Upgrade Fairy Strikes

[joeyancho]

Just wanted to share my experience with bidding for the Yacht Club upgrade.  Originally we booked a standard balcony room, Fantastica Experience.   We received an email offering an opportunity to bid on upgrades.   We have only sailed MSC once before.  Enjoyed it.  Since I've read so much about Yacht Club, on these boards, I decided to put in a bid.  I bid on an Interior Yacht Club room.  I figured the trade off would be worth it.  The bid was for the suggested amount.  I upgraded the bid recently,  not by much.  This morning I received an email congratulating us that our bid was accepted.   The email contained the room number.  After an internet search I discovered that we have been assigned a Deluxe Balcony Suite!!  Believing it was too good to be true, I called MSC to confirm.  They confirmed the email.   Pinch me!  We would have been happy to get the YC interior.   But for some unknown reason good fortune has smiled on us.  Thank you MSC fairy.  

[divaDD]

Congrats what ship are you on?

[joeyancho]

Seascape.  

[voyagerL]

5 hours ago, joeyancho said:

Just wanted to share my experience with bidding for the Yacht Club upgrade.  Originally we booked a standard balcony room, Fantastica Experience.   We received an email offering an opportunity to bid on upgrades.   We have only sailed MSC once before.  Enjoyed it.  Since I've read so much about Yacht Club, on these boards, I decided to put in a bid.  I bid on an Interior Yacht Club room.  I figured the trade off would be worth it.  The bid was for the suggested amount.  I upgraded the bid recently,  not by much.  This morning I received an email congratulating us that our bid was accepted.   The email contained the room number.  After an internet search I discovered that we have been assigned a Deluxe Balcony Suite!!  Believing it was too good to be true, I called MSC to confirm.  They confirmed the email.   Pinch me!  We would have been happy to get the YC interior.   But for some unknown reason good fortune has smiled on us.  Thank you MSC fairy.  

I just had the same thing myself! Couldn’t believe it! Enjoy!

[beckyboo1986]

That's brilliant news.

 

I had a touch, I booked an interior cabin and received an email saying we'd been upgraded (for free) to a balcony. Very excited 🙂

[joeyancho]

1 hour ago, beckyboo1986 said:

That's brilliant news.

 

I had a touch, I booked an interior cabin and received an email saying we'd been upgraded (for free) to a balcony. Very excited 🙂

Terrific!  Bon Voyage. 

[Noesja]

4 hours ago, beckyboo1986 said:

That's brilliant news.

 

I had a touch, I booked an interior cabin and received an email saying we'd been upgraded (for free) to a balcony. Very excited 🙂

Did you book a guarantee (Bella) or did you already pick a cabin when you booked(Fantastica)? Looks like the upgrade fairy 🧚‍♀️ is more likely to visit people who booked Bella or am I wrong?

[ConnieTact]

3 hours ago, Noesja said:

Did you book a guarantee (Bella) or did you already pick a cabin when you booked(Fantastica)? Looks like the upgrade fairy 🧚‍♀️ is more likely to visit people who booked Bella or am I wrong?

See original post. The poster booked Fantasia. Obviously made a good offer on the upgrade and got rewarded. Well done MSC. We think even more highly of them since we have had great upgrades too. 

[Até]

Numerous reports of both complimentary and bid upgrades,  many to cabins above the bid level.   Unfortunately it's becoming obvious that MSC is not selling a large number of their (non-interior) YC cabins at the asking prices.

[joeyancho]

35 minutes ago, Até said:

Numerous reports of both complimentary and bid upgrades,  many to cabins above the bid level.   Unfortunately it's becoming obvious that MSC is not selling a large number of their (non-interior) YC cabins at the asking prices.

That is what I was thinking.  They take the original fare and the upgrade bid and put you in the upgraded cabin.  Then they can sell your original cabin.  It is better for MSC to do this than for the  YC cabin to sail empty. Anyway we are ecstatic to get a great room at a great price.   The only downside is that my wife my never sail any other way.  

[eyern1]

We bought a Bella inside and got upgraded to a balcony without bidding for the November12 Seaside

[Noesja]

6 hours ago, ConnieTact said:

See original post. The poster booked Fantasia. Obviously made a good offer on the upgrade and got rewarded. Well done MSC. We think even more highly of them since we have had great upgrades too. 

