Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[SEA DOGY]

19 hours ago, julig22 said:

Your post makes no sense.  I highly doubt that NCL is simply holding any Haven rooms for bids - why would they if they can sell it outright?  The cabin you are looking at is showing sold out online.

As to learning when you've won your bid - that usually happens much closer to your sail date.  Your only hope for learning now would be if they wanted your current cabin in order to resell - and since that is also showing as sold-out anything is possible but highly unlikely IMHO - especially this far ahead of the sail date.

The bidding process is to make money for NCL, plain and simple.

Recently we bid  max O S H2.  Only one was available. There is only 2  the price was much lower on different websites then my bid  I call my T A  3 times it was not available for me.  Kinda of strange.  

So  I cancel my bid I call my T A.   And yes it was available to me of course I grabbed it 

for  $2 000  lower than my bid 

Dos it makes any sense ?

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, SEA DOGY said:

Recently we bid  max O S H2.  Only one was available. There is only 2  the price was much lower on different websites then my bid  I call my T A  3 times it was not available for me.  Kinda of strange.  

So  I cancel my bid I call my T A.   And yes it was available to me of course I grabbed it 

for  $2 000  lower than my bid 

Dos it makes any sense ?

Hard to imagine that yours would have been the only bid and that cancelling your bid would make it available - but I suppose anything is possible in the NCL world. But the bidding process is done by a 3rd party, not NCL directly.

I do believe that there is some kind of hold when people are looking on the website so perhaps that's why it wasn't available to book after you were looking?

[Susandt]

1 hour ago, SEA DOGY said:

Recently we bid  max O S H2.  Only one was available. There is only 2  the price was much lower on different websites then my bid  I call my T A  3 times it was not available for me.  Kinda of strange.  

So  I cancel my bid I call my T A.   And yes it was available to me of course I grabbed it 

for  $2 000  lower than my bid 

Dos it makes any sense ?

We are 38 days out,

don’t want to buy outright as I lose some perks

ugh the waiting 

[RocketMan275]

I've been in a Deluxe Owners Suite and I would not do it again.  We found the balcony to be large and beautiful.  This was in a caribbean cruise and the wind was so bad when the ship was moving as to make the balcony unuseable.  In fact, on two different nights the crew lashed the balcony furniture together to prevent it from being blown over board.  One of the nights we were already in bed and did not realize the crew had come into our room until the next morning.  

[SEA DOGY]

45 minutes ago, Susandt said:

We are 38 days out,

don’t want to buy outright as I lose some perks

ugh the waiting 

 

[SEA DOGY]

Yes we did loose  400 bucks !!!  Oh well that’s what we want not necessarily what we need .

[SEA DOGY]

37 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I've been in a Deluxe Owners Suite and I would not do it again.  We found the balcony to be large and beautiful.  This was in a caribbean cruise and the wind was so bad when the ship was moving as to make the balcony unuseable.  In fact, on two different nights the crew lashed the balcony furniture together to prevent it from being blown over board.  One of the nights we were already in bed and did not realize the crew had come into our room until the next morning.  

Oh really ? I s that bad ?

 

Now I’m thinking if we made the right choice this is for the Gateway Mediterranean summer cruise 

 

[omahabob]

Any forward facing balcony will get more wind than others when the ship is underway. If the weather kicks up, it will get worse. That's true for any balcony, but more so for forward facing. It really depends on the weather, which was very nice on our Getaway cruise. You'd get more wind at the front of the ship, but it was never enough to blow furniture around. Bad weather affects the side facing balconies too, though typically not as much. There's no way to know for sure until you're there, but I'd have no problem with it for a Med summer cruise.

[amygutman]

23 hours ago, EODHorn said:

So when speaking to NCL there is only two of the Deluxe Owner's Suites with Large Balcony on the NCL Bliss. One of the two was sold already and the 2nd one was up for bid. They wouldn't let us just secure the one that is up for bid. I am hoping that we can learn soon if we won on the max bid because we have the Haven forward facing penthouse with balcony and if we don't win the bid then would at a minimum want to secure the 2 bedroom with large balcony (which we have also max bid on and verified it's $500 cheaper than just securing)

@EODHorn That is very strange you cannot book an available DOS this far out from your sailing. An open room is an open room - unless as the postings mentioned that people have put the room "on reserve" for 24 hours then let the incomplete booking expire without purchasing. Maybe then the room is not considered "available". 

