How to decide what to bid on Royalup?

[beckyboo1986]

Sorry another Royalup question.

 

We're sailing next week on Rhapsody of the Seas. Currently have an inside cabin. I've placed bids but I'm prepared to go higher. Currently all balcony cabins are sold out so I assumed my bid wouldn't be accepted but then I realise perhaps a balcony will go to a suite.

 

On offer are the following, I've placed the highest bids in that order.

 

Ocean view balcony 

Ultra spacious ocean view 

Spacious ocean view

Ocean view

 

What would you reasonable pay for an inside to one of those please? I'm travelling just myself and toddler. We could do with more space due to the travel crib and pram.

[Robo1098]

It depends how far out from the sailing you are. The balconies might be reserved or might be cancelled later. Sold out on-line does not mean they are sold out and will necessarily stay that way. As far as how much to bid. I think it is how much you feel comfortable paying and still feel happy with. 

[Tin can]

There doesn't seem to be any strategy for this. I have placed minimum bids, quite a few maximum bids and everything in between but had no luck.

 

There was a thread recently where someone got something like an owners suite from a balcony for about $50 so I have no idea how the bids are reviewed or selected.

[BecciBoo]

41 minutes ago, beckyboo1986 said:

What would you reasonable pay for an inside to one of those please?

Cannot say, you would need to do a mock booking on your cruise to come up with that amount to compare.  But I would never consider the maximum bid they offer...and we won our first attempt with a few $$ higher than minimum, ship was sold out on second attempt.

 

BeckyBoo?  LOL you mean there are 2?

Edited November 9, 2022 by BecciBoo

[loman]

If you bid on several upgrade cabins , what if you win more than one ?

What happens then ?

Didnt know you could do that ( havent really looked into this upgrade bit yet)

[BecciBoo]

If one is accepted the others will no longer be valid as they will charge your card.  I believe that is how it works, but maybe others will say different.  I have two on my next cruise for Jr suite and Grand, we'll see.....🤞

Edited November 9, 2022 by BecciBoo

[beckyboo1986]

@BecciBooHa great name!!

 

Thanks so much for the logical replies 🙂 I do love how nice everyone is.

 

I already got the cruise for such a steal. I think I might increase my bid on the balcony. That would be perfect as it means little one can nap in the room, and I can relax on the balcony.

 

Very excited for next week!

[OCSC Mike]

Only you can answer that. Bid whatever YOU feel the cost is worth to YOU.

 

As an example, we could could have upgraded (not RoyalUp, straight upgrade) to a balcony for a steal of a total price recently but we never use our balcony when we have one so we just kept our interior and used the money for things we do value. Everyone has their own preferences.

 

As others have mentioned, there is no known strategy as there are way too many variables and no one has the algorithm that site uses.

 

GL whatever you do!

[ARandomTraveler]

I keep getting reminder emails to bid on Royal up. Every category they list is sold out online, so it seems like a waste of time to bid. Im happy with the category I chose (ocean view balcony) and not interested in swapping, but I did look to see what they were suggesting as a minimum bid for a crown loft suite, because that was a room I was considering booking before I booked the balcony. 
 

At the time of my booking, the crown loft suite was going to cost $9,000 for 2 people. Right now, with their suggested bid offer, they're essentially "selling" it for $4600 for 2 people, which is a good deal, and one that I would pay to upgrade to if a crown loft suite was actually available on the website and I could call and pay the extra money to upgrade my cabin for a total cost of $4600. But I'm not interested in bidding on a room that it seems unlikely I'd get (considering crown lifts sold out months ago), and I wouldn't be able to pick the room location. 
 

I'm just not into being given a randomly selected room, no matter how low the cost might appear. I also think the Royal up offers on my particular cruise are just being auto-generated by bots, since the entire suite category has shown as "sold out" online for over a month now.

[IslandHppy]

RoyalUp is kinda weird and haunted.  (Haunted as an IT Professional means fully random behavior.  But maybe, since each case below is different, it is working as designed- LOL).   On three recent cruises, I got:

 

One, quickly assigned inside GTY, 25 days out, refused to let me bid got the lovely "invalid info or not 30 days out" error the whole time.  No upgrade on the website button option.  No pre-sales emails. 

 

The next one, unassigned inside GTY,  it liked my confirmation ID and let me bid and I won.  No pre-sales emails. 

 

Most recently, outside GTW assigned, about 28 days out the voyage refuses to accept the confirmation ID "invalid or more than 30 days out" but I am getting RoyalUp pre-sales emails. These it wants high bids.  

 

On the one we won, I get an email a week out saying "we got your bid- onboard team working it"- for each bid-- then a few days later "you won" - but in the Consecutive process our new cabin had the Crown and Anchor paperwork for the previous guest and we did not have correct new cabin ID cards.   But we are happy 🙂

 

What we did - smallish bids on each bump up- $30 pp I think inside to OV, $30 more for "bigger OV" etc  - and the pre-sailing website street price for the balcony upgrade ($150 pp extra).   A guess is there is last minute cabin churn - somebody cancels the Owner's Suite and one person at each level moves up one category. 

