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What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

bklynfinest77

By bklynfinest77,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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JamieLogical "Live from...." Rare

JamieLogical

Posted
Posted
Is there an easy way to check the total available cabins by room category for an upcoming cruise?

 

You can just do a mock booking through the NCL website. However, be aware that if the category is in GTY status, you won't be able to see a listing of available staterooms. Also, if there are more than 15 staterooms still available in a given category, you won't know how many more than that there are. The website only lets you choose from a listing of a max of 15 rooms in a category.

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mking8288 "Live from...." Rare

mking8288

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There are multiple capacities specific to each ship in the (NCL) fleet that affect the upgrade, for example ... with the Gem having a stated capacity of 2,394 guests, based on double occupancy and a crew of 1,070.

 

Look again, NCL also published data that the ship has a guest capacity of up to 3,030 and 1,100 crew. As far as guest beds, it is actually much higher at 3,807 and same for crew beds at 1,164. Max. persons permitted total (lifeboat capacity as designed ??) is 4,130 only. They would never fully populated all the available beds, whether it is for passengers or for crews.

 

With the KSF or 3rd & 4th passengers in the same stateroom sailing free + port charges/taxes & fees - it isn't all that difficult to get close to some of the limited capacities, especially based on lifeboats or muster stations, by design. It further complicated matters when moving folks around on the Upgrade - a little easier to do it for 2 guests but not as simple to move 4 guests to a higher category ... especially true for the busy travel/summer seasons and during holidays/school breaks, with more families traveling.

 

Biddings for suites & Haven are most definitely trending higher & higher ... it's a rather complex Calculus formula. What was a successful bid 2 weeks ago isn't necessary "high" enough for this or next week, for the same given ship and itineary.

 

Having said that, on the 4/28/2017 Gem sailings, we had bids submitted from 3 different staterooms to upgrade - score 1 but striked out on the other 2. Bids going from Inside (assigned stateroom, midship) failed with the highest offer of $125 p/p times 2 or $250 in total, for the Balcony GTY under the U.A.

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SailBreakaway

SailBreakaway

Posted
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There is a big difference between ship capacity and life boat capacity. The cabin might have to be left vacant if the lifeboat capacity in the area that serves those cabins Has been reached.

 

 

 

Interesting as I recall now that you mentioned this, she mentioned to me that our interested portions of the ship had reached capacity.

 

So maybe she was on point.

 

 

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TheDougOut

TheDougOut

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You do know that the upgrades are handled 100% by a third party don't you?

 

 

No, I don’t. I know the site and bids are handled by a third party, but I don’t know whether the 3rd party processes the upgrades or passes them back to NCL for processing.

 

Either way... the source of record is at NCL, and we know that locking functionality exists. It wouldn’t matter who is accessing the booking to perform the upgrade.

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Blazin6969

Blazin6969

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I think other things to consider is a big one TIME of year obviously summer will yield the highest bids. It will trend downward during off peak times of the year. I would expect anyone in the summer just to book the room you want because you wont be saving much by booking and then paying for an upgrade. Some people over pay you can see that in some of the posts on here, so that there in itself is a NOOB mistake. That just kills the bidding pool as well.

 

I have followed this thread since the first post and it seems like the best deal is actually booking an interior room and bidding up to a balcony or a mini suit. ( I've seen a few that got them for $50 PP and on average looks like $125-$150)

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SailBreakaway

SailBreakaway

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I canceled my bids and kept the rate I booked over a year ago when incentives were good, fees were less (no ubp surcharge) and rates were lower. The reality hit when I slid the slider to what full fare would have been if I added the upcharge to my base fare and it didn’t even hit fair! Ouch!

 

 

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Pat

Pat

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Does NCL notify you if your bid is not accepted? Also, how close to sailing are you notified if accepted (or denied)? Thanks

 

Denial came Thursday night for a Saturday cruise.