 

We booked our DOS on the Encore for our September 24 2024 Alaska nearly 2 years ago to secure that room. The prices increased exponentially since then. Trust me - it was no bargain, but it is a bucket list trip and that room (more precisely, that balcony) is exactly what we wanted for the experience. 

 

Good luck in your bidding, but I would continue to work with your TA or NCL if you prefer to book outright. Warmest, Amy

[EODHorn]

10 minutes ago, amygutman said:

@EODHorn That is very strange you cannot book an available DOS this far out from your sailing. An open room is an open room - unless as the postings mentioned that people have put the room "on reserve" for 24 hours then let the incomplete booking expire without purchasing. Maybe then the room is not considered "available". 

 

We booked our DOS on the Encore for our September 24 2024 Alaska nearly 2 years ago to secure that room. The prices increased exponentially since then. Trust me - it was no bargain, but it is a bucket list trip and that room (more precisely, that balcony) is exactly what we wanted for the experience. 

 

Good luck in your bidding, but I would continue to work with your TA or NCL if you prefer to book outright. Warmest, Amy

Thank you for the information. We couldn't lock one in (tried again today) so we locked in the 2-Bedroom Family Villa w/Large Balcony just to be safe. Withdrew the bids. This forum is simply awesome, and I appreciate everyone for the replies. Also saved some money because we were not aware of the Military Appreciation Program so got that applied as well.

Edited July 6, 2023 by EODHorn

[amygutman]

8 minutes ago, EODHorn said:

Thank you for the information. We couldn't lock one in (tried again today) so we locked in the 2-Bedroom Family Villa w/Large Balcony just to be safe. Withdrew the bids. This forum is simply awesome, and I appreciate everyone for the replies. Also saved some money because we were not aware of the Military Appreciation Program so got that applied as well.

@EODHorn First of all, thank you for your Service. It's lovely that NCL offers that discount.

 

The 2 bedroom Havens are our favorite footprint of any room on any ship we have been on. The side balcony is wonderful and the extra living space is fantastic. Yes - the smaller 2nd bedroom is smaller, but it is private and have a full 2nd bath. If the other couple prefers a view, they can always use the living room as their "bedroom" (but be greedy with the master bath - it's glorious). 😄

 

The physical location is prime as well - right near bar, restaurant, observation area and pool complex. Glorious. As for the usability of the front-facing rooms, we are aware of the wind problems with any front-facing balcony, but the Bliss / Encore DOSs have side balconies as well. We've had two forward-facing suites on the Dawn and Pearl, and yes...can get windy (actually, the "vortexes" are quite legendary). But you cannot overlook those front-facing views - especially at slower speeds. We want to optimize the chance of whale and northern light sightings. 

 

Have a wonderful trip!

Warmest, Amy

[Grimix]

23 hours ago, SEA DOGY said:

Oh really ? I s that bad ?

 

Now I’m thinking if we made the right choice this is for the Gateway Mediterranean summer cruise 

Also depends on the weather and the direction of the wind. On our Bliss sailing we had no problems with the DOS front balcony on the way down to Cabo. I suspect we were sailing with the wind which does tend to flow north to south at that time (I don't remember looking it up, but living in California I see the weather maps show that pattern all the time). On the way back it was much windier. No one came into our cabin to batten down the loungers, but it wasn't comfortable to sit out there.

 

I tried to get the DOS again for our upcoming Alaskan cruise so obviously it wasn't a deal-breaker for me. (I had to give it up since my brother decided he wouldn't enjoy cruising. I think it's ridiculous because he's my identical twin (verified by 23-and-me. It asked me if I knew I had an identical twin brother when my results arrived.) and I love cruising! (Of course he wrongly loves Pepsi, and I know Coke is the real thing so there must be differences...)

