New Diamond Benefits-a report

[twirlgirl]

Just off the Mariner and OP's description was quite complete. Everyone was quite polite but disapointed in the treatment of Diamond members. We had early seating so we only saw half of the people. No one ordered a drink that they paid for of any kind. We all missed the hot snacks. Trail mix didn't cut it. We were on board in June and they should have just continued with the overflow lounge. Wish they would use the 9th Hole. Breakfast was great. Someone even toasted my muffins and served us. Hardly anyone in the Melodies Room. We did not get any information in our cabin the 1st day telling us where or what time the diamond events would be held. Took a guess and landed in the correct place. Stopped by the front desk and recieved a sheet with all the information including breakfast. No one that evening had recived any in formation. Only a few had recieved that informational sheet though out the week. I Talked with our Crown and Anchor hostess and told her this lack of comunication did not help the transition of removing our benifits. General thoughts of everyone was Why couldn't RCCL just have had the overflow lounge for Diamonds and leave the drinks and appetizers? We have the winners on ships without CL lounges so that is nice. As for ice tickets, when we were on the cruise in June CL told us no more tickets as people don't us the, Reserved area suites at ice show and Main shows. Bev

[centurycruiser]

Just back from LoS sailing Sept 12. The DL was [I][U]really[/U][/I] busy each night, almost constantly from 5-8:30. The CL was [U][I]really[/I][/U] slow the two nights we stopped in. The DL was the place to meet people.

The conceirge told me there were 190 D and 58 D+ on board. I did not inquire how many of those may have been in suites.

We got an invitation to the CL, but, did not get a card to get in. We stopped by one day and spoke to the concierge and she gave us one.

The DL offered the same as it did before Sept 1.

[twirlgirl]

You could have all the wine you wanted but one glass at a time. didn't think people usually had two at once. Just off Mariner and there wasn't any problem. Again no one ordered anything they had to pay. Waiter came around without you having to look for thedm. they did a great job.

[seatraveler1]

The Diamond Event on Majesty was fantastic several weeks ago when we were on it as it never had any type of event like that in the past and it was a welcome addition! The bar tenders were extremely nice and service was exceptional with bringing you another drink before you had time to finish your current one. They held it in the [B]NEW non-smoking Viking Crown lounge![/B] :D(You can tell we are non-smokers)

The bar manager attended every evening and I can say that he was the friendliest bar manager we have ever come in contact with. I know there are issues with the new diamond changes September 1 with some people, but this was definitely a plus for this ship!

[catnt2]

[quote name='seatraveler1']T [B]NEW non-smoking Viking Crown lounge![/B] :D![/QUOTE]

Now that is GOOD NEWS!!!

[critterchick]

[quote name='twirlgirl']You could have all the wine you wanted but one glass at a time. didn't think people usually had two at once. Just off Mariner and there wasn't any problem. Again no one ordered anything they had to pay. Waiter came around without you having to look for thedm. they did a great job.[/quote]

The post leading to the query implied that they were allowed one glass of wine, period, not that they weren't allowed to be two-fisted drinkers...:rolleyes:

[heatherb1958]

I have been wondering about this but not seen any comments . I am assuming that those who wish to purchase a G&T or any other liquor at a 25% discount after added gratuity may now take their drinks with them after the 8/8.30pm watershed without using devious tactics:rolleyes:;):D

[sas80]

[quote name='HeavySurf']If the new Diamond evening cocktail event is anything like the OP described, RCI will save a lot of money, because hardly anyone will bother to go. And I don't really see much advantage in the Diamond continental breakfast if there is no concierge there to help with ice show tickets, etc. Also if there is no espresso/cappuccino machine, one might as well go directly to the Windjammer where there is a much larger selection of food.

The OP speaks of Mariner. I wonder how things are going for Diamond level members on Freedom Class ships. I do appreciate the OP giving us a report of how things went on a Voyager Class ship.[/quote]

I just got off the Freedom and am a Diamond memeber. Things are "as usual" for the concierge lounge in the evening. No changes.

