What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[fava]

On 12/25/2019 at 10:52 AM, JamieLogical said:

Over the entire weekend, only 2 cabins sold of the hundreds remaining.

How do you know this?  I don't think any cruise line publishes totals of sold or available cabins.

[1jelen1]

HI!

Is anybody sailing on NCL Encore on 1st of March and bidding on haven suites? Thank you for your response.

[JamieLogical]

6 hours ago, fava said:

How do you know this?  I don't think any cruise line publishes totals of sold or available cabins.

 

I track inventory in a spreadsheet.

[MoniMommy]

On 12/25/2019 at 1:52 PM, JamieLogical said:

Then yesterday, to my surprise, they raised the price another $50pp per cabin across all categories. If inventory wasn't moving at the current prices over a weekend, I don't know how they expect it to move at an even higher price, but there must be some logic to it.

@JamieLogical I am assuming that you track inventory by counting rooms on NCL or another travel website. Do you think the rate increase could be due to Gurantee bookings? Each GTY booking represents a cabin sold but it would not show up on any search using NCL or an outside travel site.

[JamieLogical]

11 hours ago, MoniMommy said:

@JamieLogical I am assuming that you track inventory by counting rooms on NCL or another travel website. Do you think the rate increase could be due to Gurantee bookings? Each GTY booking represents a cabin sold but it would not show up on any search using NCL or an outside travel site.

 

It's true that GTYs sold don't show up right away, but they do show up pretty quickly. Typically rooms are assigned pretty fast, so they then disappear from the inventory. I also don't see rooms sold in categories that have over 100 rooms available, as the site I use only shows a maximum of 100 available rooms in any category. On the specific sailing I am watching right now, there are still over 100 BAs and B8s available.

[MoniMommy]

22 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

It's true that GTYs sold don't show up right away, but they do show up pretty quickly. Typically rooms are assigned pretty fast, so they then disappear from the inventory. I also don't see rooms sold in categories that have over 100 rooms available, as the site I use only shows a maximum of 100 available rooms in any category. On the specific sailing I am watching right now, there are still over 100 BAs and B8s available.

@JamieLogicalThank you for the added detail. I don't realize GTY rooms were assigned so quickly.  Based on your past research, (discounting the recent puzzling price increases) when do prices go down. For exampleexample drop X days before sailing when Y number of rooms remain. 

[kpark895]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

It's true that GTYs sold don't show up right away, but they do show up pretty quickly. Typically rooms are assigned pretty fast, so they then disappear from the inventory. I also don't see rooms sold in categories that have over 100 rooms available, as the site I use only shows a maximum of 100 available rooms in any category. On the specific sailing I am watching right now, there are still over 100 BAs and B8s available.

 

I assume you're watching the same cruise we both are going on.  I hope to get my upgrade to a balcony, or at least an oceanview, and did see last week, when I checked, that there were plenty left.

[Ostrichman]

I am sailing on the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy.  I have been tracking the Haven H4 (2BD) and Haven H5 (courtyard) rooms since I put in upgrade offers from my MS balcony.  The price for both had been holding steady at $5699 PP for the H4 and $4299 PP for the H5, with the inventory 13 for the H4 and 14 for the H5.  I put in just above the min bid ($1500) for the H5 and a low fair bid for the H4 (the room I actually wanted).  On 28 Dec (3 weeks out from the cruise), there was a price drop of $300 PP for each.  Then, yesterday on 30 Dec, they lowered both AGAIN by $500 PP.  So that was an $800 PP price drop in 3 days which put this only about $400 PP above the min fair bid.  So at this point I made a decision to jump on this since it was only about $300 PP above my offer and I got to pick my room and get the extra Haven Perks.

 

Also of interest, when I had a MS Bal the min bid for the H5 was $1500.  Now that I have an H4, the min bid for the H5 dropped to $500.  I am happy with my room and won't be bidding on the H5.  

 

Best of luck to all of you still bidding on the 17 Jan Joy Cruise!

[Ostrichman]

Another data point for watching Haven prices for those bidding for upgrades.  After they lowered the price on 30 Dec by $500 PP for the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy, they raised the price back up by $500 on 1 Jan.  So if you are watching prices and they fall don't assume that they will continue to fall.  This is a case when the price went back up.  The room inventory went from 13 H4 and 14 from H5 to 11 on the H4 and 8 on the H5 so perhaps they felt they had moved enough open room inventory to raise prices again.

