RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[Starry Eyes]

22 minutes ago, watercarving said:

We are on Independence on Monday. Our Royal Up is still pending....does that mean we will get it? I assumed it would be denied by now since it is so close to departure.

Denials often do not come until after the ship sails.  

[sford75]

5 hours ago, april_4_us said:

 I am on March 18th Wonder of the Seas. I got the Royal up, were currently in a Central Park View Balcony. I did get the following:

JS- $400.00 p/p

Ultra spacious OV w/ large balcony $250.00 p/p

Spacious Ocean view balcony $200.00 p/p

Ocean view Balcony $80.00 p/p

 

I went in to see what was available and  currently only 3 JS available; 4 ultra spacious OV w/large balcony.  

 

Can anyone advise on how the Central Park Balconies are. We generally do a regular balcony but in the middle and higher up.  I appreciate everyone's advice and opinions on this. 

 

April 

Do you have kids? The Ultra Spacious balconies are awesome because they have 2 bunk beds. I would want that over the JS, so my son could have a real bed.

 

Updated - Just read it's just your daughter and you. Central Park Balcony would be mid-ship if that's important. Ocean View Balcony could be nice, but you may end up very forward or in the back.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by sford75

[resetjet]

2 hours ago, watercarving said:

We are on Independence on Monday. Our Royal Up is still pending....does that mean we will get it? I assumed it would be denied by now since it is so close to departure.

I would look to see what rooms are available on the ship.  However, right now, they are sailing so empty.  Its a crap shoot.  We got our denials after ship set sail....

[april_4_us]

2 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Oasis class ships are so large that you cannot be close to everything; any room is far from something or another.  So, my favorite location may not be your in the end.

That said, I find the balconies on lower decks on Oasis class to be convenient; I think you will find many who agree with me.  I particularly like deck 8 (Central Park is a nice pass through rather than down the passenger hallway, plus there are restaurants and bars) as well as deck 6 (Boardwalk and bars).  There are people who practically live on the pool deck, so they might go with 12 and some even say 14.

For Central Park balconies, I tend to select the lower decks (10 or 11, though I’ll accept 12) rather than the higher ones, as they get a bit less noise carried down from pool deck and are closer to the trees and night time music in the park)

 

Yes, with a RoyalUp full suite you’d get the zoom, CK, suite lounge perks.  Unless you are already in a JS, you would not get the bonus C&Apoint.

Thanks for the info.  We are the ones who love the pool deck.  Fun in the sun! I figure either way,  we still have a good room.  

[Russ Lomas]

59 minutes ago, resetjet said:

I would look to see what rooms are available on the ship.  However, right now, they are sailing so empty.  Its a crap shoot.  We got our denials after ship set sail....

I am not sure what you mean by "sailing so empty".  Our travel agent looked at availability to see what is available on our cruise coming up 21 days from today.  He said it was about 75% or so sold.  That is not empty.  Especially compared to the 17% occupancy we had on the same ship back in August.

[suebee53]

On 2/17/2022 at 11:27 PM, OSUZorba said:

Shockingly I got my RoyalUp for my March 13th Liberty Cruise.

WHOA! I still haven't heard about my bids on the March 6 LOS, and neither has anyone else on the FB group for our cruise. Well, at least we know Liberty is on their radar! 

[Tall-Cruiser]

3 hours ago, watercarving said:

We are on Independence on Monday. Our Royal Up is still pending....does that mean we will get it? I assumed it would be denied by now since it is so close to departure.

Did you have more than one bid and do some show “Expired”, then have one remaining with “Pending”? If that’s your case, it could be a good sign. That’s the same scenario that I had late Thursday and the next day I received my RoyalUp.

 

Good Luck and hope you get it.

[ticketsunlimited]

31 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

I am not sure what you mean by "sailing so empty".  Our travel agent looked at availability to see what is available on our cruise coming up 21 days from today.  He said it was about 75% or so sold.  That is not empty.  Especially compared to the 17% occupancy we had on the same ship back in August.

