How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[kodidog]

22 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

When you place the bid you do give them card information. It doesn't have to be the card you used for final payment. And they will charge your card automatically once any bid is accepted. So make sure that whatever card you use will have enough available balance at all times between when you place the bid and basically one day before the cruise. When I bid, I consider whatever my highest bid amount was as money already spent unless and until I get notified my bids were rejected. 

So you actually DID get notified that your bid wasn’t accepted?  Others have said that never happens.

[rheathslc]

13 minutes ago, kodidog said:

So you actually DID get notified that your bid wasn’t accepted?  Others have said that never happens.

No. I apologize for being unclear. I've not had a bid that wasnt accepted yet. I just meant, I would consider that money spent unless I were to be notified that my bid failed. 

[cruisegamedev]

I'm trying to decide if it's worth bidding on my upcoming cruise 7 day. Currently in a deluxe balcony, was upgraded from a obscured to full for free already. 

I had a look at seems like there is loads of empty rooms across the board. 

 

The premium balcony are 25 pp minimum bid but I can't see much difference between it and what we have. Then mini suite are 80 minimum bid and club class suite is 155. 

 

Are premium balcony worth the upgrade and similar for mini and club class suites?

[leck57]

2 minutes ago, cruisegamedev said:

I'm trying to decide if it's worth bidding on my upcoming cruise 7 day. Currently in a deluxe balcony, was upgraded from a obscured to full for free already. 

I had a look at seems like there is loads of empty rooms across the board. 

 

The premium balcony are 25 pp minimum bid but I can't see much difference between it and what we have. Then mini suite are 80 minimum bid and club class suite is 155. 

 

Are premium balcony worth the upgrade and similar for mini and club class suites?

 

The  deluxe balcony has a sofa which is important to us and gives that much more space, which you already have. Generally I don't bother with a mini suite over a deluxe balcony, however now that Princess has stuffed up Dining Room arrangement a Club Class (now called Reserve) is worth it to us as there is a dedicated Dining Room area which, importantly you don't have to reserve and can just show up.

[cruisegamedev]

21 minutes ago, leck57 said:

 

The  deluxe balcony has a sofa which is important to us and gives that much more space, which you already have. Generally I don't bother with a mini suite over a deluxe balcony, however now that Princess has stuffed up Dining Room arrangement a Club Class (now called Reserve) is worth it to us as there is a dedicated Dining Room area which, importantly you don't have to reserve and can just show up.

That makes a lot of sense. I may give bidding for the club suite 

[PacnGoNow]

3 hours ago, kodidog said:

So you actually DID get notified that your bid wasn’t accepted?  Others have said that never happens.

I received an email 2 days before sailing, that my bid was NOT accepted.  Sorry, enjoy your cruise.

[rheathslc]

1 hour ago, cruisegamedev said:

I'm trying to decide if it's worth bidding on my upcoming cruise 7 day. Currently in a deluxe balcony, was upgraded from a obscured to full for free already. 

I had a look at seems like there is loads of empty rooms across the board. 

 

The premium balcony are 25 pp minimum bid but I can't see much difference between it and what we have. Then mini suite are 80 minimum bid and club class suite is 155. 

 

Are premium balcony worth the upgrade and similar for mini and club class suites?

I really love the Club (Reserve) Class mini suites. In addition to the extra space in the main cabin area. The bathroom is bigger and has a full tub. For my 6'1" partner, the tiny showers with the horrible curtains in balcony and inside cabins are near impossible to use so we try to always get a mini suite if we can afford it. And the dedicated dining area is worth that all on it's own in my opinion. The service is stellar and every night there is a special menu item to choose from, sometimes that they even prepare tableside. We also like the mini suites because my partner is an early bird and I'm a night owl so I can read or hang out on the sitting room side with the curtain closed and not bother his sleep. And that price for 7 days is great! I just bid $120pp to upgrade from a balcony to a club class mini for a 3-day. 

