Last year, I surprised my husband with a Virgin Voyages Caribbean cruise for his 30th anniversary.
It was difficult to keep the secret trip of him at the start, but saving the bill for this vacation solo could have been even more difficult. To keep the costs manageable, I have reserved an interior room for us.
Although I really wanted to get us a sea view room, I could not justify spending an additional $ 1,100 for a slightly larger space with a window.
However, months later, I received an email from the Virgin level upgrade program giving me a chance to tender on a sea view room (and other higher level cabins).
With a little research and luck, I marked the upgrade of the room that I originally wanted for only $ 80.
I get above the minimum – but not too little or too much
It is important to make a competitive offer. Virgin trips
The window for upgrades on levels varies from one trip to another and closes as soon as any remaining cabin inventory fills. In my case, the system opened two months in advance and I placed my offers a few weeks later.
I knew that I did not want to leave the minimum offers, because I imagine that many travelers do exactly that when the “level upgrade” e-mail happens just to see what is going on.
In these cases, you can beat the competition by offering only a few dollars. However, leaving too low margin can be risky.
After having read on the experiences of other tenderers on various cruise forums, I also felt confident that I would not need to offer hundreds above the minimum submission threshold just to succeed.
For our trip, I successfully offered $ 80 on a sea view cabin with a minimum offer of $ 45. I also placed an unsuccessful offer of $ 280 in a limited land room, which had a minimum of $ 275.
I was satisfied with Sea-View Room, who had a large porthole and the low minimum offer prices of more than $ 200.
With hindsight, I was a good chance of obtaining this room because we were in the lowest cabin level and most of the virgin travel rooms are sea terraces with balconies.
This means that most of my passenger colleagues – the bidders with whom I was in competition – did not even try for a cabin on the sea view. For them, it would have been a gradient.
Above all, I stayed patient and ready to enjoy our trip even without upgrading
From the start, I knew we would have an incredible moment on board, whatever the cabin in which we ended up. Nishaa Sharma
Although there is a chance to hear earlier, we discovered our upgrade one day before the start of our trip.
From the start, however, I knew that we would have an incredible moment on board, whatever the room in which we found ourselves. After all, the auction upgrade system is a bet.
Fortunately, one of the best things about a cruise is that your trip is what you make of it – and you can spend as much (or also) time in your accommodation as you wish.
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