being asked to submit off for an upgrade to Haven...but ship is sold out?

[valandemmy]

When I log in to the NCL website it keeps asking me to submit an offer for an upgrade...but when I try to book a new room (to see prices for the haven) it says all the suites are sold out.  We are in a non-haven suite so the haven is all that we can upgrade to...is there a possibility that haven rooms are still open and just not listed since they are still asking for offers?

[valandemmy]

Also, is it better to upgrade things like wifi and prememium drink package now or once onboard?

[cruiseny4life]

Upgrade anything and everything you want before sailing. Most, if not all, will go up in price if you wait. Same with booking the thermal suite - it'll go up if it's available when you get on board. I'd expect the same to happen with Vibe, but that's an assumption (and you know what that makes you and me). 

 

As for the upgrade, sold out means sold out. BUT, there's still hope if you really want to put a bid in. Last minute cancellations, COVID cancellations, upgrade requests received by others, etc. It's possible some rooms could be blocked out by a travel agent and will be released to those with upgrades in the future. 

 

 

 

 

[MNcruisingcouple]

If you have OBC that you want to use, wait to upgrade until you are on the ship.  We've upgraded several to the Premium Plus bev pkg times and the price does not go up once you are onboard.  Same with additional specialty dining.

[cruiseny4life]

1 minute ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

Premium Plus bev pkg times and the price does not go up

Well then, I am corrected...at least a couple items stay the same. 🙂 

[CruiseCatt]

I was wondering the same thing about the upgrades.  I am being offered an upgrade to 4 different types of haven cabins and all except one are sold out on NCL. It seems strange to offer something that isn't available.

[tetleytea]

I would say a lot of this bidding is just market intelligence.

[dexddd]

33 minutes ago, tetleytea said:

I would say a lot of this bidding is just market intelligence.

Bingo, we have a winner.

[graceinga]

We are sailing this Saturday and have bid to go to a Haven suite and called to see if we could just pay outright for it instead of hoping for the upgrade and she said she she didn't have anything to sell me but that there were some Haven rooms being shown on hold for upgrades.  This makes no sense to me but thought I would share what we were told. 

[The Shrike]

1 hour ago, CruiseCatt said:

I was wondering the same thing about the upgrades.  I am being offered an upgrade to 4 different types of haven cabins and all except one are sold out on NCL. It seems strange to offer something that isn't available.

It's not available now, but very well could be if people have to cancel.

[RussNJodi]

10 minutes ago, graceinga said:

We are sailing this Saturday and have bid to go to a Haven suite and called to see if we could just pay outright for it instead of hoping for the upgrade and she said she she didn't have anything to sell me but that there were some Haven rooms being shown on hold for upgrades.  This makes no sense to me but thought I would share what we were told. 

What that suggests to me is they have figured out that at this point in the purchase cycle, they can make more through upgrade bidding than straight upgrade purchases. 

[CruiseCatt]

2 hours ago, RussNJodi said:

What that suggests to me is they have figured out that at this point in the purchase cycle, they can make more through upgrade bidding than straight upgrade purchases. 

very interesting! Thanks for the info.  I hope you get your suite! Keep us posted if you can.

[complawyer]

even if the cabins are listed as "sold out" if youre given a chance to upgrade, give it a shot, you have absolutely nothing to lose

 

but only do this if you're sure you want the upgrade if you have a winning bid.

 

my daddy once told me a good deal isnt a good deal if it's not what you want!

[Alynna715]

We had a bid accepted once on a sold out cruise pre Covid. It was for an accessible room. They reserve those rooms to the very end waiting in case someone books one. They accepted our bid 5 days before the cruise. 

[Sailing12Away]

"Sold Out" does not mean sold out. There are blocks of rooms that TA have that go unsold, and there are folks who cancel at the last minute, and there are folks who move into other rooms making their rooms now available to others.

 

Our most recent trip in May was on the Star which has no Haven, but it does have suites. We had bids in for the owners suites and garden villa, mainly because those rooms come with a free mini-bar in your room (we like the convenience of having cans/bottles available to us all the time and not having to carry drinks back through the ship).

 

The suites we bid on were sold out for the last 2 months before we sailed. The night before we flew to Spain for our trip I got an alert from my credit card company about a high charge from NCL - our upgrade bid had been accepted. So even though the garden villa had been sold out for months - we were upgraded into the villa 2 days before we sailed.

 

If you're trying to get an idea of what pricing would be for those rooms so you don't 'over bid' - try a different sail date from your own. It won't be an even apples-apples comparison because prices change based on dates and such, but it will at least give you a ballpark range for what that particular cabin normally goes for.

 

Or just do some regular math:

(Price you paid so far + total bid price) / # of days of your cruise = ~$1000/day for a Breakaway Plus class Haven room. (general price of what is 'normal', getting for less than that would be a good-great deal)

 

If it's a Jewel class ship, we aim for much less than that, and if it's for an owners suite or garden villa, we allow for higher. But that's just our own personal barometer of what is 'worth it' to us.

[DrSea]

1 hour ago, Sailing12Away said:

 

 

Or just do some regular math:

(Price you paid so far + total bid price) / # of days of your cruise = ~$1000/day for a Breakaway Plus class Haven room. (general price of what is 'normal', getting for less than that would be a good-great deal)

 

If it's a Jewel class ship, we aim for much less than that, and if it's for an owners suite or garden villa, we allow for higher. But that's just our own personal barometer of what is 'worth it' to us.

