Reducing the minimum bid

[judithzuz]

I have an inside cabin on a  35 day cruise booked and the bidding process has just opened up. The minimum bid is just $600 less than the site price for a balcony, over $2000 as a solo. A bit steep. Does Princess ever reduce the amounts necessary for bidding after the process has begun? I looked for this information and could find nothing to answer my question. I'm trying to decide what to do.

[akaCruiser]

The suggested minimum bid is the floor. If you are bidding and wish to win the bid, you can just submit the suggested minimum bid. If there are other bidders with higher amounts then they will be prioritized.

 

When I submitted a bid (I was in an Oceanview cabin) for a balcony, I originally just entered the minimum amount. But after some further consideration (as in a week later), I bumped my bid by an additional $5 and actually got the upgrade. I had options for a Deluxe Balcony and even a Mini-Suite, but the bid prices was not worth the extra amount so I just submitted for a Balcony. 

[judithzuz]

I was just wondering if the floor ever gets reduced as the prices come down. There is still quite a bit of availability on my cruise.

[startedwithamouse]

We had lots of availability on our last cruise, bids never came down. They filled the ship with casino offers. 

[judithzuz]

7 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

We had lots of availability on our last cruise, bids never came down. They filled the ship with casino offers. 

Thank you so much. I had a feeling, as it wouldn't motivate people to bid early.

[sunviking90]

I have never seen the minimum come down.

Edited July 22 by sunviking90

[Abercrombie2019]

9 hours ago, judithzuz said:

I was just wondering if the floor ever gets reduced as the prices come down. There is still quite a bit of availability on my cruise.

The minimum bid for our February 2024 Enchanted 10 day Caribbean cruise came down twice by $5 each time.  The changes were exactly a week apart.  However, the minimum bid was never lower than it would have been to just book the upgraded stateroom in the first place.  We did not bid on the upgrade.

[crawford]

17 hours ago, judithzuz said:

I have an inside cabin on a  35 day cruise booked and the bidding process has just opened up. The minimum bid is just $600 less than the site price for a balcony, over $2000 as a solo. A bit steep. Does Princess ever reduce the amounts necessary for bidding after the process has begun? I looked for this information and could find nothing to answer my question. I'm trying to decide what to do.

Although my CB ship has been sold out for at least 2 months, offers to bid continue to fill my inbox. With three weeks to go, I can upgrade my Caribe deck balcony to a premium balcony, mini suite or club class mini suite; bids starting at $95, $395 AND $585, respectively. I don’t know if they even have any of these cabins available. I do know the bidding has come down, although I didn’t track it.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 7/21/2024 at 10:47 PM, akaCruiser said:

If there are other bidders with higher amounts then they will be prioritized.

not true. I've previously won the lowest bids on full cruises.

[judithzuz]

Just an update. The minimum bid has gone down 20%, from $2000 to $1600 for an inside to a balcony. I rescinded my original bid and added a new one. I'm going to continue monitoring and hope that is comes down a little more. 

[crawford]

On 7/22/2024 at 2:49 PM, crawford said:

Although my CB ship has been sold out for at least 2 months, offers to bid continue to fill my inbox. With three weeks to go, I can upgrade my Caribe deck balcony to a premium balcony, mini suite or club class mini suite; bids starting at $95, $395 AND $585, respectively. I don’t know if they even have any of these cabins available. I do know the bidding has come down, although I didn’t track it.

Just as a point of reference, premium balcony, mini suite or club class mini suite; bids are now at $85, $165 AND $330, respectively. I was also offered a move over offer to an inside cabin yesterday, with 4 days until embarkation.

[voljeep]

3 minutes ago, crawford said:

Just as a point of reference, premium balcony, mini suite or club class mini suite; bids are now at $85, $165 AND $330, respectively. I was also offered a move over offer to an inside cabin yesterday, with 4 days until embarkation.

did you take it ????

[crawford]

6 minutes ago, voljeep said:

did you take it ????

No way. If I had paid a lot for this cruise, then I might have considered it. Iceland and Greenland, however, is one trip I am likely not to repeat. A 7 day Caribbean….definitely!