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bradburleson

bradburleson

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Does NCL notify you if your bid is not accepted? Also, how close to sailing are you notified if accepted (or denied)? Thanks

 

We booked our Hawaiian Islands/Pride of America cruise on 3/18/18. I received the upgrade email on 3/28/18. I placed my bid the same day. I received an email saying we’d won on 4/5/18. We sail on 5/19/18 (next Friday)

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cruisegal415

cruisegal415

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I canceled my bids and kept the rate I booked over a year ago when incentives were good, fees were less (no ubp surcharge) and rates were lower. The reality hit when I slid the slider to what full fare would have been if I added the upcharge to my base fare and it didn’t even hit fair! Ouch!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Wait, so if I get the opportunity to bid, and if my bid is accepted, would I then have to pay port fees and taxes since when I booked, I booked under the incentive of no port fees and taxes? When I called about switching my reservation to a Haven, I was told I would have to pay those since they are not now offering that same promotion. But if I were to bid on an upgrade and it gets accepted a few days before the cruise, are we subject to whatever promotions are being offered at that time and not when we booked and paid for the cruise??

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pathubia

pathubia

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Posted
Wait, so if I get the opportunity to bid, and if my bid is accepted, would I then have to pay port fees and taxes since when I booked, I booked under the incentive of no port fees and taxes? When I called about switching my reservation to a Haven, I was told I would have to pay those since they are not now offering that same promotion. But if I were to bid on an upgrade and it gets accepted a few days before the cruise, are we subject to whatever promotions are being offered at that time and not when we booked and paid for the cruise??
You keep the promos that you got with your original booking.

 

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fridaythe13th

fridaythe13th

Posted
Posted
Is that on the Dawn? I am sailing next Friday!! There is still hope!! LOL

 

Have a great cruise!!

 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Forums mobile app

 

Yes it is! I had gone in to up my bids a little bit and two said expired and the other said processing. So I anxiously waited to see what actual cabin I was assigned. We had a regular balcony and I bid on an SJ, SF and SD. Got an accessible SJ. Saved about $700. Won with a poor bid of $370pp.

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pathubia

pathubia

Posted
Posted
Yes it is! I had gone in to up my bids a little bit and two said expired and the other said processing. So I anxiously waited to see what actual cabin I was assigned. We had a regular balcony and I bid on an SJ, SF and SD. Got an accessible SJ. Saved about $700. Won with a poor bid of $370pp.
12030? I was in that once and loved it. I was just on the Gem in the haven and it was incredible My cruise next week is booked in an inside. Hoping for a balcony.

Have a great cruise and please save is some rum!! [emoji1]

 

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Pinkrn

Pinkrn

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I was booked mid ship balcony on deck 15 with bids on H6 and H5 both mid-fair bids for Escape 5/13th. I called ncl yesterday because only one Haven h6 was showing. They would have gladly upgraded me to that one room, but the price would have been more than I paid for the entire cruise! Today, haven showed sold out all day. After talking to the hubby we decided to grab one of the spa balcony rooms, only a few left. One was a spa mini but directly under sun deck so I was a little nervous (although hubby and daughter could sleep thru a tornado) lol. The spa balcony we upgraded to is right below the edge of sun deck so fingers crossed. Hoping the spa access will be worth it. Anyway, when I called to upgrade they told me haven was sold out. I kept my bids just Incase someone cancels last minute tomorrow, but greatly reduced my bid amount. Happy sailing to all! We are so excited and ready for week of relaxing, eating and beaching!

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fridaythe13th

fridaythe13th

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12030? I was in that once and loved it. I was just on the Gem in the haven and it was incredible My cruise next week is booked in an inside. Hoping for a balcony.

Have a great cruise and please save is some rum!! [emoji1]

 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Forums mobile app

 

I’m wondering about the difference in the accessible vs regular SJ which we’ve had. I don’t care about a tub, just bathroom storage! More space is always a plus! We also had a 2 bedroom on the Gem when it was “the Courtyard”. We had that due to an up sell call. I don’t think I’d ever book one though. Hope you get your balcony!

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sulala

sulala

Posted
Posted
You are welcome. As I said though that is merely the data elements (some of them) that are passed to the 3rd party who handles upgrades. How (if) they use any particular one of those parameters is purely speculation.

 

Do you think insurance purchase (or not) has any weight on the UA offer? My credit card covers my trip and I don’t want to pay if it has no bearing on UA. Thank you!

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