Royal up - question -

[question221]

I just got the royal up offer for our cruise which sails late September.  If I put in a solid bid on the 1 bedroom and the junior suite,  but a weak  bid on the 2 bedroom and the owner's suite, will the weak bids impact the other bids?  In other words, is it better to just bid on the ones that are more reasonably priced and do a solid bid rather than bid on all options?

 

Also, I gather one of the perks of the GS is the concierge who contacts you about a week before the cruise and schedules entertainment and reservations.  Would I even find out about the upgrade that far in advance?

 

At this point, there are both junior suites and 1 bedrooms available.

 

Would love to hear about strategy and experience with this program.

 

Thanks

[BecciBoo]

There is no strategy....total mystery.

[neverbeenhere]

Likely net total revenue. What you paid, offered to pay additionally and what they can get from your stateroom. 
 

But no one really knows. 

[soremekun]

These days, I would suggest going max bid on all categories so there might be a possibility of maybe having a hypothetical chance to win a bid... allegedly.

Edited August 26, 2023 by soremekun

[HicksRA]

Seems like the Royal Up bid parameters are sky high nowadays (like everything else). 

[Starry Eyes]

Remember you can only win once, so make sure you only bid on categories you sincerely want to win.  For many people that means every category, but others may feel differently.  For example, if you really, really, really want a full suite, think carefully about whether you want to bid on the JS.  You want to be happy if you win, rather than disappointed that you no longer have a shot at the cabin you truly wanted.  Then bid the highest those cabin upgrades are worth to you.  

[Husky1987]

2 hours ago, soremekun said:

These days, I would suggest going max bid on all categories so there might be a possibility of maybe having a hypothetical chance to win a bid... allegedly.

 

37 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

Seems like the Royal Up bid parameters are sky high nowadays (like everything else). 

I dunno, I just went from an inside (and a "free" casino one to boot) to a balcony (obstructed, to be fair) with a bid slightly in the fair category on next week's Quantum.  

 

Luck of the draw, I guess.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Husky1987

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, question221 said:

Would love to hear about strategy and experience with this program.

Assume you won’t win and be surprised if you do. 

[ampurp85]

I only place min bids and have won 2/2, so I don't think what you bid matters. But you should only bid for what you want and what you ae willing to pay. 

[bstreep]

We bid a weak bid on Radiance and got it. It was a pretty full ship.  But don’t bid on anything you might not want, in the worst location.  For instance, on NCL (which we understand uses the same company to manage their upgrades), we bid weak on an ocean view and strong on a balcony and got the ocean view. Which was the crappiest porthole on the ship.  Assume you will get a bad location, and be happy when you get something better.

 

in our case, our balcony Royal Up consisted of a sewage leak on our balcony that didn’t get fixed until the evening of day 4 of 7.  Not a win.  We won’t ever bid again. 

[yogimax]

1 hour ago, bstreep said:

in our case, our balcony Royal Up consisted of a sewage leak on our balcony that didn’t get fixed until the evening of day 4 of 7.  Not a win.  We won’t ever bid again. 

Do you really think they knew about the sewage leak ahead of time and did nothing about it?

[bstreep]

2 hours ago, yogimax said:

Do you really think they knew about the sewage leak ahead of time and did nothing about it?

Yup. They knew the moment we walked into our stateroom on day 1 at 1:30pm.  That’s when we first reported it.  And then about 10 more times after that. 

[texangal39]

I’m thinking about bidding on a Crown Loft Suite. Looks like most of them are available on my sailing. Does anyone know how long it takes before you hear back on if you won?

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, texangal39 said:

I’m thinking about bidding on a Crown Loft Suite. Looks like most of them are available on my sailing. Does anyone know how long it takes before you hear back on if you won?

For a Crown Loft, the week of sailing. 

[texangal39]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

For a Crown Loft, the week of sailing. 

Thanks so much for the info!

