Bidding for new stateroom, earliest notice?

[Williamsburgcruiser]

What's the earliest you've been notified of a new stateroom when doing the bid up program?  I've heard of people notified when boarding,  but has anyone been notified 2 weeks prior? 

[firefly333]

No need to wait for a email. You can start checking yourself. Maybe 2 months out?

 

If it's open it will let you bid.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

 

 

[SpinMasterJ]

The one time we won - from oceanview to balcony, we were notified about a month out on a medium bid and it was a sold out sailing. The next two cruises we went on (both oceanview to balcony bids, both max), we were notified that we didn't win the day before sailing, also both sold out sailings.

We'll see how successful the one for our cruise in two months is, right now there's lots of rooms available to upgrade into. I'm not terribly hopeful though, this time we're trying to go from JS to either GS or OS and I don't feel like paying anywhere near the maximum bid because I'm more than okay with the rooms we've got.

[Biker19]

40 minutes ago, Williamsburgcruiser said:

I've heard of people notified when boarding,  but has anyone been notified 2 weeks prior? 

You can search the various Royal Up threads - can win anytime between bidding and boarding. 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, SpinMasterJ said:

The one time we won - from oceanview to balcony, we were notified about a month out on a medium bid and it was a sold out sailing. The next two cruises we went on (both oceanview to balcony bids, both max), we were notified that we didn't win the day before sailing, also both sold out sailings.

We'll see how successful the one for our cruise in two months is, right now there's lots of rooms available to upgrade into. I'm not terribly hopeful though, this time we're trying to go from JS to either GS or OS and I don't feel like paying anywhere near the maximum bid because I'm more than okay with the rooms we've got.

I never would bid maximum, only minimum plus a teensy. Nothing I want that bad.

 

Just bid minimum?

[SpinMasterJ]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

I never would bid maximum, only minimum plus a teensy. Nothing I want that bad.

 

Just bid minimum?

Yeah, I only did about $30 over minimum on these two. Our max bid ones from this spring were last minute bookings and balconies were already sold out, so I knew it was a long shot but wanted to give myself the best shot. I would have paid that much extra outright for a balcony if it'd been available. My husband is a member of the "only bid the minimum" club and winces every time I move the slider to the right even a little, lol.

[RRTcruiser]

Recently upgraded to Junior Suite 45 days out, put bid in 2 days before on Odyssey Thanksgiving cruise…. somewhat shocked but hey I’ll take it

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

I never would bid maximum, only minimum plus a teensy. Nothing I want that bad.

 

Just bid minimum?

On some cruises over the past couple years there have been minimum and maximum limits that seemed rather odd to me.  On some cruises the minimum bids were reasonable low.  On others, the minimum bids are substantial.  Sometimes the maximum bid one can submit is not very high (why wouldn’t PlusGrade always allow a motivated person to bid a  bundle to go from balcony to suite, for example?)

 

I decide what the upgrade is worth to me.  Then I look at the bid range.  If my value is lower than the minimum, I don’t bid on that category.  If my value is higher than the minimum bid, I bid my chosen amount.