How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[suzyed]

7 minutes ago, dog said:

Third bidding offer- mini suite- club class $320 CAD pp.

suites still over $1 k pp

 

not for me

What do you know about the Front facing Club Class mini suite?  Good/Bad or indifferent?

[jennaja]

11 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, it's not what Princess says on their bid page. It specifically says that we cannot change cabins after an upgrade has been assigned to us.

I booked on the Princess website because it was on the weekend, and sent an email to the Princess Vacation Planner that had been sending me emails, asking if he is still our travel agent.  He said yes.  So when our bid was accepted and I found out the location wasn't the best, I asked if he could switch us.  Received an email less than 5 minutes later, confirming he had switched us to the requested cabin.

[dog]

33 minutes ago, jennaja said:

I booked on the Princess website because it was on the weekend, and sent an email to the Princess Vacation Planner that had been sending me emails, asking if he is still our travel agent.  He said yes.  So when our bid was accepted and I found out the location wasn't the best, I asked if he could switch us.  Received an email less than 5 minutes later, confirming he had switched us to the requested cabin.

Thanks for sharing. Always worth asking.

 

 

[dog]

7 hours ago, suzyed said:

What do you know about the Front facing Club Class mini suite?  Good/Bad or indifferent?

I don’t care for forward cabins.

they are listed for bid- a bit less $$ then midship cc minisuite.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

8 hours ago, jennaja said:

I booked on the Princess website because it was on the weekend, and sent an email to the Princess Vacation Planner that had been sending me emails, asking if he is still our travel agent.  He said yes.  So when our bid was accepted and I found out the location wasn't the best, I asked if he could switch us.  Received an email less than 5 minutes later, confirming he had switched us to the requested cabin.

If we get upgraded and I don't like the location (I hate aft balconies), I may go that route. I too booked our upcoming cruise through a Princess Vacation Planner. 🙂

[Matco]

Sailing November 14th on Discovery and got the email to bid on September 6th, we are booked in a club class mini and options to bid were Penthouse $400pp, Aft Facing Penthouse $500pp, Owners Suite $550pp and Sky Suite $1775pp. Confirmed with Princess via chat that if I bid on a room and do not like the location I can just not pay the upgrade fee and keep my original cabin. That being said I placed bids for the penthouse, aft penthouse and owners suite just now, not going to get my hopes up because I waited basically a month to place them but not sure how many have already bid on them.   

Edited October 6, 2022 by Matco

[suekel]

My son and I are cruising 10/22 on the Enchanted.  We each have our own cabin. We both bid the minimum for a deluxe balcony.  He got it, I didn't.  

[HBCcruiser]

40 minutes ago, Matco said:

That being said I placed bids for the penthouse, aft penthouse and owners suite just now, not going to get my hopes up because I waited basically a month to place them but not sure how many have already bid on them. 

I know with other cruise lines it does not matter when you bid. The system often waits until close to sailing to award bids. It really depends upon the highest bid, your current cabin and luck! You may still win! 

[CalTexCruiser]

1 hour ago, Matco said:

 Confirmed with Princess via chat that if I bid on a room and do not like the location I can just not pay the upgrade fee and keep my original cabin. That being said I placed bids for the penthouse, aft penthouse and owners suite just now, not going to get my hopes up because I waited basically a month to place them but not sure how many have already bid on them.   

 

That may be how it's supposed to work, but no one has yet reported on this yet.

 

When we won our bid, we were assigned the new suite even before payment was made; in fact, the upgrade fee shows up as a balance due and the due date was the original final payment date (i.e., a date in the past).

 

I believe you have 48 hours to pay, and if you don't pay, the upgrade is revoked and you are "supposed" to get back your original cabin.  But if someone else is upgraded to your now vacated original cabin in the meantime and paid the upgrade charge, then what happens?  Maybe they have a system in place to prevent that, but I would not trust Princess IT.

[suekel]

1 hour ago, suekel said:

My son and I are cruising 10/22 on the Enchanted.  We each have our own cabin. We both bid the minimum for a deluxe balcony.  He got it, I didn't.  

15 minutes after I posted this, I got upgraded also.  Since it's a casino cruise, I called the casino department to pay. 

