Holy Carp! I got upgraded to a GS!

[SpeedNoodles]

So happy for you!

[barjpoe]

12 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

GS on Mariner gets access to the Suites lounge with free drinks from 5-8pm and light snacks and access to the Concierge. You get to board 1 hour before your scheduled arrival time. You get free room service including ordering from the MDR when it is open. There is a suites only breakfast.  Wifi and UDP are NOT included with a GS on Mariner.

Thanks

What about if I bid on the Owners suite? Don't need the Royal suite w/the piano.

[AshleyDillo]

5 minutes ago, barjpoe said:

Thanks

What about if I bid on the Owners suite? Don't need the Royal suite w/the piano.

Same as the GS. 

[D Alt]

Perks link here: 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-the-suites-program

[cruisedreams86]

Congrats. So jealous right now. I DREAM of doing a suite-life trip with the girls. Have so much fun!!!

[LCWind]

6 hours ago, Sactown Cruiser said:

Dreams do come true.  Upgraded from a spacious ocean view with spacious balcony to 1-Bedroom Aquatheater Suite for the minimum bid.  RC price today for that category is $6,000 per person for the same date.  Incidentally I made minimum bids on many categories.  All of the other bids went to expired about a week ago and this one stayed pending and I got the notification today.  Good luck to all!

Summary of your upgrade

Your Cruise Information Your Upgraded Stateroom Ship  Harmony of the Seas® Sail Date  Jan 30, 2022   Upgrade Type  Aquatheater - 1 Bedroom Your Offer  $1,500 USD per guest Total Bid  $3,000 USD

Wow! Congrats.

[DGirl]

I got upgraded to GS on Freedom in December, it was wonderful!  I was solo, it was way more space than I “needed” but of course it wasn’t about need. There is no suite pool deck on Freedom. Suite breakfasts were in Chops and very good!  You’ll have access to the concierge services, I didn’t need anything from him but I did get an escorted departure which was great!  Right past any lines and down a separate elevator, very slick. Have a great time!

[D Alt]

So now that I'm upgraded, is there no way to check on if my trip ever gets discounted again?  I think the prices are going up actually but just wondering if there was a way to do this now that I'm no longer in the same room.  

[DGirl]

On 1/27/2022 at 12:51 PM, barjpoe said:

Thanks

What about if I bid on the Owners suite? Don't need the Royal suite w/the piano.

I REALLY REALLY want to be in the one with the piano one day.  Not enough to just book it outright though. 

[Kirstin]

I am new to RC. I am a Disney cruiser about to embark on my first RC cruise. We used our American Express Platinum card for booking. What is this bidding and upgrade business you are talking about? Please share.

 

[D Alt]

11 hours ago, Kirstin said:

I am new to RC. I am a Disney cruiser about to embark on my first RC cruise. We used our American Express Platinum card for booking. What is this bidding and upgrade business you are talking about? Please share.

 

Sometimes after you book a cruise and as you get closer to the sailing date, Royal will offer what's called RoyalUp, which is a bidding process to bid on a room better than what you booked originally.  I had a balcony and got offered to bid on "better" rooms including a suite.  I won the Grand Suite 1-bedroom with a very low bid.  This frees up the balcony for resale and balconies are very popular. So even though I bid a lower amount, they'll make it back on selling that balcony.

I'm sure @Matt has a blog about it somewhere. 

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/11/04/how-upgrade-your-cabin-royal-caribbean

This is one of Matt's blogs.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

This is the website

[fa-li]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:46 AM, Sactown Cruiser said:

Dreams do come true.  Upgraded from a spacious ocean view with spacious balcony to 1-Bedroom Aquatheater Suite for the minimum bid.  RC price today for that category is $6,000 per person for the same date.  Incidentally I made minimum bids on many categories.  All of the other bids went to expired about a week ago and this one stayed pending and I got the notification today.  Good luck to all!

