What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[huntersh2]

25 minutes ago, nylady6712 said:

 yes 900 per; idk what is average

400 was minimum so 900 had to be very good bid.. I'm not sure avg. but that's a good bid. Most people on here write less than 900 offerings for H5 so u went high and got it. Congrats to you 

[MidTexHorn]

I’m on the 2/10 Getaway and also tried to upgrade from a mini suite to Haven. Minimum bids allowed were $400/person for the smaller Haven suites and I bid on several categories with my bids in the low to mid poor range at $450-510/person. The ship is showing as sold out now almost 48 hours out and I haven’t received an upgrade so I’m assuming I’ll shortly be told that I’m out of luck. I kinda figured with bids in the poor range I wouldn’t get an upgrade and I was probably right but worth a shot. For reference, the poster above who bid at $900/person likely bid in the upper fair to good range. If I had bid that much I would have only saved about $500 off of the price that it would have cost me to just outright buy the upgrade. Wasn’t worth it to me, but was an interesting experience. 

[MidTexHorn]

FYI, in my opinion based upon what I saw, here’s what I think NCL (or their vendor) does. I suspect they accept bids of a number of very high bidders 5-10 days out. This locks those high bids in and also sends a message to everyone of us who is following inventory and has lower bids - “your bid is too low, better up it ASAP if you hope to have a chance!!!”  

 

Know what? It works! A few days ago I saw the Haven inventory reduced in half. Guess what I did? You got it - I went and upped my bids several times over the next couple of days. I’ll bet others did too. I didn’t up mine enough, several folks did, and to them (and NCL) go the spoils. Makes total sense for NCL. They’re probably gonna win with me anyway because I’ll likely go blow a bunch of what I would’ve spent on the Haven upgrade in the casino. 😀

[3catnight]

Somewhere back about 30 pages in this thread, I posted our experience from December ‘18 but I’ll do it again for those who joined the conversation more recently.

Our cruise was December 5, ten days on Epic.  The other two couples bid pretty high, $250 and $300 pp, I believe very close to the maximum.  They were upgraded to aft-facing balconies from inside cabins on October 23. We bid slightly lower ($225 pp) just after their bids were accepted, maybe in the mid range of “Good” and got our upgrade exactly 30 days out. That day was when the price dropped to its lowest point, so no surprise they locked in our bid then.  

My personal feeling about this whole process is that it depends entirely on how many cabins are available and how much people are bidding and nothing else.  If the cabins are selling well, I think bids will be on hold much longer.  And I think very low bids won’t get accepted unless there are still openings at the end of the booking period.  If bookings are slow, higher bids might be accepted sooner, such as we experienced.  With a cruise that was just before Christmas, I think our sailing was not a big seller.  We’re platinum, but one of the other couples is fairly new to NCL.  We don’t spend a lot onboard, rarely do shore excursions, I spend a little in the casino but I’m not a high roller by any stretch of the imagination, so I don’t think your prior cruises or spending have any bearing.  I think it all comes down to supply/demand and dollars/cents.  NCL,  in the past anyway, will sell remaining cabins to employees like the people who do check in etc. at the pier. Their number one priority is having a full ship.

Currently, we’re booked for March 17 on the Pearl with bids in the mid-poor range for both balcony and mini suite cabins.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll report our results when we hear.  Not expecting to be upgraded but I can live with my ocean-view cabin!

[Kmkub]

On 2/5/2019 at 9:53 AM, BalconyGal said:

Someone on my Jade roll call said they called after 80 days out and asked about bidding and they were told NCL doesn't often offer bidding on the Jade.  I find that hard to believe but I could be wrong.  Anyone hear anything like this before?  We're 72 days out and no one (that I know of) has received an email to bid.  Thanks for your insight.

We are just off the Jade. We were able to bid. It was rejected.

[don't-use-real-name]

On ‎2‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 8:53 AM, BalconyGal said:

Someone on my Jade roll call said they called after 80 days out and asked about bidding and they were told NCL doesn't often offer bidding on the Jade.  I find that hard to believe but I could be wrong.  Anyone hear anything like this before?  We're 72 days out and no one (that I know of) has received an email to bid.  Thanks for your insight.

 

Bidding is by INVITATION and not automatic to everyone on board.

Way to check if you received the invitation is not by email but by going to your MyNCL account and see if you

received the invitation at that point - one of the rotating screens should have:

"LET'S GET YOU UPGRADED"

If you see that follow the prompts to see what is available for you to bid and to make payment arrangements

if you subsequently win.

