Eightfoldjeff Posted April 6 #1 Share Posted April 6 VV states bid upgrade notifications go out (via email) approximately 48 hours before the cruise. Can anyone who's been through the process tell me their own experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtosee Posted April 6 #2 Share Posted April 6 We actually won an upgrade the night before embarkation! We had booked a sea terrace and placed a bid on all but one level of rockstar suite, on the off chance. It was about 8pm, and we were already in our hotel room in Miami. I got a series of emails: first one with the subject line "Congrats, you're being upgraded!" and then several more titled "We were unable to accept your Level Upgrade offer" I was immediately able to sign into the app and see our new room number and start pulling up deck plans and such. It was an incredibly exciting night for us! 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightfoldjeff Posted April 6 Author #3 Share Posted April 6 Wow, that is a cool story! Made it more exciting to get the notification at the last minute😂 May I ask, were you pretty aggresive with your bids? I don't have experience in this area and was going back and forth with my approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cantgetin Posted April 6 #4 Share Posted April 6 (edited) Things to consider when bidding include what the cost difference vs. what you booked.of the upgrade would have been when you initially booked and what it is now. THe bid page will show you the minimum bid. You decide how much over that you are willing to go, and when select a "peculiar" number--one that ends in 4 or 7, for example. For instance, if your max bit would be $100 over the minimum, live a little and go for $107. Many people bid in numbers that end in 5 or 0. By choosing something just a bit higher, you improve your chances. Whether to bid $100 over the minimum bid or $1000 over is really a personal matter. My logic is to purchase a cabin where I will be happy, and then bid relatively little over the minimum stated. It makes no sense to go beyond what the upgrade would have cost when I booked--in that case, why didn't I book that to begin with? But I've gotten hits several time on various lines with the "peculiar number" system. Edited April 6 by cantgetin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightfoldjeff Posted April 6 Author #5 Share Posted April 6 That makes a lot of sense. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garycarla Posted April 6 #6 Share Posted April 6 And, with just a handful of suites to start with, not many are going to win, at any price. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyTrain2 Posted April 6 #7 Share Posted April 6 I never really understood the Lord of the Flies bidding game. Some suites just ain't that sweet and you end up paying more for a lesser experience. The bidding process is useful to VV since they get to see relative demand and what people might be willing to pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesv281117 Posted April 6 #8 Share Posted April 6 Found out upgraded from limited view sea terrace to cheeky corner suite day before sailing. First clue was card being charged obviously then app changed to rockstar then got an email a bit later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CineGraphic Posted April 6 #9 Share Posted April 6 17 hours ago, cantgetin said: You decide how much over that you are willing to go, and when select a "peculiar" number--one that ends in 4 or 7, for example. For instance, if your max bit would be $100 over the minimum, live a little and go for $107. Many people bid in numbers that end in 5 or 0. By choosing something just a bit higher, you improve your chances. Currently, the bid system uses a slide bar, everything ends in 0 or 5, there is no option to make it anything else. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cantgetin Posted April 7 #10 Share Posted April 7 6 hours ago, CineGraphic said: Currently, the bid system uses a slide bar, everything ends in 0 or 5, there is no option to make it anything else. Well, that's a bummer....they're killing my system. Oh well, back to "book a cabin where you'll be happy and anything else is extra." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FFMilesJunkie Posted April 8 #11 Share Posted April 8 (edited) A bit of caution if you bid on XL. Oftentimes the only XL cabins available at the last minute are the ones on deck 8 above the red room so that’s where your “upgrade” will be. These have noise factors of 4 or 5 out of 5. If you want to know the noise factor of your cabin you can ask your TA. Every cabin on the ship has a number between 0 and 5. Edited April 8 by FFMilesJunkie 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cantgetin Posted April 8 #12 Share Posted April 8 While it is true that upgrade cabins, including XLs can be in the less desirable locations, there are also situations where someone upgraded from an XL to a suite, meaning that their XL is not available to someone else. You can get a wonderful cabin with an upgrade bid....or one that you wouldn't choose on your own. Again, if you want to choose your cabin, don't use the upgrade process at any category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilligan69 Posted April 9 #13 Share Posted April 9 Here's my experience from last year, where we sailed the Resilient Lady on its 2nd cruise ever (so ship was maybe half capacity). We had paid for a inside cabin with the strategy of upgrading through bid process (or upon check in) to an XL Sea Terrace. Here's the good news -we got the upgrade via the bid. Here's the bad news --the minimum bid required, equaled the same amount of extra $ we would have paid in order to secure that cabin class from the start. And had we bid anything higher, it actually would have been more costly then getting that cabin class at the beginning. So we didn't see the bid process as a good deal at all. Any upgrades did not come at a discount. At least on our cruise. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cantgetin Posted April 9 #14 Share Posted April 9 You were smart to check upgrade costs vs. booking originally. However, many cruise prices have increased dramatically...those of us with early bookings got good prices, while those who booked later not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Btr2trvl Posted May 10 #15 Share Posted May 10 Spent the 115,000 VirginRed points for a 5 night on Resilant 5/2 and received the Access Key email 5/4. Promply booked a cruise for July in a Central Sea Terrace. On 5/5 I was able to request upgrades on Gorgeous, Brilliant, 3 types of Cheeky, Seriously, and 3 types of Aft as well as XL. I bid on everything but the XL. The mimimum bids ranged from $580 to $2275. There are a lot of suites still for sale for my cruise including Mega's I wasn't able to bid on. This leads me to believe undersold cruises start with much lower minimum upgrade bids and/or they consider Access Key from VirginRed a full fare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David8965 Posted July 2 #16 Share Posted July 2 I sailed alone on a 7-night cruise on Valiant in February and booked into a solo insider for $2000. I then bid $500 for a Central Sea Terrace and was succesful so I was very pleased as $2500 for a single sailor in a CST was about $1500 less than I would have paid if I'd have booked one in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmedic Posted July 3 #17 Share Posted July 3 Thinking of bidding on a suite. Are there any in a bad (noisy) position or are they in more desirable locations? I presume that I wouldn't be able to decline if I did win the bid. First time on VV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon81uk Posted July 3 #18 Share Posted July 3 33 minutes ago, madmedic said: Thinking of bidding on a suite. Are there any in a bad (noisy) position or are they in more desirable locations? I presume that I wouldn't be able to decline if I did win the bid. First time on VV. Brilliant suites can be under the pool area or gym. If you win the bid and get one allocated you can’t change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmedic Posted July 3 #19 Share Posted July 3 Thanks that's very useful. May try for a lesser grade suite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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