NCL Upgrade Advantage timing.

[Jthomasou]

I saw many people post that they heard days before their cruise about their upgrades. 

 

What is the soonest folks typically hear about possible upgrades.  We are trying to go from a mini suite to a haven. 

[cheersforbeers]

J, I only heard 2 days before my cruise.  I think the norm is 2-4 days rather a week or more away. IMHO

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

Yes if there is close to a normal, which each sailing is different due to availability, is Monday to Thursday for a sat or sun sailing.  All my three successful bids were 5day, 4 day and 3 days before sailing

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, Jthomasou said:

I saw many people post that they heard days before their cruise about their upgrades. 

 

What is the soonest folks typically hear about possible upgrades.  We are trying to go from a mini suite to a haven. 

The soonest is 80 days prior to departure when upgrades bid open. 

 

Some Haven guests have reported upgrades in advance of sailing date. Most Haven upgrades are the week of your departure. Many on Monday. Some later in the week. Our last upgrade on the Escape was on Wednesday before a Saturday departure. 

[keep on cruisin]

Our Balcony to haven Penthouse upgrade last November on Breakaway was 1 month ahead of sailing. 

[pete_coach]

They wait till the last minute in case someone will buy it at full price.

[tanjan4evr]

Last year I bid as soon as I got notice  and got accepted 3 days later to my surprise

 

[zqvol]

TO a large extent it depends on your bid. If you bid the maximum you might hear within 24 hurs of making the bid. If you are toward the low end they wait until about two weeks out to start doing the upgrades, in hopes that people wil bid ore or other bids will come in. On my last cruise we bid in the poor range and got an upgrade from a balcony to a spa mini suite with balcony about 17 days out.

[bwilliams66]

can someone tell me how you determine what an acceptable bid is in order to win....I was in a mini suite on the Escape and bid an additional 600 to try to get to the Haven and I did not get it....does anyone mind sharing what they bid and won? we are going on the Encore in Dec of 2019 and I really want to bid on the Haven if it's available, and I want to win this time. lol

[RedwingHockeyFan]

There are way to many variables for it to be common across different cruises.  Less than a week out from my cruise and I am still getting emails to put in bids.  I am guessing that the cruise is not sold out and there are still a handful of the upper class cabins available or else they wouldn't still be probing for upgrades.

[Kmkub]

10 minutes ago, bwilliams66 said:

can someone tell me how you determine what an acceptable bid is in order to win....I was in a mini suite on the Escape and bid an additional 600 to try to get to the Haven and I did not get it....does anyone mind sharing what they bid and won? we are going on the Encore in Dec of 2019 and I really want to bid on the Haven if it's available, and I want to win this time. lol

Hm. I had posted a response, but it's gone. 

 

Try this thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2559083-what-was-your-upgrade-offer-and-what-did-you-bid/

[luv2kroooz]

9 hours ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

There are way to many variables for it to be common across different cruises.  Less than a week out from my cruise and I am still getting emails to put in bids.  I am guessing that the cruise is not sold out and there are still a handful of the upper class cabins available or else they wouldn't still be probing for upgrades.

Good luck. If you bid, I hope you get it. I also believe they probe for research and data gathering, which can help them fine tune pricing models in the future. It helps them understand consumer behavior, etc.

 

[RedwingHockeyFan]

8 hours ago, blcruising said:

Good luck. If you bid, I hope you get it. I also believe they probe for research and data gathering, which can help them fine tune pricing models in the future. It helps them understand consumer behavior, etc.

 

 

I didn't bid this time.  We are cruising with another couple and our rooms are together.  We would just prefer to keep our rooms and stay that way.

[stampincrazyinTX]

19 hours ago, bwilliams66 said:

can someone tell me how you determine what an acceptable bid is in order to win....I was in a mini suite on the Escape and bid an additional 600 to try to get to the Haven and I did not get it....does anyone mind sharing what they bid and won? we are going on the Encore in Dec of 2019 and I really want to bid on the Haven if it's available, and I want to win this time. lol

Shortly after the Upgrade Advantage program began (when I think it was only available on Escape, Breakaway and Getaway), we won our bid on the Escape from a BA to an H7 for $580pp.  It was a great price at the time but I didn't think it was worth it after the fact.  Sure a Haven room is nice but the location was awful.  The ship noises early in the morning were SO loud in that room that I would have rather been in a BA.