I should clarify. I meant complementary upgrades when booked Fantastica. Just wondering if they are hesitant to move/upgrade passengers from the cabin they choose upon booking 🤔 

[Eglesbrech]

9 hours ago, Até said:

Numerous reports of both complimentary and bid upgrades,  many to cabins above the bid level.   Unfortunately it's becoming obvious that MSC is not selling a large number of their (non-interior) YC cabins at the asking prices.

That’s probably because they hiked the price between last year and this, at least they have sailing from the U.K.

 

Last year a week in YC balcony from the U.K. was around £3600. This year it is £5200, massive rise. The YC inside is now the same price as I paid for a balcony just last year. 

While an inflationary rise is fine this level is not.

 

[BeeeJay]

Currently in YC on Seascape based on min YC interior bid upgrade from Bella Balcony to YC Deluxe balcony.  It’s the best deal ever.

 

Did overhear someone at concierge complaining of upgrade from non-YC balcony to YC interior and now they don’t have a balcony.  
 

YC is amazing for service, embark, disembark.  And the YC Deluxe room is spacious and nice.  Nightly snacks, room refresh multiple times per day.  Bathroom is really nice.  YC buffet at pool for breakfast/lunch/snack is fantastic.  Room service is nice (menu isn’t great though).  The priority port disembark is HUGE, the re-embark doesn’t really work, heard people complaining about that too.

 

Pool area is a bit of a problem.  Yacht club is an odd mix of older people and families with younger kids and a lot of comped casino players.  Last week was an older crowd not much action.  This week is a TON OF KIDS.  The pool is unusable.  Also overheard a back-to-backer complaining of non-stop noise from kids next door.  Same kids from pool.

 

Point of my post is Yacht club can be very hit and miss and you are greatly impacted by the mix of other guests.  I would highly consider the type of trip you want before spending rack rate on YC.   It’s a no brainer for low bid upgrade.  
 

The biggest issue with MSC in general is the billing.  It’s cashless and you pre-auth a card for up to $500.  Once you spend that down they put thru addl pre-auth as you spend money.  If you do spa treatments, shop, casino, etc they build up additional preauthorizations but don’t seem to actually push through those charges until the cruise ends or you ask.  Once they push through the charges it hits as a charge from Geneva, Switzerland.  I had notified various cards I would be traveling in Caribbean. Not surprisingly, a couple times during the cruise I had fraud alert declines on cards that had been pre-auth for small amounts when a much larger amount from an unexpected destination was pushed through.   As we are at sea these alerts came thru much later at next port so I could not approve in real time and had to use different cards.  Additionally I’ve had charges go through and the pre-auth still shows, so MSC put through that amount (random shopping charge with cents I can easily identify) as a new charge rather than using the pre-auth token so now I have both the charge and the outstanding authorization.  The upshot is you could have a pretty outsized hit to available credit vs actual charges so you have to be mindful of that.  
 

 

 

[raino144]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

That’s probably because they hiked the price between last year and this, at least they have sailing from the U.K.

 

Last year a week in YC balcony from the U.K. was around £3600. This year it is £5200, massive rise. The YC inside is now the same price as I paid for a balcony just last year. 

While an inflationary rise is fine this level is not.

 

Wait until you see next year’s prices! Currently sailing in YCD for £5,950. Next year’s sailings are £8,000…. Same weeks

[Eglesbrech]

2 hours ago, raino144 said:

Wait until you see next year’s prices! Currently sailing in YCD for £5,950. Next year’s sailings are £8,000…. Same weeks

That’s ridiculous. They will lose passengers and continue to have to sell as last minute upgrades.

 

We are in YC shortly and they were left with a large number of cabins which disappeared all at once, presumably bidding upgrades allocated.

 

[raino144]

20 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

That’s ridiculous. They will lose passengers and continue to have to sell as last minute upgrades.

 

We are in YC shortly and they were left with a large number of cabins which disappeared all at once, presumably bidding upgrades allocated.

 

We get some inflation for sure. We would have happily signed up at the £6,500 level or so.