[richstowe]

On 1/20/2024 at 6:31 AM, happy42cruise said:

Sold out doesn't mean all cabins are sold, it means they have reached passenger capacity for the cruise.  There are always some empty cabins as they need some availability for moving people in case of a problem with a cabin.

Sometimes sold out doesn't stay that way. I've been on multiple cruises where there were no cabins available for balcony say and then a day or so later there were. Ours is not to reason why .

[rheathslc]

Submitted a bid on Monday as soon as I got the email notification. Now I'm obsessively refreshing my email every 3 minutes even though I know it could be weeks before I hear anything, if I do at all. My previous two bids were placed and accepted within a few days but I suspect that's because I booked so close to sailing (less than a month out) Trying, quite unsuccessfully, to be patient. 😀 

67 Days to go!

[lyst]

Still waiting to hear something on my Feb 26th enchanted cruise. Anyone else hear yet?

[KarmaCruisers]

@kodidogto come back to this.

i “won” that counteroffer that princess sent..BUT..so on discovery there are 36 “obstructed deluxe balconies” on deck 8..SIX are doodoo locations (directly under the bridge in the absolute nose of the ship) so I had a 1/6 chance of getting a doodoo location..you guessed it; Emerald103, haha.

i mean I GUESS it’s better than an interior (which was “free” on a casino offer)

[Cruisintimer]

On 1/24/2024 at 9:53 AM, rheathslc said:

Submitted a bid on Monday as soon as I got the email notification. Now I'm obsessively refreshing my email every 3 minutes even though I know it could be weeks before I hear anything, if I do at all. My previous two bids were placed and accepted within a few days but I suspect that's because I booked so close to sailing (less than a month out) Trying, quite unsuccessfully, to be patient. 😀 

67 Days to go!

Hear on obsessive part lol.  Lately we have been hearing like 2 days out.

[New2cruise2022]

8 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

@kodidogto come back to this.

i “won” that counteroffer that princess sent..BUT..so on discovery there are 36 “obstructed deluxe balconies” on deck 8..SIX are doodoo locations (directly under the bridge in the absolute nose of the ship) so I had a 1/6 chance of getting a doodoo location..you guessed it; Emerald103, haha.

i mean I GUESS it’s better than an interior (which was “free” on a casino offer)

How far out did you get the offer?

[rheathslc]

5 hours ago, Cruisintimer said:

Hear on obsessive part lol.  Lately we have been hearing like 2 days out.

Good to know. Thanks!

Part of my obsession includes repeatedly checking the cabins that appear available to book on the Princess site. Which I was doing last night when I realized that the amount I bid for a standard Mini-Suite (from Standard balcony) was more than the cost to just change our cabin and pay the difference. So this morning I had my TA move us to the Mini-Suite. And this way I got my choice of the available cabins vs. being stuck somewhere we don't like as much if a bid was accepted. I updated my bid for a Club Class mini but I think the odds of us getting one are very small. At this point I'm very happy with the Standard Mini-Suite and since we're going with Princess Premier on this short trip, the club class dining really doesn't matter since we'll have specialty dining for two of the three nights anyway. And the Club Class dining is one of my main reasons for wanting Club Class. The other Club Class perks are less important. Now I need something else to obsess over for the next 65 days. 🙂

[Redwing55]

On 1/22/2024 at 7:25 PM, richstowe said:

Sometimes sold out doesn't stay that way. I've been on multiple cruises where there were no cabins available for balcony say and then a day or so later there were. Ours is not to reason why .

True.  We put in a bid recently for a late Feb. departure.  Got if filled in about a week.  Went from balcony to premier balcony.  Ship shows sold out.  Also, bid was essentially minimum.  I was surprised to get a cabin on Caribe deck so late in the game.  We were in standard Balcony, up front on Riviera.

Cruise has been showing sold out for weeks.

[kodidog]

I can't do a mock booking, because our sailing shows 'sold out', so probably not going to happen for us, before March 17th.

