Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[rbxlady]

On 9/7/2022 at 12:40 PM, Snickers22 said:

Booked on  the joy for Halloween 2022. prices dropped a bit last night for Haven aft. I called ncl this morning and upgraded from hg to hc for $400pp which was less than my bid of $500. Cancelled all my bids and am really happy with this cabin!

I did this on our Getaway cruise in October for a 2BR Haven suite. It dropped again a day or two later, so I got FCC for the difference. The next day the 2BR suites were gone (thank goodness I called that day so I had a fare to compare mine with, or I wouldn't have gotten FCC), and a day or two later the entire Haven was sold out. I'm not sure how full the ship is going to be overall, but the Haven appears to be full!

[NYFirstTimeCruiser]

So i got upgraded but I got charged $68 more than my bid so I emailed upgrade advantage and below is the reply I got. Basically, if you bought travel insurance and won an upgrade bid, you get charged extra to increase your travel insurance. Most likely the last time I'll get insurance from NCL. I will go back to Allianz.

here's their reply

[ChiefMateJRK]

12 minutes ago, NYFirstTimeCruiser said:

Most likely the last time I'll get insurance from NCL. I will go back to Allianz.

If it's a meaningful upgrade, won't your third party insurance go up as well?

[mscdivina2016]

30 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

If it's a meaningful upgrade, won't your third party insurance go up as well?

No, they won't know but if something happens you could have an issue.

I personally call and upgrade.

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

No, they won't know but if something happens you could have an issue.

I personally call and upgrade.

I've read terms on some third party policies that basically say that if your non-refundable losses exceed the declared policy value, then they just pay up to the limit.  That is very reasonable and contrary to some of the ominous stories we've read here about how critical it is to report every single move to the insurance guys.

[mscdivina2016]

10 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I've read terms on some third party policies that basically say that if your non-refundable losses exceed the declared policy value, then they just pay up to the limit.  That is very reasonable and contrary to some of the ominous stories we've read here about how critical it is to report every single move to the insurance guys.

Third party??

I buy only 1st party coverage especially when it comes to the medical portion.

 

What policy allows that? 

[SplashOfWater]

12 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

No, they won't know but if something happens you could have an issue.

I personally call and upgrade.

Same here. If the cost of our trip goes up after the initial purchase of insurance, we update the cost on the policy and pay the difference. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Third party??

I buy only 1st party coverage especially when it comes to the medical portion.

 

What policy allows that? 

I think you misunderstood third party.  Me and NCL are the parties in the cruise contract.  A third party insurer is another company that sells me a policy to cover potential losses.  What did you mean?

[mscdivina2016]

10 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I think you misunderstood third party.  Me and NCL are the parties in the cruise contract.  A third party insurer is another company that sells me a policy to cover potential losses.  What did you mean?

Got it, you use NCL insurance.

 

I buy a policy direct from a company that in the event of a claim pays first.  Some policies especially on medical are secondary to your own medical insurance if you have it and also some are secondary to any other insurances you may have thru a credit card.

[ChiefMateJRK]

27 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Got it, you use NCL insurance.

No, I don't.

27 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I buy a policy direct from a company that in the event of a claim pays first.  Some policies especially on medical are secondary to your own medical insurance if you have it and also some are secondary to any other insurances you may have thru a credit card.

Why does it make any difference?  I don't have any credit card coverage and my own medical insurance is ultra reliable.  I suppose if you had a high deductible plan it might make a difference.  I buy from a company that gives me the best combination of price and coverage.  Most of us accept that there is an extremely low probability that we will ever use travel medical insurance, so sweating a few pennies in coverage differences likely isn't very prudent.

[donjohnsav]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:02 PM, 9jayj said:

Cruising for the first time in a few days, and I just scored a pretty sweet upgrade for my 10 day Greece/Italy cruise on Escape. Based on the deck plan, it looks like my cruise is at ~75% capacity – more details below:

Original Room: Studio ($1576 single occupancy) 
Oceanview Bid: $75pp ($150 total – minimum bid) 
Balcony Bid: $210pp ($420 total – fair bid, accepted)

The lowest 'Fair' bid for a balcony on this cruise was $200pp – figured the extra $10 might help give me an edge over anyone that just bid the lowest for 'Fair'. Four days before departure, I received an email notifying me that I was upgraded to a balcony on the 13th floor (spooky? 👻).

Total came to $1,996 for a 10 day solo cruise – the NCL website is showing a single-occupancy balcony at $4,076 so I am quite the happy camper (or sailor?) Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts – safe travels, everyone! 😃

I hope all went smoothly on your cruise. Do you have any insight as to precruise covid testing in Athens?

[StarAFire]

Hi, for our sailing tomorrow, both my mom and my cabin just won the upgrade bid.  I was wondering, this is first time I did this process.  If there are a lot of cabins still available in the category we are now upgraded to, are we allowed to request to move to same floor?  Or is this more of you get what you get.  We're ok with what we have.  Just thought it would be easier to coordinate plans if we were lol not 2 floors apart now. 

 

BTW, our sailing is not full, so I went from Inside IF to Balcony BA for the lowest $100 pp bid.  Prices of balcony had come down already last week, but when I had called my TA, he said for us to upgrade it would be $321 total and we would lose our $100 obc per room to go to Balcony BF.  So we decided to chance it at the poorest.