We didn't use any other CL amenity.

[mediator]

[quote name='silentbob007']I think most ships have done away with tickets and have the shows on a first-come, first-serve basis.[/quote]

On the August 30th, sailing on the Freedom, no ice tickets were needed.
When I went back on the September 13th sailing on Freedom, tickets were once again needed. However, for Diamond members... we were told to use our "key" to the lounge as an ice ticket. Who knows by the next cruise what it will be.

[seatraveler1]

[quote name='catnt2']Now that is GOOD NEWS!!![/quote]

The bar manager Wilson told me that Majesty was the first ship that they were trying this on, so I wouldn't expect it immediately on any other ship, but I hope so!:D

[sailingtakemeaway]

I was on Enchantment the first and second week of the changes. The D Lounge was in the Champaign Lounge which was nice because you could sit and listen to music and watch what was going on. The first night, the area was roped off as if to be on display with those retractable type ropes. The food was a bit fancy for our taste since we would be attending dinner but we made a suggestion of cheese and crackers and they were made available the next night on. Wine and champaign were available at not charge and no limit. Mixed drinks were discounted and even though it stated that soda would also be charged they were given free. I suspect that if I requested a beer (not bottled) it would have also be provided. Another suggestion was to loose the ropes. Towards the end of the second leg of the B2B, they had replace some of it with the on board art to make an area and on the last evening I overheard the hotel director and his staff looking at bringing in plants to enhance the lounge. All in all we liked the experience on the Enchantment and have no compaints. Actually the CL was so hot (tempeture wise) I wouldn't want to stay in there anyway.

[SherriZ366]

[quote name='seatraveler1']The bar manager Wilson told me that Majesty was the first ship that they were trying this on, so I wouldn't expect it immediately on any other ship, but I hope so!:D[/QUOTE] Hope they put this in Monarch. Sounds nice. We are only 4 1/2 hours from Port C.

[critterchick]

[quote name='seatraveler1']The bar manager Wilson told me that Majesty was the first ship that they were trying this on, so I wouldn't expect it immediately on any other ship, but I hope so!:D[/quote]

I thought that it was supposed to have been implemented fleetwide on all of the ships w/o a CL on September 1.

[mjyanne]

[quote name='seatraveler1']The Diamond Event on Majesty was fantastic several weeks ago when we were on it as it never had any type of event like that in the past and it was a welcome addition! The bar tenders were extremely nice and service was exceptional with bringing you another drink before you had time to finish your current one. They held it in the [B]NEW non-smoking Viking Crown lounge![/B] :D(You can tell we are non-smokers)

The bar manager attended every evening and I can say that he was the friendliest bar manager we have ever come in contact with. I know there are issues with the new diamond changes September 1 with some people, but this was definitely a plus for this ship![/quote]

Amazing how things very from week to week. We sailed Majesty 9/14 - 9/18. Went to the lounge the first night. There were about 20 - 30 people in the roped off Diamond area. DW had a glass of White Zin (which she drinks so no problem for her. The canapes were brought around ONCE. I asked for a Barcardi with Diet Coke and a twist of lemon. A different waiter from the one who took the order brought a glass that was clear liquid. I told him whatever it was wasn't what I ordered. He told the gentleman who took my order and he came over and told me he thought I said Barcardi NO COKE. I told him just to add a little Diet Coke and a lemon twist. Not a bad drink for $5. Just before 6pm the wait staff made one more round for drinks.

We saw no mingling at all (nor was there any room the way it was roped off). Needless to say we didn't go back.

BTW, did you know that when sailing in the coastal waters off Florida that TAX is added to your bill for any purchases made onboard?

[cruisingnewyorkers]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Does anyone have any information about the Serenade as we are sailing next week? What room, what time and what was offered? It's a 14 night cruise.