[rheathslc]

23 minutes ago, kodidog said:

I can't do a mock booking, because our sailing shows 'sold out', so probably not going to happen for us, before March 17th.

On my Alaska cruise last May it was showing sold out but then I got upgraded from an Inside to a Balcony with a minimum bid. I was shocked but pleased. But I also only booked the cruise like three weeks before sailing which is why I booked an interior in the first place. It was the only cabin type available at all and then by a week after that it showed totally sold out. So who knows. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. 

[awinte2]

Just approved for upgrade from interior to partial obstructed balcony. 27 days out of sailing on Enchanted Princess February 26. Cost was 385.00 for 10 days.

[happiness is cruising]

1 hour ago, awinte2 said:

Just approved for upgrade from interior to partial obstructed balcony. 27 days out of sailing on Enchanted Princess February 26. Cost was 385.00 for 10 days.

??? Price ..pp

[happiness is cruising]

3 minutes ago, happiness is cruising said:

??? Price ..pp

Sorry..just saw for one!!

[rheathslc]

Others have probably already addressed this but I wanted to share my experience.

I placed an upgrade bid last Monday for a 3-day cruise on the Discovery leaving March 31st. We were booked in a Standard Balcony cabin. I bid on 3 categories:

$80pp on Mini-Suite (mid range bid)

$115pp on Forward facing Club Class Mini-suite (highest bid allowed)

$125pp on mid ship Club Class Mini-suite (highest bid allowed)

I kept checking online to see what cabins were still available to gauge the likelihood I would win a bid (even though I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything) and noticed that the prices seemed such that the cost difference to actually book a Mini-suite was about the same as my mid-range bid so last Friday I had our TA change our cabin for us. Total ended up being only $138 ($69pp) and I got to choose the cabin I wanted from the ones that showed available. I wasn't sure if I needed to cancel my bid myself or if it would automatically cancel. 

I got the confirmation on the new cabin and my original bids still appeared active so I changed them. I wasn't willing to pay the same bid that I would from a balcony to a club class mini as I would for a standard mini to a club class mini since I already paid to get the mini so I decreased my bid to $55pp for both Club Class Mini suite types which was roughly the difference between my original bid and the price we paid for the mini.

The next morning (Saturday) I got an email notification that my booking information had changed so my bids had been canceled. No problem and question answered. I went in a put new bids in. The system was still showing the same cabin types to bid on as before we moved to our new cabin. I bid the $55pp again for Forward Club Class Mini and regular Club Class Mini. 

The next morning (Sunday) I received yet another email notification that my bids had been canceled again. This time when I went back in to place a bid the cabin types available to bid on had updated. I am now able to bid on Club Class Mini suites all the way up to the Sky Suite (for a minimum bid of $1175pp for 3 days 🤯)

I placed new bids on the following:

$55pp for Forward Facing Club Class Mini-suite (mid high range)

$55pp for mid ship Club Class Mini-suite (mid high range)

$200pp for Vista Suite (just slightly over minimum of $175pp)

 

I'm not holding my breath that I'll get either of these but figured it was worth a try anyway. And now I know what the process is if you change cabins after having already placed a bid. 🙂

 

- Rachel

 

 

 

[cruisingotter]

Just got the notification that my bid for a premium balcony for our 16-day Hawaii Crown trip in March is accepted - 37 days out. We originally had a regular balcony BD. I bid $155pp - $15 over minimum. Super excited about the big balcony and kinda surprised it was accepted this early.

[rheathslc]

13 minutes ago, cruisingotter said:

Just got the notification that my bid for a premium balcony for our 16-day Hawaii Crown trip in March is accepted - 37 days out. We originally had a regular balcony BD. I bid $155pp - $15 over minimum. Super excited about the big balcony and kinda surprised it was accepted this early.

Hooray! Enjoy!

[happiness is cruising]

FABULOUS 

Edited February 2 by happiness is cruising

[kodidog]

Excellent!  Glad that it is working for someone, LOL.