Urgent Upgrade Advice

[mthayer295]

I am 36 hours from sailing and I bid on 4 different Haven cabins…coming from a club balcony.  I got 4 distinct emails saying they have my upgrade bill and while it has not been chosen, it is still under consideration.  It says it could be accepted up to 0 hours before sailing and gives instructions about what to do if it is accepted even after we have boarded and are in our current stateroom.  It also gives me a link to back out of the upgrade now or anytime before chosen.  Is this just the standard upgrade email?  It seems fairly dramatic to think that we would be settled into one cabin and then move.

[tetleytea]

I wondered about this.  It seems to me the most last-minute openings would occur as a result of covid testing, within 48 hours.

[2boyzmom]

I'd go for it. If it's going to happen it should be prior to or at sail away and you probably would not even have luggage yet. I think it brings an air of excitement to the trip. Bon Voyage and good luck ! 

[mthayer295]

Yes I did think the same thing.  The bids for this upgrade are in the thousands of dollars per person so it is a lot of money.  It is very intriguing to think of how they maneuver this depending on the bids they have for my level cabin

[mthayer295]

@2boyzmom- I like your thinking!

[Sailing12Away]

Our last trip was out of Barcelona. The night before we flew to Spain I got notified about our winning bid. I don't know how I would feel about getting notified any later than that... too stressful for me to have to worry about where I'm going to be and such.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, mthayer295 said:

I am 36 hours from sailing and I bid on 4 different Haven cabins…coming from a club balcony.  I got 4 distinct emails saying they have my upgrade bill and while it has not been chosen, it is still under consideration.  It says it could be accepted up to 0 hours before sailing and gives instructions about what to do if it is accepted even after we have boarded and are in our current stateroom.  It also gives me a link to back out of the upgrade now or anytime before chosen.  Is this just the standard upgrade email?  It seems fairly dramatic to think that we would be settled into one cabin and then move.

 

First, balcony, minisuite, and Haven stateroom are eligible to bid on Haven rooms. 1600+ rooms on a bigger ship. Unless you bid in the Good/Very Good range, the likelihood of winning one of the unsold Haven cabins on a big ship is very, very, very, very, very, very small. But it is always nice to dream. There are 80 Haven cabins, most of which are sold at retail prices, leaving only a few available for upgrade. 

 

Haven bids are normally processed on the Monday prior to embarkation. Given that it is Wednesday night, you were unsuccessful with your initial bids. You are now waiting to see if any last minute cancellations will open up a room that allows your bid to be processed. 

 

We normally get our "unsuccessful bid" notification late in the evening before embarkation. So you're still 30 hours too early to be looking for an unsuccessful bid notification. 

Edited August 11, 2022 by BirdTravels

[Trimone]

Sorry, I have always won a bid on poor every time I’ve been upgraded.

Believe it or not when you get to the Haven and talk, over 50% of people in there are upgrades.

Hardly anyone pays the retail price 

[sparkmaster]

Haven bidding is really a crapshoot one way or another. You could have a max bid one one voyage and a minimum on another and get one, both, or none. Depends a lot on the occupancy, which itself is derived from the ship, voyage, and time of year. 

 

It can also be a bit of a double edge sword. I was on the Joy earlier this year in a paid solo haven room (really good price, too good to pass up). The ship was empty...except for the haven areas. The bar was so packed and rowdy I actually ended up going elsewhere as my main drinking hole. 

[2boyzmom]

5 hours ago, sparkmaster said:

Haven bidding is really a crapshoot one way or another. You could have a max bid one one voyage and a minimum on another and get one, both, or none. Depends a lot on the occupancy, which itself is derived from the ship, voyage, and time of year. 

 

It can also be a bit of a double edge sword. I was on the Joy earlier this year in a paid solo haven room (really good price, too good to pass up). The ship was empty...except for the haven areas. The bar was so packed and rowdy I actually ended up going elsewhere as my main drinking hole. 

The majority I have read on cruise critic say they were in the fair range vs good. We are traveling off season for a longer cruise and hoping that will be beneficial for us. I believe all the Havens will be continually sold out now due to the bidding process which can be problematic when dealing with the older ships and smaller space but I'll suffer through it 🙂

[wolft927]

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

First, balcony, minisuite, and Haven stateroom are eligible to bid on Haven rooms. 1600+ rooms on a bigger ship. Unless you bid in the Good/Very Good range, the likelihood of winning one of the unsold Haven cabins on a big ship is very, very, very, very, very, very small. But it is always nice to dream. There are 80 Haven cabins, most of which are sold at retail prices, leaving only a few available for upgrade. 

 

Haven bids are normally processed on the Monday prior to embarkation. Given that it is Wednesday night, you were unsuccessful with your initial bids. You are now waiting to see if any last minute cancellations will open up a room that allows your bid to be processed. 

 

We normally get our "unsuccessful bid" notification late in the evening before embarkation. So you're still 30 hours too early to be looking for an unsuccessful bid notification. 

I have won my last 2 haven bids going from balcony to haven with a fair bid

[wolft927]

So after I thought all hope was lost this morning when i seen that all haven suites where showing sold out, i kept going back to the site every 30 minutes or so and there it was, Haven Courtyard Suite 16126 on the getaway and was priced $150 less then I had my total bid at....hopped on the phone with NCL ( by the way 30 minute hold) and was able to snatch it up. So happy to be in the Haven for my 9 night cruise on the Getaway....I will not tell my wife until we arrive at the Temrinal lol 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Love that you’re surprising you wife. 

[dandelpino]

10 hours ago, Trimone said:

Sorry, I have always won a bid on poor every time I’ve been upgraded.

