I can also see royal phasing out diamond, or making it more difficult to becoming diamond status.
I enjoy having my apps and drinks in the lounge, and building a relationship with my server that I will see every day.
My next cruise will put me at diamond + and although I don’t spend too much time in the Lounge (more often it is a bit of an older crowd) it is something I look forward to.
The concierge as someone mentioned before is an awesome amenity to the lounge, having someone to book your show reservations, give you a tender 1 pass so you can be the first off the ship, etc saves a lot of time from waiting at the front desk - and you are assured you will receive the best service.
I haven’t been on any of the new ships recently, but I am interested in seeing the difference. We just cruised on the independence which has a beautiful diamond lounge with view and outside patio area.
For those of you who mentioned coffee in the lounge in the morning - this is also something I look forward to. Just a little FYI - On my recent cruise the coffee machine in the lounge was out of order. I asked the concierge about it and she gave us a punch card which allowed us to get lattes/coffees downstairs from the Starbucks free of charge. The out of order may have worked in our favor!
I took a break from cruising for a couple years and just came back, but I noticed royal is absolutely catering to suite guests more than their c&a guests these days. Suite only lounges, pool decks, etc. The suite areas also used to be accessible to Diamond members (special areas of the pool decks, reserved seating in the ice shows, pre-boarding to get on the boat) everything I noticed this past cruise was suite guests or pinnacle. Don’t get me wrong, pinnacle deserves it!