Edited July 7, 2023 by Grimix

[ronheg]

Just wondering if anyone has won an upgrade to the haven in the recent past or do you really need to pay for the haven to actually get a cabin.

[omahabob]

You need to pay for it to be SURE you get a cabin. Upgrade bids do work sometimes, but they're a long shot.

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by omahabob

[CruisingChick123]

We are headed on an NCL cruise soon, and I bid the minimum plus a nominal amount more on 3 different 2-bedrooms in The Haven: the Owner's Suite, 2-Bedroom with Large Balcony, and the 2-Bedroom with Balcony.  The cruise shows as fully booked in all categories, so I highly doubt we get anything which is fine with me because we are happy with our ocean view balcony room.  It would be nice to be upgraded to a 2-bedroom of some kind, but I just don't see it happening with what I've read on here.  We didn't book any of those rooms to begin with because we are paying out of pocket for this cruise as we aren't frequent cruisers, and the price was way more than we wanted to spend.  After reading all the comments, it seems that they list just about everything as open for bidding in the event someone cancels.  As our cruise is showing as fully booked, I can't imagine there will be a ton of cancellations on these rooms which would trigger the bids.

[mscdivina2016]

20 hours ago, CruisingChick123 said:

We are headed on an NCL cruise soon, and I bid the minimum plus a nominal amount more on 3 different 2-bedrooms in The Haven:   As our cruise is showing as fully booked, I can't imagine there will be a ton of cancellations on these rooms which would trigger the bids.

You would be surprised at how many cancellations they get, I was told on my last cruise there were two dozen by CD. ( not sure if people or cabins)but in the haven, being so small it's probably 1 or none.

 

Good luck 

[Clashed]

On 7/9/2023 at 1:50 PM, ronheg said:

Just wondering if anyone has won an upgrade to the haven in the recent past or do you really need to pay for the haven to actually get a cabin.

 our sailing last December we booked Haven outright, but i saw someone on the cruise group on Facebook say they got an upgrade (and i did see someone who looked like their facebook picture walking around the Haven area), so it does happen

 

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Clashed

[Russiamomm]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:50 PM, ronheg said:

Just wondering if anyone has won an upgrade to the haven in the recent past or do you really need to pay for the haven to actually get a cabin.

We won a bid on the 2BR Haven (from a regular balcony) for our transatlantic in April.  TAs are a different dynamic than a normal closed loop cruise, though.  We heard we won about a week before sailing.  The cruise was pretty much full.  I didn’t talk to anyone else in the Haven that had won a bid to get in there.  They had all paid outright.

[zelliott]

Upgraded on the 8/19 sailing of the Viva from a balcony (BF) to a spa balcony (B9) with a bid just above "good", which I settled on after bidding just over 50% of what I would have paid for a week-long thermal suite pass. I had no other bids.

[amygutman]

Weird upgrade offer today.

 

Our family and friends (4 adults, 1 teen) are in the DOS on our September 2023 Encore Alaskan cruise. Today in my email was an upgrade offer - I opened it thinking it was for our next NCL cruise post-Alaska in Feb 2024. 

 

Nope...it was for a DOS on the September Alaskan cruise. Same room category. Now, there are only 2 of these rooms so I frantically checked our booking (which we've had for almost 2 years). Still golden. Called our TA who also confirmed fully booked, paid, ready to go. 

 

So, it looks like even if you have the highest category booked, you still will get an offer to upgrade. Considering the price of the room is a third higher than when we booked it 2 years ago when it was last available, I am pretty sure we will not be bidding! 😁

 

Warmest, Amy

 

[mking8288]

4 minutes ago, amygutman said:

Weird upgrade offer today ... 

I am pretty sure we will not be bidding! 😁

LOL, maybe, just maybe, any remote possibility that you might cancel & forfeit your DOS 😁  😁  😁 

if the DOS is a last-minute no-show and/or cancellation, etc. for whatever reason, NCL wanted to make sure they can upsell that to others, up until sailaway time on the dafe of embarkation.  

