minute ago, bajathree said:

If it's just 2 of you and 2 baths you are looking for....why don't you look at a Crown loft Suite

My knees hate stairs , that’s the only reason we have not booked loft suites.

[Cruise a holic]

30 minutes ago, bajathree said:

If it's just 2 of you and 2 baths you are looking for....why don't you look at a Crown loft Suite

We are seniors, but love the Crown loft- no issues with stairs and in fact the location, very close to suite lounge and restaurant great. Love the two bathrooms, my DH and I get ready at the same time.

 

 However if you have issues with steps, perhaps not for you.  I only go up a couple of times a day as I store my clothes downstairs,  and toiletries in lower level bathroom.

[JKCamara]

I am sure that this question has been asked before, but there is also 200+ pages to go through.
We are 6 days from sailing. Yesterday I checked our status and all of our bids were expired except one that still says pending. The strange thing is we can not modify or cancel this bid, nor have we received an email confirmation that we have won the bid (and assigned a new cabin). 

 

Is this typical? 

Thanks!

[barbeyg]

30 minutes ago, JKCamara said:

I am sure that this question has been asked before, but there is also 200+ pages to go through.
We are 6 days from sailing. Yesterday I checked our status and all of our bids were expired except one that still says pending. The strange thing is we can not modify or cancel this bid, nor have we received an email confirmation that we have won the bid (and assigned a new cabin). 

 

Is this typical? 

Thanks!

People have typically reported winnings between 3 and 5 days before the cruise recently. While not all have reported winning in your situation, quite a few have. Good luck! 🙂

[FireEMT978]

1 hour ago, JKCamara said:

I am sure that this question has been asked before, but there is also 200+ pages to go through.
We are 6 days from sailing. Yesterday I checked our status and all of our bids were expired except one that still says pending. The strange thing is we can not modify or cancel this bid, nor have we received an email confirmation that we have won the bid (and assigned a new cabin). 

 

Is this typical? 

Thanks!

I would call that "Most likely a won bid"!