Got my RoyalUp Bid accepted. I wonder if I made a strategic error?

[vix2000]

Can anyone advise me if you have to put specific details in to access the bid up?  I have put my surname and reservation number and it says "please make sure you have entered the correct details".  I have redone it many times and I know I am entering the correct details, frustrating!!!

[texasweather]

3 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Here's a YouTube video of a similar cabin a few doors down.  This is a different ship, but should be nearly identical, as it's a sister ship that underwent the same cabin additions and updates.

 

I love that!  After watching this video, I think I'd definitely prefer the room you got as opposed to a veranda.  I would lay in bed and watch the water alllllll day.

[CatLadyFemme]

I think you got a great deal! We have one on our Voyager cruise out of Copenhagen next week, and cannot wait. 

[Biker19]

15 hours ago, vix2000 said:

Can anyone advise me if you have to put specific details in to access the bid up? 

You already inputted the info needed. Not being able to bid can be caused by many things, like too far out, TA which doesn't participate, alternate last name, RCI IT issues, etc.....

[Stockjock]

14 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

I think you got a great deal! We have one on our Voyager cruise out of Copenhagen next week, and cannot wait. 

I'm doing a European sailing on Brilliance next year, but they don't offer this category of room.  So far, I've got the newer OV rooms that used to be part of the restaurant, which are priced like the others but have much larger windows (not panoramic though).

I'll probably try RoyalUp again to bid on a veranda as the date approaches.

[Tree_skier]

19 hours ago, orville99 said:

We only bid on one cabin category up (i.e. JS to CLS suite), only bid the minimum, and if we win we win and if we don't so be it. BTW, we win more than we lose.

I have bid three times now. Cruises 1 and 3 were considered fair and cruise 2 was considered strong.  I have yet to win.  Royal up doesn't seem to like me.

[orville99]

8 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I have bid three times now. Cruises 1 and 3 were considered fair and cruise 2 was considered strong.  I have yet to win.  Royal up doesn't seem to like me.

We have bid on five CLS upgrades since the restart. Two were "moderate" and three were minimum (one of which was actually during their 50% off "sale", so sub-minimum?). We won all three of the minimum bids and neither of the moderate bids. The moderate bids were submitted as soon as we received the invitation, and the three minimum bids were submitted within a week or so of the sail date.

 

I think the selection process is done by a blindfolded intern in a darkened room throwing darts at the upgrade list while drinking heavily.

Edited May 18, 2022 by orville99

[Stockjock]

21 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I have bid three times now. Cruises 1 and 3 were considered fair and cruise 2 was considered strong.  I have yet to win.  Royal up doesn't seem to like me.

If I could make some suggestions:

1. Do a mock booking and see how many cabins are available in categories that you might be interested in.

2. Focus bids on the categories where a decent number of cabins are available.

3. Bid on multiple categories.  I had bid on 4 categories (all weak bids).
 

[The_Big_M]

22 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I have bid three times now. Cruises 1 and 3 were considered fair and cruise 2 was considered strong.  I have yet to win.  Royal up doesn't seem to like me.

 

One thing to be aware of that rating is not as clear as you might think. It is more a relative indicator to show selection chance  _if there is a chance at all_. i.e. the first factor is whether any upgrades become available, which this indicator doesn't reflect. 

 

Basically, you might make a bid on a Junior Suite for example, make the maximum bid so it will say very strong. But that grade is fully booked at the end and they don't offer any upgrades to anyone. So even though your relative offer compared to other bids is high, nobody gets upgraded at all regardless of the strength of the bid. 

[Tree_skier]

14 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

If I could make some suggestions:

1. Do a mock booking and see how many cabins are available in categories that you might be interested in.

2. Focus bids on the categories where a decent number of cabins are available.

3. Bid on multiple categories.  I had bid on 4 categories (all weak bids).
 

 

12 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

One thing to be aware of that rating is not as clear as you might think. It is more a relative indicator to show selection chance  _if there is a chance at all_. i.e. the first factor is whether any upgrades become available, which this indicator doesn't reflect. 

 

Basically, you might make a bid on a Junior Suite for example, make the maximum bid so it will say very strong. But that grade is fully booked at the end and they don't offer any upgrades to anyone. So even though your relative offer compared to other bids is high, nobody gets upgraded at all regardless of the strength of the bid. 

The weird thing was, on one of them, someone on my Roll Call bid less than I did for the same cabin and they got it and I didn't.  

[mil76]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

If I could make some suggestions:

1. Do a mock booking and see how many cabins are available in categories that you might be interested in.

2. Focus bids on the categories where a decent number of cabins are available.

3. Bid on multiple categories.  I had bid on 4 categories (all weak bids).
 

Bidding on multiple categories may not be the best strategy.  Sailed Navigator in March and did a min bid on JS, and $20 over min for GS, thinking the GS bid would get more consideration, and the JS was just a backup.  My JS bid was accepted, and another poster on the Roll Call who did not submit a JS bid had his minimum GS bid accepted.  When I checked before I bid there were a bunch of JS available and just a few GS.  So from an incremental revenue perspective it was better to put me in the JS and him in the GS at min bid, rather than giving me the GS at a higher bid and not getting anything from him.

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, mil76 said:

Bidding on multiple categories may not be the best strategy.  Sailed Navigator in March and did a min bid on JS, and $20 over min for GS, thinking the GS bid would get more consideration, and the JS was just a backup.  My JS bid was accepted, and another poster on the Roll Call who did not submit a JS bid had his minimum GS bid accepted.  When I checked before I bid there were a bunch of JS available and just a few GS.  So from an incremental revenue perspective it was better to put me in the JS and him in the GS at min bid, rather than giving me the GS at a higher bid and not getting anything from him.

I guess I can see both sides of this.  What you've written makes sense.  In my case, had I only bid on verandas, it's possible that my veranda bid would have been accepted.  But also possible that I would have been shut out and not received any upgrade.

[orville99]

13 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

In my case, had I only bid on verandas, it's possible that my veranda bid would have been accepted.

I must be getting old. It took me a long time to figure out what a veranda was. (I haven't heard that term used to describe a balcony cabin  since we stopped sailing on HAL and Disney years ago).

 

Time to adjust my meds again😇