RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[John&LaLa]

 I just received my second bid opportunity 

April 26 Serenade TA. Currently inside, but near Laura's aft balcony. 

 

$50 outside

$150 balcony

$250 spacious balcony

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 I just received my second bid opportunity 

April 26 Serenade TA. Currently inside, but near Laura's aft balcony. 

 

$50 outside

$150 balcony

$250 spacious balcony

 

Would those prices be doubled, even though you are solo in the stateroom?

[ginkybiloba]

I have received 3 emails for our upcoming Oasis cruise (March 10th). The most recent email was Feb 27th. We are currently booked in a spacious family ocean view stateroom:

 

Junior suite: $300 pp

Ultra spacious ocean view with large balcony: $380 pp

Spacious ocean view balcony: $250 pp

Ocean view balcony: $200 pp

Neighbourhood balcony: $50 pp

 

We are happy with our current cabin and won’t be bidding.

[John&LaLa]

43 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Would those prices be doubled, even though you are solo in the stateroom?

They would, but I'm not solo anymore. Our youngest will be bunking with me.  The inside cabin will be luxury compared to his berth on the Reagan. 

 

Funny story. I had the cabin booked solo and got the 150% supplement.  When I added him, I figured there would be some additional charge.  All I had to pay was the taxes. Crazzzy.

 

What I'm not sure about is what the category for spacious ov balcony is on Serenade.  Laura's aft says superior balcony. 4B

[minicruiser74]

On 2/28/2019 at 1:02 PM, SRV FAN said:

Can anyone explain why there are no Suite cabins listed as available for my sailing, yet I got the Royal Up email offering 2br GS, OS & RS..... I see others saying the same thing in prior posts...but no one knows why. Are they holding them for the Royal Up bidding? Are they REALLY available for upgrade? Maybe they are just trying to move people around last minute to fill all the cabins.... Ahhh..maybe they figure they can get people to upgrade & pay more.... opening up the lower category cabins which are more easily sold.... but that doesn't explain why they don't show availability online... ???? Anyone know?

I tried to upgrade from my 2 bedroom ATS A2 to the spacious version a deck below (A1) a few days ago because it’s now cheaper than what I paid. They told me no because it was being held for Royal Up and I could only get it by bidding. I didn’t get the email, though, so I can’t even try. Im guessing I didn’t get the email because the price difference isn’t enough between these categories for them to waste time with my bid. So, the short answer is they definitely hold suites for Royal Up.

[sandune]

We are still pending for our cruise on Anthem tomorrow! Ahhhhhh😱

[molly361]

Do they always send denial emails or is that hit or miss?

[Clarea]

32 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 ...

Funny story. I had the cabin booked solo and got the 150% supplement.  When I added him, I figured there would be some additional charge.  All I had to pay was the taxes. Crazzzy. ...

 

Might be a hole in the system.

[Waves2land]

1 hour ago, Lamcnally1 said:

I tried to upgrade from my 2 bedroom ATS A2 to the spacious version a deck below (A1) a few days ago because it’s now cheaper than what I paid. They told me no because it was being held for Royal Up and I could only get it by bidding. I didn’t get the email, though, so I can’t even try. Im guessing I didn’t get the email because the price difference isn’t enough between these categories for them to waste time with my bid. So, the short answer is they definitely hold suites for Royal Up.

I can’t say I agree.  We had a bid in on a RS and it was a very strong bid.  A few weeks ago, I went in to see the status of my bid and I kept getting a message saying no eligible cruises found.  Tech support told me the bid was valid because it was pending, told me to cancel and re-bid. I wasn’t able to re-bid.  RC confirmed that the room is not available for bid up.(so why did they send it in the first place?)

[reallyitsmema]

1 hour ago, sandune said:

We are still pending for our cruise on Anthem tomorrow! Ahhhhhh😱

 

We got our denial emails exactly 24 hours from our 3pm sailaway time on Anthem in January.  Have you heard anything now?

[molly361]

Now we need another poll to see how many have bid and how many have actually gotten an upgrade.  There will always be people bidding but I would think it will get less as time goes on and folks get tired of bidding on cabins that never were available in the first place😇

[crusinthrough]

On 2/28/2019 at 10:37 AM, SRV FAN said:

Ok, but since I paid x$ for my original cabin (got a good deal) & someone else paid x$$ (didn't get a good deal) for same category... and I bid x$ and someone else bids x$$ ...I don't know how they could figure out "how much" a person is willing to pay for a category...I don't know how this would tell them anything... because if I paid less for my cabin to begin with, I might be more willing to bid higher to upgrade... but if I had paid a lot for my cabin, I may not want to pay even more for an upgrade. There are too many variables. IDK.

