RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[ticketsunlimited]

18 minutes ago, louv2000 said:

I went in to modify my bids today--and the  minimums are now crazy high.  So without receiving an e-mail I can already know that I'm not a winner.

 

This bidding process is going to have far reaching effects across all areas.  From the definite "amputation" of the upgrade fairy wings to the actual price offered on line or any purchasing avenue.

Remember the other day I told you that the only thing available on my 1/6 Anthem 12 day sailing was a loft suite.  through the auction process you could bit as high as 3000.00 per person to upgrade.  the price through casino royal was 10,000.00 to pay outright.  Since then the high bid has gone to the ability to bid as high as 5000.00 per person.  After waiting 1.5 hours on hold yesterday while I did some paper work I was told that the cost to upgrade through casino royal is now 17,500.00 total.  Outrageous in my eyes.  What we are  seeing is the trickle down affects of these "auctions."  As the guaranteed money being put on credit cards in the form of "bids" coming in they can shoot for the moon for unsold cabins.  Unfortunately a lot of us including myself are taking the bait and in the process making cruising a lot more expensive.  They have us over a barrel.  IT'S  GENIUS!!

[dswallow]

If you (the "royal" you, not you specifically) were offered an upgrade for $1,000 you might love it, but I might've been willing to pay $1,100. Why didn't I get it? 🙂 That's the difference between having an open system like the bidding process and a closed system where it's possible who you know or what list you're on that matters more. Of course, you, who were getting under-priced upgrades until now, hates it. 

 

Now if it comes to pass that casino-related income can be shown to get reduced in such cases they'll have to come in with a way to factor in a casino-based upgrade vs others. It would also be interesting to see if they are able to track in general if people become more freely spendy with money if they get what they perceive to be a high-value upgrade.

[mac_tlc]

5 hours ago, mringenoldus said:

Today we move into our GS - minimum bid on a free cruise won in about 6 hours after bidding. Just shows there is no way to predict the process.

We have a winner !!!!

 

Congrats! The suite life is addictive.

 

 

mac_tlc

[bthodges]

Just received email that my royal up bid was accepted. Adventure of seas on 12/16/18 for the ocean view balcony. I bid the minimum of 150pp and got it. 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, bthodges said:

Just received email that my royal up bid was accepted. Adventure of seas on 12/16/18 for the ocean view balcony. I bid the minimum of 150pp and got it. 

From what cabin category and what was the list upgrade price?

[danny6514]

I previously unsubscribed to RC's marketing emails, and because of that, I missed out on the RoyalUp email. Has anyone had any luck receiving that email after the batch is sent out? 12/16 Harmony here

[KiwiGal117]

I placed slightly higher than minimum bids for JS and GS on our March cruise the first day the emails rolled out. I checked the Royal UK site to check availability and at that point there were still 13 JS and approx 20 GS showing as available. I also wondered if it might depend on what cabin you have currently- we are in a OV large balcony booked the first day Symphony opened for reservations. They could resell that now for probably $3K or more than what we paid. So possibly a double win for Royal?

[bthodges]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

From what cabin category and what was the list upgrade price?

I was interior and it was 150pp so 300 total for us to upgrade to balcony 

[Ourusualbeach]

 

4 hours ago, bthodges said:

Just received email that my royal up bid was accepted. Adventure of seas on 12/16/18 for the ocean view balcony. I bid the minimum of 150pp and got it. 

 

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

From what cabin category and what was the list upgrade price?

 

Insides have dropped to $349pp, Oceanview are $629pp and balconies are now only $449 pp

 

sounds like self upgrading would have been cheaper.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Ourusualbeach

[ticketsunlimited]

Just got the news I was hoping for. My bid was accepted. As I said before it’s our 30th anniversary and I was willing to spurge a bit. I was also fortunate enough to have 2000.00 put towards the cruise from my visa rewards when I booked months ago so what the heck. Went from junior suite large balcony to sky loft suite 10722 for 1500.00 each more. 12 night sailing. You may think I am nuts but I am very excited that our bid was accepted. I am going to surprise my wife when we board if I can keep my mouth shut. 😀

[Ourusualbeach]

13 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

Just got the news I was hoping for. My bid was accepted. As I said before it’s our 30th anniversary and I was willing to spurge a bit. I was also fortunate enough to have 2000.00 put towards the cruise from my visa rewards when I booked months ago so what the heck. Went from junior suite large balcony to sky loft suite 10722 for 1500.00 each more. 12 night sailing. You may think I am nuts but I am very excited that our bid was accepted. I am going to surprise my wife when we board if I can keep my mouth shut. 😀

 

Congrats, I must say that I am surprised that they accepted your bid a month away from sailing.  They still had lots of time left to try and sell that cabin at a higher price.  

