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I have a cruise the latter part of April and just put in my bids for the Royal Up program. Looking at my cruise it doesn't show any suites available so I am not thinking I have a high chance of getting one unless someone drops out. I have read where it has worked for some and not for others. I just plan on going into the room they gave me, and if that changes and I get a suite, then that works too.

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Understand they accept bids for cabins that may not actually be available. 

They are preparing for someone cancelling.  If a last minute cancellation occurs they have a range of bids to consider.  If no one cancels, no one gets an upgrade.

If you have a cabin currently that they can sell to someone else that can play a factor in a fair bid versus a stronger bid from someone in a lesser cabin at the moment.

They could accept your fair bid then accept a fair bid from someone else to upgrade to your current cabin.  This may generate more revenue compared to accepting a good bid from someone else but them being stuck with no one in that person's less desirable cabin.

There are so many factors we don't see it's impossible to rate chances simply on fair vs. good vs. strong bid.  

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In January we cruised in a Grand Suite that I found on sale as an upgrade to the Junior Suite we had originally booked.  After getting home, I put in a Royal Up bid on a GS for the cruise we are taking this week with my children on Enchantment to move from the JS (one of the rear facing potentially toxic ones, per the live blog!) we had booked originally.  I checked a few times and suites were sold out for at least the past 8 weeks, so no harm done, figured we'd settle in and I'd hope to not have any issues to deal with this cruise.  Two nights ago I logged into the app and our room number had changed and our bid was accepted...  

All that is to say, I have no idea how this works.  Unless someone cancelled above us, I can't see how we got moved up a class, but I am glad for the extra space.  My children, along with my spouse, will now be completely spoiled for normal rooms.

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On 3/17/2019 at 1:50 PM, twangster said:

Understand they accept bids for cabins that may not actually be available. 

They are preparing for someone cancelling.  If a last minute cancellation occurs they have a range of bids to consider.  If no one cancels, no one gets an upgrade.

If you have a cabin currently that they can sell to someone else that can play a factor in a fair bid versus a stronger bid from someone in a lesser cabin at the moment.

They could accept your fair bid then accept a fair bid from someone else to upgrade to your current cabin.  This may generate more revenue compared to accepting a good bid from someone else but them being stuck with no one in that person's less desirable cabin.

There are so many factors we don't see it's impossible to rate chances simply on fair vs. good vs. strong bid.  

Never thought of this, good point. Does anyone know if you get the class upgrades? I.E. Star class gets the Royal Genie, complimentary unlimited beverage package, etc.

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49 minutes ago, 12thman said:

Never thought of this, good point. Does anyone know if you get the class upgrades? I.E. Star class gets the Royal Genie, complimentary unlimited beverage package, etc.

Yes you do. The only thing you don’t get is the double points if you were originally booked below a JS and you won a bid for JS and above.

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About a month ago I bid on an upgrade to either ocean view for $60 or an obstructed balcony for $200. Looking yesterday prices had gone back down on our cruise and we got a guaranteed balcony for $209. We cancelled our royal up offers and now have a balcony. This morning in our cruise documents we don't have a room assigned but it does state that we are on deck 13.

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13 hours ago, kevpeirce said:

About a month ago I bid on an upgrade to either ocean view for $60 or an obstructed balcony for $200. Looking yesterday prices had gone back down on our cruise and we got a guaranteed balcony for $209. We cancelled our royal up offers and now have a balcony. This morning in our cruise documents we don't have a room assigned but it does state that we are on deck 13.

Very normal with guarantee bookings.  

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1 hour ago, 3trinitythree said:

Is this ‘Royal Up’ available on every ship (Independence in June 2019) as I can’t see the wood for trees in looking for the page to do so? 

You won't be able to find it,  Royal will send you an email if it's available.  I got one in December for my Feb 2019 Mariner sailing (right when the program began). I   haven't received one for Ovation this upcoming June (which has been all but sold out for at least a month now, so I doubt I'll even bother if it does come out. No way would I even get a winning bid on this ship anyway). 

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5 hours ago, kevpeirce said:

With our interior guarantee they had us on deck 11, is it safe to assume we will be on deck 13?

Likely but until cabin is assigned anything is possible.  Each muster area is formed from groups of cabins on various decks.  A muster zone has a finite capacity based on lifeboat capacity.  They loosely assign GTY cabins to a muster zone to ensure no oversubscribtion occurs.  That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be altered to further optimize muster zone capacity.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I bid on a Panoramic Suite (up from an awesome pie shaped Panoramic cabin 1864) for my May Mariner sailing but with only 2 of those I know that won't come through.  I also bid on an Owners Suite (up from a Grand Suite) for my May Navigator sailing,  On that one there is still Owners Suites available so although I don't expect that one either, that would be nice!  We are celebrating our 25th anniversary so if that one came through it would be really special! 

