Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[Russiamomm]

6 hours ago, cruiseat50 said:

Didn't you notice that your cabin number had changed?  Good luck with going back... not many succeed! 🤭

It was literally awarded after we boarded.  We had even dropped our carry ons in our original cabin.  We went down to change a dinner reservation and they told us.  They changed out the key card right there and found someone to escort us to the old room to get our carry ons and escort us up to the Haven.  One of the best days of my life.  LOL 

 

and yes,it’s going to be tough to go back.  😒

 

 

[victory2020]

8 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

It was literally awarded after we boarded.  We had even dropped our carry ons in our original cabin.  We went down to change a dinner reservation and they told us.  They changed out the key card right there and found someone to escort us to the old room to get our carry ons and escort us up to the Haven.  One of the best days of my life.  LOL 

 

and yes,it’s going to be tough to go back.  😒

 

 

That's terrible! Half the joy of getting a room like that is looking forward to it .......and being escorted onto the ship, haha

[Russiamomm]

4 hours ago, victory2020 said:

That's terrible! Half the joy of getting a room like that is looking forward to it .......and being escorted onto the ship, haha

I agree, to a certain extent.  Mostly we were so excited to get the upgrade.  The only thing we lost was the anticipation, being escorted on the ship and lunch the first day.  For the amazing time we had, I’ll take those trade-offs.  And I’ll never forget the screams of joy when we heard - especially since my friend had no idea I had put in the bid.  She didn’t even know what the Haven was.  Trust me, she knows now.  😂. It was a priceless moment.  And a fabulous trip.  

[Sthrngary]

It seems to me that gaining a Haven Upgrade Bid from a Non-Haven Cabin seems to have dried up.  We all knew this was going to happen when the guest started to come back to cruising.  Also, when all the FCC were used up.  It was truly fun while it lasted.  

 

It is more of a lottery now that most Haven's are sold out prior to a month before the cruise departs.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Russiamomm]

1 hour ago, Sthrngary said:

It seems to me that gaining a Haven Upgrade Bid from a Non-Haven Cabin seems to have dried up.  We all knew this was going to happen when the guest started to come back to cruising.  Also, when all the FCC were used up.  It was truly fun while it lasted.  

 

It is more of a lottery now that most Haven's are sold out prior to a month before the cruise departs.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

I hope not!  I’m really hoping to win an upgrade on the two sailings on the calendar.  I’m too cheap to pay rack rate.  😒😂

[Coachyo]

Just got our UPGRADE!

Dec 4 on Encore out of Miami on poker cruise.  

Paid very little to get a balcony room upgrade ( won this cruise in March) so we could try to bid on Haven.  Went to live bidding and got Forward Face Haven for a little more than if i booked a balcony suite outright! 

 

Sthrngary, you are such a great writer.  Have wanted to say thanks, for your posts in various spots.

You are such a wealth of information and great thoughts.

 

Thanks, CoachYO

[Russiamomm]

37 minutes ago, Coachyo said:

Just got our UPGRADE!

Dec 4 on Encore out of Miami on poker cruise.  

Paid very little to get a balcony room upgrade ( won this cruise in March) so we could try to bid on Haven.  Went to live bidding and got Forward Face Haven for a little more than if i booked a balcony suite outright! 

 

Sthrngary, you are such a great writer.  Have wanted to say thanks, for your posts in various spots.

You are such a wealth of information and great thoughts.

 

Thanks, CoachYO

Congrats!  So hope is not lost!  I’m in similar situation for our March sailing.  Casino inside comp and paid for balcony upgrade.  Leaves a bit of room in the budget for a good bid into the Haven!

[Sthrngary]

57 minutes ago, Coachyo said:

Sthrngary, you are such a great writer.  Have wanted to say thanks, for your posts in various spots.

You are such a wealth of information and great thoughts.

@Coachyo So very kind of you.  Glad you like what I write.  I wrote a book about life experiences.  I finished about 6 months ago.  Lots of content on Cruising.  My wife said, you can not send that book to a publisher until I read it.  The book was 250 pages.  

 

Six months later, she read 10 pages and I still can't send it to a publisher.  She said I come across as a Know it all.  So when some one, any one likes my writing, I feel vindicated.  So thank you. 

