How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[MrBill64]

28 days before departure our upgrade bid was accepted.  Island Princess world cruise from LA.  Went from an obstructed ocean view to a balcony for a bit over the minimum bid.  Ended up in a cabin next door to our traveling companions.  I'd like to think of this as Festivus Miracle!

[blloydtbird]

Booked an interior and placed a bid for an ocean view cabin on the Sky. Won the bid today, $175 PP. we were upgraded to a balcony instead of an ocean view. We’ll take it! 11 day cruise. 

[suzyed]

9 hours ago, cmaygar said:

It worked well for me. I initially booked for a Deluxe Balcony on the Enchanted Princess for our upcoming New Year’s cruise. I placed my bid in a few days after I booked and a few weeks ago I received an e-mail that the bid was accepted and I had 12 hours or so to remit the payment for the upgrade. I don’t use a TA so the e-mail came directly to me and for about $300 for the both of us received a larger room with a balcony about twice the size of our initial room. It’s a 10-day cruise so the extra elbow-room will be appreciated.

I haven't heard a thing on our bid for the same cruise.  At this point I don't think it's gonna happen.

[cruiser113]

On 12/20/2022 at 9:31 AM, suekel said:

I just got off a cruise to Hawaii.  While I was onboard, I received notice that my bid upgrade on a cruise in early January was accepted.  Be warned that there is no way to pay for this while onboard and there was no option to pay on my personalizer since the cruise was booked through the casino.  If we hadn't stopped in Ensenada so I could call, I would have lost my new cabin.  If you cruise a lot and book casino comped cruises, this could be an issue.  

This  happened to  me as  well.  We  were  on regal princess and my  bid  for  Sky  princess that  we  were getting  on as  soon  as  we  finished  on  Regal was  accepted  4  days  prior  to  sailing.

 

I  went  to  cruise  vacation  planner on Regal and  she  was  able  to  help  me  make  our  payment. Payment completed and we  sailed  without a hitch.

[suekel]

5 hours ago, cruiser113 said:

This  happened to  me as  well.  We  were  on regal princess and my  bid  for  Sky  princess that  we  were getting  on as  soon  as  we  finished  on  Regal was  accepted  4  days  prior  to  sailing.

 

I  went  to  cruise  vacation  planner on Regal and  she  was  able  to  help  me  make  our  payment. Payment completed and we  sailed  without a hitch.

I went to the future cruise people and she said she could email the casino but that was all she could do.  She did follow up with us to make sure we got it handled but that's it.  Glad yours worked out.  

[gottagocit]

Thanks to everyone for posting your experience with the bidding process here in this thread. Many of them are most interesting. 

[RogueRamblers]

We are on the 15-night January 16th Hawaiian cruise. We had submitted two upgrade bids from our interior cabin: $340 to balcony (higher than minimum bid) and $405 for deluxe balcony (minimum bid). Yesterday we were informed our balcony bid was not accepted. Today we were upgraded to the deluxe balcony and paid the $405 pp to secure our new cabin. Yay!

[Shelly97060]

1 minute ago, RogueRamblers said:

We are on the 15-night January 16th Hawaiian cruise. We had submitted two upgrade bids from our interior cabin: $340 to balcony (higher than minimum bid) and $405 for deluxe balcony (minimum bid). Yesterday we were informed our balcony bid was not accepted. Today we were upgraded to the deluxe balcony and paid the $405 pp to secure our new cabin. Yay!

Thanks for posting this! I have been waiting to hear on my bid on this same cruise, hopefully I hear soon too!  

[dolphfan]

Just got an email from Princess and were able to upgrade from an inside to a deluxe balcony on the Sky in January!! 

[sunviking90]

On 12/23/2022 at 4:01 PM, Shelly97060 said:

Thanks for posting this! I have been waiting to hear on my bid on this same cruise, hopefully I hear soon too!  

