What was your upgrade offer and what did you bid

[Mjdj1220]

For anyone who has had a bid accepted or denied, does the status change from pending to something else? Just wondering what to look out for. 

 

MJ

[Luvmypups]

4 hours ago, Mjdj1220 said:

For anyone who has had a bid accepted or denied, does the status change from pending to something else? Just wondering what to look out for. 

 

MJ

Most posters that won their bids say it turns from pending to processing.

[Luvmypups]

7 hours ago, ggooglyboogly said:

I've seen a lot of varying mileage on this thread…...I'm headed on the Getaway in 11 days and have bid $2500 total to get my wife and two kids to a Haven 2br suite (or the Haven aft balcony) from our family mini suite.  (Don't worry, if you're on my sailing, my 3yo and 6mo will NOT be screaming up a storm in the Haven pool deck haha)

 

This is still on the high end of the POOR section, however, if I added the total price to the fare I already paid, it's only $1000 or so less than the room is currently going for on NCL.com.  

 

Looking online I see there are 12 2br suites available and 2 aft balcony rooms and the prices came down about $500 from yesterday.  

 

Anyone else ever have similar scenario?

My situation was just the opposite.  We are on the Breakaway on 3/17, we also were trying to bid from a mini suite to get into the Haven.  Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve noticed that the Haven is almost completely sold out for our sailing, with the exception of 2 Haven Spa suites and 1 Haven Courtyard suite.  There have been minimal price changes in our sailing so far also.  Therefore, I figured chances were going to be slim that our bid was going to be accepted - which was also in line with what your bid was.  So, after much thought and looking at what I was willing to bid and seeing that I was only $400 away from what the going rate  was to upgrade, I decided to just call and upgrade to a sure thing.

 

Seeing that you are 11 days away from your cruise, the number of rooms still currently available, it looks pretty promising to me that you have a good chance of getting your bid accepted.  Many of the people that I’ve been reading that haven’t been getting their bids accepted have said much of the Haven has been showing sold out several weeks prior to their sailing.

 

Good luck either way - let us know if you get it!

[Mjdj1220]

17 minutes ago, Luvmypups said:

Most posters that won their bids say it turns from pending to processing.

Thank you.

 

MJ

[huntersh2]

10 hours ago, ggooglyboogly said:

I've seen a lot of varying mileage on this thread…...I'm headed on the Getaway in 11 days and have bid $2500 total to get my wife and two kids to a Haven 2br suite (or the Haven aft balcony) from our family mini suite.  (Don't worry, if you're on my sailing, my 3yo and 6mo will NOT be screaming up a storm in the Haven pool deck haha)

 

This is still on the high end of the POOR section, however, if I added the total price to the fare I already paid, it's only $1000 or so less than the room is currently going for on NCL.com.  

 

Looking online I see there are 12 2br suites available and 2 aft balcony rooms and the prices came down about $500 from yesterday.  

 

Anyone else ever have similar scenario?

I know you may be hesitant but the H4 is absolutely ridiculous.  The best room at Sea I've ever been on. I bid 1510 pp and was accepted the last week before sailing. So worth it. 1000 x2 pp is only 2000. I am questionable if that gets it done. I wish you the best my friend 

[RomanPearce]

Sailing on Getaway 2/17/19 

 

2 Adults one child. Original booking was sail away balcony guarantee on 11/4/18. Room assigned  two days later was 10th floor midship balcony. 

 

Put in bids on several Haven rooms as soon as upgrade offer appeared. Was informed last Friday that our offer of 960PP was accepted for an H5 Courtyard Penthouse. 

 

We love cruising on NCL and can’t wait for Sunday. 

Edited February 14, 2019 by RomanPearce

[xcell]

17 hours ago, ggooglyboogly said:

I've seen a lot of varying mileage on this thread…...I'm headed on the Getaway in 11 days and have bid $2500 total to get my wife and two kids to a Haven 2br suite (or the Haven aft balcony) from our family mini suite.  (Don't worry, if you're on my sailing, my 3yo and 6mo will NOT be screaming up a storm in the Haven pool deck haha)

 

This is still on the high end of the POOR section, however, if I added the total price to the fare I already paid, it's only $1000 or so less than the room is currently going for on NCL.com.  

