GenghisQuan

How did you find the wait times for things like the waterslides, entertainment, or dining? Did you find that reservations were always necessary? Was there seating generally available for buffet/theater, or did you need to show up in advance of normal hours? In general, did you find that there was enough stuff on the ship, or was there a lot of waiting?

Also, do you have any menu photos?

2 hours ago, Tom47 said:

I am not an expert on this, but I will try.  The Azamara free nights perk is only for moving from 1 loyalty level to another with Celebrity Az cruises only.

In addition, you must have cruised with Az at least once in the last 2 years and 50% of Az/X total cruises must be with Az.  Go to their website for a better explanation.  If you have an Az/X account, your cruises are listed by cruise line.  I have 8 X, and 2 Az.  I need 2 more Az to be eligible.  Also, I must book within 1 year of moving to new level.  Very complicated!!

I suggest you go to Az  website if you think that you are eligible.

53 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

Other cruise lines are irrelevant. It is purely the breakdown between X and Az cruises because they are the cruises that accumulate the loyalty points. 3 X, 1 Az = no deal - 2 X, 2 Az = deal (regarding the complimentary nights when you change loyalty levels).

 

To Tom47 - I think it is cruised with Azamars within the last 3 years not 2 BTW.

Ah, so it's just that out of your combined Az/X cruises, 50% or more have to be with Az. That makes a lot more sense. Wasn't very clear from the terms and conditions.

On 5/12/2019 at 11:09 AM, terry&mike said:

We always have 2 to 4 of the tiny bottles of liquor in our carry on in our plastic 3-1-1 baggie when traveling. When we were going through security in China for an internal flight, a guy took my little bottles of booze and kept saying "no alcohol". In trying to argue logic to him, I pointed out my hand spritzer of alcohol spray that he did not take and that it was "100% alcohol". He kept on holding my little bottles saying "no alcohol" but showed no interested in the hand spray. Finally, I left him with my booze and went on and boarded. Hope he enjoyed the vodka and scotch. 

A lot of places have rules against drinking your own alcohol on the flights. In the US, at least, it's against FAA regulations for you to drink alcohol on the plane that has not been served to you by the carrier (whether or not you successfully got away with it is a different story). AFAIK the only exception is JetBlue, and even with them you must still present them the alcohol so they can pour it to you.

Not sure if you need this still, but there's no dress code for temples/shrines in China beyond "please keep the naughty bits contained". They're chill like that.

Amex tends to be somewhat more limited compared to Mastercard and Visa.

Most "large" Chinese places (that is, owned by multinational corps) will accept credit cards. Smaller places will take cash. I do believe WeChat has the ability to link a non-Chinese bank so that you can use WePay that way.

On 6/1/2019 at 2:00 AM, SteveH2508 said:

Re Azamara - the 50% cruises with them refers to cruises on Azamara and Celebrity as their loyalty programmes are linked.

 

Azamara basic booze package (included in the fare) is all of the time - not just mealtimes - there are some wines included at mealtimes as well.

Sure, but how do they know how many cruises you've been on with other companies? Or does that 50% refer to something else?

Like, if I went on like 100 cruises with Carnival before switching over to the Celebrity/Azamara family, how do they know whether the Celeb/Azamara comprise 50% of my cruising?

To a point, loyalty programs aren't really worth sticking to a cruise line if it doesn't have the itinerary you want.

Still, it does make the experience a little better if you have a choice of several lines in the destination you're going to anyways.

8 minutes ago, johnnylincoln said:

I can’t edit the file.

 

I was awarded Black status from my Hilton Honours account. 

 

I applied roughly 3pm yesterday and got my match email this afternoon. 

Oh nice.

The spreadsheet saves automatically, I see your entry there. I should probably make a note of that. Can anyone point me to the location of the edit button? I know it exists but just can't find it for some reason.

Also, how do I request a mod to sticky a thread? Think there's enough data points here for it to be moderately useful.

