For those who have participated in a bid-for-upgrade involving YC (successfully or not) how was your timeline and outcome?

[ConnieTact]

We just heard we have upgrade bid accepted from YC interior to YC balcony suite. We were 9 days away from sailing. 
Last time. we heard the day before sailing so I was quite surprised (& delighted of course!)

[racephoto]

On 8/24/2021 at 7:57 PM, maureencruiser said:

I'm a solo Diamond member, booked in a Fantastica balcony, With my 5% discount, I'm currently paying $429USD  plus 128 tax, total= $557.00, a great price for a solo balcony. 

 

For what it’s worth, this sailing is a 5+15% Voyages Selection sailing. So you should be able to get another 15% off, plus $50 OBC, and double points. Since it’s after final payment, you probably would get that extra 15% off as OBC, but hey, why not. 

[maureencruiser]

5 minutes ago, racephoto said:

For what it’s worth, this sailing is a 5+15% Voyages Selection sailing. So you should be able to get another 15% off, plus $50 OBC, and double points. Since it’s after final payment, you probably would get that extra 15% off as OBC, but hey, why not. 

 

Hmm, Well, I already have over $300 OBC due to a price drop, so, I'm just gonna leave well enough alone.  Thanks, though!

[racephoto]

I just got an email to bid on my 11/14 Divina 7 day cruise. I’m not going to be doing that. $825 for YC. $1650 extra for one person who already has an aft balcony for $590 doesn’t really appeal. 🙂 Though to be honest, the YC concept doesn’t really entice me anyway. 

[dexddd]

Their bid prices I've seen are a joke.  First offer would be a savings of $150 at minimum level.  Got another offer today and minimum doubled to nearly$1000 pp which is way more than booking direct.

[icemanoneaatl]

I suspect the week long msc voyage upgrade bid minimums are high but for the initial short 3and 4 day cruises, very tempting… I am on the short 3 day over Labor Day and bid 260 for an upgrade from fantastic balcony to yc deluxe and recd the conf this morning, yay!  I also suspect their bid system takes whatever the prior submitted bid for the class is the new minimum bid for the next submission.  I read a fellow cruiser on the same cruise also bid, but noted the minimum was ~270 for the same class….

[styles27]

8 hours ago, racephoto said:

I just got an email to bid on my 11/14 Divina 7 day cruise. I’m not going to be doing that. $825 for YC. $1650 extra for one person who already has an aft balcony for $590 doesn’t really appeal. 🙂 Though to be honest, the YC concept doesn’t really entice me anyway. 

We’re on this same sailing as you and we’re also in an aft on deck 11 and we received this same email yesterday. 
 

I’m surprised we received it so early. 
 

We’re sticking with our aft because we already have the “all in drinks and WiFi” included. 
 

The one other time we sailed on Divina in 2019 was in the Mediterranean also booked an aft but the night before our cruise they upgraded us for free to the YC.  
It was great and so nice to have the private pool area, lounge and restaurant but was it worth the above prices?  Not really. 
 

So we’ll stay with our aft for now and heck if they want to bump us again for free I won’t say no lol
 

[SeaDayLvr]

We booked in interior Bella (B2B sailing 9/6 & 9/10).  We submitted our upgrade request on 8/21 for the 9/6 sailing, from Bella interior to Balcony, we did the minimum bid ($95 PP).  It was accepted today.  We have not heard on the 9/10 sailing yet.  Our documents/tickets were just generated after we were assigned a cabin.  The cabin is B2 Fantastica.  

 

Do we get the Fantastica experience or do we stay with Bella?  Our cruise documents have Bella next to our names, but then a few pages down below it has this:

 

Category B2 - Balcony Stateroom

balcony fantastica
cabin area 16.40mq - door 0.65mt bathroom area 2.60mq with bathtub balcony area 3.44mq

[racephoto]

6 hours ago, styles27 said:

We’re on this same sailing as you and we’re also in an aft on deck 11 and we received this same email yesterday. 
 

 

So we’ll stay with our aft for now and heck if they want to bump us again for free I won’t say no lol
 

I actually mis-spoke….I was thinking of a different cruise when I typed that. I chose a regular balcony on the starboard side for this sailing since we have the overnight at Ocean Cay and I wanted the option of watching the light show from my balcony. I have the aft balcony on the next voyage starting 11/21. But still. Like you, if it were free, I’d give it a go, mostly for the Topsail Lounge, to be honest. I cruised a bit on HAL and loved their Crow’s Nest Lounge. I’d also be more likely to consider it if I didn’t have to pay double.  At this point, I’m just hoping the cruise actually happens. 

[styles27]

2 hours ago, racephoto said:

I actually mis-spoke….I was thinking of a different cruise when I typed that. I chose a regular balcony on the starboard side for this sailing since we have the overnight at Ocean Cay and I wanted the option of watching the light show from my balcony. I have the aft balcony on the next voyage starting 11/21. But still. Like you, if it were free, I’d give it a go, mostly for the Topsail Lounge, to be honest. I cruised a bit on HAL and loved their Crow’s Nest Lounge. I’d also be more likely to consider it if I didn’t have to pay double.  At this point, I’m just hoping the cruise actually happens. 

I think it’s awesome that you have 2 cruises booked! 
I agree about Topsail. It was so nice to have our own entertainment every night and snacks very close by our room. 
You’re right it is very similar to HAL’s Crow’s Nest

[heatherdw]

Sailing: 9/3 on Meraviglia—got notice today that my bid of $140 x 2 bid for a Fantastica balcony to a YC interior was accepted. 😊

 

Hubs and I were in The Haven for our honeymoon on the Norwegian Escape and loved it. We’re curious to see how the YC experience compares.

