C&A Member's Cruise, what are they?

[gkbiiii]

I was wondering if anyone had been on a Crown & Anchor Member's Cruise? How was this "special cruise", what did it include, etc.? Also, do they still give special land tours for Diamond and above?

 

 

I have seen them under the member section, but can find little about them online. :confused:

[voyager70]

Never been on one but assume there are quite a few little perks, after all they are quite a bit more expensive. Would love to hear details myself.

[cruzinlady1947]

We were on a member's cruise in Nov. 2012 on the Explorer. They aren't always expensive. We got a great deal for $399 pp + port charges, etc. for the 11 night cruise (inside cabin). That was after final payment, so kind of last minute. We did have a free excursion for D and above. They also had special gifts quite a few days that were delivered to your cabin. Special free classes, jewelry making and other craft classes. Special meeting with Leslie Stahl (from 60 Minutes) as a speaker. I can't think of what else right now. That was over a year ago, and my memory isn't that good at my age. But, you get the idea. Of course, with all the cutbacks lately, who knows what you'll get. It was a great cruise though.

 

Gwen :)

[BND]

We were on a member's cruise in Nov. 2012 on the Explorer. They aren't always expensive. We got a great deal for $399 pp + port charges, etc. for the 11 night cruise (inside cabin). That was after final payment, so kind of last minute. We did have a free excursion for D and above. They also had special gifts quite a few days that were delivered to your cabin. Special free classes, jewelry making and other craft classes. Special meeting with Leslie Stahl (from 60 Minutes) as a speaker. I can't think of what else right now. That was over a year ago, and my memory isn't that good at my age. But, you get the idea. Of course, with all the cutbacks lately, who knows what you'll get. It was a great cruise though.

 

Gwen :)

 

We were on that one too, but booked it before it was announced as a Member's cruise so our price was normal. Remember how the prices skyrocketed? It was insane.

 

We said we would never do another Member's cruise. We were in a GS and were Diamond, but didn't get some of the perks we would have normally gotten for being in a GS due to the high numbers of D+ and Pinnacles. Normally GS gets bridge tours and other things, but we didn't on this trip. It was a totally different suite and CL experience than we have ever had on EX or any other ship that we've had a GS on. That's not the only reason, but it just was just "different". I know we got a free excursion. We did the St Martin french side tour. It was just okay. We got the gifts and have used our wine charms a few times and take the shoe bags on cruises now. I can't really explain it and if I could search I could find what I posted at the time about it, but it wasn't our favorite cruise.

 

We didn't go see Leslie Stahl. It was pretty early in the am and she just doesn't interest us. Also, the jewelry and craft classes were hard to get.

Edited February 22, 2014 by BND

[Debde]

We were on one a long time ago and said never again.

Sorry-but to be bluntly honest-a somewhat large amount of people all trying to be heard and get the special attention they are 'entitled' to when most of the ship was filled with same loyalty cruisers was just to much. The I am ..whatever in the loyalty rank.... hear me roar did get a bit loud more then often!

Back then we got lots of free loot but could keep it all and the free excursion now-they can keep!!

[cruzinlady1947]

I think the reason we enjoyed our cruise so much was because we met up with several friends that we cruised with before. We booked kinda last minute and didn't know they were even on the cruise until we saw them. Some of them aren't on CC.

 

I didn't know what a member's cruise was until I booked it. My husband and I both enjoyed it. But, then again, we've never had a bad cruise. Seeing our friends only added to the pleasure. ;) All the other perks were just "icing on the cake".

 

Gwen :)

[franl24fan]

I was on the Legend Panama Canal Cruise last November, had booked very early so price was fine. Good thing because the cruise itself was worst I've ever been on, which had nothing to do with the Member Cruise.

 

As others stated, there are many more higher tier C&A folks, and yes many of them threw their status around. We did receive some nice gifts in our cabins each night, although having the Crown & Anchor logo made it difficult to regift unwanted items :-). There was also a free shore excursion, but that was kind of messed up. The possible choices for the free excursion were not announced until a month before sailing, so many of us had already booked shore excursions, but RCL did refund what we had paid so that was fine. What was funny was that the intent of C&A was to give the free excursions to the most senior tier folks first and work down until all the free excursions were filled. However, once they started making calls, folks on our cc thread posted the options and those of us at lower level called and were confirmed for the shore excursion we wanted. So then folks at Diamond Plus level were not able to book. When they were on the ship and found out that lowly Diamond level had the free excursion and they didn't, well you could hear the squawking back to Miami. I'm sure C&A learned to not allow lower tier folks to jump the line, although it was completely unintentional on my part.