It probably does bear mentioning someplace that keeping status with MSC requires a cruise with them within 36 months, rather than lifetime the way a lot of other lines have it.

Just found out from my thread on MSC status match that they will also give you the points in addition to the status, thus unlike the status match from a lot of other sources (cruise, hotels, flights, etc), getting matched on MSC also bringing you closer to the highest tier Black status.

Gives you a bunch more stuff, but still no laundry package, so YMMV regarding how desirable this is.

On a sidenote, which one of y'all submitted their Marriott/SPG Platinum and only got Silver? There were a couple of other folks in a different thread who noted that they got Gold for Gold, sounds like you got robbed 😝

On 3/27/2019 at 6:01 AM, Best Cat Mom said:

SS - My husband doesn't use his accounts since mine are higher. But Amex Plat granted him SPG Gold (and Hilton something too) and MSC took it -- guess they don't care if you have any points in the account you use to match.

On 3/27/2019 at 3:38 AM, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

I matched my Marriott Gold Elite to MSC Gold.  Most of our reward programs are in my name, so I don't know if they'll match my wife too.  Carnival Gold hopefully would at least match her to tier 2.

Hi there, would y'all mind sharing when the match took place? Trying to consolidate all the various status match equivalencies for my document here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19GS-jpDkoAsPFpIoKqQ8Mxj9-sXOJLqe0Ygfyzz1AwI/edit#gid=0

I also have a thread about all the different status match equivalencies in this subforum as well.

1 hour ago, EllaDuChien said:

 

I was matched to Gold.  Given 4300 points. 

Well that's interesting. So in addition to the match, they also give you the corresponding points towards the next level of status? Because most status match/grant programs will only give the status but not the points/nights/flights/etc. Auto Marriott Gold from the Bonvoy Brilliant Amex, for example, does not also give you the 25 nights that you ordinarily would accrue to make it to Gold normally. As I understand, the Royal/Celebrity/Azamara match also doesn't include the points, only the status.

The excursions are overpriced, yes. Might potentially be worth it in developing countries, but completely unnecessary for Hawaii or Alaska.

Regarding the "nickel and diming" for food, it's just a matter of the food being noticeably lower quality compared to other mass market lines like Carnival, whether that's ingredients, variety of items at the buffet, how quickly places close, sophistication of cooking technique and presentation, as well as an observation that far too much space is devoted to different venues that are all too small to fit everyone who might want to eat there, and the theory that this is meant to push people to reserve spaces at for-fee restaurants.

Not so much charging you for standard things, as providing you substandard things so as to drive you to spend money on above-standard things.

To what extent is PoA not an accurate representation of NCL in general?

So, wife and I took our honey moon on the NCL Pride of America, and the main thing we notice is that at least where dining is concerned, the "Freestyle Dining" is anything but, and the variety of restaurants (with very little space in each of them) seem more designed to push passengers towards paying extra for the specialty restaurants. Dining venue times were stacked awkwardly, and the buffet is also limited in variety.

Oh, also the whole "no bringing water on board, and no you're not allowed to fill water bottles from the buffet or the gym" nonsense, which you know is nonsense because no one enforced it ever.

The spa massages was also extremely unsatisfying. We got a sampler, and it was not so much a massage as a series of gentle caresses, like they didn't want to give you anything so you'll spend money on something that's actually on the menu.

Full review here https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=582398

Thanks all,

Just updating to note that the Chevy...some kind of small car was sufficient for all our needs.

TBH...I think maintaining situational awareness is sufficient to do the trick.

Went with my fam and our friends on a Med cruise also, spent about a week in Venice, Florence, and Rome beforehand. We're Chinese, so it's not like we're going to be able to somehow convince whatever local pickpockets that we weren't tourists. Didn't have any secret purses or money belts, did have a bag that I wore slung to the side. Didn't get any pickpockets.

One of the other families who traveled with us, on the other hand, got tagged like multiple times.

