How long did it take you to reach Platinum VIFP Status?

[Frank12]

First cruise was in 2004 and we hit Platinum under the "old system" in 2010.  We are at 132 days, 68 from Diamond.  

 

[evandbob]

Achieved platinum after 11 week long cruises in about 6 years.

 

Never thought I'd make Diamond, but a few B2B's and Journeys cruises got me there as well in another 6 year stretch.

 

Keep on cruisin'!!

Edited July 10, 2019 by evandbob

[amanda219]

Will hit platinum in just under 5yrs this September. 8 day on Freedom putting me @ 78 days. 1st cruise was Oct, 2014.

 

My husband hit platinum last Sept as he cruised several times before we got married. I'm looking forward to the extra free laundry when I turn platinum.

 

We have 2 booked after my Sept cruise, with one being the 15 day repo on Mardi Gras. There will probably be one more added for 2020.

 

Cruising has definitely turned into my hobby!

[Lee Cruiser]

It took us almost seven years.  The first three years we just did one 5-day cruise a year.  Then we started doing two cruises a year from 5-8 days and the last year we added a third cruise of 4 days to get there.  Our concern is that programs changes appear to be coming any time.  I feel certain that the amount of days to get to platinum will almost certainly be raised or the priority boarding status be changed to another new level with more days required.  Some feel there will be no grandfathering this time like there was last time.  Guess we will all have to wait and see.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Lee Cruiser

[zeroyankee]

Took our first cruise in 2007 and became Platinum 5 years later in 2012.  Then another five years to Diamond in 2017 on cruise #26.

Edited July 10, 2019 by zeroyankee

[2Shoes2Go]

My first cruise was in Oct., 2007, when we married. Went Platinum after 3 yrs, Oct, 2010. Three years later, Oct. 2013, made Diamond.

In between, we also cruised Royal and are Diamond Plus, over halfway to Pinnacle. We’re having fun! 😀

[Essiesmom]

First cruise in 1999, then not again until 2007.  But I made platinum with 10 cruises in 2009.  After I booked the Dream transAtlantic for 2009 I made a push to make platinum for that cruise to get the free laundry for the 16 day cruise.  I have 129 days now, with two cruises booked which will total 24 more days.  No big push for diamond, as I am also elite on Celebrity, three star on HAL, platinum on Princess and have three on MSC.  EM

[xDisconnections]

We reached Carnival Platinum within two years (Jun 2009 through May 2011) and Elite on Princess within two and a half years (Sept 2012 through Jan 2015). Cruises were a mix of short weekend getaways to longer multi-week transatlantics and the occasional Royal Caribbean cruise was thrown in at the time. It's a shame to let a currently lifetime status sit idle but it's there if I ever sail Carnival again.

 

Still only a Gold Member on Royal but my upcoming cruise on the Indy will push me to Platinum and my Allure Transatlantic will push me to Emerald. I'm sure I'll have Diamond relatively quickly now that I'm sailing Royal more frequently combined with my Princess cruises. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever reach Diamond on Carnival.

Edited July 10, 2019 by xDisconnections

[sanmarcosman]

28 years.

[RWolver672]

First cruise was in 1999.  We cruise every other year.  They were seven or eight day cruises.  We had a cruise planned for February of this year and were three days shy of becoming Platinum on that cruise so we took an extra five day cruise in 2017 so that we hit the mark on the February cruise.

Edited July 10, 2019 by RWolver672

[jc4me]

16 hours ago, CruisingViper said:

I've been gold for a year or so now. I'm just wondering how long it took others or what age they were when they got to platinum status, or even diamond. It seems so far away after the short distance between red and gold.

Our first cruise was 1994, but we didn't cruise again until 2003...our cruise in February 2020 will bring us up to platinum...unless they change the program before then.

[mdsgu]

I started cruising in 2001, and, after my cruise next week, I'll still be 2 days short of Platinum.  My wife has been cruising since 1997; she hit Platinum last year.

[cyntil8ing]

We started in 2008 under the old plan and were two cruises away at the deadline. After the switch, we were six cruises away! It put me off from booking Carnival, so we branched out to other lines, earning Elite on Celebrity. I am now at 70 points so will finally be platinum on my next cruise, whenever I decide to book it.