[njkate]

On 12/19/2018 at 7:04 PM, Jthomasou said:

I saw many people post that they heard days before their cruise about their upgrades. 

 

What is the soonest folks typically hear about possible upgrades.  We are trying to go from a mini suite to a haven. 

It depends on a lot of factors. For my August cruise to Baltics they notified me about one month out I had won my bid to a two bedroom haven. Good luck

[JamieLogical]

It seems VERY rare for people to hear more than a couple of weeks out, but it does happen. The VAST majority of upgrades seem to be awarded in the 3-7 days out range. As for what is a winning bid, no one can even guess! So many factors go into it, the most obvious of which is remaining inventory on your sailing. My best advice for determining how much to bid is to simply bid what you are happy with. Bid an amount where winning the bid will make you happy, but losing the bid and having the extra money to spend on board or back in your pocket will also make you happy. If you bid a lot, and wining the bid will make you regret "wasting" the extra money, then you bid too much. If you bid the minimum, and losing the bid will have you kicking yourself for not bidding more, then you bit too little.

[andysgirl360]

Last Feb on Breakaway - received notice for bid at 80 days, was accepted at 60 days out.  First time bidding and we went from BC to Haven spa cabin.   I bid in the Fair range, just high enough to put me out of Poor range.  For a 2 week cruise, it was absolutely worth it.

[crusinwiththefam1234]

I am cruising on the Epic in April..I just got the email to put in a bid for upgrade. I watched the video and it said I could put in multiple bids...has anyone done this before? It also said if I don't "win" the bid nothing changes...what happens if I win the bid. I have OBC, will I lose that? and what about other promotions. ?

[JamieLogical]

3 minutes ago, crusinwiththefam1234 said:

I am cruising on the Epic in April..I just got the email to put in a bid for upgrade. I watched the video and it said I could put in multiple bids...has anyone done this before? It also said if I don't "win" the bid nothing changes...what happens if I win the bid. I have OBC, will I lose that? and what about other promotions. ?

 

If you put in multiple bids, only one will be accepted if any are. The others will expire.

 

If you do win, your credit card will be charged immediately. You will be assigned your new room number. You will keep the same Free at Sea perks, OBC, etc. as you had before. If you are upgraded to a Haven, you will gain all of the benefits associated with the room: butler, concierge, access to Haven restaurant/lounge, etc. If you are upgraded to or from a Spa room, the Spa passes stay with the room. So if you upgrade from a spa room to a non-spa room, you lose spa passes. If you upgrade from a non-spa room to a spa room, you will be given spa access.

[crusinwiththefam1234]

Thank you JamieLogical....I am in a balcony hoping to upgrade to a suite or mini suite...I don't need the Haven on this trip...the bids seem reasonable for what I am looking for...

[Jasonmom]

Some people on Breakaway 1/27 got upgrades today 1/16 so 11 days out.  Doing a mock booking it looks pretty full.

[Nola26]

I imagine the Haven and suite upgrades are soonest as those open up lower cabins to fill. 

 

Still waiting on Balcony and Spa Balcony bids for Bliss 2/23.

[Phaedrus78]

Seems timing varies quite a bit.  I'm currently 6 days out from sailing on the Epic 1/23, and all my bids to go from inside to balcony/mini suite are still showing as pending. 

 

NCL website is still selling insides, balconies and minis, but only as sail-aways.  They had Haven rooms available until a few days ago, but now all those are gone... my theory is that they did a round of upgrades into those, but I have no evidence to back that up.  

 

My guess is that NCL won't run further upgrades until the last possible minute, it's more money to them if they can sell the balconies and minis straight up than it is to upgrade someone into them.  

 

🎶The waiting, is the hardest part... 🎶

Edited January 17, 2019 by Phaedrus78