RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

Do the Royal Up minimum bids fluctuate up and down?

Yes, but as mentioned in a previous post, the new normal seems to be to call that a "sale".

[chrisby]

On 1/12/2022 at 8:29 PM, island lady said:

 

I upgraded on board.   OS for half of what my "Royal up" bid was.  😉 

How did you go about getting upgraded on board? Did you do it during check in or did you go to Customer Service on the ship right away?

 

 

[chrisby]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:40 PM, Hampton99 said:

Over a week ago 4 out of 5 bids expired one showed pending.  The pending grand suite upgraded today.  We are on the January 31 sailing of the Anthem of the seas.

May I ask what you bud to get the GS?

[island lady]

8 hours ago, Painter4me said:

How long did you have to wait for your offer to be accepted? I’ve been waiting for over a week for a 1/30 sailing. Yes, I’m very impatient.  You don’t need to tell me. My husband constantly tells me this! Lol

 

I did not find out until well after sail away, in the middle of the night.... that I had been declined.  

[boscobeans]

Boarding today.

Bid ($680) on a JS is still pending.

 

Tell RCCL to get another system, please.

[tbo]

Others on my sailing have received their upgrades already for 1/29, I have 2 showing pending. Will they have more upgrades or is that pretty much it?

[jonj]

58 minutes ago, boscobeans said:

Boarding today.

Bid ($680) on a JS is still pending.

 

Tell RCCL to get another system, please.

I have heard with reduced capacity you can ask at guest service if they have any upgrades. Have not done this myself. 

[island lady]

57 minutes ago, boscobeans said:

Boarding today.

Bid ($680) on a JS is still pending.

 

Tell RCCL to get another system, please.

 

Totally agree there.  Should be the day before at the latest...or at least even the morning of.   Not hours after sail away.  They need to draw a line and tell us one way in a more professional and timely manner ...accepted or declined.  

 

After that, if there are cabins still available assuming the ship did not fill up...just go to GS desk to ask.  

 

They are trying to have it both ways...does not work.  

[island lady]

25 minutes ago, jonj said:

I have heard with reduced capacity you can ask at guest service if they have any upgrades. Have not done this myself. 

 

I have.   Bid 1000 on GS for cruise on the 2nd of this month.  Still showing pending after sail away.  Went to GS desk and asked about upgrade from my JS to GS.  They had plenty, and even choice of decks.  She told me it would be 600 to upgrade.  Happily took it.   Middle of the night I finally get my "denial" email from Royal UP.  

 

The following week, having a B2B...had a 2200 bid in for an OS, as I really wanted to try one for the first time.  Royal up still pending, and sail away had begun.  This time....I cancelled the bid and went down to GS desk again.  Received upgrade to OS for 1000.  

 

Score 400 + 1200 for Island Lady.....RCI loses 1600 by using that program.  I wonder how many other loses that company is causing them?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by island lady

[tbo]

4 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I have.   Bid 1000 on GS on the 2nd of this month.  Still showing pending after sail away.  Went to GS desk and asked about upgrade from my JS to GS.  They had plenty, and even choice of decks.  She told me it would be 600 to upgrade.  Happily took it.   Middle of the night I finally get my "denial" email from Royal UP.  

 

The following week, having a B2B...had a 2200 bid in for an OS, as I really wanted to try one for the first time.  Royal up still pending, and sail away had begun.  This time....I cancelled the bid and went down to GS desk again.  Received upgrade to OS for 1000.  

 

Score 400 + 1200 for Island Lady.....RCI loses 1600 by using that program.  I wonder how many other loses that company is causing them?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm keeping track of how many available rooms they have on my sailing for the bids I have in, I will be trying this strategy if I'm not lucky enough to win and haven't heard by sail away. And like you said, they should have a more efficient system, so it's their loss that I won't feel a bit bad about! Thanks!

 

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, tbo said:

I'm keeping track of how many available rooms they have on my sailing for the bids I have in, I will be trying this strategy if I'm not lucky enough to win and haven't heard by sail away. And like you said, they should have a more efficient system, so it's their loss that I won't feel a bit bad about! Thanks!

 

 

You are most welcome.  I detailed that account in my survey afterwards to RCI.  Explained how they are losing money on that program.  And with RCI....money talks. 

