MSC Seaside - Upgrade offer email received 10 days before sailing

[kal72]

We're booked on the Aug 13 sailing of MSC Seaside, this sailing doesn't appear to be available for booking today ~10 days from sailing.  I assume that means its at capacity, but we just received a second cabin/experience upgrade offer email.  Not sure if MSC ALWAYS sends additional upgrade emails this close to sailing regardless of whether they are at 100% capacity or not?   Maybe they are still fishing for additional MAX upgrade offers in case of last minute cancellations?  Does the fact that they are still sending upgrade emails mean that maybe they don't have enough good offers and they could accept something less than max?  Trying to decide whether I should bid or not (currently in a fantastica Balcony)

Edited August 4, 2023 by kal72

[Essiesmom]

It doesn’t hurt, you won’t lose anything if not accepted.  What do the offers look like?  I am on that sailing and the one after it.  I booked Fantastica inside gty for each, was assigned Fantastica balconies, bid on upgrades and won Aurea balconies for both.  And I just bid a little above the minimum.  When I made the bids on the 13th cruise, I did an experimental booking and it looked like sold out.  After I won my bid, I went back again and everything but YIN was available.  EM

[rgast3]

I'm on this cruise also. I bid into the yacht club with $10 over minimum and WON! Go for it and best of luck :)

[xcell]

Was the bidding amount the same? Or did it get lower? 

[Essiesmom]

My first cruise booked for 8/17 I booked inside Fantastica gty and had the option to bid before any cabin was assigned.  I bid low on an OV, Aurea balcony ( lowest Aurea category) and YIN.  After I was assigned a cabin, which was a balcony, I got another I’m it’s to bid, and the amounts were lower than the first time.  I only bid on Aurea and YIN, low bids, and got Aurea.  The bids on offer for the prior 4 day were actually lower than for the 3 day.  EM

[Pizzasteve]

Ive just started following this and a bit regret not trying this strategy.  We are currently in junior Balcony, decent room location, Bella experience.  So I guess maybe we blew it by not getting the better experience and lowest cost, but scarce supply room (inside), then bid.

 

Our cruise is in early November, and we've paid in full.  When would we expect to get upgrade offers?  Also, since we are Bella I assume we stay at Bella even if upgraded, so if our cabin is fine then an upgrade doesnt gain us much unless to Auria, where we might get the auria dining as an option?  Our ship doesnt have YC but i noticed in a test booking 2 Suites are available to book (for roughly 2.5x our fare).  What woukd be a reasonable bid per day to upgrade from jr balcony to suite, if offered, or will we be limited to Auria balcony.

 

Thanks for an tips. Its my first MSC booking.  Already noticed a strange feature that we could pay almost the same basic cruise fare for 20 days as we are paying for 11, due to differences in pricing and discounts offered.  It wouldnt work for us, but why some pay 33$ per day (before taxes and drinks) and others $55 per day on the same ship based on length of cruise is hard to process.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Pizzasteve

[Essiesmom]

Your bid would be per person, not per day.  I believe if you won a Fantastica balcony you would stay Bella, but if you won an Aurea you would get Aurea benefits.  These are screen shots of the bid amounts for my four day cruise.  I upped the bid amount for the Aurea balcony to $110pp and won.  The other pic is the intro at the top of the page when you click to bid.  I kept it on my open tab and it continued to show the offers for the cabins I did not bid on.  When I won the bid, those offers disappeared and at the bottom of said Not eligible to bid.

 

 

[MonsterJoe]

We just won ours for the 8/13 sailing in the middle of the night with the lowest possible bid.

[Preziosa]

Which cabin did you bid on and which ship

[MonsterJoe]

aurea deluxe balcony. Seaside. The bid was 90 (x2)

[MonsterJoe]

On 8/4/2023 at 11:24 AM, Essiesmom said:

  After I won my bid, I went back again and everything but YIN was available.  EM

Did you mean to write "unavailable?"  Because that's what it looks like right now - Everything is sold out except Yacht Club Deluxe suites.

Which seems weird to me, having just won that lowball upgrade.

[Essiesmom]

No, I meant still available.  EM

[MonsterJoe]

26 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

No, I meant still available.  EM

Oh OK, sorry then!  It looks like the cruise is pretty much fully booked right now.  I still don't understand why I got that upgrade, if the ship is full.  The balcony is huuuge

[MonsterJoe]

On 8/7/2023 at 5:17 PM, Essiesmom said:

No, I meant still available.  EM

Our app and booking online both show our upgraded experience to Aurea, but our etickets and luggage tags still say Fantastica.  Do you know if this will be a problem with the priority boarding?

[rgast3]

Call and have them email you the new e-ticket and tags.

[Pizzasteve]

Can folks comment on how much the bid cost on a per person per day basis?  Its hard to judge the total price without number of days, etc.  We got offers to upgrade from a bella balcony to auria balcony and wondered what a good pricce per daynoffer woukd look like.  On Grandiosa, so no YC.

[morpheusofthesea]

Read an account on FB today of a poster who posted anonymously for fear it was a mistake. They had an experience booked that dictated the time they had to eat for dinner. So they put in a $155 minimum bid for the next level up and got a YC cabin on deck 16. They feel they hit the lottery. I think so too.

[Pizzasteve]

Our Bella to Auria balcony offer was 425USD pp for 11 days.  565 to Deluxe suite Auria, 850pp for Premium Suite.  These are minimum bids of course, so not necessarily winning.  Curious if these seem like good value deals, if won, to others.  Since a spa pass is 100pp, it seems we will be paying about 50per day for upgraded dining, more or less, if accepted?