Musing about cruise loyalty programs vs airline and hotel programs

[Bazzi]

I have just sailed Golden Princess SYD MEL and as a first time Platinum. Absolutely no recognition of status. I enjoy being disconnected so could care less about the free wifi. Speaking with some other Plats and they had similar experience. No Captain's coughtail party rather a coughtail at a reduced rate (has steadily increased from $5 to $8.50) and some repetitive canapés each afternoon in the nightclub - I had no idea this was on as did another Plat. The main gripe seemed to be that a lot of blue cards were appearing at the coughtail hour and it wasn't being monitored.

This was my third princess cruise and the previous two cruises I received a comp bottle of wine to the value of around $35 I think it was. Would much prefer this perk than having to pay a reduced price for a coughtail.

It would be nice if you could choose your preferred benefit rather than a one size fits all approach.

 

[amp-qld]

We just (yesterday) disembarked from our first Diamond level cruise with RCI. There's definitely a big jump in benefits compared to Emerald. However, there already seem to be small erosions of the benefits. The Top Tier event no longer has finger food and you'd have to be quick to get more than one drink. New Diamond members we've met before got $5 gambling chits for the casino but that didn't happen. We actually had to ask for some of our benefits that should have been automatic. However, we'll miss the benefits when we go on HAL for the first time in a few weeks. We too go first for the itinerary so we've been on seven different lines and, apart from RCI (and matching lines) our loyalty levels tend to be low so far.

 

[woodyren]

Just got off the same ship. Explorer of the Seas I presume. Fantastic experience again in the diamond lounge. Unlimited drinks from the reasonable menu, finger food in the lounge was also Ok (not that anyone needs more food) 2 days of Internet each, a bag of laundry and a bottle of wine and a Corona in the cabin waiting for us on arrival. We didn't attend the welcome back party as the drinks and food are always better in the lounge. All things being close to equal it is these great benefits that keep us coming back to the one company on most occasions. We try to do land travels for itinerary where possible and Royal or Celebrity ships can take us to many places with Royals prices as cheap as most comparable lines.