[gkbiiii]

So what types of daily gifts were given and what different tours were offered? I was under the impression, that D+ & PINN got upgraded tours?

[gkbiiii]

How much higher priced are these cruises?

[cecelia0613]

So what types of daily gifts were given and what different tours were offered? I was under the impression, that D+ & PINN got upgraded tours?

 

LOL, lots of cheesy gifts in my opinion. We got a cooler/tote bag, luggage tags, golf towels, some sort of waterproof badge/money holder, beer bottle koozie, door magnet showing the date and member cruise info, member cruise crown and anchor lapel pin, and picture frame with the Legend of the Seas and date on it. The picture frame was the nicest of all the stuff. The rest of the stuff is in the back of my closet in a bag. Saw lots of folks wearing their lapel pins. Guess it made them feel important.

 

As for the free excursion for D, D+, and Pinnacle, RCCL made a mess of that process when they called some people and not others to ask what they wanted and then required everyone to stand in line to sign and pick up the tickets. There were a lot of angry people that day. We got what was left and probably should have just not taken the tour. It was a wasted day on a bus...

 

As for the Members Cruise itself, I did not purchase the cruise for this, rather because we wanted to do the Panama Canal from West Coast to East Coast. From what I saw on this Members Cruise, I will avoid them like the plague in the future. Too many people who think they are special and require non-stop coddling. DH and I rarely use the Diamond Lounge, not worried about getting a few free drinks. On this particular cruise I heard more people complaining that they went to the Diamond Lounge and the service was awful. Not sure what they expected, there were over 1200 D, D+, and Pinnacle C&A members onboard.

 

And, it didn't help that the ship had the Norovirus part-way through the cruise either.

[gkbiiii]

So the general conscious is not to go and that the free shore excursions are not worth the price of admission??

[Debde]

So the general conscious is not to go and that the free shore excursions are not worth the price of admission??

 

That would be my advice. Run, don't walk away from a members cruise!!;)

[PCWalton1]

Lots of cruise divas. :p

[FireStation46]

Good to know. I am just a lowly Gold level for a bit more anyway. Not excited to get cheap promotional items. Thanks for the heads up.

[katrina915]

Sounds like the idea is to find out when the members' cruise is and then book another ship. Maybe I can get seating for the shows then.

[gkbiiii]

I am glad for the advice, I had thought that they were full of lectures and other interesting events; like meeting the CEO/President etc. I looked at the website and thought the free Egypt tours looked cool, along with the Cartagena luncheon.

[Guest maddycat]

So the general conscious is not to go and that the free shore excursions are not worth the price of admission??

 

Exactly!!!!! We were on a members cruise a couple of years ago on the Explorer. We had booked the cruise before it was announced as a members cruise. We will never go on another members cruise. Too many "entitled" people on board. The member's events/parties were so over crowded that they were not comfortable. The special guest speaker was scheduled for 8:30 am on a port day. I would have loved to hear her but not at 8:30 in the morning and on a port day.

[BND]

So the general conscious is not to go and that the free shore excursions are not worth the price of admission??

 

You got it. But as I said above, we booked the cruise we wanted on the date we wanted and a couple of months later it was announced as the Member's cruise. Knowing what we know now, we would cancel and find another cruise even though it was a 11 or 12 night, I'd rather do a 7 night on a non-members cruise if my choice was a Member's cruise or not.

 

The prices were very, very high after it was announced. At one point, interior cabins were going for what suites usually do and our GS that we booked for 4500 or so was going for double that. No one on our roll call could figure out who would pay those prices. If you can find the roll call (getting really tired of not having thread search) you'll see what we mean. It was 04 Nov 2012.

Edited February 25, 2014 by BND

[finallyonboard]

I was also on the 11/2012 member's cruise. We also booked before it was announced as a member cruise. I would not pay member cruise rates, but I happened to be on one that was announced after it was booked I would look forward to it.

 

The beading classes were fun, if you like that sort of thing. I enjoyed meeting Leslie Stahl and hearing her speak. The only thing I did not enjoy was the diamond / diamond plus nightly event, as it was really packed, due to the high numbers onboard.

 

The gifts were just ok, but I appreciated them anyway.