[1cruiselvr]

1 hour ago, HBCcruiser said:

I know with other cruise lines it does not matter when you bid. The system often waits until close to sailing to award bids. It really depends upon the highest bid, your current cabin and luck! You may still win! 

Actually not true. Per Princess, highest bid does not ensure winning. 
 

Bid Acceptance Process: Throughout and after the conclusion of the Bidding Period, PCL will compile all then-existing Bids for the various stateroom categories for the Cruise and may accept a Bid from a Guest for each available upgrade room (the "successful Bidder"), taking into consideration multiple factors and items. PCL will review Bids based on highest positive revenue impact, but reserve the right to consider and review other and different factors. All Bids will be converted to USD at the time they are considered. All determinations as to which Bid (if any) is accepted, who the Successful Bidder is (if any), and what is considered in accepting a Bid shall all be determined by PCL in its sole and absolute discretion. Successful Bidders are subject to verification. The highest Bid may not be accepted and Guest that places the highest Bid for a stateroom category is not guaranteed to be the Successful Bidder.

Edited October 6, 2022 by 1cruiselvr
Additional information

[Matco]

1 hour ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

That may be how it's supposed to work, but no one has yet reported on this yet.

 

When we won our bid, we were assigned the new suite even before payment was made; in fact, the upgrade fee shows up as a balance due and the due date was the original final payment date (i.e., a date in the past).

 

I believe you have 48 hours to pay, and if you don't pay, the upgrade is revoked and you are "supposed" to get back your original cabin.  But if someone else is upgraded to your now vacated original cabin in the meantime and paid the upgrade charge, then what happens?  Maybe they have a system in place to prevent that, but I would not trust Princess IT.

I guess only time will tell, I have the chat transcript saved incase something happens, not sure it will help me but who knows.

[HBCcruiser]

42 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Actually not true. Per Princess, highest bid does not ensure winning. 
 

Bid Acceptance Process: Throughout and after the conclusion of the Bidding Period, PCL will compile all then-existing Bids for the various stateroom categories for the Cruise and may accept a Bid from a Guest for each available upgrade room (the "successful Bidder"), taking into consideration multiple factors and items. PCL will review Bids based on highest positive revenue impact, but reserve the right to consider and review other and different factors. All Bids will be converted to USD at the time they are considered. All determinations as to which Bid (if any) is accepted, who the Successful Bidder is (if any), and what is considered in accepting a Bid shall all be determined by PCL in its sole and absolute discretion. Successful Bidders are subject to verification. The highest Bid may not be accepted and Guest that places the highest Bid for a stateroom category is not guaranteed to be the Successful Bidder.

Exactly, that was what I was implying when I stated that it also depends upon which cabin you currently have and perhaps your onboard spending patterns, status, how many are in your cabin (lifeboat capacity) and probably a host of other things. Your bid amount does count as part of it though. 

[cruiser113]

bid  on club class mini:  two different   bids...one  for midship and  one for  forward.  Received email  two  days ago  that bid  was not  accepted,  but not  sure which bid.

 

Today  received email  that  bid  was  accepted on  the  mid  ship club class  mini.  Payment information was  in  cruise  personalizer.  called  casino  and  made  payment.

 

Excited and  happy  for successful bid on club class  mini. 

[1cruiselvr]

13 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

Exactly, that was what I was implying when I stated that it also depends upon which cabin you currently have and perhaps your onboard spending patterns, status, how many are in your cabin (lifeboat capacity) and probably a host of other things. Your bid amount does count as part of it though. 

It’s like the upgrade fairy. Nobody knows how they pick to accept bids. I’d guess it leans more toward how bad they need your booked cabin. IMHO

[HBCcruiser]

6 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

It’s like the upgrade fairy. Nobody knows how they pick to accept bids. I’d guess it leans more toward how bad they need your booked cabin. IMHO

That's my guess too! People on other line's threads keep trying to guess how the algorithm works. Funny reading it all. 😂

Edited October 6, 2022 by HBCcruiser

[Matco]

6 minutes ago, cruiser113 said:

bid  on club class mini:  two different   bids...one  for midship and  one for  forward.  Received email  two  days ago  that bid  was not  accepted,  but not  sure which bid.