 

Cruise well, enjoy the Haven and the poker Tournament. 

[Coachyo]

56 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

@Coachyo So very kind of you.  Glad you like what I write.  I wrote a book about life experiences.  I finished about 6 months ago.  Lots of content on Cruising.  My wife said, you can not send that book to a publisher until I read it.  The book was 250 pages.  

 

Six months later, she read 10 pages and I still can't send it to a publisher.  She said I come across as a Know it all.  So when some one, any one likes my writing, I feel vindicated.  So thank you. 

 

Cruise well, enjoy the Haven and the poker Tournament. 

Myself, and I bet many others would read it.  

She can read it between rounds of the slot tournament 🤣.

Good luck with the slot tournament.

 

[ISLABONITA]

Just recently bid on an upgrade from a GTY balcony to a club balcony hoping for a better location  since  I was assigned forward deck 12 on the Encore.

 

Looks like there are some balconies left for booking but at about  $600 more than what we paid total on deck 9.

Is there a group of people or a single one deciding on upgrades comparing what you paid originally and what you are offering? 

 

My email saying that they have received the offer says they will look at it beginning at 14 days till one day before the cruise.. Dec. 18th.

thanks for any insight on this.

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

8 hours ago, ISLABONITA said:

Just recently bid on an upgrade from a GTY balcony to a club balcony hoping for a better location  since  I was assigned forward deck 12 on the Encore.

 

Looks like there are some balconies left for booking but at about  $600 more than what we paid total on deck 9.

Is there a group of people or a single one deciding on upgrades comparing what you paid originally and what you are offering? 

 

My email saying that they have received the offer says they will look at it beginning at 14 days till one day before the cruise.. Dec. 18th.

thanks for any insight on this.

The program that handles the upgrades is called upgrade advantage it’s a third party company.  Their is no “person” who assigns the upgrades it’s all handled by the program based on inventory and maximum profits.  Unfortunately your sailing if you have checked inventory is very full in all categories of club balconies currently showing only 2 available, so your odds are not very good.  Typically balconies and club balconies upgrades are not awarded until the week before sailing.  Enjoy your cruise 

[f1rstxlas7]

28 minutes ago, Nclgetawaymenhoney said:

The program that handles the upgrades is called upgrade advantage it’s a third party company.  Their is no “person” who assigns the upgrades it’s all handled by the program based on inventory and maximum profits.  Unfortunately your sailing if you have checked inventory is very full in all categories of club balconies currently showing only 2 available, so your odds are not very good.  Typically balconies and club balconies upgrades are not awarded until the week before sailing.  Enjoy your cruise 

Fun fact about Upgrade Advantage: Since you don't need to login to place/manage a bid, you could essentially view other people's bids if you had their unique URL. Unfortunately, the number of unique combinations for specific bid URLs is so great that it's likely impossible to even find one person's by guessing. I wrote a program that tried different URLs over the course of a couple days and after trying 500,000 different URLs I gave up.

[ISLABONITA]

Thanks for the info to you both!

 

[BobbyHill]

14 hours ago, f1rstxlas7 said:

Fun fact about Upgrade Advantage: Since you don't need to login to place/manage a bid, you could essentially view other people's bids if you had their unique URL. Unfortunately, the number of unique combinations for specific bid URLs is so great that it's likely impossible to even find one person's by guessing. I wrote a program that tried different URLs over the course of a couple days and after trying 500,000 different URLs I gave up.

Thats some serious commitment to upgrading

[f1rstxlas7]

9 hours ago, BobbyHill said:

Thats some serious commitment to upgrading

Haha, the Python script was only like 25 lines, took an hour to write, and would cycle through a new URL once every 3 seconds or so. I just ran it in the background and set up the code to write to a CSV if anything was found but nothing ever was.

[mscdivina2016]

40 minutes ago, f1rstxlas7 said:

Haha, the Python script was only like 25 lines, took an hour to write, and would cycle through a new URL once every 3 seconds or so. I just ran it in the background and set up the code to write to a CSV if anything was found but nothing ever was.

I tried something similar and found out that Saudi Airlines is also using it.