[Cruise a holic]

Ships seem to be sailing full- over capacity.  However if you are sailing during an off peak week, you might be lucky.  A crown loft suite is wonderful.  Try to bid.  

[texangal39]

20 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

Ships seem to be sailing full- over capacity.  However if you are sailing during an off peak week, you might be lucky.  A crown loft suite is wonderful.  Try to bid.  

Final payment has passed for my sailing and nearly all of the Crown Lofts, a large number of the 1-bdrm Grand Suites, and the Aqua suites are available. IDK if people canceled at the last minute or the sailing just severely undersold but it’s a bit wild to me that so many suites are open.

[Brehede]

1 hour ago, texangal39 said:

Final payment has passed for my sailing and nearly all of the Crown Lofts, a large number of the 1-bdrm Grand Suites, and the Aqua suites are available. IDK if people canceled at the last minute or the sailing just severely undersold but it’s a bit wild to me that so many suites are open.

Our Enchantment cruise in May was similar, with lots of suites available and not many balconies. We bid just over min €260 for OV balcony and were upgraded- it was a cabin for 4 but only pay for 2 to upgrade, it was great value and lovely location. 

[Cruise a holic]

Ships seem to be sailing full- over capacity.  However if you are sailing during an off peak week, you might be lucky.  A crown loft suite is wonderful.  Try to bid.  If you liked the upgrade on the Enchantment, the Crown loft and the ship will "knock your socks off".  No comparison!

Edited August 28, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[ShillyShally]

Final Payment has passed for our October Mariner cruise and I had some Royal Up bids in - but saw a suite guarantee for a good price from what I paid for our balcony so I snagged that and cancelled the bids.  I am 99.9% sure we'll get a JS but it will be awesome if we land a better cabin and we get the double points.  The suite guarantee was $1000 pp lower than the JS guarantee so it took some pushing for the rep to find it and apply it.  Gone today!

[texangal39]

5 hours ago, ShillyShally said:

I am 99.9% sure we'll get a JS but it will be awesome if we land a better cabin and we get the double points…

Unless I misunderstood .. . Sounds like you booked a GTY JS. I checked the website and apparently the Jr. Suites get double points too, so you should get double points with your JS GTY booking.

Edited August 28, 2023 by texangal39

[ShillyShally]

1 minute ago, texangal39 said:

I checked the website and apparently the Jr. Suites get double points too, so you should get double points with your JS GTY booking.

Yep, sorry, I meant I was happy to know no matter which cabin we end up with we'll get double points 🙂  I'm fine with a JS since we've never had one - and when I just checked, only suites for booking were Grand 1 and 2 bedroom so I expect if they can get people to Royal Up to those or book them directly, we'll get a JS - but the price was great (I expect a fluke actually lol) and it's a big birthday/anniversary cruise 🙂

[texangal39]

1 minute ago, ShillyShally said:

Yep, sorry, I meant I was happy to know no matter which cabin we end up with we'll get double points 🙂  I'm fine with a JS since we've never had one - and when I just checked, only suites for booking were Grand 1 and 2 bedroom so I expect if they can get people to Royal Up to those or book them directly, we'll get a JS - but the price was great (I expect a fluke actually lol) and it's a big birthday/anniversary cruise 🙂

Crossing my fingers for ya! I hear the Grand suites are fabulous!

[ShillyShally]

3 minutes ago, texangal39 said:

Crossing my fingers for ya! I hear the Grand suites are fabulous!

Thank you!  Am so ready to just sail away I'll be thrilled wherever we land 🙂

[ajtaylor29]

On 8/26/2023 at 7:01 PM, BirdTravels said:

For a Crown Loft, the week of sailing. 

Not necessarily, i say it depends on the ship and how full it is. We've bid and won twice on Crown Loft suites, and both times were notified maybe a month ahead of our cruise. I also think how much you bid factors in - if it's a low bid i'm sure they'll wait until the last minute hoping someone will bid higher?!?