How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[jp2746]

I received an upgrade email today.  To upgrade to the a deluxe balcony (obstructed) it was $85 per person.  If I were to book that same room right now it would have been almost $700 more compared to an interior, which is what we have now.  It was $65 pp for a standard.  There are no standard obstructed balconies to compare pricing to but that seemed reasonable.  However, it is more than we paid for our last upgrade (free) so it kind of stinks.  

 

There are tons of deluxe obstructed balconies, so I am hoping for this as there are three of us.  

 

Does anyone know where the third bed is in these rooms?  Is it a pull out sofa?

[Thrak]

2 minutes ago, jp2746 said:

There are tons of deluxe obstructed balconies, so I am hoping for this as there are three of us.  

 

Does anyone know where the third bed is in these rooms?  Is it a pull out sofa?

 

The beds are recessed into the ceiling and are pulled down for use at night. There is a ladder to get into and out of the bed.

[jp2746]

7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

The beds are recessed into the ceiling and are pulled down for use at night. There is a ladder to get into and out of the bed.

I have read that they are in front of the balcony door.  Is that correct or are they over the sofa?

[Bwana Tom]

1 hour ago, jp2746 said:

I received an upgrade email today.  To upgrade to the a deluxe balcony (obstructed) it was $85 per person.  If I were to book that same room right now it would have been almost $700 more compared to an interior, which is what we have now.  It was $65 pp for a standard.  There are no standard obstructed balconies to compare pricing to but that seemed reasonable.  However, it is more than we paid for our last upgrade (free) so it kind of stinks.  

 

There are tons of deluxe obstructed balconies, so I am hoping for this as there are three of us.  

 

Does anyone know where the third bed is in these rooms?  Is it a pull out sofa?

Were you offered other choices for bidding other than obstructed view balconies, possibly unobstructed views? 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, jp2746 said:

I have read that they are in front of the balcony door.  Is that correct or are they over the sofa?

 

Regular balcony cabins don't have a sofa. When the third bed is dropped down it "impedes" use of the balcony. That's why the bed is not left lowered during the day.

 

Note: This is information from other posters. We have had a cabin with a third bed in the ceiling but have never used it as we don't sail with a third person.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Thrak

[Wishing on a star]

I don't know if you would find out if your bid was accepted today, but if any mid-ship obstructed balconies are available, and you could get one of those. (simple equal-cabin move) then that would be GREAT for that price.   I would still take an obstructed Deluxe over any interior, especially with 3 in the room.

[Wishing on a star]

I am hoping to find out if they really do not respond to bids until last minute before departure.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I do not know, but would assume that, in any Deluxe balcony, the bed is over the little sofa love-seat, as to leave the bed unobstructed for the other two guests.  

[Wishing on a star]

I do believe that the little sofas are most, if not all, pull out.  Again, that would limit access to the balcony sliding door.

[caligirlfashionista]

Has anybody had their bid accepted and won the bid yet?

[jp2746]

Yes,  the regular started at $145 pp and the deluxe $175 and premium deluxe at $200pp.  That was a bit more than we wanted to pay.  We don't care about the obstructed view.  We have already spent all of our "cruise allowance" for this year.  This is a FCC that has to be used so we are going as cheaply as possible.  🙃

 

I don't expect to get an upgrade answer until closer to cruise time.  We don't leave until November.  I bid on a Royal Caribbean upgrade last month and didn't get a win email until three days before we sailed.  I assume that they want to sell these rooms, if they can, at the higher price and they will upgrade with what is left.  There are a lot of premium obstructed balcony so I figured that was the best option.  

 

Also, we bid the least amount on Royal and won.  

[norway olin]

1 hour ago, caligirlfashionista said:

Has anybody had their bid accepted and won the bid yet?

The first cruise that will be hearing anything does not depart until Oct 1 (I am on one of those).  I wouldn't expect anything for a couple weeks.

