How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[HiCCCs]

2 minutes ago, dave_k58 said:

Yes - we are 60 days from sailing and he would lose at least half - anyway - we're fine with our mini - and he's fine with his balcony so we will just leave it the way it is.  Thanks for the input

 

Enjoy the cruise.....a wonderful memory for you all to have. 

[dave_k58]

Just now, HiCCCs said:

Enjoy the cruise.....a wonderful memory for you all to have. 

Thanks. We love cruising and this will be our first to Alaska ( 2 canceled because of the Covid)

[PacnGoNow]

12 hours ago, echoshipmate said:

I have been pleasantly surprised as we booked an inside on a b2b2b in Alaska on the Royal and made 3 separate bids. The first one came through to a deluxe balcony and on the second leg, our bid was also accepted to a deluxe balcony.... to the same cabin, so no move! Standing by to see if we can stay in our same cabin for cruise #3, stay tuned. Was not sure how the bid system would handle b2b's, I guess the bidding algorithm has figured it out, must admit I was surprised.

That’s very good to know. Thank you for posting.

[1cruiselvr]

2 hours ago, HiCCCs said:

Have a wonderful sailing aboard the Regal. I wonder if you could do a favor and inquire about something I've only recently discovered myself - it's called the Tuscan Dinner....and it's in certain/select (Royal Class ships maybe??) Sabatini's specialty dining. I believe it is about $50 or $60 pp. and I am told they had a special menu and bring alternative food out if you don’t care for what they are serving.  
Each course is paired with a different wine and a talk from the Maitre D’ about the wine and region.  
Unlike the Winemakers Dinner, you are seated with your own group of friends or family rather than those selected for the occasion.

 

Has anyone heard of this or have information to share???

You should post this on the princess general page instead of here. You'll have a better chance for an answer. This posting is about the bidding system. 

[HiCCCs]

19 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

You should post this on the princess general page instead of here. You'll have a better chance for an answer. This posting is about the bidding system. 

Thanks! I was unaware there was a "general page" for Princess and will try and find it. I'm still very new to CruiseCritic....but it's a great community and great source of information.

[Lady Arwen]

10 minutes ago, HiCCCs said:

Thanks! I was unaware there was a "general page" for Princess and will try and find it. I'm still very new to CruiseCritic....but it's a great community and great source of information.

Just go to the Boards main page and click on “Princess”.  It will now show the boards specific to Princess.  Lower right blue box “Start New Topic” is where you click on.  Type in your title of your question first and then type in what you want to say.  Then hit submit and you are done!  Easy peasy!  Wait for your responses to post.

[rheathslc]

3 hours ago, HiCCCs said:

Have a wonderful sailing aboard the Regal. I wonder if you could do a favor and inquire about something I've only recently discovered myself - it's called the Tuscan Dinner....and it's in certain/select (Royal Class ships maybe??) Sabatini's specialty dining. I believe it is about $50 or $60 pp. and I am told they had a special menu and bring alternative food out if you don’t care for what they are serving.  
Each course is paired with a different wine and a talk from the Maitre D’ about the wine and region.  
Unlike the Winemakers Dinner, you are seated with your own group of friends or family rather than those selected for the occasion.

 

Has anyone heard of this or have information to share???

Hi! Even though this is off topic I can confirm they had this on the Royal as recently as early May. Someone came around the dining room on the first night to get people to sign up. I think it was $60pp. I signed up but then ended up canceling so I can't speak to the actual experience. 

[Carla3]

Does anyone know if everyone receives the same upgrade offer. example. everyone in a mini-suite can upgrade to a full suite for the same starting minimum bid OR is the minimum bid tied to your profile and your original base fair? I am currently in a reserve mini and the bidding system is offering an upgrade to premium suite for $1290 PP, is that the same for anyone in a reserve mini?

[1cruiselvr]

2 minutes ago, Carla3 said:

Does anyone know if everyone receives the same upgrade offer. example. everyone in a mini-suite can upgrade to a full suite for the same starting minimum bid OR is the minimum bid tied to your profile and your original base fair? I am currently in a reserve mini and the bidding system is offering an upgrade to premium suite for $1290 PP, is that the same for anyone in a reserve mini?

 Nobody knows for sure. We only know what's discussed here. You'd have to work for Princess to know that. I'm guessing it's a corporate secret. 😆 

Edited June 22, 2023 by 1cruiselvr
More info

[Carla3]

12 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

 Nobody knows for sure. We only know what's discussed here. You'd have to work for Princess to know that. I'm guessing it's a corporate secret. 😆 

I thought maybe someone travel with friends/family who had booked the same cabin category might have some insight

[rheathslc]

7 minutes ago, Carla3 said:

Does anyone know if everyone receives the same upgrade offer. example. everyone in a mini-suite can upgrade to a full suite for the same starting minimum bid OR is the minimum bid tied to your profile and your original base fair? I am currently in a reserve mini and the bidding system is offering an upgrade to premium suite for $1290 PP, is that the same for anyone in a reserve mini?

Based on the experiences that myself and others have posted it seems to be that you will be offered a chance to bid on UP TO four full cabin categories above your current cabin but that is based on availability as well. And they also separated the forward facing Reserve minis from the mid-ship Reserve minis which gave me a total of 5 categories to bid on the first time I bid.

