Upgrade bid experiences

[marinaro44]

2 hours ago, kml246 said:

We have made a bid on our upcoming cruise. Since this is our first bid experience, I was wondering if the amount of the bid for a particular type of cabin secures a better location. We are bidding on a CC Suite and would prefer an N1 rather an N2 location. There are quite a few cabins open in both N1 and N2. Does Azamara (or their system) award the better N1 locations to those with higher winning bids? For example, if there are ten N1 cabins open and ten open N2 cabins and twenty people bid for an upgrade, will the ten strongest bids go to N1 and the remaining to N2? Thank you for any insight.

 

Here is the info for your spreadsheet. I will post back with our offer amount after we learn if we are successful or not.

 

Sail Date: Dec 12, 2022

Cruise Length: 10 nights

Email Notice Received: Sep 24, 2022

Bid Made: Sep 24, 2022 - modified to a lower offer on Oct 11, 2022

Loyalty Level: Explorer now, but will be Discoverer after Nov 21

Cabin Type Booked: V1 Veranda

Cabin Type Bid For: CC Suite

Minimum Bid: Veranda Plus $200 per stateroom; CC Suite $800 per stateroom

Cruise Region: Caribbean

 

Thanks for your help and for the spreadsheet.

 

Kevin

 

Why do you think N1 locations are better?  We much prefer N2 where you are not under the pool area or The Patio.

[takemewithyou]

2 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

 

Why do you think N1 locations are better?  We much prefer N2 where you are not under the pool area or The Patio.

I agree and also prefer the shower to tub/shower combo.

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, kml246 said:

We have made a bid on our upcoming cruise. Since this is our first bid experience, I was wondering if the amount of the bid for a particular type of cabin secures a better location. We are bidding on a CC Suite and would prefer an N1 rather an N2 location. There are quite a few cabins open in both N1 and N2. Does Azamara (or their system) award the better N1 locations to those with higher winning bids? For example, if there are ten N1 cabins open and ten open N2 cabins and twenty people bid for an upgrade, will the ten strongest bids go to N1 and the remaining to N2? Thank you for any insight.

 

Here is the info for your spreadsheet. I will post back with our offer amount after we learn if we are successful or not.

 

Sail Date: Dec 12, 2022

Cruise Length: 10 nights

Email Notice Received: Sep 24, 2022

Bid Made: Sep 24, 2022 - modified to a lower offer on Oct 11, 2022

Loyalty Level: Explorer now, but will be Discoverer after Nov 21

Cabin Type Booked: V1 Veranda

Cabin Type Bid For: CC Suite

Minimum Bid: Veranda Plus $200 per stateroom; CC Suite $800 per stateroom

Cruise Region: Caribbean

 

Thanks for your help and for the spreadsheet.

 

Kevin

Thanks for the information, it’s now on the spreadsheet.

I don’t think anyone knows how Azamara allocates cabins through the upgrade system. 

[kml246]

5 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

 

Why do you think N1 locations are better?  We much prefer N2 where you are not under the pool area or The Patio.

 

2 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

I agree and also prefer the shower to tub/shower combo.

 

We've been boaters most of our lives (I have a Master's License) and Nan still does not like rough seas (who does, really?), so I try to select cabins closer to midship. We can take cabins towards the stern, but do not like cabins near the bow. The N1 cabins may be under the Pool/Patio area, but many of the N2 cabins are under Windows Cafe or the Fitness Center. We haven't experienced a CC Suite, yet, and usually do not choose cabins directly under public decks, but there's no choice with CC Suites. Is under the Pool/Patio noisier than Windows Cafe?

 

Regarding the shower vs tub/shower, we prefer showers (our home has four bathrooms and all have large walk-in showers without tubs), but it wouldn't bother us to have the tub/shower combo. 

 

Thanks for the feedback. After this cruise, we'll have a better feel for Onward. We just booked a B2B on her for June. 

 

Kevin 

[kml246]

6 hours ago, tgg said:

 

Azamara has made the process of selling upgrades opaque. They've been unwilling to discuss in any meaningful terms what influence your level in the loyalty program benefits you. 