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11 minutes ago, mworkman said:

i received several of them in the past, but no one for any of my future cruise... i guess i didn't bid high enough to win on the last ones, I'm not worthy anymore ?

Did they email you to let you know you didn't get the upgrade? I just bid for an upgrade Friday for our sailing this coming Sunday. No word yet...

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1 hour ago, videjuca said:

Is there any quantity you recommend to bit for each category?

Honestly, between ships and categories I've seen such drastically different minimums and maximums that I can't recommend any specific bids. The best thing to do is see what it would cost you to pay outright for an upgrade, if you're cool with that then do it! Otherwise, bid an amount less than what it would cost you to upgrade that you're comfortable with and see what happens. Remember that your bid is for 2 people! If you bid $100 you'll be charged $200.

I like to bid amounts slightly above "round" numbers (110 instead of 100 for example) just because I think it improves my odds!

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44 minutes ago, deep1 said:

Is it safe to assume that since my cruise is sold out that my bid won't be accepted? Do they let you know if you've been declined? 

You never know.  People cancel cruises all the time, even on short notice.  Stuff happens.  With 3,000 or more guests on board it happens quite often.  

If a last minute cancellation occurs Royal Up can suddenly come to life and award an upgrade.

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7 hours ago, twangster said:

You never know.  People cancel cruises all the time, even on short notice.  Stuff happens.  With 3,000 or more guests on board it happens quite often.  

If a last minute cancellation occurs Royal Up can suddenly come to life and award an upgrade.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know if Royal RoyalUp'ed your room when your flight got cancelled last week !!

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2 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I meant....I wonder if someone got your room via a RoyalUp bid since you never showed up !!

Only if the crew are allowed to bid on an interior cabin...

Royal UP sends rejection emails at T-24 hours.  A no show at the pier would require they wait until sailing to confirm if guest didn't make it and even then they have to wait to hear if guest s going to catch the ship at the next port. 

I don't think Royal UP has a play with day of departure missing guests.

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7 minutes ago, twangster said:

Only if the crew are allowed to bid on an interior cabin...

 

I guess I got your "unfortunate situations" mixed up.  I GUESS I was really referring to your [more] recent misfortune on Liberty where the ship sailed without you,

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

I don't think Royal UP has a play with day of departure missing guests.

I think you are absolutely right.  I suspect that the RoyalUp offers are dead once the T-24 passes. 

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

Only if the crew are allowed to bid on an interior cabin...

Royal UP sends rejection emails at T-24 hours.  A no show at the pier would require they wait until sailing to confirm if guest didn't make it and even then they have to wait to hear if guest s going to catch the ship at the next port. 

I don't think Royal UP has a play with day of departure missing guests.

The onboard comedian this week was probably happy to have a real room istead of a crew room

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/17/2019 at 11:30 PM, jagnew said:

In January we cruised in a Grand Suite that I found on sale as an upgrade to the Junior Suite we had originally booked.  After getting home, I put in a Royal Up bid on a GS for the cruise we are taking this week with my children on Enchantment to move from the JS (one of the rear facing potentially toxic ones, per the live blog!) we had booked originally.  I checked a few times and suites were sold out for at least the past 8 weeks, so no harm done, figured we'd settle in and I'd hope to not have any issues to deal with this cruise.  Two nights ago I logged into the app and our room number had changed and our bid was accepted...  

All that is to say, I have no idea how this works.  Unless someone cancelled above us, I can't see how we got moved up a class, but I am glad for the extra space.  My children, along with my spouse, will now be completely spoiled for normal rooms.

How much did you bid on the GS per person? 

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Just back of Oasis today. We had a really cheap guarantee room that was assigned about 4 weeks prior. We bid on several rooms but the sailing was sold out. 4 days before the sailing our "good" bid on an ocean balcony was accepted and we ended up on deck 14 in a great room. In the day or two before the bid was accepted they had a few rooms come back on sale so I imagine that it was late cancellations. The other thing is that you don't need the email to bid. I can't place the link at the moment but will do so later. A final note is that this is not unique to RCI, it is run by a company called plusgrade.com who upsell for many companies.

 

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Just now, Cruisemad888 said:

My RoyalUp was accepted today. Going from Guarantee balcony to Grand suite ?

 

what extra perks arks should I be expecting?

YIPPEE !!!

Your suite perks depend on the ship.  If you are on an Oasis or Quantum class ship you will receive complimentary Voom.  If one of the other classes, Voom is not a suite perk.

What ship are you sailing ?

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