Hi everyone
Just thought I should take a moment to explain how Carmen works and why you don't always achieve the same results even though you bid for the same things. Once Carmen starts running through the bid it looks at everyones bid and then makes lots of different bid runs based on your preference. Lets say for example that it runs 20 times, all of those rosters would contain some element of your preference but at the end it has to select the run that gets everyone closest to the target (Eurofleet is 65%, don't know about MF). So, even though bid run 5 may contain your dream roster, it may decide on run 11 because that has the best overall spread for everyone on the fleet. The more things you bid for, the bigger the variation possible in the bid runs and conversely if you only make one bid, then all the bid runs would have to contain that request. So if one day off is really important, then just bid for that one and leave the others to chance! If one destination is important, then only ask for that one! Ask for 5 trips and be prepared to get any 3 of them (but it may be the bottom 3). Hope that explains the system. It's not great but it is better than nothing in terms of having some control of your life! Happy to help with individual queries if you want to pm me!
Happy bidding
Ottergirl