Hi Tobi and Phil from the Freedom and Bob from the Brilliance

donna[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[IWORK2CRUISE]

[quote name='HeavySurf']If the new Diamond evening cocktail event is anything like the OP described, RCI will save a lot of money, because hardly anyone will bother to go. And I don't really see much advantage in the Diamond continental breakfast if there is no concierge there to help with ice show tickets, etc. Also if there is no espresso/cappuccino machine, one might as well go directly to the Windjammer where there is a much larger selection of food.

The OP speaks of Mariner. I wonder how things are going for Diamond level members on Freedom Class ships. I do appreciate the OP giving us a report of how things went on a Voyager Class ship.[/quote]
Since the Freedom class ships have designated Diamond Lounges there is not a comparison.
We sail on the Jewel next month and will experience the new Diamond cocktail hour(s)
Since we mainly drink beer we will check out the 25% discount but it won't be quite the same as enjoying a couple of complimentary beverages each evening.
Too bad that early reports seem to indicate that we won't have hors d'oeuvres and canapes either.
Oh well.........Times have changed and we will adapt.

[molly361]

[quote name='mjyanne']Amazing how things very from week to week. We sailed Majesty 9/14 - 9/18. Went to the lounge the first night. There were about 20 - 30 people in the roped off Diamond area. DW had a glass of White Zin (which she drinks so no problem for her. The canapes were brought around ONCE. I asked for a Barcardi with Diet Coke and a twist of lemon. A different waiter from the one who took the order brought a glass that was clear liquid. I told him whatever it was wasn't what I ordered. He told the gentleman who took my order and he came over and told me he thought I said Barcardi NO COKE. I told him just to add a little Diet Coke and a lemon twist. Not a bad drink for $5. Just before 6pm the wait staff made one more round for drinks.

We saw no mingling at all (nor was there any room the way it was roped off). Needless to say we didn't go back.

BTW, did you know that when sailing in the coastal waters off Florida that TAX is added to your bill for any purchases made onboard?[/quote]

We were on the same sailing - Same story. We went back on the 4th night and ordered 2 drinks and when the check came it was not 25% off. It was some odd % like 12% or so. The difference was only around $1 so I should not even have brought it up but it took quite an ordeal to have it corrected. I don't know if the bill on the first night was incorrect as well, as DH is not so great at checking it and we don't keep all the receipts. Hopefully it is corrected by now.

[seatraveler1]

[quote name='critterchick']I thought that it was supposed to have been implemented fleetwide on all of the ships w/o a CL on September 1.[/quote]

I apologize for the confusion, the comment was about the [B]new non-smoking Viking Crown Lounge[/B] being tried first on Majesty, and it wasn't about the new Diamond Event that started on every ship September 1 without a diamond lounge or CL.

[quote name='mjyanne']Amazing how things very from week to week. We sailed Majesty 9/14 - 9/18. Went to the lounge the first night. There were about 20 - 30 people in the roped off Diamond area. DW had a glass of White Zin (which she drinks so no problem for her. The canapes were brought around ONCE. I asked for a Barcardi with Diet Coke and a twist of lemon. A different waiter from the one who took the order brought a glass that was clear liquid. I told him whatever it was wasn't what I ordered. He told the gentleman who took my order and he came over and told me he thought I said Barcardi NO COKE. I told him just to add a little Diet Coke and a lemon twist. Not a bad drink for $5. Just before 6pm the wait staff made one more round for drinks.

We saw no mingling at all (nor was there any room the way it was roped off). Needless to say we didn't go back.

BTW, did you know that when sailing in the coastal waters off Florida that TAX is added to your bill for any purchases made onboard?[/quote]

We were just getting off of the ship on September 14 after a B2B, they told us that the bar staff can get moved around every cruise, so maybe they just had a change. We had Ali (India), Edbi (Peru) and Clorina (India) and they were very nice and good at their job.

If you're outside of Florida jurisdiction (The state indicates a 14 mile limit as opposed to 12 miles, but who really knows!) then there is no tax. Did you buy your drink right after sail away within the limit? I agree with you about the mingling part, the Viking Crown doesn't give you the best venue for mingling with others since most chairs are of two unless you move them around like we did.