 

Looking online I see there are 12 2br suites available and 2 aft balcony rooms and the prices came down about $500 from yesterday.  

 

Anyone else ever have similar scenario?

 

That's the best Haven room (IMHO) to get, so for my Xmas 2018 room I bid $4500 ($2250 pp) to get it (from a family balcony to H4)...but didn't get it :(.

 

There were 13 H4 rooms available when I was bidding, so I thought I would have a chance but I think during their peak seasons, they would rather give it to a 2 person upgrade vs a 4 person upgrade. As other posters had mentioned, since the upgrade cost is only for 2, having 4 in a room will cost more money for NCL (more work for the staff, more food to be consumed, etc...) so it's less expensive to put 2 in a H4 (which other posters have mentioned they use the 2nd bedroom to store luggage).

 

Any way, I have heard of 4 being upgrade but they were sailing on an older ship and not prime time -- I think just this past month.

 

Any ways, I wish you luck -- I hope I'm wrong and you will get the enjoy the H4....keep us posted...   I have given up on bidding (well, at least during prime sailing seasons).

[romalley99]

I am sailing on the Escape March 3. I just sailed on the Escape December 28th. I have a pretty good track record with the bidding system. I've won many many times, but I have also had my share of losses. I've gone from Balcony to H5, Balcony to Owners Suite H3, Balcony to 2 Bedroom H4 and Balcony to Deluxe Owners Suite H2. All for mostly minimum bids, or close to it, and a party of 3. 

 

My most recent cruise, December 28th 2018 on Escape, I was in an H5. I bid minimal (or close to it) on H4 and got it, but lost my Maximum H3 an H2 Bid, which I thought was crazy as there was 2 H3's left and 3 H2's left. 

 

Anyway, I am currently in an H5 for my cruise on March 3rd in 2 weeks, and was not going to bid. Instead, I wanted to have some fun so I put 3 minimum bids on for the H4, H3 and H2. Minimum for H4 was $500pp, Minimum for H3 and H2 is $750pp. There are 11 H4's left, and 1 H3 left... according to the website, no More H2's. 

 

I will keep everyone updated regarding this. I mostly did it for statistical purposes. If I win, awesome, but if not, that's ok as I wasn't going to bid at all. We shall see! 

 

Robbie 

[JamieLogical]

I finally put in some bids yesterday for my April 7 Escape sailing. I am treating my sister to this cruise, so I will be the one paying for both people if any of the bids are accepted. So I bid really low. The sailing is only about 55% full right now. I truly expected them to drop the prices by now, because inventory has been moving SO SLOWLY at the current price points. But the prices haven't budged. I suspect they are going to fill the sailing with CAS at the last minute, which means I might have a chance to win a low bid on one of the higher categories, but we shall see. 

[ggooglyboogly]

2 hours ago, xcell said:

 

That's the best Haven room (IMHO) to get, so for my Xmas 2018 room I bid $4500 ($2250 pp) to get it (from a family balcony to H4)...but didn't get it :(.

 

There were 13 H4 rooms available when I was bidding, so I thought I would have a chance but I think during their peak seasons, they would rather give it to a 2 person upgrade vs a 4 person upgrade. As other posters had mentioned, since the upgrade cost is only for 2, having 4 in a room will cost more money for NCL (more work for the staff, more food to be consumed, etc...) so it's less expensive to put 2 in a H4 (which other posters have mentioned they use the 2nd bedroom to store luggage).

 

Any way, I have heard of 4 being upgrade but they were sailing on an older ship and not prime time -- I think just this past month.

 

Any ways, I wish you luck -- I hope I'm wrong and you will get the enjoy the H4....keep us posted...   I have given up on bidding (well, at least during prime sailing seasons).

Your logic makes a lot of sense!  In the end this is just extra revenue for the line and if someone had a similar bid with two people, they're going to consume less than my family of four (though my 3 year old pretty much only eats chicken nuggets and bananas & my 6 month old is just starting his solid food journey haha).  