In short in matters of travel, through air and sea or on the land, I am the very model of a modern Asian tourist man

If you're a guy (or can wear guy pants), 5.11 makes these tactical pants that have a kind of secret pocket along where the knees are.

https://www.511tactical.com/covert-khaki-pants.html

45 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

My final comment on this topic:

 

$100K on PAST cruises (as would be the cost without the comp and which a regular premium/luxury cruiser would spend anyway).

 

But, on a line with the comps (e.g., Oceania), it means $20-30k less spent on the FUTURE comp cruise. The savings are "after the fact" and reduce my future cruise expenditures by $20-$30k each time I use a comp.

 

Now, if I had no intention of a future cruise, I would not realize ultimate savings. But, that's not the case and is why your argument doesn't apply to regular cruisers on a line with comp cruises.

 

 

That's not how accounting works.

You cannot deduct future savings against past spend, period. Regardless of whether you are a regular cruiser on a line with comp cruises.

$1 on past hotdogs, and a $1 savings on a future hotdog, how much have you spent on hotdogs, and what did each hotdog cost?

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Yes.

 

The $20k cash I surely would have spent buying cruise "#21" (which I would have purchased even If there was no Oceania complimentary cruise perk) went directly Into my future travel account where it will pay for yet another cruise (on Oceania or any other premium/luxury line).

 

What your concrete thinking seems to neglect is the recognition that, for some regular cruisers (e.g., those of us doing three or more cruises per year- every year), cruise purchases are an annual budgeted expenditure (e.g., instead of a mortgage on yet another vacation home, etc).

 

And, in any year where one of those annual budgeted cruises is complimentary, that annual budget enjoys a significant savings, which amounts to real cash - unallocated and available to spend on whatever.

 

 

Eh?

You buy 1 hotdog for $1 and received another one for free. Did $1 somehow revert back to your bank account?

Regardless of how you budget, the fact that you spent 100K did not change.

12 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Sorry bud but your math is still fuzzy. However, since it appears that you may be a "concrete thinker," let's stop saying "free"

and use the term "complimentary" instead.

 

Using the original $100k example: On Oceania, you can spend LESS than $100k for the required multiple cruises (BTW, my $100k example was for a balcony)  whether or not there is a "complimentary" cruise at the end. The cost of the qualifying cruises is the cost of those cruises for everyone. So, the comp cruise is no EXTRA cost to you. period!

 

Also BTW, the complimentary cruise on Oceania can be far more expensive than $20,000 (that was just the Aussie/NZ example I used). It's ANY itinerary for 14 days in the same cabin category as you most often book. With certain itineraries, that could be worth $30k. (Note that you can also pick a longer cruise and higher cabin category as long as you pay the differential).

 

Of course, I expect you to disagree. But, that doesn't change reality: Again, the cost of each cruise is its regular cost. After 20 credits, you are offered an additional cruise at no added cruise cost IF YOU WANT IT.  And if you've done 20 credits worth of Oceania cruises, it's a good bet that you will take the comp cruise and then do another 20.

No amount of quotation marks and assertions of "reality" changes what is actually reality.

Did 20K dollars make it into your bank account? No? Then you spent 100K, not 80K. Complimentary cruises are essentially buy-X-get-1 deals. We are all familiar with the buy-1-get-1 offered by most retail and grocery stores. Does the fact that you got a free item of equal value mean that you enjoyed two for free? Of course not.

Of course, you can spend what amounts to 2250/per person for an inside cabin to the Caribbean (includes the O-Life benefit for some free excursions). Take this 20 times to get that free cruise, valued at 30K. Congratulations, you have paid 45K for 21 cruises. Your actual retroactive savings is about 9.5%, keeping in mind this is comparing the cheapest possible way of getting this benefit to the most high-value way of cashing in this benefit. Actual savings will be much less, since I doubt you will want all 20 of your cruises to be going to the same place.

You cannot compare the "free cruise" option unless you have a measurement of how frequently you can use it.

Most if not all of the "free cruise" benefits are only earned after cruising so many days/times, meaning it's not really free, you're still paying money to use it, it just makes all your preceding cruises a little cheaper.

