RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, CTSandy said:

If I won this bid and we chose to let the younger couple share with us, would I have to rebook for them and pay additional charges? 

Yes, you would reprice at current rates. 

[DiWilliams]

On 6/20/2022 at 12:10 PM, joan&jen said:

Hi everyone. I am now 27 days away from my cruise on Voyager  of the Seas and anxiously looking to see if we have been upgraded.  The ship does not look very full and there are a large number of suites in all categories available. I bid on 4 categories. 

Good luck! We are also sailing on Voyager the first week in July (only 11 days now!) and had one of our Royal Up bids accepted 12 days ago. Went from JS to OS. Like with your sailing there were a large number of suites available before the Royal Up upgrades were allocated. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[joan&jen]

Yay. Got my Royal Up from balcony on the bump out to grand suite. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by joan&jen

[DiWilliams]

8 hours ago, joan&jen said:

Yay. Got my Royal Up from balcony on the bump out to grand suite. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. 

Congrats! Enjoy 🙂

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I received an email offer (Royal Up) just yesterday for our 8/12 Independence sailing. We're in a GS, so there were minimum bids there for the 2 bedroom GS ($70pp), OS ($105pp), and RS ($385pp).

 

There was no way I wanted to shell out (a minimum of) $770 to get the RS so I bid $450 (total) on both the 2Br GS and the OS. That didn't move the meter very much, but that's as high as I'm willing to go, as the GS is a good cabin to begin with. It would be nice to have a larger balcony or a second bathroom though. 

 

I guess I'll just sit back and see what happens.

 

Tom

[BND]

On 6/21/2022 at 8:34 PM, CTSandy said:

Niece and I booked in a Jr. Suite, her son and wife booked in an inside cabin.  One of the move up offers for me is a two bedroom suite - if I won this bid and we chose to let the younger couple share with us, would I have to rebook for them and pay additional charges?  Thanks!

You'd have to call and work that out or go through your TA who'd have to.   It would be you winning the bid/upgrade from  your cabin, not them.

Edited June 29, 2022 by BND

[BND]

We leave in 23 days on EN.  It's completely sold out so expecting not to get JS to GS RoyalUp.  I doubt anyone gets one unless there's a last minute cancellation, but odds are not likely to be a suite since there are so few.  And, no one on either our roll call (small here) or on FB have reported getting one.  There might be one or two when we hit two days out and start testing, but I doubt anyone is holding their breath 🙂

 

[OCSC Mike]

This won't excite anyone, but we just won a RoyalUp from an interior GTY to a promenade view interior for the 1st half of our Indy B2B 14 days out. We drew the short straw and were originally assigned deck 3 (would never choose to be in the basement trapped behind the ice rink, lol) so we're happy.

 

The min bid was only $15 and we bid a tiny bit more. One interesting note is that yesterday the cruise was showing as completely sold out except for one junior suite. Just before I got the RoyalUp e-mail, I noticed some interiors had appeared (as had other categories) and I was just about to text my TA to try to move us.

 

So anyway, yay for the cheapo upgrade, and don't assume that a "sold out" cruise won't open up in the final 2 weeks.

Edited July 1, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[long4acruise]

14 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

This won't excite anyone, but we just won a RoyalUp from an interior GTY to a promenade view interior for the 1st half of our Indy B2b 14 days out

Congratulations! Always excited for anyone who can "rise to the top" and improve their situation!

The Promenade interiors have a little more room and the window seating is great for people watching and the excitement below. Enjoy.

[familycruzinnewbie]

I had an OV guarantee. I received Royal up bids after final payment. I placed a bunch. I checked in at 45days and found out room in Apple wallet. When they confirmed room via email my bids were canceled and they gave me link to make new bids. But minimum bids increased. I made new bids. But then they were canceled again. Only change was we depart 1 hr earlier. Bid minimums are the same so I bid again. But???

[orville99]

16 hours ago, familycruzinnewbie said:

I had an OV guarantee. I received Royal up bids after final payment. I placed a bunch. I checked in at 45days and found out room in Apple wallet. When they confirmed room via email my bids were canceled and they gave me link to make new bids. But minimum bids increased. I made new bids. But then they were canceled again. Only change was we depart 1 hr earlier. Bid minimums are the same so I bid again. But???

We have done bids and then cancelled them because we didn't like the rooms that showed as available. We waited until the last minute (literally within a week of the sail dates) on a few of those and when more desirable cabins showed as available we re-bid the minimum amount. So far, we have won two CLS and one GS upgrade doing it that way at an average of ~$500/upgrade for the two of us.

 

May not always work, but it is now he only way we will ever bid.

[Pryzeless]

We have 5 people in a room requiring 2 separate reservations (Spacious Balcony). I have not received any upgrade email and the website gives me the standard error even though we are within 30 days. Do you think given my room reservation situation that I am not eligible for a bid? Is there someone who I can call and find out? 

