Couple Of Upgrade Questions

[KennyFla]

We received the upgrade email last night for our Oct 17 cruise.  We are in balcony yacht club room, and were offered chance to upgrade to Royal Suite (way out of our budget) or Executive Family Suite(better).

 

1) Looking at the Family suite, the description says sealed panoramic windows.  Does this mean you do not have access to a balcony?  There is clearly a balcony visible in the pictures.

 

2) Has anyone underbid the minimum and still received the upgrade?  We are extremely happy with our room, but I may throw out a low bid.  

 

TIA

[dexddd]

12 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

We received the upgrade email last night for our Oct 17 cruise.  We are in balcony yacht club room, and were offered chance to upgrade to Royal Suite (way out of our budget) or Executive Family Suite(better).

 

1) Looking at the Family suite, the description says sealed panoramic windows.  Does this mean you do not have access to a balcony?  There is clearly a balcony visible in the pictures.

 

2) Has anyone underbid the minimum and still received the upgrade?  We are extremely happy with our room, but I may throw out a low bid.  

 

TIA

You must be on Divinia?  We sailed her in a Royal and the now higher priced Grand Balcony.  We got that by chance as MSC didn't charge more for those at the time yet they coveted those cabins at the time.

 

The Exec room is in the 350 sq ft range, slightly smaller than the RS, but no access to the  balcony.  I've never figured out why they did that other than maybe the slant of wind panels.

 

We have a Sept trip on her in that  room.  We aren't big balcony people and did not feel price for RS worth it.  The RS balcony is large but narrow with high panels.  We also did not have any extra benefits with RS.

 

Both have a door between master and living room, actually two in the case of the exec.

[KennyFla]

9 minutes ago, dexddd said:

You must be on Divinia?  We sailed her in a Royal and the now higher priced Grand Balcony.  We got that by chance as MSC didn't charge more for those at the time yet they coveted those cabins at the time.

 

The Exec room is in the 350 sq ft range, slightly smaller than the RS, but no access to the  balcony.  I've never figured out why they did that other than maybe the slant of wind panels.

Does anybody have access to that balcony?  Do people hover around your bedroom window?

[Tapi]

49 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

2) Has anyone underbid the minimum and still received the upgrade?  We are extremely happy with our room, but I may throw out a low bid.

I also received the email. Upgrade from a Bella balcony to a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite for $270pp. I clicked on the link and tried to move the slide below $270 to put in a lower bid but it wouldn’t let me go any lower than $270. 
 

EDIT: Going directly on the MSC website allows me to place a lower bid. I should try it just for kicks. 😀

Edited August 4, 2021 by Tapi

[KennyFla]

3 minutes ago, Tapi said:

I also received the email. Upgrade from a Bella balcony to a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite for $270pp. I clicked on the link and tried to move the slide below $270 to put in a lower bid but it wouldn’t let me go any lower than $270. I also wonder if there’s a different way to place a lower bid. 

Even at $270pp that seems to be a good deal.

[KennyFla]

1 hour ago, Tapi said:

 

EDIT: Going directly on the MSC website allows me to place a lower bid. I should try it just for kicks. 😀

I logged in on the MSC website but do not see how to bid there.  How did you do it?

[alyssamma]

23 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

I logged in on the MSC website but do not see how to bid there.  How did you do it?

You have to get an email offering the upgrade...there is a link in the email.

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

I also received the email. Upgrade from a Bella balcony to a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite for $270pp. I clicked on the link and tried to move the slide below $270 to put in a lower bid but it wouldn’t let me go any lower than $270. 
 

EDIT: Going directly on the MSC website allows me to place a lower bid. I should try it just for kicks. 😀

$270 from Balcony to YC????   I am in YC interior and my minimum bid to get a Balcony YC room is more than that? They want $405 minimum.

Steve

[Até]

2 hours ago, KennyFla said:

Does anybody have access to that balcony?  Do people hover around your bedroom window?

Only crew can get on that "balcony", they usually wait until turnover day and go there to clean the windows.

 

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

I also received the email. Upgrade from a Bella balcony to a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite for $270pp. I clicked on the link and tried to move the slide below $270 to put in a lower bid but it wouldn’t let me go any lower than $270.