 

Today  received email  that  bid  was  accepted on  the  mid  ship club class  mini.  Payment information was  in  cruise  personalizer.  called  casino  and  made  payment.

 

Excited and  happy  for successful bid on club class  mini. 

Congrats, when is your sailing? 

[cruiser113]

8 minutes ago, Matco said:

Congrats, when is your sailing? 

2 weeks  from  saturday.  now  all  the club class mini  suites and  suites  are all sold  out.  Ship  is  not  full.  lots  of minis and insides still show availability.

Edited October 6, 2022 by cruiser113

[Matco]

34 minutes ago, cruiser113 said:

2 weeks  from  saturday.  now  all  the club class mini  suites and  suites  are all sold  out.  Ship  is  not  full.  lots  of minis and insides still show availability.

I don't sail till November 14th but all suites show sold out already online but who knows if they just blocked them out for bidding? 

[1cruiselvr]

6 hours ago, Matco said:

I don't sail till November 14th but all suites show sold out already online but who knows if they just blocked them out for bidding? 

I don’t think Princess would block cabins of any category for bidding. It goes against increased revenue. 

[suzyed]

9 hours ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Actually not true. Per Princess, highest bid does not ensure winning. 
 

Bid Acceptance Process: Throughout and after the conclusion of the Bidding Period, PCL will compile all then-existing Bids for the various stateroom categories for the Cruise and may accept a Bid from a Guest for each available upgrade room (the "successful Bidder"), taking into consideration multiple factors and items. PCL will review Bids based on highest positive revenue impact, but reserve the right to consider and review other and different factors. All Bids will be converted to USD at the time they are considered. All determinations as to which Bid (if any) is accepted, who the Successful Bidder is (if any), and what is considered in accepting a Bid shall all be determined by PCL in its sole and absolute discretion. Successful Bidders are subject to verification. The highest Bid may not be accepted and Guest that places the highest Bid for a stateroom category is not guaranteed to be the Successful Bidder.

We're not privy to that information so we have no way of knowing if our bid was the highest or not and why or why not it was accepted.   If we could figure it our we might change how we bid.

[Matco]

9 hours ago, 1cruiselvr said:

I don’t think Princess would block cabins of any category for bidding. It goes against increased revenue. 

Not necessarily, I would think letting others that are in mini suites bid for higher suites would open up lower suites for those booked in say balcony's to then bid on mini suites. That would then potentially open up more balcony's for insides and ocean views to bid on that they might not normally book therefore getting people into a cabin that might stay unsold rather than leaving them open at full price. I for one know I would never book a penthouse or owners suite unless I had a great casino offer or a chance to bid on an upgrade. Heck that's the only reason I booked a mini suite in the first place was because of my casino promo. Again this is just my opinion and I could be completely wrong 

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Okay, I was thinking that the bid was for that category, and wasn't specific as to the location.   Like a Mini would be just a Mini,  (anywhere on the ship) and not like MA mid-ship mid-deck,  versus a lower category Mini.

How is that working?  I might bid for a MA, or deluxe balcony in the higher mid-ship mid-deck category.   But. def. not forward or aft.

Edited October 7, 2022 by PRINCESS Sweet Pea

[caribill]

I received an invitation to bid for upgrades to 5 types of full suites. Only 2 of the 5 currently have availability on the Princess web site, so I could only make pricing comparisons to those two.

 

What I did was compare the "savings" if the bid accepted was the lowest possible and if the bids accepted was the highest possible. The comparison was made comparing the difference between what the list price was for my cabin at the time I booked it and what the current Princess web site pricing is for these 2 full suite types if I wanted to pay full price for an upgrade. Prices are per person.

 

a) Penthouse suite

    o savings over current pricing if lowest possible bid accepted $2765

    o savings over current pricing if highest possible bid accepted $825

 

b) Owner's suite

    o savings over current pricing if lowest possible bid accepted $3415

    o savings over current pricing if highest possible bid accepted $760

 

[BarBug]

I just bid minimum for upgrade from casino standard balcony to mini suite for cruise next month. My cabinmate wasnt happy about it, but I am excited by the opportunity!  Hope bid is accepted!!