Help me understand 50% Move Up bid offer - traveling as a single

[msmusic]

I haven’t traveled on Celebrity for several years so I am not familiar with the Move Up bid process and I am traveling solo for the first time so that adds an additional complication to my understanding of the process. 

I completed my check-in yesterday and saw the Move Up offer on my reservation today (no email, I am not signed up for marketing emails). 

 

As a solo traveler, I realize I will be paying double the offer, however, with the 50% off sale, I’m not exactly sure what that is 😂

 

Below are pictures of bids and check out page. For those of you with this experience, could you please give me some guidance?  What will I actually be bidding as a solo traveler with the 50% off sale. 
 

Thanks so much for any assistance.

 

[jelayne]

The prices you see are the prices after the 50% discount.

you can bid anything from the minimum, on the scale to the max.  The amount you bid will be multiplied for 2 passengers even though you are solo. 

[msmusic]

Thank you for the reply.  While I understand doubling the price for a single, the prices don’t make sense even for a double occupancy cabin, compared to current sailing prices and reviewing other Move Up bids in the sticky. 
 

Also, I read the below in the Move Up sticky which made me ask the question:

 

   On 8/11/2023 at 3:45 PM,  edepa said: 

How does that 50% offer actually work. I bid $1400 for upgrade to sky suite and it shows I’d owe $2800. It says I have the 50% bid promotion. So, does it cost twice my bid, for two people, but count as if I’d bid double my bid for them to decide on an upgrade or not?

 

Answer:

We were charged what we bid, so instead of paying $437 each, we just paid $437 ($415 bid plus tax). My theory is that the minimum bid was actually $200 but with the 50%, it acted like we bid twice that. Either that or when we won the bid, we got 50% off the final price. Either way, a very cheap way to go up two full categories. 

Of course, I realize that many reasonable options are not available to solo cruisers. 

I didn’t see other reports in the Move Up sticky regarding the 50% off so if others could offer their experience, I would appreciate it. 
 

Thanks. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

First I've heard of the 50% off bid offer, interesting

[thebutlerdidit]

My impression about the 50% off MoveUp worked like this: Maybe the original range for a Concierge cabin was from $100-$450. For whatever reason they reduced the bid range to 50% off…from $50-$225. If you hadn’t placed a bid previously you may not have seen the original bid range.

 

Am I close? It’s all conjecture.

[msmusic]

I’ve tried to figure this out in a variety of ways. I do realize that the offer is based in some way on my current booking, which is a prime inside. 
 

Here’s why I’m curious about others’ experiences:  when you look at the maximum bid for the veranda - it’s shows $1200, so if one says that is the bid price per person, for two people, that would be $2400, which would be in addition to what you already paid AND is more than the current selling price for a veranda. 
 

So either this is another way that a solo cruiser is really penalized or I am misunderstanding the offer - maybe both 😂

 

I did call Celebrity to try to ask the question but communication about Move Up offers can only be done by email. 
 

I’ve also posted on my Roll Call to see if anyone else is getting offers. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Just now, msmusic said:

I’ve tried to figure this out in a variety of ways. I do realize that the offer is based in some way on my current booking, which is a prime inside. 
 

Here’s why I’m curious about others’ experiences:  when you look at the maximum bid for the veranda - it’s shows $1200, so if one says that is the bid price per person, for two people, that would be $2400, which would be in addition to what you already paid AND is more than the current selling price for a veranda. 
 

So either this is another way that a solo cruiser is really penalized or I am misunderstanding the offer - maybe both 😂

 

I did call Celebrity to try to ask the question but communication about Move Up offers can only be done by email. 
 

I’ve also posted on my Roll Call to see if anyone else is getting offers. 

 

I'm just curious, how were you notified of the half-off offer?  Did they email you or did it just appear in the cruise planner?

[msmusic]

19 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I'm just curious, how were you notified of the half-off offer?  Did they email you or did it just appear in the cruise planner?

It just appeared in my cruise planner today (check-in started yesterday). From what I understand from reading the Move Up sticky, most people find out by email but I am not signed up for marketing emails, so that may be why I didn’t get it. I’ll post again if anyone replies in the roll call about it, but it’s not very active. 
 

[thebutlerdidit]

4 hours ago, msmusic said:

I’ve tried to figure this out in a variety of ways. I do realize that the offer is based in some way on my current booking, which is a prime inside. 
 

Here’s why I’m curious about others’ experiences:  when you look at the maximum bid for the veranda - it’s shows $1200, so if one says that is the bid price per person, for two people, that would be $2400, which would be in addition to what you already paid AND is more than the current selling price for a veranda. 
 

So either this is another way that a solo cruiser is really penalized or I am misunderstanding the offer - maybe both 😂

 

I did call Celebrity to try to ask the question but communication about Move Up offers can only be done by email. 
 

I’ve also posted on my Roll Call to see if anyone else is getting offers. 

You just need to decide what you’re willing to pay for your MoveUp. The last time I sailed solo I did not bid. 
 

As far as the upper bid amounts - they’re mostly ridiculous. Solo or double occupancy - they’re the same. Here are some of the ranges for an upcoming cruise I have on Reflection. I’m in a Prime Veranda category right now. 
 

• Sunset Concierge - $350-$1225 pp
• Aqua Class - $750-$2625 pp
• Sky Suite - $1400-$7000 pp
• Sunset Sky Suite - $1500-$7500 pp
• Aqua Sky Suite - $2000-$10000 pp
• Celebrity Suite - $2500-$10000 pp
• Signature Suite - $2500-$12500 pp
• Royal Suite - $3000-$15000 pp

 

Look at those upper limits! I guess they’re hoping Mr. Moneybags comes along and bids the max after too many drinks one night. 

[RD64]

These days - anything Celebrity and solo fares requires multiple interpreters to understand what is going on.

[Hypercardiac]

I am traveling solo and wondered about the move up offer as well and found this video super helpful in breaking down the ups and downs of it. I decided on a hard pass on the move up since you do NOT get the offerings that come with say the suite or upper levels to my understanding, only what came with your original booking. You cant unbid, and you could get stuck w a crappy room (view, location etc) since its based off what does not sell. And your gratuity would go up if you bid on a room that is in a higher tier then your original booking. I have the worst of luck on these things so I would get the worst of the worst options lol EX: the room under the gym in this video. I would rather spend that bid cost and just up my drink package or add another device for wifi. As far as Celebrity having info on it, its ran by a third party on behalf of Celebrity (again to my understanding) so Celebrity agents would only know the basics of it IMO. Just my 2 cents. :c)

 

 

[D C]

"We cut the MINIMUM bid in half" is what it looks like to me.   

[Jeremiah1212]

On 9/27/2023 at 12:02 AM, Hypercardiac said:

You cant unbid, and you could get stuck w a crappy room (view, location etc) since its based off what does not sell. 

 

That's not totally accurate. If a Sky Suite moves to a Celebrity Suite, an Aqua takes the Sky Suite, a Veranda takes the Aqua, and an Inside takes the Veranda, that's four cabin shifting due to one move. It really only takes a few cabins shifting to set off a domino effect of other moves.  All of those cabins would have been previously sold and unavailable.