 

Maybe Royal UP will be asked to tighten up...and at least let us know the day before at the latest someday.    That program is flawed.  

[tbo]

1 minute ago, island lady said:

 

You are most welcome.  I detailed that account in my survey afterwards to RCI.  Explained how they are losing money on that program.  And with RCI....money talks. 

 

Maybe Royal UP will be asked to tighten up...and at least let us know the day before at the latest someday.    That program is flawed.  

This is my first time on Royal, and they definitely do things different than other lines I've been on. It is a different environment with covid so I get that some things have to be done differently.

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, island lady said:

Maybe Royal UP will be asked to tighten up...and at least let us know the day before at the latest someday.    That program is flawed.  

The COVID era, and especially with this Omicron wave and its corresponding wave of cancellations, there may be a bunch of cabins become available on sailaway day. I assume that's one of the reasons they have left some notifications that late, but as you said it's not working.

[Starry Eyes]

40 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I have.   Bid 1000 on GS for cruise on the 2nd of this month.  Still showing pending after sail away.  Went to GS desk and asked about upgrade from my JS to GS.  They had plenty, and even choice of decks.  She told me it would be 600 to upgrade.  Happily took it.   Middle of the night I finally get my "denial" email from Royal UP.  

 

The following week, having a B2B...had a 2200 bid in for an OS, as I really wanted to try one for the first time.  Royal up still pending, and sail away had begun.  This time....I cancelled the bid and went down to GS desk again.  Received upgrade to OS for 1000.  

 

Score 400 + 1200 for Island Lady.....RCI loses 1600 by using that program.  I wonder how many other loses that company is causing them?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I understand that the program frustrates you.  Certainly one must be flexible to deal with the program’s issues and design.

 

None of us have seen the contract between the third party and RCI; presumably it was designed before covid (or the full impact of covid on cancellations).  We do not know relevant details, such as deadline for RCI to turn inventory over to the third party, the processing time allocated to the third party,  etc.  The contract terms may effectively preclude Royal from turning late cancellation inventory over to the third party and/or the third party may not be obliged to process it in time.  We just don’t know.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, Starry Eyes said:

presumably it was designed before covid (or the full impact of covid on cancellations).

Pretty sure something was modified during the restart - I don't think anyone had ever reported getting the denial email after sail away pre COVID.

[island lady]

15 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

I understand that the program frustrates you.  Certainly one must be flexible to deal with the program’s issues and design.

 

None of us have seen the contract between the third party and RCI; presumably it was designed before covid (or the full impact of covid on cancellations).  We do not know relevant details, such as deadline for RCI to turn inventory over to the third party, the processing time allocated to the third party,  etc.  The contract terms may effectively preclude Royal from turning late cancellation inventory over to the third party and/or the third party may not be obliged to process it in time.  We just don’t know.

 

Bottom line is what matters.  RCI is losing money on the Royal UP program.  

 

I have found a way to get around it.  As others have.  Saving myself a lot of money.  I am sure this is not how RCI wanted the program to run.

 

RCI needs to inform the program that they need to put a limit on how late they can inform bidders, accepted or declined.  Once again, should be day before ...or at least the morning of, before boarding.  

 

Sending me an email of denial middle of the night, well after sail away is silly.  Especially since there were many GS cabins still available, with Guest Services  desk only too happy to upgrade me.  Both suites on either side of me went empty.  And the JS I had, another couple was able to upgrade to that cabin.  Which would not have happened if I did not upgrade on board.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by island lady

[binro01]

Just some thoughts as a SaaS (Software as a Service) Principal Engineer who specialises in complex algorithms, and 3rd party integrations for data science.

1. The fact that the vendor who handles RoyalUp can not figure out how to "finish/complete" a bidding cycle and send out notifications to bidders in a timely manner is unacceptable in a software sense, as well as a business sense .
2. Because of the need to have a finished/completed bidding cycle to have proper notifications, during this time of COVID, it is perfectly understandable that Royal might have additional cabins for upgrade because of last minute cancellations, boarding refusal and no-shows. Integrations that has fluid inventory from a 3rd party has two options to transfer data, upon change of the inventory system state (difficult and costly) or on a scheduled point of time via a defined interface. (not easy but definitely less difficult and lower cost). I will not get in the specifics. RoyalUp might not ever know of the late forming included inventory available for upgrade. The GS desk is a last point for revenue enhancement after a scheduled interface for bidding has closed. It's probably cheaper for them to gain revenue from the GS personal request for upgrade path than to have a more dynamic inventory system built, tested, and placed into operation with monitoring.Or they just don't have the software engineering talent in house to make such a complex system with confidence.\

TLDR; Use RoyalUp for what it is, If you fail to get an upgrade, make a trip to GS immediately to put yourself on a list for upgrade once they have the final passenger manifest and be flexible to move if you have done such.

