Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[RRSeeker]

Always check the prices before bidding.

 

I am on the NCL Escape on Sept 10th. I was in a Haven Courtyard Balcony. Received bidding emails at around 110 days.  The bid to upgrade to a Two bedroom family villa started at $600/pp. I had no intention to bid but noticed today the two bedrooms was only $150/pp more than when I booked my cabin.  I called and upgraded for $360. 

[jack300s]

2 hours ago, RRSeeker said:

Always check the prices before bidding.

 

I am on the NCL Escape on Sept 10th. I was in a Haven Courtyard Balcony. Received bidding emails at around 110 days.  The bid to upgrade to a Two bedroom family villa started at $600/pp. I had no intention to bid but noticed today the two bedrooms was only $150/pp more than when I booked my cabin.  I called and upgraded for $360. 

Good points.....I'm also on the same cruise. We are currently in a Club Balcony Mini Suite and have bids in for the Haven Courtyard and Forward Facing Suite. Still waiting....Does anyone know if taxes and insurance are added to the amount of the bid if accepted?

[RRSeeker]

1 minute ago, jack300s said:

Good points.....I'm also on the same cruise. We are currently in a Club Balcony Mini Suite and have bids in for the Haven Courtyard and Forward Facing Suite. Still waiting....Does anyone know if taxes and insurance are added to the amount of the bid if accepted?

Additional insurance would be added to the booking if you are using NCL insurance.  You already paid the taxes and port fees, they do not increase with the room type.  The DSC also would not increase if you already pre-paid it. Good luck on your bidding and keep watching the prices, there are not many Haven cabins left to book at this point.

[cruiserbear55]

7 minutes ago, jack300s said:

Good points.....I'm also on the same cruise. We are currently in a Club Balcony Mini Suite and have bids in for the Haven Courtyard and Forward Facing Suite. Still waiting....Does anyone know if taxes and insurance are added to the amount of the bid if accepted?

 

  NCLs insurance is predicated on cabin prices. So I would think if your cabin price goes up, so will your insurance premium. I live in a no sales tax state, so can't be sure, but would assume if the price goes up, so would the taxes.

[RRSeeker]

19 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

 

  NCLs insurance is predicated on cabin prices. So I would think if your cabin price goes up, so will your insurance premium. I live in a no sales tax state, so can't be sure, but would assume if the price goes up, so would the taxes.

When I upgraded my room the taxes and port fees did not change, so I assume the tax is not based on a percentage of the total price or NCL made a mistake and forgot to charge me an additional amount.  I originally had a club balcony, upgraded to Haven Courtyard, then Two Bedroom Villa and my taxes/port fees are exactly the same on all invoices.

[jack300s]

Thanks for the information.

[tde1969]

4 hours ago, RRSeeker said:

Always check the prices before bidding.

 

I am on the NCL Escape on Sept 10th. I was in a Haven Courtyard Balcony. Received bidding emails at around 110 days.  The bid to upgrade to a Two bedroom family villa started at $600/pp. I had no intention to bid but noticed today the two bedrooms was only $150/pp more than when I booked my cabin.  I called and upgraded for $360. 

I called to do this on my booking and they said I would have to cancel, take the penalty for being under 120 days and then rebook.  Did the NCL rep not know what they were talking about?

[vacation44]

1 minute ago, tde1969 said:

I called to do this on my booking and they said I would have to cancel, take the penalty for being under 120 days and then rebook.  Did the NCL rep not know what they were talking about?

Unfortunately, yes.  Call back.

[RRSeeker]

3 minutes ago, tde1969 said:

I called to do this on my booking and they said I would have to cancel, take the penalty for being under 120 days and then rebook.  Did the NCL rep not know what they were talking about?

Yes, I had to call back 3 times to get someone who understood me. First rep told me an additional $5000, second one said I called the new booking phone number(I called the right number and selected the right option), third time was the charm.

 

I book through Casinos at Sea so I am not using the regular 800 number but that shouldn’t make a difference other than I get a discount or as they call it a ‘gift’. It was still expensive.