For example, on Crystal, you get a free cruise every 25 cruise credits (generally 1 credit per cruise, although longer ones count for more). On Oceania, you get one every 20. In my thread regarding loyalty programs, it was pointed out that it can take 100K per passenger to get to that level (if you book the cheapest room all these times), and then redeemed at up to 20K.

You cannot treat this number as a straight deduction on your prior costs.

Rather, you must consider it as previously, you spent 95K for 19 cruises, and now you spent 100K for 21.

Hoping to create some kind of central location for people who have successfully status matched, feel free to update with your experience. Please try to keep it in order so that it's easy to find.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19GS-jpDkoAsPFpIoKqQ8Mxj9-sXOJLqe0Ygfyzz1AwI/edit?usp=sharing

Column 1 is the place you have your non-MSC status, Column 2 is the level of that status, Column 3 is the MSC status that was matched to.

As I understand

Hilton Diamond = Gold

Marriott Gold = Silver

Anyone matched from IHG Platinum who can shed some light on what that matches to?

Thanks.

13 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Aussie wine fan? Since their best stuff seldom leaves the country, where do you shop for wine when you sail out of Sydney?

I don't? Like I said, I'm more of a distilled spirits person, either bourbon, scotch, or baijiu neat for an evening drink. If I'm feeling festive, I'll get me the fanciest fruitiest frilliest cocktail the bartender can devise. Wine is more to pair with meals.

To be fair to O, it does appear that O has more benefits earned at a flatter rate compared to other luxury lines like Crystal and Regent (not to mention Regent costs twice as much per person and it seems like they're only suites).

It does bear mentioning that due to status reciprocity, Celebrity matches one to one with Azamara, while Royal Diamond (80 days) allows you to match to Discover, which will still get you a free bag of laundry, priority check-in, and 90 mins of Internet (in case you have emails that just have to be replied to). Thus a decent strategy in terms of efficiency for people just starting out might simply be to accrue 80 nights on Royal for Diamond status back when they're still young-ish and the kids haven't moved out yet (thus deriving utils from the "amusement park" aspect), so as to match to Azamara Discover and Celebrity Elite and enjoy those perks once the kids move out and it's time to start sampling the mid-higher end of the market.

(I tend to place a premium on the laundry package as that has an effect on packing. Whether or not I get an extra cocktail is somewhat inconsequential compared to not having to spend as much time and effort deciding which clothes to bring)

I also notice that while Azamara does not give free cruises, instead it gives "complimentary nights" which I'm given to understand equates to knocking X% off the cost of a future cruise rather than giving you a free one outright. It does also state that you must have sailed with them in the past 3 years, and also with them for at least 50% of past voyages, although I have on idea how they know which cruises you've been on in the past. Perhaps they have sails reps trawling these forums for users with their past cruises in their signature line? Anyone sail with them and can shed further light on just how this works?

Also bears mentioning that Azamara appears to have gratuities included as well as certain types of alcohol at mealtime.

Never mind NorCal Dungeness, British Columbia is where it's at. As for wines…not much for reds, but Australia, NZ, and the Pacific Northwest blows Napa out of the water. Am more of a bourbon and baijiu man myself.

As far as which mass market lines give free cruises at regular intervals…Royal, Norwegian, and Celebrity (insofar as that's a "mass market line") all do. But that's neither here nor there, as the free cruise simply isn't the offset that it was claimed to be.

No one said O or any other luxury line wasn't good, mind. The quibble is merely in just how much extra value and utils they bring to the table for the extra cost.

1. And what is the cost of the air credit? Value of any credit must only be counted against the actual cost of not having the credit. An air credit of $800 does not count as having saved me $800 if it only costs $400 to fly there.

2. As for the OLife benefits, it is quite clear that they are not the automatic deductions that you were portraying them as. There are a host of limitations to them. If you were to take an O Alaska cruise, you cannot use these credits for most of the more desirable excursions, so what good are they, exactly? Unlimited alcohol? So, a glass of wine at lunch and dinner plus a cocktail and an evening drink. 80 drinks over the course of the cruise is about 8-900, sure. Subtract 400 for the cost of the 20 per person per night and we're back at a 400 savings, might as well take the OBC which is more flexible.

