Royal Up-do you think it is a matter of time before they allow a few cabins to bid on one upgraded cabin?

[Pattycruise]

I know there are a lot of us that book multiple cabins-whether it is for family/friends.
I have 3 sailings coming up that I won't bid on a Royal Up because we prefer to be near each other. (and in some instances the under 21 year old must be within sight of our cabin)

If Royal Up could figure out a way to accept bids with a couple of cabins linked together it would free up more cabins for the "chain reaction" of bidding.

I'm seeing posted here that Royal Up is still accepting bids on embarkation day.  I think that's a game changer.  This would also be a game changer...

 

[smokeybandit]

I can't see this ever being a part of RoyalUp. They don't want you to eliminate cabins, just pay more for the ones you have.

[CGTLH]

21 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I can't see this ever being a part of RoyalUp. They don't want you to eliminate cabins, just pay more for the ones you have.

It would be beneficial to allow this. Say someone with two balconies booked next to each other. They want to submit a RoyalUp bid to a 2BR suite and if won combine everyone to the suite.

By allowing a process to combine staterooms RoyalUp would end up with two balcony staterooms if the suite bid was accepted. Plus a revenue generator could be the bid is on the basis of 4 versus 2. Only catch might be muster station capacity.

[twangster]

RoyalUp is operated by a 3rd party called PlusGrade. 

PlusGrade does not have full visibility into the Royal reservation system.  They get a very limited view and limited functionality to perform simple upgrades and notify Royal of the cabins involved.  They take their fee and the rest of the money goes to Royal.  

Upgrading linked cabins is extremely complex.  By the time RoyalUp begins to function which is normally in the final month before sailing there are rarely groups of connecting or nearby cabins available for PlusGrade to consider.  That can also change the math as one cabin might make sense to upgrade while another may result in less new revenue compared to giving that 2nd cabin to completely different party.

More importantly one month before a cruise departs there is usually a hodgepodge of inventory all over the ship.  One balcony here, another balcony on another deck far away.   

Combining cabins into one is even more complex and impacts the cruise contracts for the cabins involved.  It's one thing to change the cabin number on a booking and give a booking an upgrade to a different category.  It's another matter altogether to cancel a booking and move guests from that booking into a new booking.  That has all sort of implications to it.  

I just don't see it happening for groups of linked or connecting cabins. 

 

[Pattycruise]

20 minutes ago, CGTLH said:

Only catch might be muster station capacity.

Interesting. I never thought about muster station capacity!

[AshleyDillo]

I've seen offers for it to go the other way -- RoyalUpping a single cabin to get 2 cabins. This is much easier than combining cabins though.

[Pattycruise]

19 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

I've seen offers for it to go the other way -- RoyalUpping a single cabin to get 2 cabins. This is much easier than combining cabins though.

I saw that  as it was an offer to me.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I would want to split a cabin up (2 of us),  and my 3 kids in the other cabin, can't imagine where they would have ended up.  The cost to do it was not cheap either. (well on that sailing)