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, tde1969 said:

I called to do this on my booking and they said I would have to cancel, take the penalty for being under 120 days and then rebook.  Did the NCL rep not know what they were talking about?

You can't reprice after final payment due date.  You can upgrade to a more expensive cabin.

Edited June 6, 2023 by ChiefMateJRK

[jack300s]

2 hours ago, RRSeeker said:

When I upgraded my room the taxes and port fees did not change, so I assume the tax is not based on a percentage of the total price or NCL made a mistake and forgot to charge me an additional amount.  I originally had a club balcony, upgraded to Haven Courtyard, then Two Bedroom Villa and my taxes/port fees are exactly the same on all invoices.

Again, Thanks for the good information. We decided to just go ahead and upgrade to the Haven Penthouse Balcony Suite. There wasn't that many Haven Suites left, plus the cost difference between our bids and what we paid wasn't that big of a difference.

[RRSeeker]

1 minute ago, jack300s said:

Again, Thanks for the good information. We decided to just go ahead and upgrade to the Haven Penthouse Balcony Suite. There wasn't that many Haven Suites left, plus the cost difference between our bids and what we paid wasn't that big of a difference.

I am glad it worked out for you. I feel better booking direct.  Normally I bid and obsess over getting the cabin I want that I end up raising my bid to amounts I am not really comfortable with just to win.  Luckily I always lost, probably would have paid more than I could have upgraded for if I did it before they sold out. 

[Russiamomm]

1 hour ago, RRSeeker said:

Yes, I had to call back 3 times to get someone who understood me. First rep told me an additional $5000, second one said I called the new booking phone number(I called the right number and selected the right option), third time was the charm.

 

I book through Casinos at Sea so I am not using the regular 800 number but that shouldn’t make a difference other than I get a discount or as they call it a ‘gift’. It was still expensive.

If you book through CAS, don’t you have a regular agent you work through?  I have a guy I’ve been working with for several years.  He’s great.  If you don’t have a “Casino Guy”, you should get one.  Mine is great.  😁

[julig22]

2 hours ago, RRSeeker said:

When I upgraded my room the taxes and port fees did not change, so I assume the tax is not based on a percentage of the total price or NCL made a mistake and forgot to charge me an additional amount.  I originally had a club balcony, upgraded to Haven Courtyard, then Two Bedroom Villa and my taxes/port fees are exactly the same on all invoices.

Port taxes/fees are figured on a per person basis so doesn't change based on your actual cabin.  I think the various ports may charge differently - some by passenger capacity, some by square footage (panama canal for example), maybe some by actual passenger count.  So NCL estimates what the fees will be, divides by the estimated # of passengers and that's what they charge - they can't make a profit on those fees, but they also take the hit if they underestimated.  Since that's done years in advance, it's an educated guess - and is why there isn't always a refund for missed ports.

[RRSeeker]

10 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

If you book through CAS, don’t you have a regular agent you work through?  I have a guy I’ve been working with for several years.  He’s great.  If you don’t have a “Casino Guy”, you should get one.  Mine is great.  😁

I have asked the good ones if I can use them and they always say the are incoming calls only. I started cruising NCL through my home casino and finally called and asked to be switched to Casinos at Sea because my casino went MSC and I enjoyed the NCL cruises so I have only been direct with them for 2 years.

I still work for a living so I only cruise once a year because I enjoy other types of vacations as well so I still do Las Vegas and a beach vacation every year.

[Russiamomm]

34 minutes ago, RRSeeker said:

I have asked the good ones if I can use them and they always say the are incoming calls only. I started cruising NCL through my home casino and finally called and asked to be switched to Casinos at Sea because my casino went MSC and I enjoyed the NCL cruises so I have only been direct with them for 2 years.

I still work for a living so I only cruise once a year because I enjoy other types of vacations as well so I still do Las Vegas and a beach vacation every year.

I hear you.  I still work for a living too, but am fortunate enough to do a few cruises a year.  The next time you book through CAS and are happy with the service, try to develop a relationship.  I honestly don’t remember how Chris and I got connected, but it’s great to have someone you know and trust to call or email when there’s something you’re interested in.

