Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[Cruise Crazy Family]

I know this is an older post, but in case this is helpful to anyone else, we were successful with a minimum bid upgrade from inside stateroom to room 5158 on NCL Bliss (large oceanview) on trip to Alaska in 2024. We are thrilled.

[complawyer]

cruise crazy, that's nice, but how much was your bid, what was the original price of room 5158, and how much was your original cabin?

[Cruise Crazy Family]

On 8/6/2024 at 11:27 AM, complawyer said:

cruise crazy, that's nice, but how much was your bid, what was the original price of room 5158, and how much was your original cabin?

Hi,

honestly, I booked only a few weeks before the cruise and there were no oceanview or balcony cabins available so I don't know what the price would have been. I booked a guarantee inside cabin in Canadian dollars, which I also don't know if that would be helpful to you. Looking at other cruises for next year, the difference in the starting price seems to be about $620 US between inside and smallest oceanview. My bid was $250 pp (total $500), which is the minimum. We got it at that price, but the upgrade, in my opinion, is like 2 categories because we went up to a large family oceanview cabin (check out the video online for that particular cabin), which sleeps 5 (double sink the the bathroom, full sized bathtub, 2 tvs, 3 cupboards, curtain in middle of the cabin, etc. Well worth it in my opinion.

[Ginger2016]

On 8/6/2024 at 6:28 AM, Cruise Crazy Family said:

I know this is an older post, but in case this is helpful to anyone else, we were successful with a minimum bid upgrade from inside stateroom to room 5158 on NCL Bliss (large oceanview) on trip to Alaska in 2024. We are thrilled.

 

In case helpful to anyone else, I also went from Interior to Oceanview on the NCL Jewel for an Alaska cruise this summer. $230/pp so $460. Porthole window, on the side of the ship I wanted, so we are thrilled, especially my child.

 

This was a fully-booked sailing so I wasn't expecting the bid to get accepted. We are a family of 3 and got a 3-person room upgrade (new room fits exactly 3).

[ctlyf]

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades? I've only tried on the app on my phone, not the website on the computer but everytime I try, I get a message saying my reservation isn't eligible, and that my reservation number is not found? First time on NCL and honestly have never bid on an upgrade on any other line. We booked through a travel agent if that makes a difference.

Edited August 10 by ctlyf
Correct spelling error

[DorothyB]

9 minutes ago, ctlyf said:

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades? I've only tried on the app on my phone, not the website on the computer but everytime I try, I get a message saying my reservation isn't eligible, and that my reservation number is not found? 

Are you within 110 days of sailing?

[ggTexasGal]

6 hours ago, ctlyf said:

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades?

Your TA might not participate in the program!

[zqvol]

10 hours ago, ctlyf said:

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades? I've only tried on the app on my phone, not the website on the computer but everytime I try, I get a message saying my reservation isn't eligible, and that my reservation number is not found? First time on NCL and honestly have never bid on an upgrade on any other line. We booked through a travel agent if that makes a difference.

Have you gotten an email?

[JohnIreland]

I get same error on the APP , but it works on the website.

[ctlyf]

17 hours ago, DorothyB said:

Are you within 110 days of sailing?

Not quite. We're at 114 days. 

[ctlyf]

7 hours ago, zqvol said:

Have you gotten an email?

No email... do you have to be invited before you can participate?

[julig22]

1 minute ago, ctlyf said:

Not quite. We're at 114 days. 

bids come about day 110

[cruiseny4life]

On 8/9/2024 at 10:59 PM, ctlyf said:

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades? I've only tried on the app on my phone, not the website on the computer but everytime I try, I get a message saying my reservation isn't eligible, and that my reservation number is not found? First time on NCL and honestly have never bid on an upgrade on any other line. We booked through a travel agent if that makes a difference.

To @ggTexasGal's point, not all travel agent's participate in the upgrade program. Big box store travel agents don't and I know there are others. 