[dexddd]

2 minutes ago, Ostrichman said:

Another data point for watching Haven prices for those bidding for upgrades.  After they lowered the price on 30 Dec by $500 PP for the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy, they raised the price back up by $500 on 1 Jan.  So if you are watching prices and they fall don't assume that they will continue to fall.  This is a case when the price went back up.  The room inventory went from 13 H4 and 14 from H5 to 11 on the H4 and 8 on the H5 so perhaps they felt they had moved enough open room inventory to raise prices again.

Maybe the new 30% off sale jacked prices today.

 

And considering a fancy new TV ad today with mention of 30% off guessing it will be around for awhile.

[MoniMommy]

The cruise I am booked on went up $13 after the sale. I used to think prices were based on supply and demand, but prices seem to be going up even with lots of empty cabins based on a quick count using the ncl website and another website. Cabin count remains the same in a particular category and price still increases.

[Cccc89]

Booked inside cabin on Breakaway for 10 nights leaving 1/22. Bid $180pp for balcony. Bid accepted yesterday and assigned aft balcony. 

[Susandt]

On 12/28/2019 at 10:52 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

I track inventory in a spreadsheet.

How do u do this?  Sailing 3/28 and wondering how full is it

[Susandt]

3 hours ago, MoniMommy said:

The cruise I am booked on went up $13 after the sale. I used to think prices were based on supply and demand, but prices seem to be going up even with lots of empty cabins based on a quick count using the ncl website and another website. Cabin count remains the same in a particular category and price still increases.

My 3/20 cruise is up $200 pp and 4/21 cruise is up $700 pp plus we have free airfare with it

[smrtypnts]

On 12/31/2019 at 10:10 AM, Ostrichman said:

I am sailing on the 17 Jan Panama Canal Cruise on the Joy.  I have been tracking the Haven H4 (2BD) and Haven H5 (courtyard) rooms since I put in upgrade offers from my MS balcony.  The price for both had been holding steady at $5699 PP for the H4 and $4299 PP for the H5, with the inventory 13 for the H4 and 14 for the H5.  I put in just above the min bid ($1500) for the H5 and a low fair bid for the H4 (the room I actually wanted).  On 28 Dec (3 weeks out from the cruise), there was a price drop of $300 PP for each.  Then, yesterday on 30 Dec, they lowered both AGAIN by $500 PP.  So that was an $800 PP price drop in 3 days which put this only about $400 PP above the min fair bid.  So at this point I made a decision to jump on this since it was only about $300 PP above my offer and I got to pick my room and get the extra Haven Perks.

 

Also of interest, when I had a MS Bal the min bid for the H5 was $1500.  Now that I have an H4, the min bid for the H5 dropped to $500.  I am happy with my room and won't be bidding on the H5.  

 

Best of luck to all of you still bidding on the 17 Jan Joy Cruise!

Does this mean, that if you had "won" your bid you would not have gotten the Haven perks?

[debnjoe1438]

4 hours ago, Cccc89 said:

Booked inside cabin on Breakaway for 10 nights leaving 1/22. Bid $180pp for balcony. Bid accepted yesterday and assigned aft balcony. 

Congratulations. I'm on the same cruise, loosing hope in my bids. I've seen the Spa Balconies and Spa Mini Suites go from 11 to 1 and 6 to one. (I have bids on these and some suites, which the last time I looked were all gone.

[Ostrichman]

17 minutes ago, smrtypnts said:

Does this mean, that if you had "won" your bid you would not have gotten the Haven perks?

Correct ... you don't get the perks for the higher cabin unless you book them.  The biggest Haven perk is an extra Lat Rewards point per night.  The other one is that I was able to pick and choose any of the 4 Free at Sea items (we never get the drink package since my wife doesn't drink) ... so we were able to get the other 3.  For the MS balcony, I could only have 2 or 4.

 

If you win a bid you get the cabin you don't get the extra points but basically you get everything else a Haven Cabin gets (early boarding, use of the Haven facilities, etc.).  

 

Sorry if there was any confusion!

[itf]

9 hours ago, debnjoe1438 said:

Congratulations. I'm on the same cruise, loosing hope in my bids. I've seen the Spa Balconies and Spa Mini Suites go from 11 to 1 and 6 to one. (I have bids on these and some suites, which the last time I looked were all gone.