Sailing empty means about 50% capacity.  And ships that are 75% sold old out in todays terms are 75% of reduced capacity.  

[Russ Lomas]

5 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

Sailing empty means about 50% capacity.  And ships that are 75% sold old out in todays terms are 75% of reduced capacity.  

I beg to disagree.  Our travel agent posts on these boards constantly and I trust what he says.  He checked for us and came up with those numbers.  I asked him specifically about the thought you had and he said 75% sold, not 75% of the cabins being made available to the public for purchase.  I guess neither of us will know for sure until we board in 21 days and they tell us the number of passengers aboard.  Until then, we will have to agree to disagree.  Personally, I hope you are correct because that will mean a lot more space on the ship for us.

[Starry Eyes]

23 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

I beg to disagree.  Our travel agent posts on these boards constantly and I trust what he says.  He checked for us and came up with those numbers.  I asked him specifically about the thought you had and he said 75% sold, not 75% of the cabins being made available to the public for purchase.  I guess neither of us will know for sure until we board in 21 days and they tell us the number of passengers aboard.  Until then, we will have to agree to disagree.  Personally, I hope you are correct because that will mean a lot more space on the ship for us.

You are cruising during one of the spring break weeks.  Many colleges are off that week; I assume some other schools are as well.  In normal times, I suspect that sailing would have been priced at a premium and would be sold out(or nearly so) three weeks out.  So if the 75% is accurate, it still sounds low to me for the time of year.  I guess it depends whether your frame of reference is 17% or 110%.  

 

[Cruise a holic]

We are also cruising in three weeks. hope ship only 75% capacity or less.  College spring break in our state

[resetjet]

16 hours ago, Russ Lomas said:

I am not sure what you mean by "sailing so empty".  Our travel agent looked at availability to see what is available on our cruise coming up 21 days from today.  He said it was about 75% or so sold.  That is not empty.  Especially compared to the 17% occupancy we had on the same ship back in August.

We were on OASIS last week.....2800 or so passengers.  That's empty.  They are spacing people out for covid, so although there is a ton of rooms, they don't want everyone in the balconies and nobody in the inside.  I don't feel minimum bids will work right now.  75% with 3 weeks is pretty empty too compared to pre pandemic levels.  Usually they are near 100%.

[moonltnite]

18 hours ago, suebee53 said:

WHOA! I still haven't heard about my bids on the March 6 LOS, and neither has anyone else on the FB group for our cruise. Well, at least we know Liberty is on their radar! 

No one on our FB group for the March 6th Oasis has had any RoyalUp bids accepted yet, either.  We also don't have anyone that has some bids expired and one or more pending but not modifiable.  We'll see what ends up happening.  It did seem like a number of February sailings had RoyalUp bids accepted 2 weeks or more prior to their sailings.  I have a feeling that's not happening with March sailings.  It's two weeks from our sailing today.

[Ready2SailAway]

 

FYI  I called RCCL and confirmed at this time their cruise bookings are limited to 50-65% passenger capacity thru 31Mar...

 

[Russ Lomas]

1 hour ago, resetjet said:

We were on OASIS last week.....2800 or so passengers.  That's empty.  They are spacing people out for covid, so although there is a ton of rooms, they don't want everyone in the balconies and nobody in the inside.  I don't feel minimum bids will work right now.  75% with 3 weeks is pretty empty too compared to pre pandemic levels.  Usually they are near 100%.

I agree that 75% is a good passenger load for both the experience for us and revenue for RCCL.  We always cruise in Ontario's March break week (other than the past 2 years of course), and ships are always 100% sold on those weeks usually.

 

2800 on the Oasis sounds amazing.  We had only 970 on the Odyssey and honestly, it was too quiet and missing the atmosphere.  I bid $5 above the minimum for an upgrade from an inside cabin to a balcony and was awarded it 3 weeks before our upcoming cruise.