[Cruisemeister2002]

On our forthcoming cruise I received two separate emails a few weeks apart offering me the chance to bid on an upgrade. We have an inside cabin and would have liked a balcony, but the minimum bid was some £1300 pp and that was deemed as poor. Even a sea view from an inside was £700 pp. The difference didn't change from the first offer to the second and now the cruise has sold out on the Princess website.

[trbarton]

I’ve recently seen on YouTube that if your bid is in an odd number that you have a better chance to win your bid. I’m currently bidding for an upgrade from a Ocean View to a balcony & increased my minimum bid slightly to have an odd number so I’ll see what happens with my bid for my September 2, 2024 on the Crown Princess. I’m aware that it could be as short as a few days before my cruise if it’s excepted. 

 

Tom😀
 

 

[Coral]

10 minutes ago, trbarton said:

I’ve recently seen on YouTube that if your bid is in an odd number that you have a better chance to win your bid. I’m currently bidding for an upgrade from a Ocean View to a balcony & increased my minimum bid slightly to have an odd number so I’ll see what happens with my bid for my September 2, 2024 on the Crown Princess. I’m aware that it could be as short as a few days before my cruise if it’s excepted. 

 

Tom😀
 

 

If it is on YouTube, it must be true........LOL!

[trbarton]

9 minutes ago, Coral said:

If it is on YouTube, it must be true........LOL!

I follow someone on a regular basis & I have found that their reports were spot on. No need for LOL. 

 

Tom😀👍

Edited August 10 by trbarton

[Coral]

22 minutes ago, trbarton said:

I follow someone on a regular basis & I have found that their reports were spot on. No need for LOL. 

 

Tom😀👍

I can see $1 over a specific set bid that most people would select but I doubt the odd bidding vs even bidding. I would guess a higher bid would win over a lower bid any day.

[trbarton]

Interesting as for the last few days the Princess bidding site is down. I’ve wanted to access my current bid that I’ve made & when I enter the required information I can’t connect to the bidding site. 
 

Anyone else had this problem on the Princess site?

 

Tom🤔 

[geoherb]

I never saw the price of bids come down for my cruise in June on the Island Princess. There were lots of empty cabins. We had around 1,700 passengers. It was a strange cruise itinerary: New York embarkation for most of us with stops in Halifax, Boston, Norfolk, and Charleston. But four days after most of us embarked, some of the passengers who had boarded in Fort Lauderdale disembarked in Boston--and new passengers boarded. They were taking a round-trip cruise from Boston. Princess kept overlapping the cruises like that until the ship finally sailed from Boston on a transatlantic last month.

[Trimone]

4 hours ago, trbarton said:

Interesting as for the last few days the Princess bidding site is down. I’ve wanted to access my current bid that I’ve made & when I enter the required information I can’t connect to the bidding site. 
 

Anyone else had this problem on the Princess site?

 

Tom🤔 

Yes

[Trimone]

On 8/10/2024 at 4:24 PM, trbarton said:

Interesting as for the last few days the Princess bidding site is down. I’ve wanted to access my current bid that I’ve made & when I enter the required information I can’t connect to the bidding site. 
 

Anyone else had this problem on the Princess site?

 

Tom🤔 

Tom, has your bidding site reopened yet? We are on Barcelona to Southampton 14th September 

regard

[trbarton]

7 hours ago, Trimone said:

Tom, has your bidding site reopened yet? We are on Barcelona to Southampton 14th September 

regard

Yes it has. Upon a suggestion by someone I follow on YouTube I’ve made a low bid ending in an odd number. My cruise is in 18 days & I’ve haven’t heard anything from Princess either yes we’ve excepted you bid or no on my bid from an Ocean View to a balcony. I’m aware that if they except my bid I can be placed anywhere. 
 

After 38 cruises with Princess I’m aware that anything can happened. Of course I’m willing to print out new luggage tags if necessary 
 

I’ll keep people posted. 
 

Tom😀

[joejoe 59]

30 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Yes it has. Upon a suggestion by someone I follow on YouTube I’ve made a low bid ending in an odd number. My cruise is in 18 days & I’ve haven’t heard anything from Princess either yes we’ve excepted you bid or no on my bid from an Ocean View to a balcony. I’m aware that if they except my bid I can be placed anywhere. 
 

After 38 cruises with Princess I’m aware that anything can happened. Of course I’m willing to print out new luggage tags if necessary 
 

I’ll keep people posted. 
 

Tom😀

Good luck