Believe it or not when you get to the Haven and talk, over 50% of people in there are upgrades.

Hardly anyone pays the retail price 

I guess I'm one of those in the hardly anyone category.

 

This is entirely dependant on the sailing. Summer and school holiday (christmas/new years/easter/etc) sailings will mostly sell at retail price. Off season cruises will have lots of upgrades into the Haven. 

 

 

[Robkat]

2 hours ago, wolft927 said:

So after I thought all hope was lost this morning when i seen that all haven suites where showing sold out, i kept going back to the site every 30 minutes or so and there it was, Haven Courtyard Suite 16126 on the getaway and was priced $150 less then I had my total bid at....hopped on the phone with NCL ( by the way 30 minute hold) and was able to snatch it up. So happy to be in the Haven for my 9 night cruise on the Getaway....I will not tell my wife until we arrive at the Temrinal lol 

Could you have your ship wrong?  Believe the Getaway is doing 7 nighters right now... with the next one leaving from Port Canaveral this Saturday.  We're on the next one after.

Don't believe there have been any 9 nights???

 

 

 

 

 

[wolft927]

48 minutes ago, Robkat said:

Could you have your ship wrong?  Believe the Getaway is doing 7 nighters right now... with the next one leaving from Port Canaveral this Saturday.  We're on the next one after.

Don't believe there have been any 9 nights???

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t leave until September 29th 

[Robkat]

2 minutes ago, wolft927 said:

We don’t leave until September 29th 

Aaah, I see.  Your original post said you were 36 hours to sailing, so I thought you were boarding this weekend.   Never mind. 🙃

[wolft927]

2 minutes ago, Robkat said:

Aaah, I see.  Your original post said you were 36 hours to sailing, so I thought you were boarding this weekend.   Never mind. 🙃

If I did sorry lol…. 49 days away lol…. 

[DCGuy64]

4 minutes ago, Robkat said:

Aaah, I see.  Your original post said you were 36 hours to sailing, so I thought you were boarding this weekend.   Never mind. 🙃

That was the OP, not @wolft927. OP is @mthayer295 🙂

[Robkat]

🙄🙃🙄🙄😂😂

[Trimone]

2 hours ago, dandelpino said:

I guess I'm one of those in the hardly anyone category.

 

This is entirely dependant on the sailing. Summer and school holiday (christmas/new years/easter/etc) sailings will mostly sell at retail price. Off season cruises will have lots of upgrades into the Haven. 

 

 

Quick question how many times you sailed NCL & Haven?

[wolft927]

2 hours ago, dandelpino said:

I guess I'm one of those in the hardly anyone category.

 

This is entirely dependant on the sailing. Summer and school holiday (christmas/new years/easter/etc) sailings will mostly sell at retail price. Off season cruises will have lots of upgrades into the Haven. 

 

 

I absolutely agree, I sail always during off-season not on holidays, main reason is I prefer not to be on a ship with 500 kids, nothing against since I have 3 of my own, 15 18 and 21. My last 2 cruises when I won haven one was in December and the other was first week of March. When I won the bids there where over 20 havens available and I went from balcony to haven 

[2boyzmom]

3 hours ago, wolft927 said:

I absolutely agree, I sail always during off-season not on holidays, main reason is I prefer not to be on a ship with 500 kids, nothing against since I have 3 of my own, 15 18 and 21. My last 2 cruises when I won haven one was in December and the other was first week of March. When I won the bids there where over 20 havens available and I went from balcony to haven 

The past few years have been pandemic nightmare with sailings half full. I wonder how this will all play out going forward...

[wolft927]

On 8/11/2022 at 7:52 PM, 2boyzmom said:

The past few years have been pandemic nightmare with sailings half full. I wonder how this will all play out going forward...

I am assuming bookings will go up, looking at my September 29th cruise Havens sold out with exception of owners suite, within 5 days of press release, all spa suites sold out best available cabin outside the owners suite is a family club balcony. My guess our cruise will sail around 80 to 90%. Last 2 where lest then 50%

[Sailing12Away]

On 8/11/2022 at 1:54 PM, dandelpino said:

I guess I'm one of those in the hardly anyone category.

I'm right there next to you... we try to avoid times when schools are closed as prices are more reasonable and there's less young'ens around.

 

On 8/11/2022 at 4:03 PM, Trimone said:

Quick question how many times you sailed NCL & Haven?

7 NCL trips under our belt, with another 3 booked.

 

8/10 are on ships that have a Haven category (Star & POA don't count in my book, although we won an upgrade bid on the Star for the garden villa... so that was ironic and an awesome surprise)

 

Of the 8 trips that had a Haven area, we sailed in a Haven room on 7 of those. The only one we didn't was our very first NCL trip and that was with 3 people in a mini suite (club balcony). We had bids in for our second time sailing on the Epic, but when the prices kept dropping it was cheaper to just outright upgrade and move into a 2 br Haven than to bid - so that's what we did. For the rest, we outright booked into the Haven room.

 

I have good luck in finding amazing deals, so outside of our upcoming Prima trip (which we won't talk about the price of) we have been able to sail in a Haven room for less than $500/person/night on average. Best deals I've snagged were the garden villa on the Pearl for <$300 (assuming we had put 6 in the villa) and that last minute upgrade on the Epic in the 2br Haven room with just the 2 of us for about $320/pp/day. If we had enough time to put 6 people in that Star garden villa, that would have worked itself out to a price of only $240/pp/day (no Haven on that ship, but by golly that villa was insane).

 

So there's deals to be found for outright booking Haven - and some that are better than those upgrade bids people are putting in.