For example, I was booked in a standard balcony and was able to bid on:

1. Deluxe Balcony

2. Premium Deluxe Balcony

3. Mini-Suite

4a. forward facing Reserve (club class) Mini-Suite

4b or 5? Reserve (club class) Mini-Suite

 

On another cruise I originally booked an inside cabin and was able to bid on 4 categories:

1. Standard Obstructed Balcony

2. Deluxe Obstructed Balcony

3. Standard Balcony

4. Deluxe Balcony

[rheathslc]

31 minutes ago, Carla3 said:

Does anyone know if everyone receives the same upgrade offer. example. everyone in a mini-suite can upgrade to a full suite for the same starting minimum bid OR is the minimum bid tied to your profile and your original base fair? I am currently in a reserve mini and the bidding system is offering an upgrade to premium suite for $1290 PP, is that the same for anyone in a reserve mini?

I just realized my answer was not what you were asking. Sorry! 🙂

[Barbara B]

We won an upgrade from a midships/fore-ish balcony on Riviera to a mini suite (about the same spot, midships (fore-ish) on Marina deck. It was 230 pp (it's a 12-day cruise)

[KLM3164]

4 hours ago, Carla3 said:

Does anyone know if everyone receives the same upgrade offer. example. everyone in a mini-suite can upgrade to a full suite for the same starting minimum bid OR is the minimum bid tied to your profile and your original base fair? I am currently in a reserve mini and the bidding system is offering an upgrade to premium suite for $1290 PP, is that the same for anyone in a reserve mini?

I don’t know the answer to your question but this is our experience with our last 2 cruises. 

 

Cruise #1: 4 days

Booked in a Reserve Mini-Suite

Minimum Bid Options:

Premium Suite $195 per person

Penthouse Suite $345 per person

Penthouse Suite Aft Facing $365 per person

 

Cruise #2: 10 days

Booked in a Reserve Mini-Suite

Minimum Bid Options: 

Premium Suite $390 per person

Penthouse Suite $695 per person

Penthouse Suite Aft Facing $810 per person

 

How long is your cruise?

[dave_k58]

18 hours ago, Barbara B said:

We won an upgrade from a midships/fore-ish balcony on Riviera to a mini suite (about the same spot, midships (fore-ish) on Marina deck. It was 230 pp (it's a 12-day cruise)

Depends on which ship. on some ships the Riviera is right below the Lido

 

[SimplyMarvie]

If you have Princess Plus (or Premiere, or whatever they're calling it...) in your lower class cabin and you win a bid for an upgrade, do you lose the Princess Plus? 

 

I'm wondering because we got what seemed like an absurd deal on the upgrade to Plus (I think it was $8 pp total on a 9 day cruise) and as much as it would be nice to have an upgraded cabin, I'm frankly more interested in the free drinks and fancy desserts. (Everyone has their priorities...)

[fireval911]

 

We got our bid for a Reserve Class Mini Suite from a deluxe balcony.  We're thrilled - 2 sisters and we were hoping for more room.  21-day on Enchanted leaving end of July (I thought the cruise was sold out).  $1000 per person because we REALLY wanted the extra room and we had a great deal on the deluxe balcony so it didn't seem like too much of an increase.

 

 

 

[Doug R.]

3 hours ago, SimplyMarvie said:

If you have Princess Plus (or Premiere, or whatever they're calling it...) in your lower class cabin and you win a bid for an upgrade, do you lose the Princess Plus? 

 

I'm wondering because we got what seemed like an absurd deal on the upgrade to Plus (I think it was $8 pp total on a 9 day cruise) and as much as it would be nice to have an upgraded cabin, I'm frankly more interested in the free drinks and fancy desserts. (Everyone has their priorities...)

We upgraded from balcony to a mini-suite last October on the Enchanted and we retained our Princess Plus.

[jjack413]

Ok, I’m about to get my feelings hurt. I put in 2 bids at the lowest amount for club class mini suite and forward facing club mini suite.  It lets you know if your bid was weak.  I’m already in a mini suite but want to experience the club dining.

[Micahs Grandad]

On RCCL the bid can be relatively small, and we did it and got a nice upsell.

 

Disappointed on Princess how the minimum bid for upgrade is rather a large dollar one.

[jwattle]

7 hours ago, Micahs Grandad said:

On RCCL the bid can be relatively small, and we did it and got a nice upsell.

 

Disappointed on Princess how the minimum bid for upgrade is rather a large dollar one.

It isn't always a large dollar one on Princess 🤗

[echoshipmate]

On 6/21/2023 at 8:13 AM, PacnGoNow said:

That’s very good to know. Thank you for posting.

Just received accepted bid on b2b#3, for those of you interested. On b2b #1&2 we were able to stay in our same cabin, an obstucted deluxe balcony, but on#3 we were assigned a regular deluxe balcony so will have to move, oh well, worked out better than I had hoped. 

Doug

[Micahs Grandad]

10 hours ago, jwattle said:

It isn't always a large dollar one on Princess 🤗

We will keep looking but on the two cruises we would have bid on one was smallest for upgrade from mini suite to mini with the upgraded dining (thought it was a bit high but we wanted to do the dining and did not get accepted)  and the other an upcoming cruise that is way higher than we would bid.

[jjack413]

I’m trying to bid for a reserve class mini suite too. There is just a handful of reserve mini’s on each ship so the bids are probably out of reach or what I’m willing to pay. If I don’t get it will use money for specialty dining. 

[Yowman]

My 14 day cruise is 84 days out and despite receiving no email telling me I can bid on an upgrade I just bid on each the lower three suite categories.  All bids at the low end of the "good" section of the meter. Fingers crossed.