Upgrade bid experiences

[Grandma Cruising]

As upgrade offers are being made again, I decided to resurrect the upgrade spreadsheet & have added the information in the last couple of posts.

Also realised I didn’t post the full information in my post, so here goes.

Cruise is 29 October Athens to Dubai. We’re Discoverer level. We booked an Oceanview and the upgrade information was minimum Veranda £185pp, Veranda Plus £225pp. We bid £360 for a Verandah.

Here’s the spreadsheet link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M/edit

[Utopia1]

Was your 360 bid pp, or total for two?

Thank you for your spread sheet. I have never bid and found this really interesting.

[the mice]

Got upgrade offers for our B2B cruises.   Not bidding - have too many other expenses on land portion of our trip and taking several private excursions, so the money better spent on those.   Besides, we can fit in the "small" shower easily enough and don't want to get a tub/shower combo (besides, we have our nice 5'x3' shower with bench at home).  Plus we have same cabin for both cruises and don't want to lose that. 

But here is info to add to spreadsheet, FWIW.

 

 

Bid Date:   July 22, 2022  (date email received)

Cruise Date: Oct. 21, 2022

Cruise Length: 8

Loyalty Level: Discoverer

Cabin type booked: V3 Verandah

Cabin type bid minimum:   Verandah Plus $100 pp      CC  $400 pp

 

Bid Date:   July 22, 2022  (date email received)

Cruise Date: Oct. 29, 2022

Cruise Length: 7

Loyalty Level: Discoverer

Cabin type booked: V3 Verandah

Cabin type bid minimum:   Verandah Plus $100 pp      CC  $400 pp

 

The Oct. 29 French Intensive has lots of availability overall.   Would not mind if it stays that way!

 

 

[Grandma Cruising]

19 hours ago, Lois10028 said:

Was your 360 bid pp, or total for two?

Thank you for your spread sheet. I have never bid and found this really interesting.

£360 was total for two.

[Beamafar]

2 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

£360 was total for two.

The minimum bid was £185pp, according to your post, so how did you bid less?

Edited July 31, 2022 by Beamafar

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

The minimum bid was £185pp, according to your post, so how did you bid less?

Sorry, my mistake, it was actually £170pp. I got it right in the spreadsheet, but wrong in my post. Many apologies.

[Beamafar]

40 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Sorry, my mistake, it was actually £170pp. I got it right in the spreadsheet, but wrong in my post. Many apologies.

No need - I was curious.  I hadn’t thought to check the spreadsheet.  Thanks for clarifying. 
 

Speaking of, I’m not sure whether to be optimistic about our bid, seeing what others bid up from a verandah to a CC and were successful.  We put in a similar bid. I suppose it’ll very much depend on how many others have put in higher bids and how much inventory is available.  
 

ETA - there is no indication on our bid as to whether it’s weak or otherwise, though it looks from the slider that it’s in the weak zone. I’ll post a photo of its position when I hear from Az about the outcome. 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Beamafar

[Nippy Sweetie]

Having read this thread we've gone ahead and put a bid in for our forthcoming cruise in October! Fingers crossed.

[Beamafar]

43 minutes ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Having read this thread we've gone ahead and put a bid in for our forthcoming cruise in October! Fingers crossed.

The waiting is the hardest thing.  We booked in May and bid not too long after that.   We’re sailing next Saturday;  looking forward to finding out the outcome in the coming days one way or the other.

[Nippy Sweetie]

Good luck!

[Lotus Girl]

Pursuit - 8 night Turkey Intensive from Athens

Bid Date:   July 22 2022 (email received offering upgrade) 

Cruise Date: October 27 2022

Cruise Length: 8

Loyalty Level: Discoverer Plus

Cabin type booked: Club Continental Suite

Cabin type bid minimum:   Club Spa Suite - £1,095 pp; Club Ocean Suite - £1,435 pp; Club World Owner's Suite - £1,685 pp

 

We're happy with our N1 suite so won't be putting in a bid for an upgrade but thought I would post up the costs.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Lotus Girl

[Beamafar]

Has anyone ever found that their bid was accepted/rejected prior to receiving the outcome email (by checking their bid status online)?  I’m wondering if the email is generated immediately upon the status being updated on the booking. 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Beamafar

[uktog]

3 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Has anyone ever found that their bid was accepted/rejected prior to receiving the outcome email (by checking their bid status online)?  I’m wondering if the email is generated immediately upon the status being updated on the booking. 

It is. Emails come as soon as they accept your offer. This can be as late as 72 hours before sailing 

[Beamafar]

Just now, uktog said:

It is. Emails come as soon as they accept your offer. This can be as late as 72 hours before sailing 

Thanks!   It being advised that your bid can be modified or cancelled up to 12 hours before the scheduled time of departure (if an offer hasn’t been accepted beforehand), I’m half expecting to be kept in the dark until embarkation 😂 

[DS]

Baring Holidays or wekends, do not expect to be informed of your success/failure until 72 hours before boarding.   Admittedly this is very late for people traveling from afar.  (We were once informed after we were at the airport!).  But that is the way they are doing it now.   SO.... don't give up too soon.   Most recent cruises have been well below capacity, so many bids are accepted.... just not too soon...

