Somewhere between paying your balance and packing your case, the email arrives. Your cabin is booked and paid for, and yet here is an invitation to want more: would you like to bid for a better one? An ocean view instead of an inside, a balcony instead of an ocean view, a suite instead of a balcony, yours for whatever you care to offer. It is a quietly clever piece of theatre, and most of the major cruise lines now run it.
Bidding for an upgrade can be a genuine bargain or a small trap, depending on how well you understand the rules. This guide explains how the bidding actually works, which lines run it and which do not, what you stand to lose as well as gain, and how to place an offer without talking yourself into paying too much. The examples lean towards the lines sailing from the UK.
What bid to upgrade actually is
Bid to upgrade, or bid to move up, is a simple idea dressed up as an auction. Once your cruise is paid in full, the line offers you the chance to move into a higher grade of cabin for less than the published difference in fare. You name a price. If the line accepts it, you are charged and moved. If it does not, you keep the cabin you booked and pay nothing more.
Most lines run this through the same third party, Plusgrade, which is why the process feels familiar whether you are sailing with P&O or Royal Caribbean. It is a blind auction: you cannot see what anyone else has offered, and the line releases only the cabins it has failed to sell. That last point matters more than any clever tactic. If a sailing is full at the top, no offer will win, because there is nothing to give away.
You are not paying the fare difference. You are naming your own price for cabins the line has not managed to sell, and you only pay if you win.
How the bidding works
The invitation usually lands by email after your final payment, anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of weeks before you sail. You do not always have to wait for it. On several lines you can check your own eligibility by entering your booking reference and surname on the upgrade page.
You are shown the cabin grades open to offers, each with a slider running between a minimum and a maximum. As you raise your bid, a strength gauge shifts from weak to strong. Here is the single most useful thing to know: that gauge shows where your money sits on the price scale, not your odds against other bidders. It is a nudge to spend more, not a forecast. What really decides the outcome is how many better cabins went unsold, and then the size of your offer.
On most lines the bid is per person for the first two guests and covers the whole voyage, so an offer of one hundred pounds becomes two hundred at the till. A few, including MSC, Ambassador and Virgin Voyages, charge per cabin instead. You enter a card, and it is charged the moment your bid is accepted, which can happen at any point from the day you offer up to about two days before you sail. Some people discover they have won when the payment appears before the email does.
Once your offer is accepted it is charged at once and cannot be refunded or reversed to your old cabin. Never bid more than the upgrade is genuinely worth to you.
The British lines
The lines sailing from the UK split neatly into those that run an auction and those that do not.
P&O Cruises
P&O runs its scheme, branded simply Upgrade and handled through the same Plusgrade auction as the rest, on selected sailings once your balance is paid. Invitations go out around eighty days before departure, you offer on a sliding scale, and the amount is per guest for the first two passengers across the whole cruise. Two things are worth knowing. Any onboard credit or perks from your original fare stay pegged to the cabin you booked and are not lifted to match the upgrade. And at present P&O runs this for bookings made directly, so a cruise booked through an agent may not be invited at all.
Cunard
Cunard runs the near identical Cunard Upgrade, also on roughly eighty days’ notice and as the same secret auction. One quirk to watch: if you are the only passenger in the cabin, the site automatically doubles your offer. As with P&O, any perks stay tied to your original grade. Cunard will also sell you a fixed price upgrade over the phone if you would rather have the certainty than the gamble, since a bid only ever buys a chance.
Ambassador
Ambassador, the British no fly line, runs its Ambassador Upgrade through Plusgrade on Ambience and Ambition. Invitations go out about eighty nine days ahead, the offer is a single amount per cabin set on a slider, and a winning bid is charged automatically and cannot be undone or returned to your original cabin. One thing to note: the invitation goes to your own email address, so if you booked through an agent who holds your contact details, you may never see it.
Marella, Fred. Olsen and Saga
Not every British line plays this game. Marella does not run an auction at all; its upgrades are simply fixed prices, around ten pounds per person per night for a balcony, arranged through Manage My Booking or a call to TUI up to a fortnight before you sail. Fred. Olsen has no bidding either, only a price quoted by its reservations team, and from 2026 its fares turned fully inclusive. Saga, all inclusive and aimed at the over fifties, likewise just quotes you a price. With these three an upgrade is a transaction, not a punt.
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The big international lines
The American and international lines reached by flying out mostly run the same Plusgrade auction, with a few important differences in the detail.
Royal Caribbean: RoyalUp
RoyalUp is the best known scheme of all. Invitations arrive from around forty five days before sailing, though the option can appear earlier, and you can check eligibility yourself with a booking number. Offers are per person for the first two guests. Two details from Royal Caribbean’s own terms are worth holding on to: a won upgrade still earns Crown and Anchor loyalty points at your original cabin grade, not the grander one, and the upgrade brings none of the promotions it would have carried had you booked it outright.
