orville99

9 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

If they (RCI) want to continue to sail from Tampa and Baltimore (and stop at smaller ports), they will need smaller ships.

Or they will continue to sail Celebrity out of those ports.

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

OH no....here comes those Pesky Pinnacles!!!  😵

And there goes the neighborhood!😱

4 hours ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

We do know, however, that RCG chose to not “amp” up the Celebrity fleet

They did however go through what they called ”The Celebrity Revolution” to update their non-edge ships to give them similar venues and ambiance. To me, that’s good “amping”😇

We haven't had to deal with this all that often, but if I remember correctly, if you cancel the points go back into your account.

12 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

If it's true that Royal is "encouraging" the non/low-profit folks to move over to Celebrity (and I think you're correct, BTW) how must that make the bean counters over at Celebrity feel ?  I'm sure they're not thrilled with the idea of the non-producers coming onto their balance sheets. Is Celebrity intended to be the sacrificial lamb ?

I can only speak from our personal experience with X, but the four cruises we currently have booked with them collectively have eight ports we have never visited, and will undoubtedly pull us into booking shore excursions on most if not all of them, thus generating incremental revenue for X. We haven't done a shore excursion on an RCL ship since February 2023 (and that one happened only because it was the first time we had been to the Panama Canal and were certain that we would never be back that way again).

We also always book suites, and suites on X are pricier (and much nicer) than RCL's offerings

We are also much more likely to partake in their specialty restaurants - which put RCL's mostly stale offerings to shame - more $$$ to X.

The real bottom line, however, is had RCG not taken this step, they would have effectively "fired" us, and all of our future cruise business would have gone to their competitors - a 100% loss of our business.

13 hours ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

Could be, but I tend to think of RCL upper management as being reactive rather than proactive.

 

Totally agree, and IMHO, this is a classic reactive response to a shifting target demographic. Had they been proactive, the changes would have happened shortly after they had all of the fleet sailing at capacity. 

As Jack Welch suggested, ~20% of your customers cost you more to service than the revenue they produce, ~60% are roughly break even, and the rest are where all of your profit originates. Welch's approach: Fire the bottom 20% (encourage them to look elsewhere), nurture the middle 60% to try to move them up to being profitable; and set your strategy to lock in the top 20%.

I believe RCL finally responded to the reality that D+ and Pins fall in the bottom 20% in that scenario, and the status match is their "encouragement to look elsewhere" without all of us leaving the family entirely.

On 6/9/2024 at 6:49 PM, workingboy said:

Hi all:

 

Sailing on a short cruise on the Navigator in November.  I haven't sailed on Royal for over 12 years.  (We are primarily on Celebrity)

 

Quick question - is there Breakfast available in Chops for Diamond plus members?  

 

Thanks in advance!!!

There used to be the opportunity to have breakfast in one of the restaurants adjacent to the WJ for D, D+ and Pin  pre covid, but that disappeared after the restart. Now it is reserved for just Pins and Suites.

56 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

Here’s a different hypothesis.  Remember in about Sept 2023 there was discussion the Celebrity and Royal Caribbean loyalty programs may be merged in the future.  If those rumors were true and the corporation really is thinking of combining the programs, a more comprehensive status match is a reasonable first step.  

If the status match doesn't have the desired effect of moving the cost-ineffective D+ and Pin folks over to Celebrity, then I could see that as a logical next step taken to keep from losing us all together to other lines. If, however, the status match meets their goals, the step you referenced may never be needed.

On 6/8/2024 at 12:23 PM, island lady said:

 

Exactly.  Conveniently keeping to ALL the restart cut backs since Covid.  😉  Though I really don't blame the officers for not sitting with us.  It always seemed forced for them, with so many other things to do than to listen to us whine.  😄 

DW came up with an interesting theory as to one other possible reason why the status match was created, and it makes the impact of the systemic cutbacks quite interesting. Those of us with long, loyal, and frequent cruise history on RCL not only remember what it was like "in the old days", but we tend to vocally reminisce about how much things have changed and lament how much they have gone downhill post shutdown. Her theory - they want us away from the newbies who don't know any better, so we don't cause them to think about looking elsewhere for their next cruise.👴😇

28 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Same.  And I don't recall seeing a "Wash & Fold promo" day.

24 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

I do recall - once - a LONG time ago - the room attendant telling us that it was not "laundry day" the day that I wanted our W&F to go out.  I really don't remember anything more about it but it did happen - once.  Hasn't happened since, and frankly, I don't recall ever hearing about a "laundry day" ever again.

There is usually one listed in the Cruise Compass around mid cruise, but we’ve never heard an announcement or received any written heads up other than that.

There has always been a laundry bag hanging in the closet when we board, and I don’t remember that being dated either.