[rlawson084]

21 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

Just got the news I was hoping for. My bid was accepted. As I said before it’s our 30th anniversary and I was willing to spurge a bit. I was also fortunate enough to have 2000.00 put towards the cruise from my visa rewards when I booked months ago so what the heck. Went from junior suite large balcony to sky loft suite 10722 for 1500.00 each more. 12 night sailing. You may think I am nuts but I am very excited that our bid was accepted. I am going to surprise my wife when we board if I can keep my mouth shut. 😀

Good luck keeping that secret. 🙂 

[ticketsunlimited]

Somebody hopefully will win a bid to take over my place in the junior suite. I honestly never expected to get the email. Especially this quick. Dan

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

Insides have dropped to $349pp, Oceanview are $629pp and balconies are now only $449 pp

 

sounds like self upgrading would have been cheaper.

 

Maybe one reason for this upgrade program is to lock people in at higher upgrade prices  right before Royal does a price drop.   That would be a very Royal thing to do to their customers.

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Maybe one reason for this upgrade program is to lock people in at higher upgrade prices  right before Royal does a price drop.   That would be a very Royal thing to do to their customers.

 

Hence all the very explicit language stating that it is non cancellable once the upgrade is rewarded.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

Hence all the very explicit language stating that it is non cancellable once the upgrade is rewarded.

 

It will be interesting to see how often prices drop shortly after people report an accepted upgrade bid.  Maybe Ellen can keep track of this, she's retired.

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

It will be interesting to see how often prices drop shortly after people report an accepted upgrade bid.  Maybe Ellen can keep track of this, she's retired.😇

 

 

I fixed your post for you. 

[ticketsunlimited]

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

It will be interesting to see how often prices drop shortly after people report an accepted upgrade bid.  Maybe Ellen can keep track of this, she's retired.

 

 

I don’t even know how I got the sky loft I bid on were it showed as sold out. Casino host said yesterday there was one grand loft available on the whole ship. I am not goyto complain but I know one thing. That price wasn’t dropping. It was definitely a legitimate upgrade. Especially where I was willing to take the plunge and pay it. 

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I fixed your post for you. 

 

Thanks, I didn't want to go searching for that.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, ticketsunlimited said:

I don’t even know how I got the sky loft I bid on were it showed as sold out. Casino host said yesterday there was one grand loft available on the whole ship. I am not goyto complain but I know one thing. That price wasn’t dropping. It was definitely a legitimate upgrade. Especially where I was willing to take the plunge and pay it. 

 

I don't doubt that there will be (and have been) real upgrades through this program, but I also would not be surprised if Royal uses this to minimize profit loss when lowering prices.

[ticketsunlimited]

I agree with you for sure

[Mykitteh]

Anyone know how this works with solo cruisers?

[John&LaLa]

22 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

It will be interesting to see how often prices drop shortly after people report an accepted upgrade bid.  Maybe Ellen can keep track of this, she's retired.

 

 

 

How do we get the powers to be, to make it a Sticky?

 

FWIW, someone tried to compile a list of winning bids and got merged with Ellen's thread

Edited December 4, 2018 by John&LaLa

[LB_NJ]

2 minutes ago, Mykitteh said:

Anyone know how this works with solo cruisers?

 

Terms and conditions state:

"For single occupancy guest bookings, the Guest will be
charged the double occupancy Offer Amount"

[Mykitteh]

Ahh thank you. Not sure if its worth going up $400 for just me to a balcony...might call and see what a Prom. room would cost me.

 

As long as I'm on the ship I'm happy 😄