RoyalUp 50% off?

[ijleexo]

Just logged in to see an update on my 2/27 cruise on Anthem and I saw this message:

 

Pricing above reflects a 50% discount to normal bid pricing. Act fast as this promotion is only valid until Feb 11, 2022

 

The minimum prices are way lower than what I bid two weeks ago. If I lower my bid, does that lower my chances? What is the point of this "sale"??

[John&LaLa]

Just now, ijleexo said:

Just logged in to see an update on my 2/27 cruise on Anthem and I saw this message:

 

Pricing above reflects a 50% discount to normal bid pricing. Act fast as this promotion is only valid until Feb 11, 2022

 

The minimum prices are way lower than what I bid two weeks ago. If I lower my bid, does that lower my chances? What is the point of this "sale"??

 

Marketing 😉

[Biker19]

24 minutes ago, ijleexo said:

What is the point of this "sale"??

Welcome to CC and coming out of a long lurk mode.

 

Of course it's to suck you into bidding.

[Starry Eyes]

It is not just your cruise.  We had a similar RoyslUp “sale” for Harmony 2/20.  Other sailings no doubt received notices.
I can think of a couple points:

*Theses are turbulent times; a shift in the news or government policies can potentially result in a sudden rash cancellations/rescheduled cruises.  With bids already in place, RoyalUp can be more effectively utilized should this occur.  And lower minimums mean more people are apt to bid.

*This gives the third party some interesting data on minimum bids and behavior.  For example, perhaps I did not bid on a Certain upgrade when the minimum was $300 pp, but I came back and bid, say $250 pp when the minimum dropped.  They know they set originally set the minimum higher than than it was worth to me.  If you drop, your bid when the minimum drops, that is another data point.

 

Obviously, a lower bid has a lower chance of winning.  Imagine you lower your bid, do not get the upgrade, then meet somebody who got the upgrade with your original bid, would you be sorry you lowered you bid or just as happy in your original cabin with money in your pocket?  If the former, do not lower your bid.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Starry Eyes

[alexgtp]

don't fall for the gimmicks.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by alexgtp

[Virtopia]

I saw this for my upcoming 1/31 Anthem sailing but only on the Jr Suite category.

 

I had already bid on Saturday and found it odd that the promotional price was now the same as my low ball offer.

[HBCcruiser]

18 minutes ago, Virtopia said:

I saw this for my upcoming 1/31 Anthem sailing but only on the Jr Suite category.

 

I had already bid on Saturday and found it odd that the promotional price was now the same as my low ball offer.

Ditto for my 2/18 Navigator cruise. 

[joetop2467]

I saw this on my 2/19 Symphony cruise bid.  Don’t know what it means. I bid the minimum bid of $150. Does this mean I can lower bid to $112.50?

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, joetop2467 said:

Does this mean I can lower bid to $112.50?

The min is determined by the slider - you can't bid lower than the lowest amount on the slider.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, alexgtp said:

don't fall for the gimmicks.

 

 

They are not gimmicks - we have done (and won) several, and they were always for less than what we would have paid to upgrade to the same category on our own. We have also been able to move the winning bid cabin to a better location once we received the confirmation.

 

BTW, thanks to the OP for starting this thread - we just went in and lowered an existing bid.

Edited January 24, 2022 by orville99

[forgotmyCCname]

I have the same message and the bid range has not changed ( Allure).

 

In November we upgraded from GS to OS on Symphony for less than the lowest bid.

 

 

 

[orville99]

13 minutes ago, forgotmyCCname said:

I have the same message and the bid range has not changed ( Allure).

 

In November we upgraded from GS to OS on Symphony for less than the lowest bid.

 

 

 

I think it depends on what your current cabin category is and which categories they are trying to free up. We only had the 50% off option on two out of six upgrade categories.

[Starry Eyes]

18 minutes ago, forgotmyCCname said:

I have the same message and the bid range has not changed ( Allure).

 

In November we upgraded from GS to OS on Symphony for less than the lowest bid.

 

 

 

With the original minimums, I only bid on one upgrade category and did not bid on the other categories.  When I went back to RoyalUp, it only showed the new minimum for the unbid categories.  Only after I canceled  my original bid could I see all the new minimums.  Might something similar be happening to you?

[dswallow]

From an email on 12/8/2021 about my Anthem 1/31/2022 sailing:

 

 

 

From an email received 1/24/2022 about my Anthem 1/31/2022 sailing:

 

[ROYALBOY]

I have reduced my bids twice, first for a 25% sale and now for the 50%. Doubt will get anything, but actually will be very happy with the CentralPark balcony we booked.

[Cruise for vacation]

I received a royal up for our upcoming Navigator in March, we are currently in a GS received a promotion offer for a OS with a minimum bid of $75 per person.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, Starry Eyes said:

Only after I canceled  my original bid could I see all the new minimums

You don’t have to cancel your existing bid. You can choose to modify it instead.

[Starry Eyes]

Just now, orville99 said:

You don’t have to cancel your existing bid. You can choose to modify it instead.

I tried that.  It still did not let me see the categories on which I declined to bid initially.  I thought it strange, as that had not been my experience in the past, so I cleared my cache.  I tried different devices and a different browser.  None helped.  Only canceling my old bid and starting over did the job.

 

Perhaps mine was an isolated experience; some type of fluke in the RoyalUp system.  IDK.  I think it is worth mentioning when somebody else has difficulty or an odd experience with RoyalUp.  Canceling and rebidding seems faster and easier than trying to get a response from plusgrade.

[Smhp]

3 hours ago, orville99 said:

We have also been able to move the winning bid cabin to a better location once we received the confirmation.

 

Can I ask how you did this? I thought once you won a room you were essentially stuck to that room.

[shelpt]

3 hours ago, orville99 said:

They are not gimmicks - we have done (and won) several, and they were always for less than what we would have paid to upgrade to the same category on our own. We have also been able to move the winning bid cabin to a better location once we received the confirmation.

 

BTW, thanks to the OP for starting this thread - we just went in and lowered an existing bid.

The ones you won, what were your bids like? Did you win on minimum?

[orville99]

25 minutes ago, Smhp said:

Can I ask how you did this? I thought once you won a room you were essentially stuck to that room.

As soon as we receive the confirmation and the room assignment we go out to the RCL booking engine to see if there are any other cabins available in that category and if we find one in a better location, we call the C&A desk and have it switched.

[orville99]

19 minutes ago, shelpt said:

The ones you won, what were your bids like? Did you win on minimum?

We always bid the minimum, and always submit our bids as close to the departure date as we can.

[Scottee25]

Is it possible to bid on multiple room types? Such as JS, OS, and GS? What happens if your bid is accepted for one of those types? What happens to your bids for the other types you also bid on? Are the cancelled? I guess what I am getting at is if your bid for a GS is accepted and you are charged for that bid, is it still possible that your bid for the JS could then be accepted and you would have to pay the bid for the JS too while being downgraded from the GS to the JS? Or would you need to cancel all other bids after your GS bid was accepted? I have only done RoyalUp once and it was from an Oceanview to a Balcony.

[orville99]

14 minutes ago, Scottee25 said:

Is it possible to bid on multiple room types? Such as JS, OS, and GS? What happens if your bid is accepted for one of those types?

You can bid on every category that you are offered. Once you win a bid, the other ones are automatically cancelled.

[CyberTag]

How far in advance are the offers to bid being sent? I thought it was 30 days, is this not correct? We have a cruise booked April 15th and was wondering when we should expect to receive an email? We are booked directly with RCCL.