 

Regarding the JADE if that sailing is full as in FULL the upgrading bidding may have only been to a very few

select guests to upgrade to suites. When a ship sails FULL there is not much room for upgrading.

 

 

[MrsTabs]

I am on the Jade on !st March, received the upgrade email but all sold out so I can say this is true

[njkate]

On the Jade 04/28 and so far no one on my roll call has received an upgrade invite, that said there is only the 3 bedroom garden villa left in the Haven, suites are showing as sold out, so maybe insides, ocean views are getting the invites as there are balcony cabins, not many, left as well. Mini suites left but I wouldn't even bother to spend more money to go from a balcony to a mini suite 

Edited February 8, 2019 by njkate

[amindu]

55 minutes ago, don't-use-real-name said:

 

Bidding is by INVITATION and not automatic to everyone on board.

Way to check if you received the invitation is not by email but by going to your MyNCL account and see if you

received the invitation at that point - one of the rotating screens should have:

"LET'S GET YOU UPGRADED"

If you see that follow the prompts to see what is available for you to bid and to make payment arrangements

if you subsequently win.

 

Regarding the JADE if that sailing is full as in FULL the upgrading bidding may have only been to a very few

select guests to upgrade to suites. When a ship sails FULL there is not much room for upgrading.

 

Apologies if this has been answered.  Do you get an invitation if you booked through a 3rd party TA versus directly with NCL?  I think i read somewhere that the agency has to participate in this? 

 

[MarchCruisers]

Recieved upgrade email today around 4pm for our Getaway 2/17 cruise.  Went from a Midship MiniSuite to Haven 2 bedroom.  Min bid was $1000 and we bid $1300 🙂 

[Mjdj1220]

32 minutes ago, MarchCruisers said:

Recieved upgrade email today around 4pm for our Getaway 2/17 cruise.  Went from a Midship MiniSuite to Haven 2 bedroom.  Min bid was $1000 and we bid $1300 🙂 

Congratulations! Have a great time. 

 

MJ

[huntersh2]

14 hours ago, 3catnight said:

Somewhere back about 30 pages in this thread, I posted our experience from December ‘18 but I’ll do it again for those who joined the conversation more recently.

Our cruise was December 5, ten days on Epic.  The other two couples bid pretty high, $250 and $300 pp, I believe very close to the maximum.  They were upgraded to aft-facing balconies from inside cabins on October 23. We bid slightly lower ($225 pp) just after their bids were accepted, maybe in the mid range of “Good” and got our upgrade exactly 30 days out. That day was when the price dropped to its lowest point, so no surprise they locked in our bid then.  

My personal feeling about this whole process is that it depends entirely on how many cabins are available and how much people are bidding and nothing else.  If the cabins are selling well, I think bids will be on hold much longer.  And I think very low bids won’t get accepted unless there are still openings at the end of the booking period.  If bookings are slow, higher bids might be accepted sooner, such as we experienced.  With a cruise that was just before Christmas, I think our sailing was not a big seller.  We’re platinum, but one of the other couples is fairly new to NCL.  We don’t spend a lot onboard, rarely do shore excursions, I spend a little in the casino but I’m not a high roller by any stretch of the imagination, so I don’t think your prior cruises or spending have any bearing.  I think it all comes down to supply/demand and dollars/cents.  NCL,  in the past anyway, will sell remaining cabins to employees like the people who do check in etc. at the pier. Their number one priority is having a full ship.

Currently, we’re booked for March 17 on the Pearl with bids in the mid-poor range for both balcony and mini suite cabins.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll report our results when we hear.  Not expecting to be upgraded but I can live with my ocean-view cabin!

Thanks for your detailed ideas and breakdowns

[huntersh2]

6 hours ago, MarchCruisers said:

Recieved upgrade email today around 4pm for our Getaway 2/17 cruise.  Went from a Midship MiniSuite to Haven 2 bedroom.  Min bid was $1000 and we bid $1300 🙂 

Best room ever!!!

[MaLady100]

I've found it very interesting to see the upgrade options for two bookings (mine and my parents). We are in an H7 and they are in a BB balcony. Here are the starting bids if it helps anyone:

Mine (H7)

H2 and H3 $750 minimum

H4 $500

H5 $200

H6 $400

We had an H6 last time on the Breakaway and while the room was fabulous the butler service was terrible compared to what my parents had in an H5 (we upgraded them on the phone with the old system for $500pp) in the Haven area itself so am hoping to get something closer for us (we could probably get a "free" upgrade to H5 since prices have fallen a little since we booked but with 3 in the room we really want a separate bedroom).