 

From reading other posts, I've gathered loyalty level may not matter other than as a tiebreaker. It's a shame they make it a secret whether the amount of the bid influences the choice of cabin. I believe they're missing an opportunity here by not using and advertising that a higher bid gets a better cabin. Of course, better is subjective, but since cruise lines price cabins in the same category differently based on location and desirability. 

 

Thanks,

Kevin 

[takemewithyou]

44 minutes ago, kml246 said:

 

 

We've been boaters most of our lives (I have a Master's License) and Nan still does not like rough seas (who does, really?), so I try to select cabins closer to midship. We can take cabins towards the stern, but do not like cabins near the bow. The N1 cabins may be under the Pool/Patio area, but many of the N2 cabins are under Windows Cafe or the Fitness Center. We haven't experienced a CC Suite, yet, and usually do not choose cabins directly under public decks, but there's no choice with CC Suites. Is under the Pool/Patio noisier than Windows Cafe?

 

Regarding the shower vs tub/shower, we prefer showers (our home has four bathrooms and all have large walk-in showers without tubs), but it wouldn't bother us to have the tub/shower combo. 

 

Thanks for the feedback. After this cruise, we'll have a better feel for Onward. We just booked a B2B on her for June. 

 

Kevin 

We prefer the stern…..really dislike the bow.  There is a lot of chair scraping under the patio and pool deck so it is preferable to be under windows cafe, for us.  We bring a travel sound machine and that works perfectly to block out any noise from above.

 Beware if you are very tall, the tub shower combo does not leave much headroom to get under the shower.

[kml246]

8 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

We prefer the stern…..really dislike the bow.  There is a lot of chair scraping under the patio and pool deck so it is preferable to be under windows cafe, for us.  We bring a travel sound machine and that works perfectly to block out any noise from above.

 Beware if you are very tall, the tub shower combo does not leave much headroom to get under the shower.

 

That's the reason for my question - we would prefer not to be in the bow, so N1 solves that. 

 

We always try to get a cabin on a deck with staterooms above and below. If we're successful on our bid, this will be our first time under a Lido deck. I've read the warnings about the noise from the buffet area or the pool area. I always use cruisedeckplans website when selecting cabins. 

 

We far prefer a shower over tub/shower combo. We're used to the combo as we sail on Princess often and usually get mini-suites and that's what they have. I'm not that tall (5'11") but do have to watch the headroom. If I was booking a CC Suite from the start, I would choose a shower only stateroom. This is our first Azamara cruise and are trying it to see how we like them. We're concerned about the small bathroom in the Verandas, but it was half the price of the CC Suite. If we get the upgrade, we're going to seek out someone with a Veranda to check out the stateroom. We have a B2B in June on Onward and have aft-facing Veranda Plus on one leg and a Veranda midship on the second. Since we booked under the Veranda for price of an Inside and Veranda Plus for price of an Oceanview, it was a big price jump to a CC Suite. As you can see from our signature, we travel a lot. Saving 30% to 50% on the cabins allows us to cruise more often. I just need to check out the Veranda cabins to see if we'll be happy with them or will I need to bid on upgrades. 

 

Kevin

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, kml246 said:

 

That's the reason for my question - we would prefer not to be in the bow, so N1 solves that. 

 

We always try to get a cabin on a deck with staterooms above and below. If we're successful on our bid, this will be our first time under a Lido deck. I've read the warnings about the noise from the buffet area or the pool area. I always use cruisedeckplans website when selecting cabins. 

 

We far prefer a shower over tub/shower combo. We're used to the combo as we sail on Princess often and usually get mini-suites and that's what they have. I'm not that tall (5'11") but do have to watch the headroom. If I was booking a CC Suite from the start, I would choose a shower only stateroom. This is our first Azamara cruise and are trying it to see how we like them. We're concerned about the small bathroom in the Verandas, but it was half the price of the CC Suite. If we get the upgrade, we're going to seek out someone with a Veranda to check out the stateroom. We have a B2B in June on Onward and have aft-facing Veranda Plus on one leg and a Veranda midship on the second. Since we booked under the Veranda for price of an Inside and Veranda Plus for price of an Oceanview, it was a big price jump to a CC Suite. As you can see from our signature, we travel a lot. Saving 30% to 50% on the cabins allows us to cruise more often. I just need to check out the Veranda cabins to see if we'll be happy with them or will I need to bid on upgrades. 