 

If you really really want a cabin/grade - get out your checkbook. This program is nice new onboard revenue for the line.  I'm sure it tries to look at the calculated revenue impact of each cabin move. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by IslandHppy

[loman]

1 hour ago, BecciBoo said:

If one is accepted the others will no longer be valid as they will charge your card.  I believe that is how it works, but maybe others will say different.  I have two on my next cruise for Jr suite and Grand, we'll see.....🤞

Thanks and good luck  !

[beckyboo1986]

Thanks everyone. I ended up calling and have managed to change from Inside to Ocean View for £34 extra. I'm happy with this change and if I got a further upgrade to a balcony then even better.

[reallyitsmema]

4 minutes ago, beckyboo1986 said:

Thanks everyone. I ended up calling and have managed to change from Inside to Ocean View for £34 extra. I'm happy with this change and if I got a further upgrade to a balcony then even better.

 

Make sure you cancel any of those other bids so you don't end up getting a bid accepted for something you now already self upgraded to.  

[orville99]

2 hours ago, beckyboo1986 said:

Sorry another Royalup question.

 

We're sailing next week on Rhapsody of the Seas. Currently have an inside cabin. I've placed bids but I'm prepared to go higher. Currently all balcony cabins are sold out so I assumed my bid wouldn't be accepted but then I realise perhaps a balcony will go to a suite.

 

On offer are the following, I've placed the highest bids in that order.

 

Ocean view balcony 

Ultra spacious ocean view 

Spacious ocean view

Ocean view

 

What would you reasonable pay for an inside to one of those please? I'm travelling just myself and toddler. We could do with more space due to the travel crib and pram.

I can only speak from personal experience, but we have never bid more than the minimum bid on any upgrade, and we have won several times. We just got an upgrade from a JS to an Owner's Suite on our December Jewel cruise for $400/pp, and the OS were being sold for ~$8,000 more than we paid for our original JS. When I put in the bid, the only suite that was available for booking was a JS guarantee, so a category not showing up on line doesn't really mean that there aren't any available to fulfill a bid.

 

On a side note, our eldest had booked two cabins (an oceanview and an interior) for his family of four, and put bids in on both - OV to a balcony and interior to an OV - and the OV to Balcony upgrade was accepted. The next day the interior to OV bid was also accepted, and the OV that was assigned was the same one that he was upgraded from the day before.😇

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, beckyboo1986 said:

I ended up calling and have managed to change from Inside to Ocean View for £34 extra. I'm happy with this change and if I got a further upgrade to a balcony then even better.

The Royal Up system should reset with your new cabin in a couple of days and a new/different set of offers should become available. Your previous bids don't transfer.

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, beckyboo1986 said:

Thanks everyone. I ended up calling and have managed to change from Inside to Ocean View for £34 extra. I'm happy with this change and if I got a further upgrade to a balcony then even better.

Good job!    

Question:    I know they are having a promotion with kids sail free but does that promotion apply to Royal Up or will they collect the royal up per person, including the toddler?

[moposh]

Bid what you are comfortable with paying.

Edited November 9, 2022 by moposh

[Biker19]

13 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I know they are having a promotion with kids sail free but does that promotion apply to Royal Up or will they collect the royal up per person, including the toddler?

All Royal Up bids are multiplied by two as the final cost of the upgrade, regardless of how many people are in the cabin.

[fpcruiser]

I'v gone twice from an inside quarantee to a larger cabin with minimum bid.

 

 

[neverbeenhere]

What to bid?   I have a formula that I developed… problem is it doesn’t work. 

[Sunshine3601]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

All Royal Up bids are multiplied by two as the final cost of the upgrade, regardless of how many people are in the cabin.

That's what I thought but wasn't totally sure how they handled a toddler.

[Stick93]

If I have two rooms and bid on a 2 bedroom suite and win (a bid that is on just one of the rooms)  - can I move everyone to that suite or just the two people in the room that won?? I know only two would be moved but I have connecting rooms and wouldn't want to leave the other members of the family behind?

[SRF]

19 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I keep getting reminder emails to bid on Royal up. Every category they list is sold out online, so it seems like a waste of time to bid.

 

People do miss the cruise.  And have to cancel for various emergencies.

Sold out does not mean that there will not be cabins available.  Last spring, we had to cancel 2 days before from an OS due to testing positive for COVID.  I am sure that made several people happy to be moved up.  A GS to OS, a JS to GS, a Balcony to JS, and OV to Balcony, and an Interior to OV.

[orville99]

9 hours ago, Stick93 said:

If I have two rooms and bid on a 2 bedroom suite and win (a bid that is on just one of the rooms)  - can I move everyone to that suite or just the two people in the room that won?? I know only two would be moved but I have connecting rooms and wouldn't want to leave the other members of the family behind?

The other booking is independent of the one you are in, so the other two people would still be on the manifest in their original cabin. I suppose you could get extra keys made so they could sleep in the second bedroom, but they are still on the hook for the full cost of their original booking. 

Edited November 10, 2022 by orville99

[Stick93]

11 hours ago, orville99 said:

The other booking is independent of the one you are in, so the other two people would still be on the manifest in their original cabin. I suppose you could get extra keys made so they could sleep in the second bedroom, but they are still on the hook for the full cost of their original booking. 

The money is not the issue. I just want to make sure they will let me have the the other two in the room. I assume they don’t care.