I have only stayed at the Haven through purchasing it and not bidding for it. I have never done any bidding.

 

I find it interesting that you bid close to what it costs to actually stay there. Why not just book it at the market rate if you are going to bid close to the market rate. I don't get it. I thought the idea is to lowball and hope for the best.

[BklynBorn47]

5 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Our most recent trip in May was on the Star which has no Haven, but it does have suites. We had bids in for the owners suites and garden villa, mainly because those rooms come with a free mini-bar in your room

Was this the Barcelona to Southampton cruise on May 13th?  We had booked the Owners Suite (12000) when the price drop was close to what we would have bid.  Then I tested positive on our last day on the TA on the Escape and our Star cruise was cancelled.  We stayed in quarantine on the Escape until the 17th, left in Rome at the end of the cruise and joined the Star in Southampton.  

[cruiseny4life]

9 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

"Sold Out" does not mean sold out.

So you mean everything that I said in my post above? 

 

Good advice on the fact that yes, they can still win a bid though. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by cruiseny4life

[Sailing12Away]

7 hours ago, DrSea said:

 

I find it interesting that you bid close to what it costs to actually stay there. Why not just book it at the market rate if you are going to bid close to the market rate. I don't get it. I thought the idea is to lowball and hope for the best.

Because at the time when we first put in our bid the price to outright upgrade was over 8K. So yes, compared to that we did "low-ball" our offer. As we got closer to sail date the prices plummeted and it became only a few hundred $$ difference, hence the call to just upgrade now instead of bidding.

 

Many people put in their bid right away and don't come back to check as prices change. That was the point of sharing my story. What looks out of reach initially can become an overbid at times.

[Sailing12Away]

3 hours ago, BklynBorn47 said:

Was this the Barcelona to Southampton cruise on May 13th?  We had booked the Owners Suite (12000) when the price drop was close to what we would have bid.  Then I tested positive on our last day on the TA on the Escape and our Star cruise was cancelled.  We stayed in quarantine on the Escape until the 17th, left in Rome at the end of the cruise and joined the Star in Southampton.  

Yes. We ended up in the garden villa on that trip, 14500.

[graceinga]

8 hours ago, DrSea said:

I have only stayed at the Haven through purchasing it and not bidding for it. I have never done any bidding.

 

I find it interesting that you bid close to what it costs to actually stay there. Why not just book it at the market rate if you are going to bid close to the market rate. I don't get it. I thought the idea is to lowball and hope for the best.

Great point Dr.Sea.  For us I guess as we get closer to sail date the excitement increases and we starting thinking "should we have booked the haven....." and then there is a false sense of it just doesn't feel like you are spending as much because I paid for the initial cruise months ago....it's all mind game tricks that aren't legitimate at all but yet here we sit, 4 days before sailing hoping we get the upgrade but perfectly fine if we don''t.  

[BklynBorn47]

2 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Yes. We ended up in the garden villa on that trip, 14500.

Nice to think that someone got the benefit of our unfortunate cancellation in 12000 
although pretty sure I posted that we were VERY well treated staying on the Escape for a suprise free cruise.  

[hueyjudy]

I would assume that last-minute cancellations make cabins available, so go for the upgrade ... if their system can manage it.  I always sign up for whatever we want, like more internet, specialty restaurants, etc, before we depart.  Then all I have to do is verify everything's OK that first day. 

[DrSea]

9 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Because at the time when we first put in our bid the price to outright upgrade was over 8K. So yes, compared to that we did "low-ball" our offer. As we got closer to sail date the prices plummeted and it became only a few hundred $$ difference, hence the call to just upgrade now instead of bidding.

 

Many people put in their bid right away and don't come back to check as prices change. That was the point of sharing my story. What looks out of reach initially can become an overbid at times.

I see. That makes sense. The dynamics of bidding are very unique and new to me.

 

9 hours ago, graceinga said:

Great point Dr.Sea.  For us I guess as we get closer to sail date the excitement increases and we starting thinking "should we have booked the haven....." and then there is a false sense of it just doesn't feel like you are spending as much because I paid for the initial cruise months ago....it's all mind game tricks that aren't legitimate at all but yet here we sit, 4 days before sailing hoping we get the upgrade but perfectly fine if we don''t.  

The anticipation would give me a headache haha. Different strokes for different folks.

Edited July 13, 2022 by DrSea

[mscdivina2016]

On 7/11/2022 at 1:27 PM, cruiseny4life said:

Upgrade anything and everything you want before sailing. Most, if not all, will go up in price if you wait. Same with booking the thermal suite - it'll go up if it's available when you get on board. I'd expect the same to happen with Vibe, but that's an assumption (and you know what that makes you and me). 

On 7/11/2022 at 1:27 PM, cruiseny4life said:

Upgrade anything and everything you want before sailing. Most, if not all, will go up in price if you wait. Same with booking the thermal suite - it'll go up if it's available when you get on board. I'd expect the same to happen with Vibe, but that's an assumption (and you know what that makes you and me). 

 

As for the upgrade, sold out means sold out. BUT, there's still hope if you really want to put a bid in. Last minute cancellations, COVID cancellations, upgrade requests received by others, etc. It's possible some rooms could be blocked out by a travel agent and will be released to those with upgrades in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

But the OP wants to bid to Haven.

So you get no refund of the extras that are free to Haven.