[island lady]

12 minutes ago, binro01 said:

Just some thoughts as a SaaS (Software as a Service) Principal Engineer who specialises in complex algorithms, and 3rd party integrations for data science.

1. The fact that the vendor who handles RoyalUp can not figure out how to "finish/complete" a bidding cycle and send out notifications to bidders in a timely manner is unacceptable in a software sense, as well as a business sense .
2. Because of the need to have a finished/completed bidding cycle to have proper notifications, during this time of COVID, it is perfectly understandable that Royal might have additional cabins for upgrade because of last minute cancellations, boarding refusal and no-shows. Integrations that has fluid inventory from a 3rd party has two options to transfer data, upon change of the inventory system state (difficult and costly) or on a scheduled point of time via a defined interface. (not easy but definitely less difficult and lower cost). I will not get in the specifics. RoyalUp might not ever know of the late forming included inventory available for upgrade. The GS desk is a last point for revenue enhancement after a scheduled interface for bidding has closed. It's probably cheaper for them to gain revenue from the GS personal request for upgrade path than to have a more dynamic inventory system built, tested, and placed into operation with monitoring.Or they just don't have the software engineering talent in house to make such a complex system with confidence.\

TLDR; Use RoyalUp for what it is, If you fail to get an upgrade, make a trip to GS immediately to put yourself on a list for upgrade once they have the final passenger manifest and be flexible to move if you have done such.

 

Well stated.  Though tough to not unpack when you check in, on the hope you that you may or may not score a direct upgrade with GS desk...it is working for me to upgrade direct...so far anyway. 

 

Indeed, maybe someday the program will put a limit as to how late they can inform pax, accepted or declined.  

[Kcason20]

If you want to attempt to upgrade on day of sailing do you ask upon check in at the port or once onboard at Guest Services?

[Biker19]

7 minutes ago, Kcason20 said:

If you want to attempt to upgrade on day of sailing do you ask upon check in at the port or once onboard at Guest Services?

On board, after sail away.

[Cruise a holic]

29 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

On board, after sail away.

 

29 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

On board, after sail away.

I got an upgrade.  The reason was I was the first person on line at guest services.  I made a dash to guest services as soon as I boarded.  Fortunately, I was the first person on line.  I told them I wanted an upgrade and was immediately told if somebody didn't show up I would be able to get the suite.  I was told not to unpack yet!  

 

Other people on the line were also trying to upgrade.  I was the first person on line and got after the sailaway was issued the suite. The additional amount I paid was a bargain!    Not sure if others were as successful.

 

 The ships staff moved my luggage!  don't wait to ask!!  Good luck.

[Schpoompie]

Received our Royal Up bid acceptance upgrade today. We’re on the Harmony 01/30-02/06. Originally booked a guaranteed interior, offered to bid on several categories up to Ocean View Balcony, which was our highest bid at $150.00pp, but was considered a “weak” bid on the Royal Up scale. Got the ocean view balcony, placed mid-ship on deck 11. Pricing it out online, we’re paying less than half of what we would have paid had we chosen that cabin ourselves, so we’re very happy with the outcome! 😀

 

Good luck to those still waiting to hear, and happy and healthy sailing to everyone!! 🛳😀

[tbo]

I just checked my bids, GS bid is now expired and JS bid is pending and I cannot modify or cancel it. Fingers crossed that means we got it!

[binro01]

11 minutes ago, tbo said:

I just checked my bids, GS bid is now expired and JS bid is pending and I cannot modify or cancel it. Fingers crossed that means we got it!

Do you mind if I ask what was your bid on th JS? I'm on Allure at the end February and trying to decide what is "competitive".

[Cruises are us]

I'm curious to know how you all "checked" your bids.  I just looked in my cruise planner and saw the change in the room.  I don't know how else to check.