 

On 2/28/2019 at 5:50 PM, The_Big_M said:

 

Agreed.

 

It's not going to help them with sales prices. It can help with the bidding prices, but that's what the program is about anyway - a way to increase revenue.

 

I agree with these posts.  I don't think there is much market research involved because of all the variables. Could be some but not much.  

 

It's easy to tell how much to price a cabin by setting a price.  If the cabin doesn't sell the price was too high.  If the cabin sells it was a good price.  

 

Royal is trying to sail ships with no unsold cabins and make extra money.  It is clearly working.   

 

 

 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, molly361 said:

Do they always send denial emails or is that hit or miss?

Not everyone seems to be getting them. 

[sandune]

Our bid is still pending and we board tomorrow! They should certainly know by now how many cabins are/or not available! I think this may be the 1st & last time I play this little game.

[Clarea]

40 minutes ago, molly361 said:

Now we need another poll to see how many have bid and how many have actually gotten an upgrade. ... 😇

 

Sounds like we need another Ellen poll.🙂

[sandune]

Reallyitsmema.... no word of anything as of yet!

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, sandune said:

Reallyitsmema.... no word of anything as of yet!

 

That stinks.  We got our emails as we were driving over the GW the day before the cruise.  Once person on our rollcall did get their bid accepted and another got a call to downgrade his cabin as they had oversold the category he had.  

[molly361]

15 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Sounds like we need another Ellen poll.🙂

You know how those mods get when you start making up various different RoyalUp threads😇

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, molly361 said:

You know how those mods get when you start making up various different RoyalUp threads😇

 

Yeah, they can be a real pain.

[ShillyShally]

1 hour ago, reallyitsmema said:

Once person on our rollcall did get their bid accepted and another got a call to downgrade his cabin as they had oversold the category he had.  

That wouldn't be a fun call so close to sail, they'd really have to sweeten the OBC pot!

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

That wouldn't be a fun call so close to sail, they'd really have to sweeten the OBC pot!

 

The cruiser got an awesome deal!  He went from a JS to a balcony cabin.  They refunded his full cruise fare, gave him OBC ($200 or $300, forget exact amount) and he still received the 3 points per night he would have received as a solo in a suite.  So, he walked away with 24 points for a free cruise, can't beat that!

[ShillyShally]

Just now, reallyitsmema said:

 

The cruiser got an awesome deal!  He went from a JS to a balcony cabin.  They refunded his full cruise fare, gave him OBC ($200 or $300, forget exact amount) and he still received the 3 points per night he would have received as a solo in a suite.  So, he walked away with 24 points for a free cruise, can't beat that!

Oh wow, I'd be one HAPPY cruiser too!  Now I'm sort of hoping that would happen to me lol!

[rkkunk]

1 hour ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

The cruiser got an awesome deal!  He went from a JS to a balcony cabin.  They refunded his full cruise fare, gave him OBC ($200 or $300, forget exact amount) and he still received the 3 points per night he would have received as a solo in a suite.  So, he walked away with 24 points for a free cruise, can't beat that!

Wow! I would accept that offer!! I didn’t even know that they did that. I would take less space, as long as I still have the balcony and basically get a free cruise! Good for him!

Actually I guess he kinda got paid to take the cruise! Lol!

Edited March 2, 2019 by rkkunk

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, crusinthrough said:

 

 

I agree with these posts.  I don't think there is much market research involved because of all the variables. Could be some but not much.  

 

It's easy to tell how much to price a cabin by setting a price.  If the cabin doesn't sell the price was too high.  If the cabin sells it was a good price.  

 

Royal is trying to sail ships with no unsold cabins and make extra money.  It is clearly working.   

 

 

 

 

No such things as too many variables.  Check out the field of data science.  Large corporations have people who specialize in this to maximize profits.  People from NYC may be willing to pay a different amount to move to a higher category of cabin than someone from Florida, who is different from someone in Texas, who is different from someone in Ohio with no nearby port.  They can then tweak state discounts accordingly.  The economics of an Oasis class ship are different from Freedom class, which is different from Radiance or Voyager class.  7+ day cruises are different than 3-4 day cruises.  All valuable info when trying to squeeze out more revenue.  A simple "the price was too high if it didn't sell approach" leaves money on the table from an unsold cabin.

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

The cruiser got an awesome deal!  He went from a JS to a balcony cabin.  They refunded his full cruise fare, gave him OBC ($200 or $300, forget exact amount) and he still received the 3 points per night he would have received as a solo in a suite.  So, he walked away with 24 points for a free cruise, can't beat that!

 

Laura got 21 for a free cruise on Oasis right after Irma.  

 

She may get 21 and about $600 cash as a result of the Noro debacle on Oasis.