[Russ Lomas]

13 minutes ago, Ready2SailAway said:

 

FYI  I called RCCL and confirmed at this time their cruise bookings are limited to 50-65% passenger capacity thru 31Mar...

 

I am not sure who you spoke to.  Often the people answering the phones will have no clue as to things such as that.  That said, they could very well know something that we are not privy to.  I will be over the moon to cruise in March at 50-60% capacity.

[Ready2SailAway]

5 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

I am not sure who you spoke to.  Often the people answering the phones will have no clue as to things such as that.  That said, they could very well know something that we are not privy to.  I will be over the moon to cruise in March at 50-60% capacity.

 

I spoke to an RCCL vacation planner - and if the information they provided is accurate, then this explains why inventory is available for RoyalUP but not for new bookings online.

 

But do feel free to call and let us know if you learn something different.

 

btw  If someone on this thread has an inside contact at RCCL, it would be helpful to check with them and get the straight scoop - as I certainly do not want to spread misinformation...

 

[Russ Lomas]

24 minutes ago, Ready2SailAway said:

 

I spoke to an RCCL vacation planner - and if the information they provided is accurate, then this explains why inventory is available for RoyalUP but not for new bookings online.

 

But do feel free to call and let us know if you learn something different.

 

btw  If someone on this thread has an inside contact at RCCL, it would be helpful to check with them and get the straight scoop - as I certainly do not want to spread misinformation...

 

When we were on the Odyssey back in August, I spoke with the cruise director during the sailing, and he told me how many guests were registered (not all make it onboard due to not having proper documentation or testing positive for Covid pre-cruise) for the next voyage.  If you talk to someone going on the cruise previous to your cruise, they may be able to find this information out for you if you would like it.  Whether at 50% or 100% capacity, we intend to sail.  I will expect it at 100% full (like they usually are in March) and be happy with anything less than that.

[Blizzard54]

I expect they may be holding off processing March Royal-up's to see what the effect of lifting mandatory mask from sailings has on last minute bookings.   (Or possibility last minute cancelations)

 

[sford75]

1 hour ago, Russ Lomas said:

I am not sure who you spoke to.  Often the people answering the phones will have no clue as to things such as that.  That said, they could very well know something that we are not privy to.  I will be over the moon to cruise in March at 50-60% capacity.

I've been told by several reliable sources, they are selling at 75% capacity now. Usually, they don't hit that, so that sail at less, but that's the "sell out" point.

Edited February 20, 2022 by sford75

[Blizzard54]

I have been seeing some very low prices for some of the March sailings.  It looks like they are trying to put as many as they can on these sailings.

[Ashland]

My recent cruise on Navigator (7 nighter) we had 1100 onboard and it was great.

My March B2B on Explorer if it has any where near that capacity will be perfect.

[terpshockey77]

2 hours ago, Blizzard54 said:

I expect they may be holding off processing March Royal-up's to see what the effect of lifting mandatory mask from sailings has on last minute bookings.   (Or possibility last minute cancelations)

 

I received the email for our March cruise and thought that I would have time to revise bids as we didn't find out our bid was accepted until 4 days beforehand last July.  The bid was acceped the day I made the bid for a spacious balcony over a month before the cruise.  Have checked back to see if we could bid for junior suite which we had in July and I get the message that bid was accepted and other categories show expired.

[luckyinpa]

is this the spacious or regular 2 bedroom. 1400 max bid leads me to believe it's the normal 2br not the spacious. for perspective on oasis the spacious is listed at 7K per person while the CLS which is what i am in now, is at 3100 (i paid much less thru my TA though).  1400 seems like a bargain though for star class regardless. 

 

[Blizzard54]

17 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

is this the spacious or regular 2 bedroom. 1400 max bid leads me to believe it's the normal 2br not the spacious. for perspective on oasis the spacious is listed at 7K per person while the CLS which is what i am in now, is at 3100 (i paid much less thru my TA though).  1400 seems like a bargain though for star class regardless. 

 

That is a deal for that suite.  I have a bid in on one for next week, but I am not too optimistic.