[Beamafar]

Woke up this morning to the news that our bid has been successful. 🥳  In fact, the email was sent at 00.25 (UTC+1).  So, a little more than 72 hours out.  Wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, but am actually very pleased and excited (though a little sad that we won’t have an aft balcony).

 

So, to recap:  minimum bid was €185 pp;  max was €1400 pp.  We bid €500 pp:

 

 

It would have cost us approx €4000 more to book this category at the time of booking (it increased to over €5500 recently), so we feel we’ve done really well. 

[Grandma Cruising]

23 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Woke up this morning to the news that our bid has been successful. 🥳  In fact, the email was sent at 00.25 (UTC+1).  So, a little more than 72 hours out.  Wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, but am actually very pleased and excited (though a little sad that we won’t have an aft balcony).

 

So, to recap:  minimum bid was €185 pp;  max was €1400 pp.  We bid €500 pp:

 

 

It would have cost us approx €4000 more to book this category at the time of booking (it increased to over €5500 recently), so we feel we’ve done really well. 

That’s great. Thanks for the information - added it to the spreadsheet 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M/edit

Hope you have a great cruise.

[hamrag]

2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Woke up this morning to the news that our bid has been successful. 🥳  In fact, the email was sent at 00.25 (UTC+1).  So, a little more than 72 hours out.  Wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, but am actually very pleased and excited (though a little sad that we won’t have an aft balcony).

Bea, that is an excellent deal....well done. No need to go limbo when you drop soap in the shower!

 

Bon Voyage.

[Beamafar]

8 minutes ago, hamrag said:

Bea, that is an excellent deal....well done. No need to go limbo when you drop soap in the shower!

 

Bon Voyage.

Thanks, G!  The larger shower and extra cabin space were a big factor in our decision to bid.  My fear was that we’d get a room with a bath.  Thankfully there’s a YouTube video of our exact cabin, showing the bathroom, which confirms that there is, indeed, a shower.  
 

We’ve actually nabbed an N1, which is the more expensive of the two Club Continent Suite categories (I’m presuming the only difference between the two is location - the N1s are more midship). 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Beamafar

[hamrag]

26 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Thanks, G!  The larger shower and extra cabin space were a big factor in our decision to bid....

We had a quick look at an empty CC suite on changeover day on our B2B cruises, and my recollection was the suite is the same size as the YC Deluxe Suite so that's fab for you. The other benefit is 'complimentary' speciality restaurant dining, both of which are superb....no need to go near the MDR! 😉

 

Do not miss White Night, I'm sure you are aware of it, this is the best night on board and waaaaaaaay better than the apology of same offered on most cruiselines. 

Edited August 3, 2022 by hamrag

[Beamafar]

Just now, hamrag said:

We had a quick look at an empty CC suite on changeover day on our B2B cruises, and my recollection was the suite is the same size as the YC Deluxe Suite so that's fab for you. The other benefit is 'complimentary' speciality restaurant dining, both of which are superb....no need to go near the MDR! 😉

 

Do not miss White Night, I'm sure you are aware of it, this is the best night on board waaaaaaaay better than the apology of same offered on most cruiselines. 

Yeah - I’ve seen videos of the White Night party.  Totally agree - that is one night we do not want to miss.

 

I agree that the cabin looks similar in size to a YC1 (on the newer ships). 👍
 

We’re also delighted with getting the SRs included.  We already had one night as a perk (P1 cabin).  Ten more nights would have cost another €600 approx.  Though we wouldn’t have paid for that number of nights, we were certainly intending to dine on more than the one included night.  
 

Overall we’re chuffed with the outcome.  While the strength of the bid wasn’t advised, you can see from the slider that it was a relatively low bid. 

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

.....Overall we’re chuffed with the outcome.  While the strength of the bid wasn’t advised, you can see from the slider that it was a relatively low bid. 

 

As they say....'the luck of the Irish'....😂

[uktog]

White Night is currently still a more muted affair on some of the the ships still so manage expectations! 

[NewSalty]

So, if you think about it, you really shouldn't expect Azamara to accept any bids until shortly before departure... They're going to want to wait until the end, and accept the highest bids, which may not come in until the end.  The other side of that equation is that they might outright sell the higher level cabin on its' own by then.  (Although one of the assumed rationales to this whole upgrading process is that it's easier to sell the lower category cabins towards the end.  I'd love to see the equation the marketing guys use to figure this out!)

 

[earlvolfan]

So I just got an email that my upgrade bid for a Club Continent Suite from a Veranda Plus Room for $2,020 total.

 

It's August 10th, 6 days before our cruise that departs on August 16th from Reykjavik.

Edited August 11, 2022 by earlvolfan