[English Rose]

I am having my first 'Diamond' cruise on 24 October on the Liberty of the Seas. What do I get for being 'Diamond'? I've tried to read through all the posts and am a little confused. Do we get free drinks and where? What are the real benefits of being Diamond these days? Thanks.

[skyking]

[quote name='English Rose']I am having my first 'Diamond' cruise on 24 October on the Liberty of the Seas. What do I get for being 'Diamond'? I've tried to read through all the posts and am a little confused. Do we get free drinks and where? What are the real benefits of being Diamond these days? Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Dont worry you will be fine...Liberty has a Diamond Lounge up in Viking Crown Lounge. You will have the normal happy hour hour's ( umm ya that looks weird) So being Diamond on Freedom class ships still works:) Have fun!

[crischickie]

[quote name='Mokaheena']DH and I are going to branch out and try other lines. There is little to keep our loyalty to this line anymore, and I am looking forward to trying lines that have a more classy reputation, less children, and better food. I do not mind RCCL, in fact, I have thoroughly enjoyed cruising with them. However, there are other lines offering other things. I feel I may have outgrown this line, and they are not doing anything to seek out my business.[/quote]

I believe you will not find a loyalty program that offers as much as RCI (except for the new additions to Celebrity). Everyone is cutting back to control costs. Carnival even eliminated their ship pins from all except their platinum members on longer cruises. How much do they cost?

[quote name='truffles2']We are just back from the first Freedom cruise since the new policy went into effect. Diamond plus members were only allowed in the Diamond Lounge--not in the Concierge Lounge. Someone had posted earlier before we left that C&A told them "diamond plus members could go wherever they wanted". Not so. I asked Willie if that was fleet wide or on a ship-by-ship basis and he said fleet wide. [/quote]

We just sailed on the Liberty oS on Sept 12 and I can tell you that if they did this on the Freedom, it is not a fleet wide policy. When we arrived in our state room, we had a welcome letter telling us we had access to both the DL and CL. We had a card for the DL but none for the CL. We had made arrangement to meet friends in the CL one evening. They were suite guests but not frequent cruisers. We stopped by the CL one morning and Anthea gave us a card to access the CL. No problem. No harm, no foul.

The DL was much more active, more people, more discussions. Afterward DH and I commented about how many people we met and talked to on the cruise. We would meet them at lunch, or just walking around the ship, or even in port. It was great!

We were in the CL two evenings for brief periods and the most we saw there were around 12 people. DL was definitely the place to be. And, that is one thing that the cocktail hours on RCI offer that no other cruise line offers. The opportunity to meet friendly people who obviously have a common love to cruise. That is the high point of the happy hours, not the cocktails, although they do grease the skids.

The CL concierge has to be the biggest loser in the change. Tips have to be way, way down. Imagine what their threads look like.

[quote name='bikn4fn']Is there somebody or somewhere that provides access to ice show tickets? When Diamonds had access to the DL, you could "reserve" ice show tickets. Has this gone the wayside with the rest of the cutbacks?[/quote]

No tickets were required for the ice shows on the Liberty oS. No one checking Sea Passes. One of the cruise staff told me to get there early or I wouldn't get a seat. I arrived about 15 minutes before the performance and the "arena" was about 2/3 full. It did fill up, but, there were still scattered seats here and there.

[quote name='skandls']Thanks for the report. We live on the west coast and like being able to drive to port. When we heard the Mariner was to be home ported in Los Angeles we were very happy. We enjoyed using the CL lounge. Now that that perk has been taken away we are looking at other cruise lines. We are even doing a 4 night on Carnival vs. a 5 on the Radiance during Halloween week.

We sailed on a holiday week (never again), and we were assigned to dinner in that little off-shoot room. It definitely felt like sitting at the kids' table. Because of that awful seating assignment, we have decided never again to use traditional dining. We might end up with a bad table once or twice in the course of a week, but at least we won't be stuck there every night of the cruise!