[mikejacoubowsky]

I've mentioned this before... don't get hung up on the bid process and overlook the possibility that your TA or Norwegian, if called, might be able to get you an even-better deal, and you'll have choice over the room. Got a fantastic upgrade cheap on the Epic two years ago. And when you do it this way (not doing a bid), you get *all* the benefits that go with that room, no question.

Do a mock booking and see how inexpensive the better rooms might have become. Keep in mind that you will often be allowed to get a better room for more $$$ but they will not entertain offers for a better room that would actually save you $$$ over your current room.

[vtgumby]

On 8/9/2024 at 10:59 PM, ctlyf said:

Is there some special trick to bidding on room upgrades? I've only tried on the app on my phone, not the website on the computer but everytime I try, I get a message saying my reservation isn't eligible, and that my reservation number is not found? First time on NCL and honestly have never bid on an upgrade on any other line. We booked through a travel agent if that makes a difference.

Keep trying. I just booked a trip 64 days out and immediately tried to upgrade myself using the app and received the same message but then voilà, today it went right through albeit two days after booking so I suggest perseverance. I’m assuming your travel agent participates in the program which was my case.

[BunnyHutt]

I agree with doing the mock booking to check current prices. 
 

My friend and I upgraded ourselves from the family suite with master BR to the 2BR Haven suite on Prima (10-nights) for about $1,000/pp less than the minimum upgrade bid. 
 

I will admit that I wouldn’t have known about the rock-bottom pricing for our sailing if I hadn’t been checking to see if bidding for an upgrade made financial sense. 

[MoulinVert]

Hello!

 

We are sailing on the Breakaway on 01 SEP 2024 out of NYC.  One of the parties in our group was unable to book the Haven when they reserved (due to inventory).  So they went with a balcony stateroom and subsequently submitted the upgrade bids.

 

Late yesterday afternoon, we saw a Haven room available on the ncl-direct booking site.  Rather than take a chance on the upgrade algorithm and process, we called our TA to help us with the switch.  

The process took about an 90 minutes, but we were able to guarantee the haven room with a final price that was lower in price than our originally submitted bids.

 

Our biggest concern was to get the last party in our group into the Haven.  Calling the TA directly (who had to liaise with NCL) was the most direct route for us.  Watching for cancellations and perseverance seemed to pay off.

Hopefully, this will help others wondering about the process.

 

Best of luck, and I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

[ColdCruise]

On 8/21/2024 at 9:55 PM, vtgumby said:

Keep trying. I just booked a trip 64 days out and immediately tried to upgrade myself using the app and received the same message but then voilà, today it went right through albeit two days after booking so I suggest perseverance. I’m assuming your travel agent participates in the program which was my case.

 

On 8/21/2024 at 10:25 PM, BunnyHutt said:

I agree with doing the mock booking to check current prices. 
 

My friend and I upgraded ourselves from the family suite with master BR to the 2BR Haven suite on Prima (10-nights) for about $1,000/pp less than the minimum upgrade bid. 
 

I will admit that I wouldn’t have known about the rock-bottom pricing for our sailing if I hadn’t been checking to see if bidding for an upgrade made financial sense. 

 @vtgumby and @BunnyHutt How do you “UPGRADE YOURSELF” ? I’ve only been able to upgrade through my TA/PCC. TY

[BunnyHutt]

36 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

 

 @vtgumby and @BunnyHutt How do you “UPGRADE YOURSELF” ? I’ve only been able to upgrade through my TA/PCC. TY

exactly as you describe - I went through our TA. It was cheaper (and guaranteed) just to change room categories directly.  

[ColdCruise]

50 minutes ago, BunnyHutt said:

exactly as you describe - I went through our TA. It was cheaper (and guaranteed) just to change room categories directly.  

@BunnyHutt thanks for clarifying, guess it was the wording as @vtgumby specifically said “ in the app”, I thought I was missing some useful feature. Guess I’ll wait to see if @vtgumby responds too . Have a great Sunday!