I really like the point about placing a Royal Up bid doesn't allow you to select your cabin. It's always amazed me how many people won't ever consider a GTY cabin, but they'll gladly pay more on Royal Up to turn their reservation into exactly that, a GTY cabin at a slightly higher category.
Was on Oasis during Thanksgiving last year, bid $10 more than minimum, went from interior to spacious panoramic view. Total was $140, but well worth it, was a room above the bridge, and was created in 2019, so slightly different in design than other rooms.
I won my bid and I bid just the minimum. I don't regret moving my cabin from an inside facing the Promenade to a Large Balcony cabin. Loved it, loved the location they put me in but it did move me to a different deck away from my party. It's all good and I would do it again. 😊
Well. I just got home from a trip with Symphony of the Seas. I was upgraded from interior stateroom to neighborhood view. It was a small upgrade but it made a huge difference! I loved it! Edt; plus my original stateroom was close to the back of the ship whereas the new one was midship, So it was a win-win.
Last summer, we won an upgrade from a balcony to a grand suite (for $500 per person.) Well worth it! Loved the huge balcony, living room, master bathroom with a tub, etc. It was an older ship but the room was perfect.
We only do Royal-Up bids if we booked a GTY cabin. We didn't select our cabin in the first place, so winning a bid won't upset us on location if we get it. Win-win.
I have just returned from a 9-night Greek Isles cruise. I have booked an interior cabin (as always) but I wanted to feel what an ocean view stateroom would be like. I have managed to Royal Up for US$ 120 in total but moved from a perfectly silent cabin to one next to an elevator. Kids ran down the corridor late at night and I had to request my neighbor to deal with them, but I had no issues other than that. At the end of the day I feel it well was worth it, as sunlight helped me get up for my shore excursions, which departed early in the mornings.
Recently I placed a (really low) Royal Up bid for a Jr. Suite and won…kinda. I was placed in the last Jr. suite aft, which was technically an obstructed view balcony, in this case, minor obstruction and not a big deal. Longer walk was a good thing, I didn’t gain weight on a 12 Night Cruise 😂. My gripe is, after I won the bid, I looked and a mid-ship Jr. suite was available. So even though I am Diamond+, I got the bottom of the barrel room which was available. I won’t do another Royal Up for a Jr. Suite…Grand Suite, absolutely. 😎
This is such great information for people who don't cruise often - there's mini suites on some Princess ships that don't have balconies and are right at the front of this ship, so bidding to upgrade to a mini suite isn't always a good thing!
10 am CST, our last cruise 4/2023 we bid up. BUT didn't do our homework. 😢 Thought we were getting bigger room with the balcony. Instead, room was same size. Balcony was slightly bigger. Totally not worth it. Much of the weather was windy, one time also rainy. Think I'll save my extra money for choice of interior room instead
Another issue is that you could actually pay MORE than the cabin is worth if you bid on the high end plus what you paid already. I think, generally speaking, it's worth it to bid the minimum plus a little for the RoyalUp. If no one else bids more than the minimum, you'll win it. If many people do, "more power to them," is my attitude.
@@mikezupancic2182 for sure. I always make sure to know what the cabin is currently worth. What's difficult is, what would that suite have cost if I booked it on day 1? Always hard to remember.
First I’d never cruise on RC, but we do like Norwegian. On a trip through the Panama Canal they called us to see if we WANTED to upgrade, we decided to do it and it was well worth it. We were just under the bridge with a huge room.
I put in a bid maybe 50 dollars higher than the minimum bid and a few days later I was sent a congrats email. Though the upgrade ran me $1,200. But at least I get a balcony versus having a room with just a window of the ocean.
Also the minimum bid could be higher than the original offered price. I booked an owners suite on a cruise but was also looking at a crown loft suite for the same price. But despite the novelty of having a split level, the crown loft was much smaller so I bought the owners suite. Then when I got the Royal Up offer and looked at the app, I could bid for a crown loft but the minimum bid was a couple hundred dollars which would have made it more expensive than the original price I was looking at, and other minimum bids like for the star loft were thousands of dollars, which again made them more expensive than when I originally looked at pricing.
BID! You're saying "bid!" I spent waaaaayyyyyy too long trying to figure out if I suffered a stroke before I hit play and comprehended what you were saying on the video, realizing your title had a typo.
Agree so much with this! I always consider what the worst option would be for any upgrade offered (deck 2 or 3, deck 6 on Quantum class, far forward, under the pool deck) and I usually don't want to take that chance. A few times, I've checked with my TA and got an upgrade for less than the minimum bid and got to select my room!
@@megan9542 Just call my travel agent and ask how much it would be to upgrade to the room I want. Royal Up is not always the bargain some people think it is.
I've bid multiple times and "won" 3 bids. Never went much higher than the minimum. I don't see why anyone would be upset they didn't get it. It's a bid and if you don't get it you don't pay. You have a chance to get a room you otherwise may not have been able to pay for. Not at all like the lottery where if you don't win, you actually spent money. I enjoy the wait to see if I won.
I am not a fan of Royal Up but that only because I like to select my room, there is actually a secret door on deck 13 that leads into the solarium so room 131118 is just perfect for me.
I agree that if you are sailing with family with multiple cabins or if location of cabin is extremely important then you may want to stay away from this program. However with things like concerns over prepaid meals I wouldn't have any concerns because you can always work those things out at guest services. Also, if someone is waiting until they cruise to book an excursion whether it's through the cruise line or a third party chances are your only choices for the good ones are extremely slim anyway. I don't gamble but for those who do I would look at it as part of the money I would've spent in the casino except you get a better room which to me you get more value out of anyway.
I always look and see where the open cabins are for each category before I ever decide to bid on an upgraded cabin. I absolutely prize myself on picking the "bonus" cabins like the hump and aft balconies, and we love the extra wide balcony on the Central Park Balcony cabins. Thanks Matt for more good information to think about when deciding to bid on Royal Up.
I wish you would have explained how it works (or doesn’t) for those booked in accessible cabins. We’re currently booked in an accessible ocean view balcony. Am I safe to assume there are very few accessible suites?? It’s not very clear on the website.
RoyalUP exists to kill last minute deals on high-end cabins. There's no shortage of people who are bad at math to bid for an upgrade they don't really want.