 

Kevin

Hi Kevin,  my DH is 6 ft and he fits under the shower head in Tub/shower combo, so you should be good.  It’s those who are well over 6 feet who have problems..

Good luck on your upgrade bid. Check out the deck plan and see which suites have showers and which have the combos.  The problem with bidding is you get what you get.

[Riocca]

2 hours ago, kml246 said:

 

That's the reason for my question - we would prefer not to be in the bow, so N1 solves that. 

 

We always try to get a cabin on a deck with staterooms above and below. If we're successful on our bid, this will be our first time under a Lido deck. I've read the warnings about the noise from the buffet area or the pool area. I always use cruisedeckplans website when selecting cabins. 

 

We far prefer a shower over tub/shower combo. We're used to the combo as we sail on Princess often and usually get mini-suites and that's what they have. I'm not that tall (5'11") but do have to watch the headroom. If I was booking a CC Suite from the start, I would choose a shower only stateroom. This is our first Azamara cruise and are trying it to see how we like them. We're concerned about the small bathroom in the Verandas, but it was half the price of the CC Suite. If we get the upgrade, we're going to seek out someone with a Veranda to check out the stateroom. We have a B2B in June on Onward and have aft-facing Veranda Plus on one leg and a Veranda midship on the second. Since we booked under the Veranda for price of an Inside and Veranda Plus for price of an Oceanview, it was a big price jump to a CC Suite. As you can see from our signature, we travel a lot. Saving 30% to 50% on the cabins allows us to cruise more often. I just need to check out the Veranda cabins to see if we'll be happy with them or will I need to bid on upgrades. 

 

Kevin

We’ve cruised on R ships in the Princess days and not had a serious problem however when Azamara refitted the CC suites the baths were higher which means it became problematic for taller people.

Originally Azamara were going to make all CC suites walk in showers but it was down to objections from some on Cruise Critic that it became 50/50 baths and showers. If you look at bookings on cruises now the showers nearly always sell first, maybe this is why Azamara doesn’t listen to the vociferous minority on Cruise Critic these days.

[uktog]

Just now, Riocca said:

We’ve cruised on R ships in the Princess days and not had a serious problem however when Azamara refitted the CC suites the baths were higher which means it became problematic for taller people.

Originally Azamara were going to make all CC suites walk in showers but it was down to objections from some on Cruise Critic that it became 50/50 baths and showers. If you look at bookings on cruises now the showers nearly always sell first, maybe this is why Azamara doesn’t listen to the vociferous minority on Cruise Critic these days.

Agree if they genuinely made the change purely on the back of a few cruise critic posters that was a huge mistake and showed a lack of broader thinking -  worrying for such a significant investment at the time.  Its fine to listen to these boards on matters such as itineraries, entertainment or food etc, but that decision had significant "capital" and "long term" consequences.  Yes listen to your customers, but choose your sounding board wisely and consider can the advice be undone and at what cost.  

The shower vs tub issue was not an easy one to be able to be undone and most of the noise came from people who cruised in the big suites anyway. It also went against the conventions that all land based hotel venues were adopting at that time.  

The decision has certainly reduced our options for late bookings and we cannot use the current upgrade programme.  It caused us to see how we got on in verandas only to find we could just. We then looked at other cruise lines verandas and found better equipped offering for the same or less cost.   Long term consequence - less revenue for Azamara.

[federalexpress]

2 hours ago, kml246 said:

 

That's the reason for my question - we would prefer not to be in the bow, so N1 solves that. 