Summary of your upgrade

Your Cruise Information Your Upgraded Stateroom Ship  Harmony of the Seas® Sail Date  Jan 30, 2022   Upgrade Type  Aquatheater - 1 Bedroom Your Offer  $1,500 USD per guest Total Bid  $3,000 USD

Real question, as I was kind of shocked by how high the minimum bids were on my royal up offer (we are already booked in a GS, so my offer was for bigger suites):  If you were willing to pay $3000 more for this cruise, why did you not just book a nicer cabin to begin with? 

I'm truly curious about what makes royal up attractive, especially for those that book early and get good prices in the first place.  I can understand upgrading for the price of a nice dinner, but thousands of dollars confuses me. 

[LovetoCruise87]

Congrats on that upgrade!!   I'm going to bid for an upgrade on our cruise in September. Right now we are booked in a balcony (Harmony) so I'm hoping for a Junior Suite.

[Ampurp85]

1 hour ago, fa-li said:

Real question, as I was kind of shocked by how high the minimum bids were on my royal up offer (we are already booked in a GS, so my offer was for bigger suites):  If you were willing to pay $3000 more for this cruise, why did you not just book a nicer cabin to begin with? 

I'm truly curious about what makes royal up attractive, especially for those that book early and get good prices in the first place.  I can understand upgrading for the price of a nice dinner, but thousands of dollars confuses me. 

It's a possibility that the nicer cabin was way more or unavailable. Lots of the suites have been released back into inventory from cancellations. It is possible they got a JR/GS for $1400pp. The cost of a 1br Aqua might be $4100 per person. Thats is $8200 versus $5800. 

But I get what you mean. If I am already in a decent suite, the only way I would pay thousands is to go to Star class.

I got a good deal for the price of a nice dinner. My successful RoyalUp was from interior to a spacious promenade Oceanview. At the time of booking the interior cabin was $464 total, but a spacious promenade Oceanview was $1067. I paid $60, minimum bid, to upgrade after I had already received a discount on my interior. So, I paid $419 for a room that would have cost over a thousand if I had booked it outright.

[D Alt]

6 hours ago, fa-li said:

Real question, as I was kind of shocked by how high the minimum bids were on my royal up offer (we are already booked in a GS, so my offer was for bigger suites):  If you were willing to pay $3000 more for this cruise, why did you not just book a nicer cabin to begin with? 

I'm truly curious about what makes royal up attractive, especially for those that book early and get good prices in the first place.  I can understand upgrading for the price of a nice dinner, but thousands of dollars confuses me. 

for me personally, I'm a solo person and the most I'm willing to pay is for a balcony.  However, because the bidding became a later option, I figured I would make a minimum bid which was only $160 x 2 for the Grand Suite. There is no way I'm bidding thousands of dollars. I'm not rich. 

if the minimum bid didn't make sense to me financially, I wouldn't have done it. 

and the only reason I'd book a suite to start with, would be if I was with someone else or a group or I became rich or on the rare chance a suite was really cheap, which is rare. 

[fa-li]

17 minutes ago, D Alt said:

for me personally, I'm a solo person and the most I'm willing to pay is for a balcony.  However, because the bidding became a later option, I figured I would make a minimum bid which was only $160 x 2 for the Grand Suite. There is no way I'm bidding thousands of dollars. I'm not rich. 

if the minimum bid didn't make sense to me financially, I wouldn't have done it. 

and the only reason I'd book a suite to start with, would be if I was with someone else or a group or I became rich or on the rare chance a suite was really cheap, which is rare. 

This makes total sense to me.  I'm happy for you that it worked out! I hope you'll come back and tell us your thoughts on the cabin.

[D Alt]

Stay tuned for the live blog of my trip coming 2/25

[D Alt]

On 1/26/2022 at 4:52 PM, smokeybandit said:

your daily gratuities will be $3 per day more. But other than that, no.

looks like the $9 was added to my upgrade bid total cost so 329 for the upgrade including the gratuities. So hopefully this means no other added costs to be added to my cruise.