[Cruise Raider]

I asked my CVP why some friends had received an offer on a cruise for November when we hadn’t.   Well, she looked into my personalizer and my preferences for receiving promotional emails and phone calls had fallen off.  So, I went in and changed them all back, I checked the next day and they had reverted back to no promotional emails.  I rechecked them and bingo … this morning, they were still there.  Yay!  Now, I’m just going to wait for my offer.  Within an hour or two, I received my offer.  We had booked an obstructed OV and got an offer to upgrade to an oceanview room for $45 pp.  Nope … our obstructed cabin is a really good one.  I could also bid on a standard balcony cabin for $105 pp … nope again because they could put me anywhere on the ship and we could be stuck in a noisy cabin for the whole cruise.  But, then we saw that we could bid as low as $145 pp for. Premium balcony .. so midship on the caribe deck or any aft facing cabin … ding ding ding .. we found a winder.  I wouldn’t mind any of those locations so I bid the minimum.  If they don’t accept it, we are in a perfectly lovely handpicked cabin and we’ve stayed in that cabin just a couple of months ago so we know we like it.  Win win for us … either we will get a really nice balcony for approx $300 more or get a really nice obstructed oceanview for what we’ve already chosen and paid for.   If the balcony cabins come down in price before we win a bid, we will simply upgrade with the current pricing, as we aren’t booked under any special promotion so don’t have anything to lose.  If we do win the offer with the minimum bid we made, even better as we love the locations of all the premium balconies on the ship.  Whatever happens … we will enjoy our cruise.  

[Wishing on a star]

Hey, which ship are you sailing on?

 

[Shelly97060]

5 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

I am hoping to find out if they really do not respond to bids until last minute before departure.

 

Princess has said that they could accept the bids right away or wait until closer to sailing. It will depend on various things including the strength of the bid, amount of bids, and the cabins they have available. 
 

it will be interesting to hear people real life experiences!  Please let us know if your bid is accepted and how long it took to hear back. 

 

[jp2746]

Royal Caribbean (I am assuming it is the same) says that they can accept your bid up until the night of your cruise.  So, if you bid and haven't heard by sail time, don't unpack until later that night.  😁

[symui]

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

and my preferences for receiving promotional emails and phone calls had fallen off.  So, I went in and changed them all back

Great tip - thanks.  

 

I checked our email promos and they had "fallen off" on mine and DW's.   We changed them back, now I hope to get an upgrade offer for my December cruise...

[Steelers36]

My PCL contact options are fine, but I suspect there is a block on sending out for B2B(2B..) where client is in same cabin and segments are sold out.  IDK, but it might require a cleaner situation to send them out.  I also realize that a voyage appearing as Sold Out on Princess.com might not really be sold out.  Also received nothing for a standalone voyage we are on.  Not too upset, but who knows how they decide whom to invite?  We will be marked as "No Upgrade", but to me, that is for automatic freebee we might not want.

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Steelers36

[Cruise Raider]

17 minutes ago, symui said:

Great tip - thanks.  

 

I checked our email promos and they had "fallen off" on mine and DW's.   We changed them back, now I hope to get an upgrade offer for my December cruise...

I will have my fingers crossed for you. 

[wrongwaywatson]

9 hours ago, jp2746 said:

I received an upgrade email today.  To upgrade to the a deluxe balcony (obstructed) it was $85 per person.  If I were to book that same room right now it would have been almost $700 more compared to an interior, which is what we have now.  It was $65 pp for a standard.  There are no standard obstructed balconies to compare pricing to but that seemed reasonable.  However, it is more than we paid for our last upgrade (free) so it kind of stinks.  

 

There are tons of deluxe obstructed balconies, so I am hoping for this as there are three of us.  

 

Does anyone know where the third bed is in these rooms?  Is it a pull out sofa?

We had a balcony in a room that held 3 when we traveled with my Dad.  The third bed pulled down, but it wasn't above the one near the balcony, it was next to the back of the closet wall.  I slept on it and it wasn't bad.  

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

My PCL contact options are fine, but I suspect there is a block on sending out for B2B(2B..) where client is in same cabin and segments are sold out.  IDK, but it might require a cleaner situation to send them out.  I also realize that a voyage appearing as Sold Out on Princess.com might not really be sold out.  Also received nothing for a standalone voyage we are on.  Not too upset, but who knows how they decide whom to invite?  We will be marked as "No Upgrade", but to me, that is for automatic freebee we might not want.