 

As of this morning - there are still 11 H4 remaining and all of the H6 are gone, so there's a little bit of movement.  We'll see how it goes, I don't think I'll improve my bid much at this point, however if I see the price come down in the coming days I might just book it on my own. 

 

Either way, not the end of the world if I wind up in the mini suite, today was the first time this week I haven't been out shoveling snow at 5am so any room in the Caribbean will do just fine.  

[Lionkingrichard]

Not much on the 2/17 Breakaway?

[gmbhardy]

9 hours ago, RomanPearce said:

Sailing on Getaway 2/17/19 

 

2 Adults one child. Original booking was sail away balcony guarantee on 11/4/18. Room assigned  two days later was 10th floor midship balcony. 

 

Put in bids on several Haven rooms as soon as upgrade offer appeared. Was informed last Friday that our offer of 960PP was accepted for an H5 Courtyard Penthouse. 

 

We love cruising on NCL and can’t wait for Sunday. 

 

So what was your final cost.

[nhquilter1]

Trying to figure stuff out here...

How do you know how full/empty the ship is? I've got an inside family cabin on the Escape for 9/1...I've gone on to NCL and looked and the price of our cabin has gone up $400...it doesn't show sold out, so how do I know how many are left and does that have anything to do with the bidding process? I know I won't hear anything until June about bidding (IF I do) so I'm pretty early to the party but any advice/info is appreciated.

Thanks.

[ggooglyboogly]

19 minutes ago, nhquilter1 said:

Trying to figure stuff out here...

How do you know how full/empty the ship is? I've got an inside family cabin on the Escape for 9/1...I've gone on to NCL and looked and the price of our cabin has gone up $400...it doesn't show sold out, so how do I know how many are left and does that have anything to do with the bidding process? I know I won't hear anything until June about bidding (IF I do) so I'm pretty early to the party but any advice/info is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I would just do a dummy booking.  Pick your sailing, a room category and get to the actual cabin selection screen.  

 

That's what I've been doing - then just counting the haven rooms they have left.  

 

Put your browser on private or make sure you're not logged in or NCL will email you with a "cmon finish that booking" type of message.  

[JamieLogical]

24 minutes ago, ggooglyboogly said:

 

I would just do a dummy booking.  Pick your sailing, a room category and get to the actual cabin selection screen.  

 

That's what I've been doing - then just counting the haven rooms they have left.  

 

Put your browser on private or make sure you're not logged in or NCL will email you with a "cmon finish that booking" type of message.  

 

 

The NCL site will only show you a maximum of 15 rooms available in any given category, so it is not at all an accurate way of calculating the remaining inventory. There are other travel agency sites that will show you all of the available rooms, though the site I use will only show you a maximum of 100 in a given category, so for some of the balcony categories on the larger ships, it's still not completely accurate.

[nhquilter1]

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

The NCL site will only show you a maximum of 15 rooms available in any given category, so it is not at all an accurate way of calculating the remaining inventory. There are other travel agency sites that will show you all of the available rooms, though the site I use will only show you a maximum of 100 in a given category, so for some of the balcony categories on the larger ships, it's still not completely accurate.

care to share one of the sites??

[cyndyga]

6 hours ago, Lionkingrichard said:

Not much on the 2/17 Breakaway?

See my post #2324 

[Mjdj1220]

Cannot wait till next week when they start sending offer acceptance or declines. At this point I just want to know!

 

MJ

[huntersh2]

23 hours ago, RomanPearce said:

Sailing on Getaway 2/17/19 

 

2 Adults one child. Original booking was sail away balcony guarantee on 11/4/18. Room assigned  two days later was 10th floor midship balcony. 

 

Put in bids on several Haven rooms as soon as upgrade offer appeared. Was informed last Friday that our offer of 960PP was accepted for an H5 Courtyard Penthouse. 

 

We love cruising on NCL and can’t wait for Sunday. 