Well, we took a big chance on this cruise and booked an inside cabin after 20 years in balconies! Did a minimum bid of $135 CAD each for an obstructed balcony and just now was accepted, Yay! Great location and we’ve had one before so we don’t really consider them “obstructed”

[Shelly97060]

Just heard my bid for Mini suite was accepted for 15 day cruise on Royal Princess in January.  My original cabin was a DA Deluxe balcony. My new cabin is an MB Mini Suite. My bid was $275 pp which was $25 pp over minimum bid. 

[suzyed]

I guess my bids will not be accepted this time since we sail tomorrow and we haven't heard a thing.  We're happy with what we have, just wanted to try Club Class.  Maybe next time!

 

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

I guess my bids will not be accepted this time since we sail tomorrow and we haven't heard a thing.  We're happy with what we have, just wanted to try Club Class.  Maybe next time!

 

In one of my notifications, it stated that if our bid was accepted, they would let us know by three days prior to the cruise.  

[merryjewelhound]

What is odd suzyed is that you did not get a notification that your bid was declined. When we bid for our early Dec cruise we were not notified until right after the 3 day mark that one bid was declined and the other accepted. 

[polmcs]

Anyone had success getting a bid accepted when booked through a “big box” company? 
 

I was successful with my bid on a TATL cruise last month that was booked direct with Princess. My next cruise is to Cabo in Feb (should have been Sept on the Diamond)  and was booked through a big box company. For the TATL, I received a mail inviting me to bid on an upgrade, but did not receive a mail regarding the Cabo cruise.

 

I had seen references to the fact that the travel agent must participate in the program to be able to bid, but when I clicked on the upgrade link on my cruise personalizer, I was presented with some options to bid, so I did. I did not receive any confirmation of my bids (I did get confirmation emails on the TATL cruise, along with a notification about a month out that my bid had been accepted), but if I re-enter the bidding page for the Cabo cruise, I do see my bids as showing up and pending.

 

Just curious if anyone was able to successfully upgrade a big box booking?

[suzyed]

6 hours ago, merryjewelhound said:

What is odd suzyed is that you did not get a notification that your bid was declined. When we bid for our early Dec cruise we were not notified until right after the 3 day mark that one bid was declined and the other accepted. 

Yes I know...wierd!

 

6 hours ago, polmcs said:

Anyone had success getting a bid accepted when booked through a “big box” company? 
 

I was successful with my bid on a TATL cruise last month that was booked direct with Princess. My next cruise is to Cabo in Feb (should have been Sept on the Diamond)  and was booked through a big box company. For the TATL, I received a mail inviting me to bid on an upgrade, but did not receive a mail regarding the Cabo cruise.

 

I had seen references to the fact that the travel agent must participate in the program to be able to bid, but when I clicked on the upgrade link on my cruise personalizer, I was presented with some options to bid, so I did. I did not receive any confirmation of my bids (I did get confirmation emails on the TATL cruise, along with a notification about a month out that my bid had been accepted), but if I re-enter the bidding page for the Cabo cruise, I do see my bids as showing up and pending.

 

Just curious if anyone was able to successfully upgrade a big box booking?

Same here...still pending.  And, no, you do not need your TA to participate.

[suzyed]

6 hours ago, merryjewelhound said:

What is odd suzyed is that you did not get a notification that your bid was declined. When we bid for our early Dec cruise we were not notified until right after the 3 day mark that one bid was declined and the other accepted. 

Yes, very odd.

[paradiselivin1]

9 hours ago, suzyed said:

I guess my bids will not be accepted this time since we sail tomorrow and we haven't heard a thing.  We're happy with what we have, just wanted to try Club Class.  Maybe next time!

Same exact thing happened to us. This is the last day of our 20 day cruise on Enchanted and never heard a peep. As this is considered a B2B, we went to Guest Services a day or two before the start of the 2nd "leg" and asked if we could pay for an upgrade as there is only 2800 +/- on the ship and many open cabins but know many are balconies (we're in a deluxe balcony) and we wanted a mini but never heard a thing from Guest Services. I'm stumped by the lack of response in both cases. Never did get an e-mail for our Majestic cruise next month and don't know if there is anything to offer as we're in a mini this time but could have gotten CC?? Who knows...