 

Nope.  We are on b2b2b in October Discovery and received emails for all three.  Categories are all sold out.  In fact, two of three cruises show sold out.  Makes no sense.

Edited September 11, 2022 by AnyMajorCruiseDude
Spelling

[Steelers36]

19 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Nope.  We are on b2b2b in October Discovery and received emails for all three.  Categories are all sold out.  In fact, two of three cruises show sold out.  Makes no sense.

Glad my post prompted your response.  Who knows how they decide who gets the invites?  I think a guest could pretty much guarantee NOT getting same cabin when bidding for upgrades, even if all were "won".  We are B2B2B on Regal, BTW.

Edited September 11, 2022 by Steelers36

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

Glad my post prompted your response.  Who knows how they decide who gets the invites?  I think a guest could pretty much guarantee NOT getting same cabin when bidding for upgrades, even if all were "won".  We are B2B2B on Regal, BTW.

We are in same room for three cruises.  Got three emails for upgrades.  Different prices for each cruise.  No way to assure same room for all 3, which is important for us.  Not bidding.

[HBCcruiser]

So here is a conundrum - We are booked on the Discovery Nov 5 cruise in the Sky Suite and doing a B2B. I am NOT in the Sky suite on leg 2 (going solo leg 2). I’m in a CC Mini leg 2. I have not gotten an offer to bid on leg 2. I get why no bid on leg 1 unless the Captain’s quarters are up for bid! 😂😂 I wonder if I’m not getting an offer because 1. The suites are sold out and/or 2. On the App it combines the 2 cruises into one, and the system assumes I’m still in the Sky suite? No idea. I’m happy with my mini on leg 2. Just curious. 

[ceilidh1]

5 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

I asked my CVP why some friends had received an offer on a cruise for November when we hadn’t.   Well, she looked into my personalizer and my preferences for receiving promotional emails and phone calls had fallen off.  So, I went in and changed them all back, I checked the next day and they had reverted back to no promotional emails.  I rechecked them and bingo … this morning, they were still there.  Yay!  Now, I’m just going to wait for my offer.  Within an hour or two, I received my offer.  We had booked an obstructed OV and got an offer to upgrade to an oceanview room for $45 pp.  Nope … our obstructed cabin is a really good one.  I could also bid on a standard balcony cabin for $105 pp … nope again because they could put me anywhere on the ship and we could be stuck in a noisy cabin for the whole cruise.  But, then we saw that we could bid as low as $145 pp for. Premium balcony .. so midship on the caribe deck or any aft facing cabin … ding ding ding .. we found a winder.  I wouldn’t mind any of those locations so I bid the minimum.  If they don’t accept it, we are in a perfectly lovely handpicked cabin and we’ve stayed in that cabin just a couple of months ago so we know we like it.  Win win for us … either we will get a really nice balcony for approx $300 more or get a really nice obstructed oceanview for what we’ve already chosen and paid for.   If the balcony cabins come down in price before we win a bid, we will simply upgrade with the current pricing, as we aren’t booked under any special promotion so don’t have anything to lose.  If we do win the offer with the minimum bid we made, even better as we love the locations of all the premium balconies on the ship.  Whatever happens … we will enjoy our cruise.  

Interesting that you should mention this. I have been complaining for a LONG time that I never get anything from Princess - no emails regarding Elite onsale, no promos/offers, nothing in the mail, etc. I have asked reps countless times to check my email address/preferences, etc and been assured all was good their end and that my email must be filtering out Princess stuff. I never even thought to go in and check from my end as I trusted what they were telling me and I KNOW 100% that I had never opted out of anything. Well, when the bidding came about and it was mentioned to make sure you were signed up for marketing emails, I went into my account. Guess what? I was marked as no email, no mail, no calls. I switched it all back and it saved. I went in next day and it was still good. After reading your post, I just went in and checked - all set to no again. What the heck?