3. Fair enough. Is there a schedule? Or shall we simply say -125 per person?

4. Relevancy? A benefit available from others at various lines simply means that this benefit isn't really a factor that raises one above the other.

5. So, you take the 14-day cruise for free, and you still must take another 19 cruises!? Each of which will cost you another 2000 (per person) to take another cruise? How on Earth is that a good deal?
 

6. I know my food, thanks, and food critics were never meant to be an authoritative source on anything, merely a consultative one to determine whether you personally might enjoy a particular food item. Your spiny lobster in a pasta with a garlic and tomato based sauce with oregano and red chili pepper flakes is, well, just that, spiny lobster in a pasta with a garlic and tomato based sauce with oregano and red chili pepper flakes. How is their 松鼠桂鱼? Or failing that, a chirashi spread that used to be alive just that morning? 닭강정 just out of the fryer? Let's get more down to earth: do they have a smoked brisket similar to that which can be found at the Salt Lick, Dripping Springs, TX? How about chicken and waffles? Shrimp and grits? Maryland-style crab cakes? If you made their food for a local of the place where that food comes from, what would their reaction be?

Moreover, if you didn't want us to consider the Internet package as a factor, maybe don't talk it up so much as one of many obvious reasons why O is the obvious choice for anyone and everyone? I am also curious that you would raise the Disneyland Anaheim as your example, rather than the much bigger one in Orlando. And also ignore the existence of Six Flags, or Cedar Point, for that matter.

And the math isn't fuzzy at all. It's actually quite simple. Do you have a for-fee credit card? Because I do. It costs 450/year. I have it because we generally visit Napa at least once or twice per year, and this card gives me a $300 credit with Marriott and also a free night certificate, which put together, means I get the other benefits of the card (Priority Pass, Marriott status, Global Entry credit) for the same amount of spend that I would have incurred anyway. But the $300 credit and the free night does not mean I got to live in a hotel for free.

Similarly, you paid 100K for the ability to take a free cruise and another one every 20 nights. In no way does the free cruise offset the amount you already spent moving up to that level, any more than winning $100 at slots offsets the $500 you put into the machine prior to that point.

As for the comparison...it does not become useless merely because you say it does. "Worlds apart"? Again, by what objective criteria? Because the objective criteria you have stated do not sound nearly enough to offset the costs, and the subjective ones are...well, highly subjective, to say the least.

Not sure how much utils you put in fine sheets and stewards who remember your name, but I doubt most consider this worth an extra $500 per person.

On 5/18/2019 at 11:38 AM, bonsai3s said:

To the OP...GenghisQuan,

Following your quest...genuinely interested because we once shared your quest.  You stated you are working professionals without kids (yet)...how much vacation do you get?  This was one of our limitations when we were much younger...we had very little time off. (The other was of course money).  In our younger years, we only cruised once a year.

...

I hope this helps you in some way.....we will follow this thread and hope to learn more.  Thank you.

 

I get 10, she gets 20, so total of 10 XD.

To a point, the easiest way of getting some kind of status (starting from 0) is probably getting the Hilton card that gives you Hilton Diamond, then status matching it with MSC, last I heard it was matching to Gold. Gets you a fruit basket, a 1 hour session in the thermal area, free photo, priority tendering, and some other minor stuff. Not much, but probably the one with the least investment involved.

Various other card-based ones (Marriott Gold and IHG Platinum, for example) were matching to Silver, I think.

There is of course no real purpose in taking cruises (or doing anything) specifically to earn status. For those of us who aren't traveling consultants, all these perks do is add a bit of icing on the delicious vacation cake.

With that in mind, the somewhat derided mass market lines like Carnival and Royal actually do have a pretty good structure in the sense that rewards are relatively flat, and just the returning status gets you a little something even if it's something like a $2 bottle of water, and for both it's 75/80 days to a pretty good status.