Edited September 10, 2022 by StarAFire

[Chipster2]

17 minutes ago, StarAFire said:

Hi, for our sailing tomorrow, both my mom and my cabin just won the upgrade bid.  I was wondering, this is first time I did this process.  If there are a lot of cabins still available in the category we are now upgraded to, are we allowed to request to move to same floor?  Or is this more of you get what you get.  We're ok with what we have.  Just thought it would be easier to coordinate plans if we were lol not 2 floors apart now. 

 

BTW, our sailing is not full, so I went from Inside IF to Balcony BA for the lowest $100 pp bid.  Prices of balcony had come down already last week, but when I had called my TA, he said for us to upgrade it would be $321 total and we would lose our $100 obc per room to go to Balcony BF.  So we decided to chance it at the poorest.

You might be able to move cabins, I would suggest calling NCL directly. But in saying that when you win an upgrade, you gets what you gets!!😁

[StarAFire]

7 minutes ago, Chipster2 said:

You might be able to move cabins, I would suggest calling NCL directly. But in saying that when you win an upgrade, you gets what you gets!!😁

Yes, we don't mind, lol to be honest, we typically book guarantee so used to that part, but figured I'd ask.  I think though, NCL wouldn't talk to me as we have a TA.  Oh well.

[Laszlo]

Just how long after final payment do you normally get an email to bid? If your eligible

[ggTexasGal]

9 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

Just how long after final payment do you normally get an email to bid? If your eligible

We usually get the bid email around the 90+ day mark (although, we have had some earlier than that).

[Laszlo]

3 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

We usually get the bid email around the 90+ day mark (although, we have had some earlier than that).

Thank you

[surfclam2003]

1 hour ago, Laszlo said:

Just how long after final payment do you normally get an email to bid? If your eligible

Got mine it 110 days

[jimsig]

5 hours ago, StarAFire said:

Yes, we don't mind, lol to be honest, we typically book guarantee so used to that part, but figured I'd ask.  I think though, NCL wouldn't talk to me as we have a TA.  Oh well.

Once you get to the check in at the dock (or on the ship) and you asked about a cabin change I don't think they would care if you had used a TA.  By that point the ship is probably under "local control" for check in purposes.  

[CaliMom05]

On 9/2/2022 at 4:31 AM, dbrown84 said:

good to hear that this is possible and does happen.  I wasn't sure if they would extend deals to the CAS bookings.  I'm booked thru CAS for a cruise next month (comped), and I called yesterday (spoke with CAS rep) to see about upgrading from my inside to a balcony.  I was quoted a little over $500 and declined.  I'll put in a low ($100/$200 total) bid and see what happens.  The minimum bid is $75.  Did you call the regular customer service line, or did you call CAS?  Also, was your inside comped, or just discounted?  

Inside was comped (just had to pay the port fees and the 2 for 1 airfare) and I called the dedicated latitudes phone number for the upgrade.  I was calling on a Sunday and they only answer the CAS phone number Monday - Friday.  Sorry but I can't remember the latitudes phone number - I saw it when I was on Cruise Critic and decided to call about another issue and then asked about upgrading and got lucky.

[Aoifegma]

Is it worth increasing your offer after making a first offer?  We are 28 days out from sailing and I am wondering should I add another few €s to our 3 offers!  Thank you!

[wolft927]

1 hour ago, Aoifegma said:

Is it worth increasing your offer after making a first offer?  We are 28 days out from sailing and I am wondering should I add another few €s to our 3 offers!  Thank you!

Monitor the inventory, if your bidding day on the Haven and inventory has went down, increasing your bid may increase you chance on winning 

[Aoifegma]

3 hours ago, wolft927 said:

Monitor the inventory, if your bidding day on the Haven and inventory has went down, increasing your bid may increase you chance on winning 

Thank you. The Haven is showing as booked out for our cruise but really it isn't and it must be a capacity issue.  

[wolft927]

42 minutes ago, Aoifegma said:

Thank you. The Haven is showing as booked out for our cruise but really it isn't and it must be a capacity issue.  

Is it listing sold out?

[LKCCruiser]

Received notification yesterday afternoon that one of our bids won! Exactly three days before sailing. We were pretty surprised since we bid at the very bottom.

 

Sailing on the Joy, original Cabin was Haven Suite, HJ category. Won Fwd Penthouse, HG category. For us this is great as we gain a living room, larger bathroom (with separate tub & the nice showers we love), but we'll sacrifice the mid-ship location and larger balcony. Here are the details I think most people are interested in:

 

Our bids were all about $10 to $15 higher than very minimum: Bid $615pp for 2 Bdrm, $515pp on Aft Facing PH, and $350pp on Fwd Facing PH (this is what we won). Unfortunately I don't remember what the high/excellent big cap was. Direct upgrade for the rooms we bid on were approximately $2k to $2.5k per person more than what we originally paid. Interestingly, mock bookings this week showed 12 2-Bdrm Havens, and one Aft available, so I'm guessing people in Fwd cabins may have scored the larger staterooms with higher bids. Who knows how the algorithm works! 

 

Hope this helps and good luck to those waiting for upgrades!