Me too - we've got a balcony and I'm bidding on Mini and Spa Mini but no action on my bids, even though I thought they were quite strong. 😞

[debnjoe1438]

1 hour ago, itf said:

Me too - we've got a balcony and I'm bidding on Mini and Spa Mini but no action on my bids, even though I thought they were quite strong. 😞

I hope we both get one. 

[All-ready2cruise]

13 hours ago, Ostrichman said:

Correct ... you don't get the perks for the higher cabin unless you book them.  The biggest Haven perk is an extra Lat Rewards point per night.  The other one is that I was able to pick and choose any of the 4 Free at Sea items (we never get the drink package since my wife doesn't drink) ... so we were able to get the other 3.  For the MS balcony, I could only have 2 or 4.

 

If you win a bid you get the cabin you don't get the extra points but basically you get everything else a Haven Cabin gets (early boarding, use of the Haven facilities, etc.).  

 

Sorry if there was any confusion!

 

Can we just step back here for a moment? Talking about Haven/Suite perks, we're referring to things like Butler service, Concierge, private dining room, Priority Embarkation, etc.  If we're talking about the things like Drink package, those are Free at Sea promotions and you keep those based on your primary stateroom category.  If you only choose 2 FAS promotions, ie PBP & $50 Shorex credit, those will remain the same regardless of which cabin you end up with.  Sorry, just wanted to clarify since there is a big difference between H/S perks and FAS promotions.

 

Enjoy your cruises and Happy New Year. 

[Ostrichman]

2 hours ago, All-ready2cruise said:

 

Can we just step back here for a moment? Talking about Haven/Suite perks, we're referring to things like Butler service, Concierge, private dining room, Priority Embarkation, etc.  If we're talking about the things like Drink package, those are Free at Sea promotions and you keep those based on your primary stateroom category.  If you only choose 2 FAS promotions, ie PBP & $50 Shorex credit, those will remain the same regardless of which cabin you end up with.  Sorry, just wanted to clarify since there is a big difference between H/S perks and FAS promotions.

 

Enjoy your cruises and Happy New Year. 

Happy to clarify ... yes FAS perks are different from Haven Perks.  If you bid on a Haven room and get the upgrade - you get the original FAS perks from your original room but not for the upgraded room.  If you win a bid to upgrade from the balcony to the Haven then you get ALL the Haven benefits EXCEPT the additional latitude rewards point per night.  For this 16 day/15 night cruise ... 15 additional points is a nice perk IMO.

 

The FAS benefit is a minor deal for most people since most people just take all 4 anyway (in my special case I wanted 3 of the 4 FAS perks but for whatever reason NCL won't let you take 3 out of 4 unless you are in the Haven.  $40 a day is a lot of money to pay when only 1 of the 2 people in the room drink ... so I never choose that one.  They always make me choose 2 if I don't want all 4 ... probably to motivate people to pay for the "free aka $40 a day" drink package.   So I ended up getting the FAS internet benefit in the Haven when I would have had to forgo that in my original room.)

[JamieLogical]

20 hours ago, Susandt said:

How do u do this?  Sailing 3/28 and wondering how full is it

 

There are some travel agency sites (not allowed to mention them specifically on Cruise Critic) that allow you to see more than 15 available rooms in a given category. I use one of those sites to total up the number of available rooms in each category in a spreadsheet on a regular basis to track inventory and pricing changes. It's a pretty labor-intensive process and I don't know of a better/easier way to do it without being a travel agent myself and potentially having access to more data.

 

You could do the same thing using the NCL site, but keep in mind that you can only see a maximum of 15 rooms in any category there.

[MoniMommy]

23 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

You could do the same thing using the NCL site, but keep in mind that you can only see a maximum of 15 rooms in any category there.

If you see less than 15 rooms on NCL does that mean a category is close to selling out?

[JamieLogical]

Just now, MoniMommy said:

If you see less than 15 rooms on NCL does that mean a category is close to selling out?

 

Yes.

[itf]

We got our upgrade on the 22/1 Breakaway sailing - went from B2 Balcony to an M6 for £240 - as there's four of us I didn't think that was too bad. Looks like a large balcony so I'm happy enough with that.