A couple of things that must be pointed out with the Oceania comparisons:

1. It is not accurate to say that airfare is included. More that you can pay a certain amount above the base cruise-only fare, and this will include airfare. It is not readily apparent what additional terms and conditions there might be on the flight. However it is also not always the case that this is actually cheaper than booking a flight on your own. The cruises to Alaska or around the Mediterannean, for example, at best reach parity with what you can get by flying on your own.

2. OLife - please explain a bit more regarding what this actually is, as the language on the Oceania site suggests this is a promo (albeit one that seems to be frequently running). Is this always available? Only on certain cruises? Do you need to specifically go through an agent to get it? Also, it is important to note this is for the entire cabin, so in order to compare apples to apples we must halve the value of this when comparing prices on a per passenger basis.
    2a. Booze package savings - this one is limited to House Select, which is only champagne, wine, and beer with lunch and dinner, so no evening whiskey neats, nor afternoon cocktails. Also, the actual value of this should be the amount you normally drink per day times the number of days, rather than the straight-up cost of the beverage package. Plus, the other person in the cabin also has to pick this one, which makes it not worth it in cases where I can comfortable pull 4-5 drinks on a good day while my SO is squarely at 1-2.
    2b. Free tours - many tours are excluded. If you are in Juneau, you cannot use this to redeem for any of the whale watching or dog sledding tours (https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Alaska-cruises/seattle-to-vancouver-REG190619/). The Caribbean ones are a bit more worth it (https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Caribbean-cruises/miami-to-miami-RVA191125/?sr=%2Fspecial-offers%2Folife-choice%2F), although there's still some that will be excluded as well.
    2c. Straight-up shipboard credit - several hundred dollars (am seeing 400 for a 7-day, 600 for a 10-day, and 1400 for a 31-day), but again you must half this amount if you are using per passenger comparisons, and it knocks off about 20-30 per customer per day.
    
3. How much OBC do they actually give you at each level?

4. Free gratuities knock 16/person/day off of the extra spend. You get this at Silver, which is...10 cruise credits (is the impression I get from Flatbush's first post, as I can't actually find the number thresholds on O's website). However, this is also often available as a benefit from various third party sites, and also sometimes from the cruise line itself as a promo.

5. How frequently do you get your free cruise? Once per year? After you redeem, what must you do to get your next cruise?

6. The "qualitative" measures are...questionable. Superior food? Lobster every night is a nice-to-have, not a must have; both the missus and I have had our share of cuisine, yet a lobster night for one week is sufficient for us, we've never felt the need to visit any of the specialty restaurants, and there's little additional utils to be derived from a couple hundred per person just to enjoy this alone. Internet? I go on cruises to unplug, and the ports will have wifi if I actually do need to post some social media or if I need my daily dose of memes. Meanwhile, there is much to be said in favor of the "amusement park", especially for couples who do not currently have children but plan on doing so.

I mean, let's compare https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Caribbean-cruises/miami-to-miami-RVA191125/:

The airfare is roughly +750/guest, while flights to Miami are much less (about 450 from CA, much less if you're flying out of closer places like Houston or Des Moines).

Which O-Life perk you choose...kind of depends on what you want to do. Let's peg it at $150/excursion, since that appears to be the higher end of non-Select excursions. Times 6 excursions, that is a savings of 900, better than the other two, but on a per passenger basis that's 450 worth of savings.

Assuming you book a guaranteed inside, you're still paying a base fare of 1800/person, it's just that you've saved 450 worth of shore excursions per person (I'm assuming both you and your SO will be wanting to do the same thing together). Being that there's 6 actual exotic ports (who cares about Key West, amirite?), there's still 3 ports that you'll have to pay yourself, so using previous rate of 150/excursion, +450

Total of 2250/person.