[bkrickles1]

Had 2 bids in for July 23rd Joy sailing and last night I noticed that 1 had expired while the other is pending.

I understand that the expired bid means it was denied and while I have hope for the pending bid (which is on the low end), I know that most likely won't happen either.

I guess I'm just surprised that the bid that expired (a balcony) happened 47 days before sailing when there's in excess of 120 balcony cabins still available. I'd think it would get denied much closer to my sailing date.

No big deal. I was always happy with what I booked and just took a chance on the upgrade process.

[gregluk]

1 hour ago, bkrickles1 said:

Had 2 bids in for July 23rd Joy sailing and last night I noticed that 1 had expired while the other is pending.

I understand that the expired bid means it was denied and while I have hope for the pending bid (which is on the low end), I know that most likely won't happen either.

I guess I'm just surprised that the bid that expired (a balcony) happened 47 days before sailing when there's in excess of 120 balcony cabins still available. I'd think it would get denied much closer to my sailing date.

No big deal. I was always happy with what I booked and just took a chance on the upgrade process.

How do you know there's 120 balcony cabins still available

[bkrickles1]

1 minute ago, gregluk said:

How do you know there's 120 balcony cabins still available

I do a mock booking and then click on the choose another stateroom link and then go deck by deck and section by section. 

For my sailing there's a ton of balcony and club balcony cabins. 

Again, I'm just surprised how early one of my bids has "expired". 

[zelliott]

27 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

I do a mock booking and then click on the choose another stateroom link and then go deck by deck and section by section. 

For my sailing there's a ton of balcony and club balcony cabins. 

Again, I'm just surprised how early one of my bids has "expired". 

From what I've seen elsewhere in this thread, all but one bid expiring might indicate an acceptance is coming. I've also noticed earlier notifications of bids being accepted than when I was checking here regularly last year. At any rate, good luck!

[rattla]

30 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

I do a mock booking and then click on the choose another stateroom link and then go deck by deck and section by section. 

For my sailing there's a ton of balcony and club balcony cabins. 

Again, I'm just surprised how early one of my bids has "expired". 

From what I’ve seen if your other bids expire and just one is left that usually means it is likely to be accepted.  Can you modify the bid/offer on that one anymore?  If not I’d expect you may well get confirmation you’ve been upgraded in the next 24-48 hours?

Edited June 7, 2023 by rattla

[insidecabin]

31 minutes ago, gregluk said:

How do you know there's 120 balcony cabins still available

No one(except probably the cruise line) knows how many pending GTY allocations there are.

 

I did a cabin count on an early 2022 cruise came out around 50%.

On board closer to 30%.

min bid got inside to balcony upgrade.

[bkrickles1]

7 minutes ago, rattla said:

From what I’ve seen if your other bids expire and just one is left that usually means it is likely to be accepted.  Can you modify the bid/offer on that one anymore?  If not I’d expect you may well get confirmation you’ve been upgraded in the next 24-48 hours?

Well, that would be fun! 

I can't modify that one last bid, so I'll anxiously wait. Lmao 😂 

This is one of 4 trips for us this year, which is crazy, so my wife and I booked an inside cabin for budgetary reasons. 

An inexpensive upgrade would be a nice surprise. 

[bkrickles1]

To update my posts from yesterday, my one remaining bid is still showing pending. 

The odd thing, and perhaps good news for me, is that I can't modify or cancel the bid. 

It could just be that it's about to be "expired", but there's still so many balcony and club balcony suites available for my sailing. 

Hopefully I know one way or another very soon so I can stop checking and thinking about it. Lmao 😂 

[vacation44]

4 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

To update my posts from yesterday, my one remaining bid is still showing pending. 

The odd thing, and perhaps good news for me, is that I can't modify or cancel the bid. 

It could just be that it's about to be "expired", but there's still so many balcony and club balcony suites available for my sailing. 

Hopefully I know one way or another very soon so I can stop checking and thinking about it. Lmao 😂 

Not an expert by any means, but to me it seem your bid will be accepted.   I would check to see if they charged your credit card.