ETA: I know others on my sailing have been given offers to bid. 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Pryzeless

[FamilyCruiserUK]

We have just received a royal up offfer. So having never done one before we put in a couple of bids. We dont expect to get them as the offers we put in were classed as weak. But its a bit of fun

[orville99]

12 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

We have just received a royal up offfer. So having never done one before we put in a couple of bids. We dont expect to get them as the offers we put in were classed as weak. But its a bit of fun

We see it as a game as well. We always bid the minimum, and if we don't win - no big deal, because we always book the cabin type we enjoy anyway. If we do win - we enjoy the game even more. I've probably dropped more $$ in the casino on a cruise than we have ever paid for a RoyalUP upgrade🤑

[Ggrrl1]

56 minutes ago, Pryzeless said:

We have 5 people in a room requiring 2 separate reservations (Spacious Balcony). I have not received any upgrade email and the website gives me the standard error even though we are within 30 days. Do you think given my room reservation situation that I am not eligible for a bid? Is there someone who I can call and find out? 

ETA: I know others on my sailing have been given offers to bid. 

It appears to be a bit random. I also wonder if there isn't a preference given for people with only two booked in a cabin. By way of example, my sister and I are taking our kids on the Allure in August. I booked the rooms through a travel agent for both of us. I have myself and three kids in one crown loft suite. My sister and her son are in the one next to us. She is able to participate in Royal Up whereas I get the error message. 

[familycruzinnewbie]

They canceled my bids. again due to change in reservation. I don’t know what they are doing

[LarryHD2]

For those of you that use a TA that locks you out of RoyalUp...

 

On our cruise a few weeks ago we asked for available upgrades for our kid's cabin when we boarded the ship. We were handed a card on how to enter a bid through RoyalUp.  I tried explaining we were locked out by our TA but they didn't seem to have heard that before.

 

We were told we then had to wait till after sail away.  They then wanted $250pp, which was more than I knew what other winning bids were....  anyhow, we passed.  The ship was 1/3 full.

[flamingos]

15 minutes ago, LarryHD2 said:

For those of you that use a TA that locks you out of RoyalUp...

 

It does not lock you out of the bidding. I've gotten the email on 4 of my last 5 cruises since start-up.  Whether having a TA is why I didn't win one......or my very weak bid, that I cannot say.  🙂

[LarryHD2]

1 hour ago, flamingos said:

 

It does not lock you out of the bidding. I've gotten the email on 4 of my last 5 cruises since start-up.  Whether having a TA is why I didn't win one......or my very weak bid, that I cannot say.  🙂

There are certain TA's that do indeed lock you out of RoyalUp...  Costco Travel is one and they state such on their website.

[Biker19]

I don't recall anyone mentioning this "feature" of the bidding process. While min bidding amount changing and cabin categories being added (after initial invite) have been discussed previously, I noticed that some cabin categories were removed since first being able to bid.

 

75 days out, got the invite to bid and all categories from just above existing cabin all the way up to Royal Suite was biddable. Sometime in the past two weeks, when clicking on the original invite, all categories above two major ones over existing category have disappeared.

 

So, with a balcony, the bidding is limited only up to a GS, whereas before bids were available all the way to RS. The existing bids on categories which are no longer shown as biddable (like OS) are still in Pending status, but, clicking on the Modify link, leads to a blank page. 

[Jerseygirl1416]

24 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I don't recall anyone mentioning this "feature" of the bidding process. While min bidding amount changing and cabin categories being added (after initial invite) have been discussed previously, I noticed that some cabin categories were removed since first being able to bid.

 

75 days out, got the invite to bid and all categories from just above existing cabin all the way up to Royal Suite was biddable. Sometime in the past two weeks, when clicking on the original invite, all categories above two major ones over existing category have disappeared.

 

So, with a balcony, the bidding is limited only up to a GS, whereas before bids were available all the way to RS. The existing bids on categories which are no longer shown as biddable (like OS) are still in Pending status, but, clicking on the Modify link, leads to a blank page. 

I’m confused. I just got an email invite to bid today for a September cruise. I’m currently in an oceanview large balcony cabin. All categories above were available to bid on. So you’re saying you can bid on those higher categories but the bids above GS aren’t considered?

[OCSC Mike]

28 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I don't recall anyone mentioning this "feature" of the bidding process. While min bidding amount changing and cabin categories being added (after initial invite) have been discussed previously, I noticed that some cabin categories were removed since first being able to bid.

 

75 days out, got the invite to bid and all categories from just above existing cabin all the way up to Royal Suite was biddable. Sometime in the past two weeks, when clicking on the original invite, all categories above two major ones over existing category have disappeared.

 

So, with a balcony, the bidding is limited only up to a GS, whereas before bids were available all the way to RS. The existing bids on categories which are no longer shown as biddable (like OS) are still in Pending status, but, clicking on the Modify link, leads to a blank page. 

 

As I started with the cheapest cabin on the ship, I could bid on pretty much anything 45 days out. Now that my B2B is in 8 days, many categories are no longer available.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Same for us. two categories we can no longer bid on. Two are pending and we can modify. 1  is pending but when we go into it we cant modify it and comes up with a blank page. 

 

Cruise departs 14/8. 

[Biker19]

16 minutes ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

All categories above were available to bid on.

As you get closer to the sailing, some of those may disappear and you won’t be able to bid on. 

[dritan]

So went in this morning to look at my sailing and all the suites are now unavailable ( there had been about 20 grand suites still available a few days ago.

Popped over to my bid and three of my bids are now expired and the grand suite one is pending.  Am I getting my hopes up here that I've been allocated one of those grand suites?  Anyone got any experience of this.  I would have thought all would have been expired if I'd been unsuccessful.  Cruise is in 13 days time.