Now, let's grab any number of these: https://cs.*****/cs/forms/CruiseResultPage.aspx?skin=1&phone=888-333-3116&pin=&did=1&len=9|15&nr=y&sort=6&mon=11%2F1%2F2020&vid=566%2C568%2C613%2C712%2C636%2C638&dt=11%2F30%2F2020&pg=1

That Royal Caribbean one that's also 10 days and leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale sounds perfect for comprison.

750/person to start for that same guaranteed inside cabin. You'll be paying your own excursions though, so +900 = 1650.

Our actual difference is 2250 - 1650 = 600, so an extra 60/day. Not as bad as the 100/day, but still not a number that comes after the word "only" (I would consider 10-20 per day to fall under the "only" category, and the longer the cruise the closer that number goes to 10).

We might also consider the Celebrity Reflection, 940 + 900 = 1840, still an extra 40/day. A bit closer, but still not "only". This one currently has a promotion for free gratuities, which further drags the distance.

This trip leaves you 1/20 of the way to O Platinum and 1/10 of the way to Silver. A comparable trip on RCI leaves you 1/70 of the way to Pinnacle, but 1/3 to Platinum (priority departure lounge) and 1/8 to Diamond. Pretty far from Celebrity Zenith, but 1/15 of the way to Elite (priority tender, free bag of laundry).

Finally, it is also important to consider that the dollar amount of perks and benefits do not offset the costs you spent to earn that benefit.

If it cost you 100K to reach O Platinum, that you got a free cruise valued at 20K does not mean you spent 80K on 20 cruises and got a cruise for free, it means that you spent 100K for 21 cruises. This average drops the more free cruises you take, of course, thus the million dollar question in this regard is how frequently are you allowed to use this benefit?

Ugh, crapbaskets, lost a massive post because for some reason ctrl+clicking the pages to look at something refreshes the page rather than opens in a new tab.

Of course, different people like different things. For both my wife and myself, we're very much the kind of travelers for whom "experiences" like fine sheets and lobster every night are nice-to-haves, rather than must-haves, therefore the marginal utils from these experiences aren't necessarily worth the marginal costs associated with getting them (also, free airfare does not appear to always be included). And of course, going out of your way to spend just to acquire perks is stupid. But we like cruising anyway, and we're likely to go on one at least every year or two, so we might as well stay loyal when practical such that the experience is improved for us about ten or so years down the road.

There's also factors like cruise frequency or length. We're very much working professionals who don't yet have kids, therefore it doesn't make much sense for us to drop 4-5K on a Oceania weeklong cruise multiple times just to have to save up another 4-5K to take another cruise to actually enjoy the perks. Reviewing the RCI/O comparison, an extra 100/person/day isn't exactly a negligible amount; a lot of boozing or touring can be done for that extra spend.

Basically, my metric is mainly the ease by which it is to earn a status that gives you some kind of tangible perk (as opposed to some vague "reduced member rate" that may not be better than what some cruise booking aggregate site gives you, or a discount on a drinks/photo package that you may not use). Princess gives you some status for a return cruise, for example, but all that gives you is some onboard event and some collectible stamps; it takes Platinum (6 cruises or 51 days) to actually get something useful (internet package). Similarly, on HAL, it takes 4-star (200 days) to actually get something good (although 4-Star is pretty close to Princess Elite). Oceania's site is a bit frustratingly low on details on how you actually get to the statuses, but at minimum Silver appears to be where perks start actually being worth more than just a discount on merch or advance notice of itineraries.

Then I also thought that the requirements to reach a high tier status should also be considered, so we can also consider how long it takes to get some combination of laundry, priority boarding/departure, Internet, drinks, etc. On the other end, from Oceania, Carnival is just a straight-up 75 nights to get priority embarkation/debarkation and also some free laundry and drinks, which is about 11-12 weekong Caribbean cruises for about 9K of spend on cabin fares.

So really, the question is centered along ease of earning status, and also by type of perk:

1. How hard is it to earn some kind of useful perk.

2. How hard is it to reach a "high end" status level (VIFP Platinum, Royal Caribbean Diamond, HAL 4-Star, etc)