[azbirdmom]

14 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Same exact thing happened to us. This is the last day of our 20 day cruise on Enchanted and never heard a peep. As this is considered a B2B, we went to Guest Services a day or two before the start of the 2nd "leg" and asked if we could pay for an upgrade as there is only 2800 +/- on the ship and many open cabins but know many are balconies (we're in a deluxe balcony) and we wanted a mini but never heard a thing from Guest Services. I'm stumped by the lack of response in both cases. Never did get an e-mail for our Majestic cruise next month and don't know if there is anything to offer as we're in a mini this time but could have gotten CC?? Who knows...

 

Hope your last 10 days on the Enchanted has been as wonderful as the first 10 despite their lack of response to you re: the upgrade.  It was nice meeting you and sharing that wonderful day in Martinique with you.

[paradiselivin1]

1 minute ago, azbirdmom said:

 

Hope your last 10 days on the Enchanted has been as wonderful as the first 10 despite their lack of response to you re: the upgrade.  It was nice meeting you and sharing that wonderful day in Martinique with you.

Hey, Julie. It's been great and couldn't have asked for better weather. Nice meeting you guys as well & hope we'll see you on another cruise. Tell Henry I'm still enjoying the "cards". They're keepers.

[teecee60]

I'd normally never pay this high a price for a cruise, but my better half LOVES Hawaii.

 

Paid $1289pp for an IF inside cabin on the 16 night Diamond Princess from San Diego.

 

Bid $95pp (just above minimum) to upgrade to an OF ocean view cabin, or $1384pp.

 

We have a total of $785 OBC and $200 shore excursion credit, so I'm fairly satisfied. 

 

A reasonable ($90) car rental each way from Tucson, so no (much higher) airline costs. 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by teecee60

[wen_c82]

Just had my bid for Jan 21 Discovery 7 days Mexico accepted. BD ( gty assigned) to MB for $ 150/pp .
 

I received an invite to bid a few months ago right after I booked ( directly with Princess) and wasn’t planning to bid until I added 2 other family members recently. Submitted 2 bids - delux Balcony and Mini suite, both minimum.  
receive rejected e mail two days ago, it didn’t state which bid was rejected so I went online to check status. Delux Balcony showed ‘expired’ and Mini suite showed ‘pending’ with no ability to modify the bid. Then last night got upgrade to mini suite notifications. I paid directly through cruise personalizer.

 

I did check prior to bidding that there were still many mini  suites available so I stick to minimum bids. 

[tawlaw1526]

I have a question:  I like staying mid-forward on the ships and always book mid-forward cabins.   I am afraid to bid of fear they will give me a cabin in the aft of the ship.   Does anyone know if they try to keep you in the same location of the ship as you have booked?     I have a balcony booked mid-forward.   There are several mini suites Mid-forward and would love to bid if I felt relatively certain I would stay in that location of the ship.   There are still several mini suites in the aft of the ship as well.    Just wondering if anyone as any insight as to how they assign cabins after a bid is accepted? 

[Cruise Raider]

7 hours ago, tawlaw1526 said:

I have a question:  I like staying mid-forward on the ships and always book mid-forward cabins.   I am afraid to bid of fear they will give me a cabin in the aft of the ship.   Does anyone know if they try to keep you in the same location of the ship as you have booked?     I have a balcony booked mid-forward.   There are several mini suites Mid-forward and would love to bid if I felt relatively certain I would stay in that location of the ship.   There are still several mini suites in the aft of the ship as well.    Just wondering if anyone as any insight as to how they assign cabins after a bid is accepted? 

If location is important to you, then I would advise against bidding as there is no guarantee as to what part of the ship you will receive.  

[merryjewelhound]

tawlaw....when we won our bid this month we were book as far aft interior as you could go. We won the bid for obstructed deluxe as far forward as you can go. Again this is just our experience.