Parents (BB)

H2 and H3 $1500

H4 $1000

H5 $400

H6 $750

H7 $400

H9 $400

I bid on H2-H4 for us and bid on H9, H7, H6 and H5 for my parents. There is a ton of availability on the sailing at this point and we are 22 days out (March 3rd sailing) so I'm hopeful (not too worried about mine since I am haven already, but I hoping to get my parents in by paying for their upgrade since they can't afford full price). Will let you guys know if I get any winning bids!

[Mjdj1220]

Question for the group. I see that all Haven categories on my sailing are available to bid on except H8(Deluxe Spa Haven w/ balcony). Is that a category that does not offer upgrades? First time bidding so I was unsure.

 

TIA,

 

MJ

[huntersh2]

10 hours ago, MaLady100 said:

I've found it very interesting to see the upgrade options for two bookings (mine and my parents). We are in an H7 and they are in a BB balcony. Here are the starting bids if it helps anyone:

Mine (H7)

H2 and H3 $750 minimum

H4 $500

H5 $200

H6 $400

We had an H6 last time on the Breakaway and while the room was fabulous the butler service was terrible compared to what my parents had in an H5 (we upgraded them on the phone with the old system for $500pp) in the Haven area itself so am hoping to get something closer for us (we could probably get a "free" upgrade to H5 since prices have fallen a little since we booked but with 3 in the room we really want a separate bedroom).

Parents (BB)

H2 and H3 $1500

H4 $1000

H5 $400

H6 $750

H7 $400

H9 $400

I bid on H2-H4 for us and bid on H9, H7, H6 and H5 for my parents. There is a ton of availability on the sailing at this point and we are 22 days out (March 3rd sailing) so I'm hopeful (not too worried about mine since I am haven already, but I hoping to get my parents in by paying for their upgrade since they can't afford full price). Will let you guys know if I get any winning bids!

Thanks so much. Much appreciated and detailed 

[huntersh2]

6 hours ago, Mjdj1220 said:

Question for the group. I see that all Haven categories on my sailing are available to bid on except H8(Deluxe Spa Haven w/ balcony). Is that a category that does not offer upgrades? First time bidding so I was unsure.

 

TIA,

 

I

It has the option of upgrades. It may be sold out on your cruise .

[spacedaisy]

13 hours ago, Mjdj1220 said:

Question for the group. I see that all Haven categories on my sailing are available to bid on except H8(Deluxe Spa Haven w/ balcony). Is that a category that does not offer upgrades? First time bidding so I was unsure.

 

TIA,

 

MJ

I’m guessing you have more than 2 people in your room and the capacity for the Haven Spa room is only 2. 

[Mjdj1220]

1 hour ago, spacedaisy said:

I’m guessing you have more than 2 people in your room and the capacity for the Haven Spa room is only 2. 

There are just 2 of us but when I booked that category showed sold out so I guess that is why I cannot bid on it. 

 

MJ

[Chris_2448]

6 hours ago, Mjdj1220 said:

There are just 2 of us but when I booked that category showed sold out so I guess that is why I cannot bid on it. 

 

MJ

What ship? On the Escape, there is only 1 H8 so it sells out quickly. 

[Mjdj1220]

4 hours ago, Chris_2448 said:

What ship? On the Escape, there is only 1 H8 so it sells out quickly. 

Yes it is the Escape, I never knew there was only 1. Thank you. 

 

MJ

[gizfish]

3 hours ago, Mjdj1220 said:

Yes it is the Escape, I never knew there was only 1. Thank you. 

 

MJ

I actually called the upsell department to see why it is not an option to bid on the deluxe haven spa.  They said that because there is only one, it is never open for bidding on.

[Mjdj1220]

1 hour ago, gizfish said:

I actually called the upsell department to see why it is not an option to bid on the deluxe haven spa.  They said that because there is only one, it is never open for bidding on.

Thank you for the information. 

 

MJ

[Mjdj1220]

1 hour ago, gizfish said:

I actually called the upsell department to see why it is not an option to bid on the deluxe haven spa.  They said that because there is only one, it is never open for bidding on.

Thank you for the information. 

 

MJ

[llarosa]

I understand that your bid can be accepted until two days prior to your cruise (which is this Friday for us!), but are bids ever rejected early?  I suspect ours will be rejected ("Poor" bid for a Mini Suite with everything except inside cabins sold out on our ship)... but wondering if all rejected bids come on the last day.

Edited February 11, 2019 by llarosa