That's a great bid. Congrats. Wow I was hearing 750 gets it done with an H5 Courtyard.  Might need to increase my bids if the going rate now is 960 a person. Hmmm

[huntersh2]

17 hours ago, xcell said:

 

That's the best Haven room (IMHO) to get, so for my Xmas 2018 room I bid $4500 ($2250 pp) to get it (from a family balcony to H4)...but didn't get it :(.

 

There were 13 H4 rooms available when I was bidding, so I thought I would have a chance but I think during their peak seasons, they would rather give it to a 2 person upgrade vs a 4 person upgrade. As other posters had mentioned, since the upgrade cost is only for 2, having 4 in a room will cost more money for NCL (more work for the staff, more food to be consumed, etc...) so it's less expensive to put 2 in a H4 (which other posters have mentioned they use the 2nd bedroom to store luggage).

 

Any way, I have heard of 4 being upgrade but they were sailing on an older ship and not prime time -- I think just this past month.

 

Any ways, I wish you luck -- I hope I'm wrong and you will get the enjoy the H4....keep us posted...   I have given up on bidding (well, at least during prime sailing seasons).

I was upgraded Balcony mid ship to H4 for 1510 pp..It was me, my wife, and my 2 kids (5 and 8) so I'm not sure how true that is. And thus was end of April beginning of May cruise.. cruise was sold out (2018). Food for thought 

 

[huntersh2]

17 hours ago, xcell said:

 

That's the best Haven room (IMHO) to get, so for my Xmas 2018 room I bid $4500 ($2250 pp) to get it (from a family balcony to H4)...but didn't get it :(.

 

There were 13 H4 rooms available when I was bidding, so I thought I would have a chance but I think during their peak seasons, they would rather give it to a 2 person upgrade vs a 4 person upgrade. As other posters had mentioned, since the upgrade cost is only for 2, having 4 in a room will cost more money for NCL (more work for the staff, more food to be consumed, etc...) so it's less expensive to put 2 in a H4 (which other posters have mentioned they use the 2nd bedroom to store luggage).

 

Any way, I have heard of 4 being upgrade but they were sailing on an older ship and not prime time -- I think just this past month.

 

Any ways, I wish you luck -- I hope I'm wrong and you will get the enjoy the H4....keep us posted...   I have given up on bidding (well, at least during prime sailing seasons).

And It was on Getaway so not an "old" ship either. Actually the contrary, what most NCL lovers feel is their best ship..again just food for thought.

[huntersh2]

14 hours ago, gmbhardy said:

 

So what was your final cost.

You are allowed to bid into Haven from Balcony guarantee.  I was told that you could only bid into Haven if you purchased a room with a number.  You learn something new every day. The balcony guarantee just got a whole lot more appealing...then just throw a boat load of money at the Haven room after 🙂

[xcell]

4 hours ago, huntersh2 said:

And It was on Getaway so not an "old" ship either. Actually the contrary, what most NCL lovers feel is their best ship..again just food for thought.

 

When I meant old -- I wasn't referring to the Gem or something (now that's older), but Getaway,  and Breakaway.

 

I think (and I know it doesn't mean it's true) that newer ships, like Escape, bliss and Encore, would be harder for a 4 person room to be upgraded.

 

Also sailing during holidays (Xmas, summer prime time -- not the last week of August, that's not prime, and spring break), it would be harder as well. 

Edited February 15, 2019 by xcell

[Susandt]

17 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

The NCL site will only show you a maximum of 15 rooms available in any given category, so it is not at all an accurate way of calculating the remaining inventory. There are other travel agency sites that will show you all of the available rooms, though the site I use will only show you a maximum of 100 in a given category, so for some of the balcony categories on the larger ships, it's still not completely accurate.

 

We are on epic 3.23.19,  how do I tell how full it is

[jdro]

On 2/12/2019 at 4:43 PM, jcann4444 said:

Was Comped an Inside from CAS.  Just got an accepted bid upgraded to an AFT Balcony on the Escape 3/10 from NYC.

 

Congratulations, we are on this cruise also but have not gotten an upgrade yet 😞, stalking it multiple times during the day but I'm not sure if it will happen, not too many Haven rooms left (which I bid on) and the lowest balcony category is at a guarantee, so I'm not sure how the algorithm works and if I even have a shot....