MSC is having a hard time selling those Fall cruises.  How many night sailing is the $270pp for?  I just looked at Meraviglia for all of September the Yacht Club is barely sold.  The two seven night sailings at the end of the month have perhaps 25% of the YC Deluxe booked but the shorter cruises earlier in the month have several sailings less than 10% booked.

 

I'm a bit surprised MSC is still showing this vast availability, they used to try to hide large amounts of unsold YC cabins close to sailing.  I really don't like this sales model, almost identical to NCL with the Haven.  Even with all the hype about Yacht Club it just doesn't seem to be working for MSC as well and YC sales are way down. 

 

Lots of opportunity for the bidders as long as MSC makes the minimum bids match reality.  In the past MSC typically made the minimum bids so high you were almost paying the same rate as when the sailing was first announced.  With these new Fall sailings MSC started the YC extremely high and has kept them there, hence the poor sales.  I'd be interested in hearing if as the sail date gets closer the minimum bids start to drop.  YC will sail full.

[KennyFla]

3 minutes ago, Até said:

Only crew can get on that "balcony", they usually wait until turnover day and go there to clean the windows.

 

MSC is having a hard time selling those Fall cruises.  How many night sailing is the $270pp for?  I just looked at Meraviglia for all of September the Yacht Club is barely sold.  The two seven night sailings at the end of the month have perhaps 25% of the YC Deluxe booked but the shorter cruises earlier in the month have several sailings less than 10% booked.

 

I'm a bit surprised MSC is still showing this vast availability, they used to try to hide large amounts of unsold YC cabins close to sailing.  I really don't like this sales model, almost identical to NCL with the Haven.  Even with all the hype about Yacht Club it just doesn't seem to be working for MSC as well and YC sales are way down. 

 

Lots of opportunity for the bidders as long as MSC makes the minimum bids match reality.  In the past MSC typically made the minimum bids so high you were almost paying the same rate as when the sailing was first announced.  With these new Fall sailings MSC started the YC extremely high and has kept them there, hence the poor sales.  I'd be interested in hearing if as the sail date gets closer the minimum bids start to drop.  YC will sail full.

Have you heard of people getting another cheaper bid opportunity closer to cruise date?

[mscdivina2016]

5 minutes ago, Até said:

.  With these new Fall sailings MSC started the YC extremely high and has kept them there, hence the poor sales.  I'd be interested in hearing if as the sail date gets closer the minimum bids start to drop.  YC will sail full.

When they first came out for booking, they were actually low.  I grabbed an interior YC for cheaper than a Balcony cabin, but when I say that, I factored in the cost of the booze package and the wifi, since YC comes with that.

 Now to book the same cabin (when it was available) it is/was almost $700 more.

Steve

 

[Até]

11 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

When they first came out for booking, they were actually low.  I grabbed an interior YC for cheaper than a Balcony cabin, but when I say that, I factored in the cost of the booze package and the wifi, since YC comes with that.

 Now to book the same cabin (when it was available) it is/was almost $700 more.

Steve

Were you booked on an older itinerary that was moved or one of the new itineraries?   When did you book, and which sailing?

Edited August 4, 2021 by Até

[Até]

18 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

Have you heard of people getting another cheaper bid opportunity closer to cruise date?

No, but in the past MSC never had this many unsold YC cabins.  Things have changed.

[mscdivina2016]

3 minutes ago, Até said:

Were you booked on an older itinerary that was moved or one of the new itineraries?   When did you book, and which sailing?

Booked Meraviglia for this Oct and Seashore for next March, last year.  They did alter itinerary for Meraviglia a little. 

Steve

[mscdivina2016]

7 minutes ago, Até said:

No, but in the past MSC never had this many unsold YC cabins.  Things have changed.

What can they do other than bid for upgrade?  I just might book a regular balcony on the same sailing and see.  I know I am past final but I will just use the 48 hour cancel guarantee and use the funds to book another next year. If the bid deal from the balcony is better than YC bid upgrade, I will cancel YC and still end up there.

Steve

[alyssamma]

8 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

What can they do other than bid for upgrade?  I just might book a regular balcony on the same sailing and see.  I know I am past final but I will just use the 48 hour cancel guarantee and use the funds to book another next year. If the bid deal from the balcony is better than YC bid upgrade, I will cancel YC and still end up there.