1 minute ago, twincheryl said:

With the status match, it appears that D+ and Pinnacle get a free bag of laundry as they do on Celebrity... but the fine print says, "On 5+ night sailings only, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle Club members receive one free $34.99 bag of laundry on Wash & Fold Day. Only valid on the day of the ship’s Wash & Fold laundry promotion. Not valid for any pressing or dry-cleaning services."

 

On Celebrity, you can use your free bag any time - and our steward has often said not to use on the special price bag day as it often takes longer... does RCI hold you to that "Wash & Fold Day"?  

We have never had any issues sending the laundry on any day of a cruise. 

13 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

One of the reasons I dislike the 6/8 B2Bs.   We are still on for the two weeks, but the ship gets to be cheap on the six night leg.  😣

We tend to surround the 6 nighter with an 8 night before and after. Makes the typical 6 night crowd easier to deal with. 😇

7 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

And another pointy thing...this time with Adventure's name on it.  😉 😄 

Oh well, guess I need to build another shelf😄😇

1 minute ago, clochette said:

it seems that my app has not upgraded to the new tiers when I look at it it shows that the match to Celebrity from Diamond to pinnacle is all elite on celebrity so not showing the new matches, and there is no silver sea available.  Oh well Royal IT at its best.

Sounds like an outdated version of the app, or just a logoff/log  back in issue. Do you have the Celebrity app as well? If so, try that one instead (login is identical to the RCL app login). If all else fails, remove the RCL app and re-install it.

15 hours ago, island lady said:

We are on Adventure B2B end of Oct. 2025, picking up another freebie certificate on that one.

We get of of an Adventure B3B on 10/19 - pick up another freebie certificate on that one also.😇

14 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Aren't you already Pinnacle?  I imagine there is nothing they think they need to let you know about.  The sister companies have done that.

Think about it from a purely business perspective. Pinnacle benefits from the match increased substantially - from Elite to Zenith. Why would a company not want to let its most loyal customers know that? Had I not already been a Celebrity member, who was supposed to tell me that my cruise options just got better other than RCL. It's not a difficult concept.🙄

On 6/8/2024 at 12:31 PM, island lady said:

 

Ironically Viking has the bulk of our cruising money now...and they don't have a loyalty program.  Go figure.  😉 

Decided to move a B2B on Adventure out beyond April 2026 (when the next batch of itineraries comes out) and replace them with a B2B on Ascent for March 2026. 11night Panama Canal and ABC islands followed by a 10 night Southern to Tortola, Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts. Saved a few $$$$ to boot😅

1 hour ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Last time we had the full package we could not  get decent reservations and were stuck with the package, event thou there were some nights with no availability from 6:30-8:30 for dinner.

This situation is where the Crowne Lounge or Suite Concierge becomes your best friend. They usually can get past the "no availability" issue with a quick phone call to the restaurant.😇

12 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

P's  were restricted from Specialty Breakfast in Chops (unless of course in a suite).   They created a section on the top level of the MDR for Pinnacle breakfast. 

Same thing on our 28 night Panama Canal RT on Serenade last November - very Pin heavy cruise, breakfast was in the MDR, and they used the entire Viking Crown lounge as the Pinnacle lounge.

18 hours ago, ATG said:

Our next b2b is in suite guarantee rooms both legs.

Once they assign your suite numbers for both legs, you can do a mock booking to see if either suite is available on the other leg, and then call to have it switched. Sometimes you get lucky.

We are on a B3B in October where the first leg is in a different suite so we will do a RoyalUP bid for that leg. If we are going to have to move any way, we might as well try for a bigger suite on that leg.😇

On 6/8/2024 at 10:08 AM, nelblu said:

I'm on a 3-4 niter b2b on Utopia and wondering as a D+ (340+) if I get BOGO and wine on both segments.

Yes, you will, and you can make the reservations for your second leg BOGO while you are on board the first leg. On cruises less than 7 nights, you will only get one C&A amenity on each leg.

18 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

The only RCCL C & A exception is Pinnacle, which is recognized on the cruise on which it is reached.

True, new Pinnacles are recognized at the Top Tier party while on the cruise that gets them to 700 points, but even with Pinnacle, the on board benefits start on the next cruise.😇

15 hours ago, nelblu said:

Not sure that is an IT issue.  Do you get notified either from the Loyalty Ambassador or Concierge of your on-board benefits.  

Actually, we receive an email from the Suite Concierge about a week prior to every sailing letting us know what to expect and asking if there is anything they can do for us - even when we are on a B3B and the second and third Concierge emails arrive while we are on board. We also occasionally receive an email from the LA on those same cruises informing us that because of the high number of Pin and Suite guests we will not have access to the Suite Lounge.😇 😱🙄

49 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Wow! What ship was that?

I think they posted that it was the April 2024 Oasis TA😇

19 minutes ago, sjb317 said:

We received three emails from Royal, one from Celebrity and zero from Silverseas🤣

 

Sherri🙂

We received none, zero, nada, and that says everything about how well their outbound marketing works (Not).