Celebrity: MoveUp
Celebrity’s MoveUp works almost identically, open to bookings within ninety days of departure and only to guests opted in to Celebrity’s marketing emails. It carries the same loyalty quirk, points at the old grade, and one detail worth spelling out: win a suite through MoveUp and you keep the drinks package, Wi-Fi and onboard credit from your original All Included fare, and you gain the Retreat lounge and its restaurant. What you do not get is the premium drinks and premium Wi-Fi that a suite booked outright would have included, so you have the suite without its top tier extras. There is also a British catch. To bid on a Celebrity sailing your travel agent must be enrolled in the MoveUp programme, so a booking made through an agency that is not signed up simply cannot take part.
Norwegian: Upgrade Advantage
Norwegian calls its version Upgrade Advantage. Offers typically open a month or two out and are per person for the first two guests, and you can even put Latitudes loyalty points towards a bid. A won upgrade keeps your points, but not the bonus points that a suite booked outright would have earned.
Princess: the bid and the standby list
Princess runs a bidding scheme, the Princess Upgrade, along the same lines, and any extra guests in the cabin come up for free. Do not confuse it with the newer Princess Standby Program, which is a different thing entirely: a last minute waiting list for a cheap cabin rather than a bid to move up, and in any case offered only from American ports, so of little use to most passengers.
MSC, Holland America and Virgin Voyages
MSC runs MSC UpGrade, where your bid is per person, doubled for the second guest, and any third or fourth passenger is upgraded free. One thing to check: reports differ on whether an accepted bid into the Yacht Club brings the full Yacht Club experience, its butler, drinks and private areas, or only the cabin itself, so confirm with MSC before bidding up to it. Holland America runs the familiar Plusgrade bid by invitation. Virgin Voyages, the adults only newcomer, runs Level Upgrade, opening around six weeks out with a single amount per cabin, and it is one of the few to bill British sailors in pounds, with your existing perks carrying across unless you leap into its top RockStar suites.
Carnival and Disney: no true bidding
Two big names sit outside all this. Carnival does not run a competitive auction; instead it emails a fixed price upgrade offer that you either accept or decline, with no slider and no bidding. Disney does not offer bidding in any form. On Disney your only routes up are to pay the difference directly, book a guarantee cabin and hope, or catch an occasional discounted offer at the terminal.
Is it worth bidding?
For many passengers, yes, with clear eyes. You only pay if you win, you can offer on several grades at once and can win only one, and the price is often well below the fare difference. The risks are just as real, and most of them come down to control.
- You only pay if you win. A losing bid costs nothing, and you keep the cabin you booked.
- Often a genuine saving. A winning offer is frequently far below the published upgrade fare.
- Spread your chances. You can bid on several grades at once and will only ever be charged for one.
- You lose your cabin choice. A win puts you in any cabin of that grade, not the spot you picked for its location or quiet.
- It is final. Accepted bids are charged at once and are non refundable. There is no return to your old cabin.
- You gain the cabin, not its extras. Loyalty points usually accrue at your old grade, and while your existing perks carry over, you do not get the premium drinks or Wi-Fi bundled with the higher cabin when booked directly.
How to bid well
- Check the buy it now price first. Sometimes the line will sell you the upgrade outright for less than a strong bid. Compare before you offer.
- Ignore the strength meter. It shows your place on the price scale, not your odds. Decide what the cabin is worth to you and bid that, no more.
- Remember the doubling. On most lines the figure is per person, so a hundred pound bid is two hundred at checkout. MSC, Ambassador and Virgin charge per cabin.
- Mind the currency. Virgin bills UK guests in pounds, but the American lines may charge in dollars, so allow for your card’s exchange fee. The charge can show as Plusgrade on your statement.
- Weigh your location. If you chose your cabin for a reason, midship for motion or a quiet deck, a win could move you somewhere you like less.
- Weigh the bundled perks. A won suite earns points at your original grade and does not add the premium drinks or Wi-Fi that a direct booking would. Sometimes buying the cabin outright, perks and all, is the better value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually by email once your final balance is paid, anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of weeks before you sail. On several lines you can check your own eligibility with your booking reference rather than waiting for the email.
No. You are only charged if your offer is accepted. A losing bid costs nothing, and you keep the cabin you originally booked.
No. A winning bid moves you into some cabin of the grade you won, chosen by the line. If you booked a particular location for a reason, that is the main risk of bidding.
Usually yes. The perks attached to your original booking, such as a drinks package, Wi-Fi or onboard credit, stay with you when you win. What you do not gain are the premium perks bundled with the higher cabin when it is booked directly, so on Celebrity you keep your existing package but are not bumped up to the suite’s premium drinks and Wi-Fi.
It depends on the line. Celebrity requires your agent to be enrolled in MoveUp, P&O currently runs its scheme for direct bookings only, and some agencies switch bidding off on their bookings. If in doubt, ask your agent before you count on it.
Decide what a better cabin is honestly worth to you, then bid that and not a penny more. The slider is designed to tempt you upward, the win is final, and the cabin you booked was already fine. Treat a successful bid as a happy bonus, never as the plan.
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