Steve

Just understand the MSC bid process. They "offer" a lowball bid, but once you are there, there is a gauge that tells you how likely your bid is to be accepted...from my experience you have to at *least* double your bid to have a "good" chance.

 

Not sure if anyone else can chime in with their experiences...and of course, YMMV with covid/restart/etc. Maybe MSC is more "hungry"

[Até]

1 minute ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Booked Meraviglia for this Oct and Seashore for next March, last year.  They did alter itinerary for Meraviglia a little. 

Steve

Sorry, I didn't look at your signature.  Yes, last year MSC still had some initial "reasonable" pricing on YC.  I picked up YC interiors for just under $3000/week with $500 OBC/week directly from MSC.  Earlier on I was able to consistently find YC Interiors for around $2500 and YC Deluxe for around $3800 per week. 

 

But I am referring to after mid July, 2021 when MSC re-released these new "US re-start" itineraries.  Some people, like you, who had booked before the re-start itineraries were announced got moved at the old prices.  But the new prices for a new booking, especially for YC, were extreme from the day the new itineraries were announced.

 

I'm a bit surprised more people didn't stick with their bookings for October and later.  While not as bad as in September even those late Fall and early Winter cruises have lots of YC availability.  And I can understand why at well over $5000/week for a YC Deluxe.

[Connie Tact]

We recently put in a ‘low bid’ for YC inside on Virtuosa and were upgraded from a balcony.

it was only a few £s more than minimum bid. 
I guess luck of the draw and how many upgrades are available just before sail date.

[mscdivina2016]

1 minute ago, alyssamma said:

Just understand the MSC bid process. They "offer" a lowball bid, but once you are there, there is a gauge that tells you how likely your bid is to be accepted...from my experience you have to at *least* double your bid to have a "good" chance.

 

I don't know about double???

 

I looked at my sailing.

15 inside YC cabins sold out. I am in one.

46 unsold balcony YC available.

all of us in inside YC paid at least $1000 more than regular balcony cabin so as far as value goes to MSC we already have more net money in MSC pocket.  It only makes sense to get all of us out of inside YC so that frees up 15 cabins that they can offer lower bids than a balcony YC cabin.

 

 If all 15 of us YC insides go to balcony YC, that still leaves 31 balcony YC cabins available and now 15 inside YCs.

If my minimum is $405 from YC inside YC outside, what are regular balcony cabins being offered?

 

Steve

[mscdivina2016]

2 minutes ago, Até said:

Sorry, I didn't look at your signature.  Yes, last year MSC still had some initial "reasonable" pricing on YC.  I picked up YC interiors for just under $3000/week with $500 OBC/week directly from MSC.  Earlier on I was able to consistently find YC Interiors for around $2500 and YC Deluxe for around $3800 per week. 

 

 

Yep they did and I grabbed. They had an amazing YC deluxe that I grabbed for cheaper than an inside YC now.

Steve

[MouseBerry]

Hi,

MSC might collect upgrade bids even they have no vacancies at all. Just to ensure full YC paid in case of late cancellations. And the upgrade bid value is not only based on the category but rather on the actual price you have paid.

 

I have booked a 7 night Baltic Sea cruise on the Seaview in early Sept. YC inside 1100€ pp (total). Now I got this upgrade mail which requested a min of 100€ for a YC deluxe balcony. The max bid value was around 500€. 1100+500€ was pretty much the price for a YC deluxe balcony at the time when I booked my YIN.

I made a bid on the lower side as I never sailed in an inside and want to give it a try. Well in YC I consider the very close TSL as part of my living room😀 Seems to be a perfect match for an inside.

 

cheers

MouseBerry 

[Até]

15 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

What can they do other than bid for upgrade?  I just might book a regular balcony on the same sailing and see.  I know I am past final but I will just use the 48 hour cancel guarantee and use the funds to book another next year. If the bid deal from the balcony is better than YC bid upgrade, I will cancel YC and still end up there.

Steve

I don't see MSC dropping the prices now, that doesn't seem to be in their play book.  MSC will either bid the cabins off or give them away on sail date.  I don't know how MSC and PlusGrade will handle a lack of bids if the minimum bid is set too high and doesn't attract enough interest.  In the past there was always enough people unfamiliar with YC pricing to make bids MSC was happy to accept.  Now, with such a large volume of unsold cabins, I'm not sure how low MSC will go on their minimums.