Edited August 28, 2021 by heatherdw

[dexddd]

9 hours ago, heatherdw said:

Sailing: 9/3 on Meraviglia—got notice today that my bid of $140 x 2 bid for a Fantastica balcony to a YC interior was accepted. 😊

 

Hubs and I were in The Haven for our honeymoon on the Norwegian Escape and loved it. We’re curious to see how the YC experience compares.

Generally way better than Haven.  Only downside is the showers in a YIN are literally coffin sized.

[waterbabies7415]

On 8/24/2021 at 6:42 PM, alyssamma said:

 

 

Sorry, should have clarified...I meant the Aug short cruises. For the Oct ones...I think there is a good chance you'll get it, but won't find out until late Sept at the earliest. Still plenty of time for others to pay full price for it.

 

Labor Day is a crap shoot...please post back and let us know if you got it...

We received the bid award over Labor Day, balcony fantastica to YC Deluxe. Just a bit over min bid 

[Kruizin'Kath]

We got upgrade to YC for minimum bid. We had a Fantastica Balcony 9/25 Meraviglia 

 

[ConnieTact]

On 9/18/2021 at 2:09 AM, Kruizin'Kath said:

We got upgrade to YC for minimum bid. We had a Fantastica Balcony 9/25 Meraviglia 

 

Great!! Enjoy! 👏

[hamrag]

I didn't want to start a new topic, and this thread seems semi-relevant to my post as follows.

 

We are booked on a 17 night repo on Seaview Barcelona to Martinique, in a YC Deluxe Suite. This morning I received  an upgrade bid invitation for a Royal Suite cabin. Minimum bid is £4,360 per person i.e.£8,720 per cabin!!

 

The MSC full price for our cabin was circa £3,500 pp, but with Voyager Club 5+15% discount and TA discount we paid about £2,500 pp. It's been a while since I laughed so much, and the £8,720 would be a 'poor' bid....so funny! 

🤣 🤣

[riredsox]

I just received my congratulations email about my upgrade!  I bid on Saturday and got my email at 4:20am this morning (Tuesday).  I sail next Sunday.   4 night cruise and I had a balcony with Bela experience.   My first time sailing with MSC.  

[macusr]

Just to update with our final results.  Our upgrade to YC Deluxe Suite was accepted this morning - 4 days prior to embarkation.

[Margaretealexander]

2 hours ago, macusr said:

Just to update with our final results.  Our upgrade to YC Deluxe Suite was accepted this morning - 4 days prior to embarkation.

You’re gonna love it

[Cruiser21]

2 hours ago, macusr said:

Just to update with our final results.  Our upgrade to YC Deluxe Suite was accepted this morning - 4 days prior to embarkation.

Congratulations. Can you tell me what your original cabin was and what your bid was for YC Deluxe Suite? Thanks in advance

[macusr]

22 hours ago, Cruiser21 said:

Congratulations. Can you tell me what your original cabin was and what your bid was for YC Deluxe Suite? Thanks in advance

Original cabin was 11137.  Minimum bid in August was $595/pp and we bid $600/pp.

[miataman19]

Had an upgrade bid from a YC Interior to a YC Deluxe Suite. Placed the minimum bid , total of $720. Got the email at 4am the day of embarkation that my bid was not accepted. Get on the ship later that day and find out from our Butler that 3 YC Deluxe Suites on our deck ( deck 14) were empty. Went to the YC Concierge to inquire about upgrading and they would for $1050. I countered with $500. They said no. Hmm, 3 empty cabins and I'm offering you $500 for 1 of them. Is it me or is that just a bad business decision?

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, miataman19 said:

Had an upgrade bid from a YC Interior to a YC Deluxe Suite. Placed the minimum bid , total of $720. Got the email at 4am the day of embarkation that my bid was not accepted. Get on the ship later that day and find out from our Butler that 3 YC Deluxe Suites on our deck ( deck 14) were empty. Went to the YC Concierge to inquire about upgrading and they would for $1050. I countered with $500. They said no. Hmm, 3 empty cabins and I'm offering you $500 for 1 of them. Is it me or is that just a bad business decision?

So for $330 difference you had another opportunity to get in?

 I guess in order to give an accurate answer, I would need more detail. The price you paid versus the actual cost of booking the YCDS.

I do understand what you are saying but do you know if they ever sold them? If they remained vacant???Maybe $500 in the hand is better.

[hamrag]

9 hours ago, miataman19 said:

Had an upgrade bid from a YC Interior to a YC Deluxe Suite. Placed the minimum bid , total of $720. Got the email at 4am the day of embarkation that my bid was not accepted. Get on the ship later that day and find out from our Butler that 3 YC Deluxe Suites on our deck ( deck 14) were empty. Went to the YC Concierge to inquire about upgrading and they would for $1050. I countered with $500. They said no. Hmm, 3 empty cabins and I'm offering you $500 for 1 of them. Is it me or is that just a bad business decision?

 So, at that stage you had an opportunity to close a deal by saying something like....OK, can we agree the mid-point at $775....that's how deals often complete, you've potentially missed a second opportunity to get the cabin at a price which (presumably) was acceptable given your original bid was close to that at $720.

🙄

 

[pghflyer]

I am on Jan 16 Divina in a Bella Balcony and just got the upgrade email today.....unfortunately the minimum bids are not substantially less than what I could get by just calling and upgrading myself ($640 each to balcony suite; $1,535 each for YC).

 

Do the minimum bids ever change - ex. as we get closer to sailing?  Anyhow, didn't expect this far in advance.