We accumulated most of our 16 credits in 5 years. Even though we also went on other cruise lines. We now have very little reason to sail on RCI unless we fly to Florida and take one of the Freedom or Oasis class ships. And I am wondering if the Diamond lounge on those ships will have cheaper liquor and fewer appetizers.

I do not like bad wine or champagne even if it is free. So we will not be taking our one, two or three trips per year on the Mariner.[/quote]

We've been assigned those "off-shoot" rooms on both Princess and HAL and really enjoyed them. They tended to be less crowded--tables not so close to each other--and the noise from conversations and dishes and tableware clanking around was diminished. We could [I]actually[/I] hear our table mates. We thought we were assigned to the "children's room" because we were frequent cruisers!

I am not sure of your reasoning about going out of Florida? It is fare less expensive to buy drinks than fly coast to coast.

[quote name='MrsPete']This is rather off-topic, but that Melodies room is a really awful little room. Low-ceilinged and crowded, it lacks all the grandeur or the main dining room. In this small room, the dining tables, chairs, and curtains look tacky instead of formal.

I suppose my larger point is that I can't imagine anyone thinking that breakfast in this room would be anything special. It's more of an insult. I'd much rather sit in the main dining room.[/quote]

This is offered as an alternative to the continental breakfast in the CL so, compare it to the CL rather than the MDR. I am not sure I understand the attitudes displayed sometimes. Maybe some people look for ways to be insulted?

[catnt2]

[quote name='cruisingnewyorkers'][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Hi Tobi and Phil from the Freedom and Bob from the Brilliance

donna[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Hey, Donna......How are you? Going on the Serenade...who 14 nights, sounds great!

Been on any Member Cruises lately???

[destiny217]

Comment to post #89:
BTW, we just got off Carnival cruise out of Baltimore and they added a Maryland State tax of 6% on our alcoholic drinks for many hours. Not sure when they stopped adding the tax.

[Dick in Falls Church]

Just off Radiance, 14 day Vancouver to San Diego.
The DL was in the Stargate, 13th floor. Before first seating, there were maybe 50 folks, fewer after 6. Chardonnay, merlot, something pink and a cabernet. As I looked around, I had to wonder if all these folks would be sitting at home before dinner, drinking a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck or equivalent, if it weren't free. There was no limit--two waiters (usually) circulated and brought refills. My wife and I ordered real drinks, and the waiter was quick to see us enter. Snacks? Peanuts and/or tortilla chips.

Met some nice folks, and had a good time. Even had a couple of glasses of chardonnay over the two weeks.

The private dining room for breakfasts was lightly attended--don't think a lot of Diamonds were even aware it was there. Was staffed by a couple of very competent and friendly waiters. Much more pleasant than the Windjammer. Met more folks at the regular dining breakfast.

[bmazzo]

[quote name='mjyanne']Amazing how things very from week to week. We sailed Majesty 9/14 - 9/18. Went to the lounge the first night. There were about 20 - 30 people in the roped off Diamond area. DW had a glass of White Zin (which she drinks so no problem for her. The canapes were brought around ONCE. I asked for a Barcardi with Diet Coke and a twist of lemon. A different waiter from the one who took the order brought a glass that was clear liquid. I told him whatever it was wasn't what I ordered. He told the gentleman who took my order and he came over and told me he thought I said Barcardi NO COKE. I told him just to add a little Diet Coke and a lemon twist. Not a bad drink for $5. Just before 6pm the wait staff made one more round for drinks.

We saw no mingling at all (nor was there any room the way it was roped off). Needless to say we didn't go back.

BTW, did you know that when sailing in the coastal waters off Florida that TAX is added to your bill for any purchases made onboard?[/quote]

You should have gone back. We were on the 2 [EMAIL="B@B"]B@B[/EMAIL] cruises fefore you, The first night on Sept. 7th. there were only about 10 of us, by Thursday night thee were about 45 of us. We had a good time. Several of us stayed on for the Sep. 11 cruise and that was well attended also. We enjoyed it very much. The best thing is on the Majesty the Diaamond hour is happening most nights during sail away. Nice touch. We'll attend regurlarly in the future.