 

We always try to get a cabin on a deck with staterooms above and below. If we're successful on our bid, this will be our first time under a Lido deck. I've read the warnings about the noise from the buffet area or the pool area. I always use cruisedeckplans website when selecting cabins. 

 

We far prefer a shower over tub/shower combo. We're used to the combo as we sail on Princess often and usually get mini-suites and that's what they have. I'm not that tall (5'11") but do have to watch the headroom. If I was booking a CC Suite from the start, I would choose a shower only stateroom. This is our first Azamara cruise and are trying it to see how we like them. We're concerned about the small bathroom in the Verandas, but it was half the price of the CC Suite. If we get the upgrade, we're going to seek out someone with a Veranda to check out the stateroom. We have a B2B in June on Onward and have aft-facing Veranda Plus on one leg and a Veranda midship on the second. Since we booked under the Veranda for price of an Inside and Veranda Plus for price of an Oceanview, it was a big price jump to a CC Suite. As you can see from our signature, we travel a lot. Saving 30% to 50% on the cabins allows us to cruise more often. I just need to check out the Veranda cabins to see if we'll be happy with them or will I need to bid on upgrades. 

 

Kevin

I've not cruised on AZ yet, just booked and researched it but I'm reasonably sure there are no CC suites at the front of the ship. N1 is pretty much middle, N2 more towards the back. Of course even the CC suite furthest back is not as the very back of the ship, given it's on deck 8 and the shape of the ship. I booked 8060 which is N2 but in the first half of them.I'm not midship therefore but someone told me that with regard to comfort in rough seas, the centre point  in pitch terms is further back than the middle because the engines, which are heavy, are in the back.

 

Agree with you re shower. We actually booked a CC suite and chose the room number with shower and won't be getting involved in upgrades (to go to the spa suite or the front big suite was eye wateringly expensive anyway). Like you, I wondered about which might be worse, under the pool deck or the buffet. My hunch is the pool deck might be worse, hence preferring the N2 rooms, but that may be wrong. Most nights we will be sleeping we will be at sea anyway and I imagine there will, like a plane, be plenty of other noises to dampen things out.

[kml246]

2 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

Hi Kevin,  my DH is 6 ft and he fits under the shower head in Tub/shower combo, so you should be good.  It’s those who are well over 6 feet who have problems..

Good luck on your upgrade bid. Check out the deck plan and see which suites have showers and which have the combos.  The problem with bidding is you get what you get.

 

Thanks, Kathy. I've looked at the deck plans and know the cabin I would select if given the choice, but not going to happen. If we don't know if the bid price influences the cabin placement, I may lower my bid. Based on everything I've read and the Upgrade Spreadsheet, we've bid more than enough to be successful with our bid. 

 

Kevin

[kml246]

1 hour ago, federalexpress said:

I've not cruised on AZ yet, just booked and researched it but I'm reasonably sure there are no CC suites at the front of the ship. N1 is pretty much middle, N2 more towards the back. Of course even the CC suite furthest back is not as the very back of the ship, given it's on deck 8 and the shape of the ship. I booked 8060 which is N2 but in the first half of them.I'm not midship therefore but someone told me that with regard to comfort in rough seas, the centre point  in pitch terms is further back than the middle because the engines, which are heavy, are in the back.

 

Agree with you re shower. We actually booked a CC suite and chose the room number with shower and won't be getting involved in upgrades (to go to the spa suite or the front big suite was eye wateringly expensive anyway). Like you, I wondered about which might be worse, under the pool deck or the buffet. My hunch is the pool deck might be worse, hence preferring the N2 rooms, but that may be wrong. Most nights we will be sleeping we will be at sea anyway and I imagine there will, like a plane, be plenty of other noises to dampen things out.

 

This is our first AZ cruise, too. We're sailing on Onward, and they have N2 suites forward and aft. 

 

[federalexpress]

19 minutes ago, kml246 said:

 

This is our first AZ cruise, too. We're sailing on Onward, and they have N2 suites forward and aft. 