 

Be careful with the CruiseFlex option.  As time has passed MSC now doesn't give a lot of time to make the re-booking since the sail by date is actually not that far off.

[Tapi]

1 hour ago, Até said:

How many night sailing is the $270pp for? 

 

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

$270 from Balcony to YC????   I am in YC interior and my minimum bid to get a Balcony YC room is more than that? They want $405 minimum.

Steve

It’s $270pp for a 3 night cruise. Still, even with the up charge, our grand total per person (in a cabin for 4 where the kids are sailing for free), will be like $350 all taxes included. A killer deal for a YC suite even if it’s just a 3 night cruise 

[Até]

9 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

...all of us in inside YC paid at least $1000 more than regular balcony cabin so as far as value goes to MSC we already have more net money in MSC pocket.  It only makes sense to get all of us out of inside YC so that frees up 15 cabins that they can offer lower bids than a balcony YC cabin.

 

 If all 15 of us YC insides go to balcony YC, that still leaves 31 balcony YC cabins available and now 15 inside YCs.

If my minimum is $405 from YC inside YC outside, what are regular balcony cabins being offered?

There are fantastically long threads on the NCL forum dissecting the PlusGrade bidding system.  One odd aspect I have read is that once final payment has been reached the cruise line zeros out their balance sheet and no longer considers what each cabin paid.  Once bidding opens it's purely about how much extra they can tack on to the bottom line and the algorithm will give out bid amounts to each lower cabin category that will purely maximize the net gain. 

 

Moving everybody one category higher is not a goal.  So if a lower cabin makes a bid just a couple dollars higher on a YC Deluxe it will often bypass someone in a YC interior who made only a slightly lower offer, even though the total amount being paid was much higher for the YC interior than the lower cabin.  Total passenger cost is not a consideration of the bidding system.

 

The only aspect in favor of everybody moving one level higher is if people are bidding on your cabin type.  PlusGrade accepts offers on cabin types that are sold out.  Partially for data gathering on what people are willing to pay and partially for their algorithm to maximize total net gain.  But unfortunately you have no control in how many people bid for your cabin and what amount.  Which could possibly give you a boost in being awarded your upgrade bid, or conversely could keep your  bid from winning because someone below you got a super high bid for their cabin.

 

I didn't participate in my last couple Meraviglia sailings MSC offered bidding.  Like your sailing all YC interiors were sold and there were about 15 unsold YC Deluxe from what I could tell.  I had moved to booking very early and had a good price, the YC prices went up at least 50% by bidding announcements.  My minimum bids for YC Deluxe were within a couple hundred of what I could have paid initially, but were far below the current rates.  I surely wasn't going to move to a guarantee location to save a couple hundred.  So there were a number of YC interiors that bit and over the next few days about 10 YC interiors available.  So it's quite possible people move up the chain one level at a time, but when you have 60 YC Deluxe available it's going to get interesting.

[mscdivina2016]

3 minutes ago, Até said:

There are fantastically long threads on the NCL forum dissecting the PlusGrade bidding system.  One odd aspect I have read is that once final payment has been reached the cruise line zeros out their balance sheet and no longer considers what each cabin paid.  Once bidding opens it's purely about how much extra they can tack on to the bottom line and the algorithm will give out bid amounts to each lower cabin category that will purely maximize the net gain. 

 

Moving everybody one category higher is not a goal.  So if a lower cabin makes a bid just a couple dollars higher on a YC Deluxe it will often bypass someone in a YC interior who made only a slightly lower offer, even though the total amount being paid was much higher for the YC interior than the lower cabin.  Total passenger cost is not a consideration of the bidding system.

 

Wow,

 So let me see if I understand this.

Hypothetically someone could have been in a regular inside cabin with no wifi or booze for $400 for a couple on a 7 nighter.

They get YC deluxe offer for $400-$1000 per person and could bid max. So for an extra $2000 they get deluxe, booze,wifi and all the bells and whistles for cheaper than we all paid for our YC insides?

They only look at the $1000 per person?

Steve