 

I had 4 separate bookings with offer to bid on so I have 4 samples to play with and stumbled on Saudi. Lol

[Sthrngary]

My wife and I are departing in two days on the NCL Breakaway.  It leaves on Sunday, December 4, 2022.  I had five bids for upgrade to the Haven and one for a Club Balcony Spa Suite.  The Haven has been sold out for all most two months now.  The Club Balcony Spa Suite was not available however a Balcony Spa Suite was until two days ago. 

 

I have check every day mostly on Cruise.com because I can see the inventory there without taking a cabin out of NCL's inventory.  All I am saying is I have used every once of strategy I know and have used in the past.  

 

With two days to go, all of my bids are still saying "Pending".  The likelihood of me getting any upgrade is slim and none.  I knew that when the Haven sold out.  But you can't blame me for trying.  

 

I am glad I did all the things I did to make this cruise a "Haven Lite" cruise.  All of my post endorse having a strategy and realistic expectations.  That seems to have worked out for us on this trip. 

 

I hope my quest helps some folks on this stream.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

[Wedgie Wedgie]

I know this bucks the trend of "once in you can't go back" but we've bounced back and forth and once you know your way around a ship outside the Haven can be almost, I did say almost, as enjoyable.

[jdvmd]

On 11/19/2022 at 1:23 AM, trbarton said:

I never received a bidding offer from NCL but have a link that took me to the bidding site. I have 2 bids going from a studio to either an inside or ocean view. Debating if I should wait until 2-3 weeks before the cruise incase the bidding amounts go down. 
 

Tom🤔

Tom, can you share the link to the bidding site?

[ChiefMateJRK]

42 minutes ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

I know this bucks the trend of "once in you can't go back" but we've bounced back and forth and once you know your way around a ship outside the Haven can be almost, I did say almost, as enjoyable.

It could be more enjoyable!  You don't feel like you're wasting large $$$$ on things you don't want/need, and you don't have to worry about really serious things like making sure that your butler brings the right snacks (which you also probably don't need).  😎  That said, if somebody really has to have the Haven to be happy, then knock yourselves out.  Just try to understand that there are people in this world who can have just as much (or more) fun spending half as much (or less).

[Wedgie Wedgie]

It was much more of a challenge to go low and enjoy outside the haven before the bev package came along. We used to strategize capn, latitude parties, drinks of the day etc. Now there's a drink waiting for you anywhere you go.

[ChiefMateJRK]

22 minutes ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

It was much more of a challenge to go low and enjoy outside the haven before the bev package came along. We used to strategize capn, latitude parties, drinks of the day etc. Now there's a drink waiting for you anywhere you go.

Didn't you know about Rumrunners?  (jk)

[jbeeg]

Keep your hopes up!

we originally booked aft cabin penthouse, not haven, never would pay that price. Jewel, Dec 12. On 26Nov I perused the website, found a great price on a Haven 2 bedroom. But it appeared and disappeared constantly. Haven almost sold out. I called, on hold 1 hr. Then told I could upgrade for $350 total!!!!!! The agent was amazed too. A few days later I changed my upgrade bid, might as well try for a haven with a better balcony, looks like 2 bedroom has a tiny side facing balcony. 30 Nov, I saw a new email with documents, I downloaded and glanced at the cabin, now its a haven deluxe owners, large balcony, holy smokes! Yes, cost $, a total of $1300 each from the non-haven cabin which we got at a huge discount due to past discounts awarded for unknown reasons 🤭.

Last Haven cabin except the 3 bedroom! Keep your hopes up!

Panama canal! gonna be incredible!

[bundtkate]

So I have myself a headscratcher. We are departing on the Joy on Sunday and I have 3 bids in. Two are pending and seemingly will allow me to update my bid. The third is also pending but will not let me update my bid. I recently got the "you didn't win anything, but maybe you will onboard!" email. The category the unchangeable bid is for is sold out and went to live bidding (which I did not participate in) last week. It's also just a min bid. I'd be very surprised if I won, but an odd set of circumstances to be sure.

[Wedgie Wedgie]

12 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Didn't you know about Rumrunners?  (jk)

I would refill a couple of smart waters with vodka and super glue the cap back together. Never failed.