 

 

Ah, OK, I'm on Pursuit and they don't, all the forward cabins are verandah (plus the v expensive suites at the very front). Didn't know there were such big differences between the various ships. Agree with you that although I'm far from an old hand, the front of the ship didn't appeal much, especially as I'll be in the Southern Ocean going around Cape Horn!

[Host Jazzbeau]

Onward has the same layout as the Oceania R-ships, with CC cabins throughout deck 8 (except a few spots where there wasn't enough room).  The other Azamara ships have no CC cabins in the forward part of deck 8.  

 

I have been trying to find documentation of why the early R-ships have so many more CC suites, but wikipedia and 'The Google' have let me down...  [I believe that when Azamara got Pursuit – 'R-8' – from Princess it had no CC suites at all and they had to be added in the refit at Harlan and Wolfe in Belfast.  So I wonder if Quest and Journey – 'R-6' and 'R-7' – also had their CC suites added by Azamara?]

[Mrs Miggins]

Just wondering if a portable long step by the side of the bath would help those who have some difficulty getting in and out of the bath for a shower ?

[marinaro44]

8 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Just wondering if a portable long step by the side of the bath would help those who have some difficulty getting in and out of the bath for a shower ?

If there's a chest-level grab bar.

[uktog]

11 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Just wondering if a portable long step by the side of the bath would help those who have some difficulty getting in and out of the bath for a shower ?

Not really it’s not safe either going in or out unless you’ve got full knee flexibility and good balance 

Edited October 31, 2022 by uktog

[Mrs Miggins]

I am lucky enough to be OK but Mike would have some difficulty - he has used a step in a hotel in the past.  Both of our upgrade CC's had the shower so I really have no experience of the bath/shower combo.

[uktog]

17 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

I am lucky enough to be OK but Mike would have some difficulty - he has used a step in a hotel in the past.  Both of our upgrade CC's had the shower so I really have no experience of the bath/shower combo.

I would be very careful going for an upgrade as you could get bath/shower given that they are less popular rooms that shower only.  Your only option then is to shower in the spa showers however, we are now reading that there is no access to the showers on Onward unless you are in the large suites.  So probably best "buy" the room you want from the start.

[kml246]

Though we much prefer walk-in showers, we're okay with a tub/shower combo. I did not think about those with issues that make stepping into a tub difficult. I can understand that person would not want to take a chance getting a stateroom with the combo, so better off booking the desired cabin.

 

Fortunately, we don't have an issue stepping into a tub, so we'll take our chances by bidding up and saving a decent amount of money. 

[Cruiser Nonna]

First time bidding on Azamara and noticed yesterday it says Pending when I checked bidding upgrade - maybe it has said that since I submitted - but wondering if others have an answer - bid about 3 weeks ago and sailing on November 15.  When I did it on Royal Caribbean it did come back as Pending and then next day received the email - not sure if same for Azamara -  appreciate any thoughts or personal experience as to this Pending.  Thank you again -

 Stay well and safe

[kml246]

20 hours ago, Cruiser Nonna said:

First time bidding on Azamara and noticed yesterday it says Pending when I checked bidding upgrade - maybe it has said that since I submitted - but wondering if others have an answer - bid about 3 weeks ago and sailing on November 15.  When I did it on Royal Caribbean it did come back as Pending and then next day received the email - not sure if same for Azamara -  appreciate any thoughts or personal experience as to this Pending.  Thank you again -

 Stay well and safe

 

I just checked mine. It shows PENDING. I was still able to modify the bid.

[Cruiser Nonna]

Thank you for your response - still saying Pending and now think it is just what it says after one has generated a bid - thought maybe it was like RCG and that meant you were receiving the upgrade but since it has been days think not - either way a cruise is in my future!!!  Stay well and safe

[tgg]

1 minute ago, Cruiser Nonna said:

Thank you for your response - still saying Pending and now think it is just what it says after one has generated a bid - thought maybe it was like RCG and that meant you were receiving the upgrade but since it has been days think not - either way a cruise is in my future!!!  Stay well and safe

 

I think you're right; it's just what is says after you bid. Good luck with your bid and enjoy your cruise.