 

Besides, knowing the competency of their I.T. Department and database programming & filters ... nothing surprises me these days.  Enjoy your cruise, coming up soon 😎

/mking8288 - Henry 

 

[CruisingChick123]

5 hours ago, amygutman said:

Weird upgrade offer today.

 

Our family and friends (4 adults, 1 teen) are in the DOS on our September 2023 Encore Alaskan cruise. Today in my email was an upgrade offer - I opened it thinking it was for our next NCL cruise post-Alaska in Feb 2024. 

 

Nope...it was for a DOS on the September Alaskan cruise. Same room category. Now, there are only 2 of these rooms so I frantically checked our booking (which we've had for almost 2 years). Still golden. Called our TA who also confirmed fully booked, paid, ready to go. 

 

So, it looks like even if you have the highest category booked, you still will get an offer to upgrade. Considering the price of the room is a third higher than when we booked it 2 years ago when it was last available, I am pretty sure we will not be bidding! 😁

 

Warmest, Amy

 

Sounds like they send them out to everyone in case of cancellations. It is funny that you got one to “upgrade” to a room you already booked. Have a wonderful trip!

[davencl]

14 hours ago, amygutman said:

Weird upgrade offer today.

 

Our family and friends (4 adults, 1 teen) are in the DOS on our September 2023 Encore Alaskan cruise. Today in my email was an upgrade offer - I opened it thinking it was for our next NCL cruise post-Alaska in Feb 2024. 

 

Nope...it was for a DOS on the September Alaskan cruise. Same room category. Now, there are only 2 of these rooms so I frantically checked our booking (which we've had for almost 2 years). Still golden. Called our TA who also confirmed fully booked, paid, ready to go. 

 

So, it looks like even if you have the highest category booked, you still will get an offer to upgrade. Considering the price of the room is a third higher than when we booked it 2 years ago when it was last available, I am pretty sure we will not be bidding! 😁

 

Warmest, Amy

 

This is normal.  Upgrade offers are put out for all the rooms you may be eligible to bid on regardless of whether they are already booked.  If I bid on an upgrade I check what is not sold out and bid on those that are not sold out.

[vacation44]

32 minutes ago, davencl said:

This is normal.  Upgrade offers are put out for all the rooms you may be eligible to bid on regardless of whether they are already booked.  If I bid on an upgrade I check what is not sold out and bid on those that are not sold out.

OP was pointing out she received an offer to bid for the same cabin category she currently has booked.   

[amygutman]

On 7/13/2023 at 7:10 PM, mking8288 said:

LOL, maybe, just maybe, any remote possibility that you might cancel & forfeit your DOS 😁  😁  😁 

if the DOS is a last-minute no-show and/or cancellation, etc. for whatever reason, NCL wanted to make sure they can upsell that to others, up until sailaway time on the dafe of embarkation.  

 

Besides, knowing the competency of their I.T. Department and database programming & filters ... nothing surprises me these days.  Enjoy your cruise, coming up soon 😎

/mking8288 - Henry 

 

@mking8288 That's not just a "no" on the possibility of cancellation...that's a "hell no"! 😁

 

I've had the countdown on my computer for almost 2 years, one friend coming from England and one from Bermuda. Neither have been on a cruise, and none of the five of us have been to Alaska. We've inhaled every YouTube video, trip report, CC Board and review. I swear, 75% of my recent Google searches have been "Cruise to Alaska", "Packing for Alaska", "DOS Encore", "Haven Encore", "Alaska Whales from a Cruise", "Northern Lights on Cruise Ship", "NCL Encore Tips", "Cruise Port Recommendations Alaska Cruise"...single-minded much?

 

All of us are flying in 2 days before, and have back-up plans for travel. Hotels and flights booked for a year. Travel insurance galore. Passports, Visas for our friends. The pre-concierge is our new best-friend and soother of all potential problems. It's ridiculously fun and slightly stressful. The one thing we did not want to worry about was "the perfect room" - and from the second I saw a video of that DOS, I knew that's the one we wanted. Good luck to all of the folks bidding for upgrades and I truly hope the fairy comes through for you but come hell or high water...WE WILL BE ON THAT BOAT IN THAT ROOM!!!!😘

 

Warmest, Amy