 

[ShakyBeef]

My first cruise (Carnival Inspiration) was in November 2005.  Since then I have cruised mostly Carnival, but also on other cruiselines.  I am currently Gold, with 66 VIFP points.  As it stands right now,  I'll be Platinum upon embarkation of my next cruise, a 10-Day BTB in January 2020.

[Doggielover68]

4 years from newbie to Platinum. 

[TVLady3]

I started cruising with Carnival back in 2000 on the Victory.

Going on the Sunrise 8 nighter next week, Finally going to be my Platinum cruise!

[Ahays00]

Started cruising 2012.  Two cruises coming up this year, will put me 23 days short of  platinum.  Took a short 2 year break from carnival and cruised ncl. No current plans of cruising next year yet🤔. We dont cruise exclusively and not carnival exclusively anymore. While I'd like to be platinum i cant seem to give up all my other travels for cruising only.  And the hubs is really only good for one 7 day cruise a year and maybe a 3 nighter. I'd be up for more. 

[Tapi]

I attained Platinum when 10 cruises were required. It didn't take me long (2-3 years). I used to live in Miami at the time so we used to take short, cheap weekend cruises frequently, and each one counted as 1 credit. 

 

Ironically, after I hit Platinum, I lost interest in sailing on Carnival, and started sailing on other cruise lines. So for the next 8 years I didn't set foot on a Carnival ship. I quickly learned that sometimes I'd be treated better as a first time cruiser on other cruise lines, than as Platinum on Carnival. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Tapi

[midwestman]

Good luck with it.  Carnival has changed the requirements to get to the next level once if not twice since 2009 when I started cruising, and they took away some benefits from the lower tiers.  I have earned and lost the past guest party 3 times with Carnival.  After the final time, I decided Carnival did not value my business and I went on several other cruise lines.  Don't be surprised if the number of days required changes again for the negative, and the benefits as well.

[patrice1]

6 years. Platinum after 10 cruises under the old system. We were at 9 cruises when they announced the change in the requirements and they said if you have a 10th cruise booked by a certain date, you would fall under the old rules, so we booked right away. Now that we're retired, we can only do one cruise a year and, living in Portugal, want to do European cruises, so we don't expect to be diamond anytime soon, but that's OK with us. We're now doing one cruise a year, hopefully on CCL because we love them, and multiple mini vacations by land - it's so cheap to travel here.

 

In November, we'll be on an MSC cruise because CCL isn't in Europe this year. Because we're platinum, we were given a status match to gold on MSC. We'll see how we like it. We're booking CCL again for 2020.

[xDisconnections]

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

I attained Platinum when 10 cruises were required. It didn't take me long (2-3 years). I used to live in Miami at the time so we used to take short, cheap weekend cruises frequently, and each one counted as 1 credit. 

 

Ironically, after I hit Platinum, I lost interest in sailing on Carnival, and started sailing on other cruise lines. So for the next 8 years I didn't set foot on a Carnival ship. I quickly learned that sometimes I'd be treated better as a first time cruiser on other cruise lines, than as Platinum on Carnival. 

Funny how similar your experience is to mine

[outdoors27]

On 7/9/2019 at 4:18 PM, beachbum6264 said:

It took me from 2004 - 2012. But I got in under the 'old plan'. Platinum used to be 10 cruises, I'm not sure exactly when it changed, but I got grandfathered in. I have a few more cruises than DH. He'll turn Platinum on our next Carnival cruise. We've taken several cruises on other lines too.

This is also how I got to Platinum, but our daughters 10 and 12 are hitting Platinum on day 3 of our cruise in two weeks. I was actually surprises but when I just printed out our boarding passes they were already listed as platinum. This was not the case three years ago when my wife hit platinum mid voyage, she came on the ship as gold and had to request a platinum card mid way through.. Happy cruising everyone.

[skyeman27]

The easy way,  10 cruises, took less than 3 years,  7 and  5  nights.  The 5 nighters when you could still get 3 ports out of Jacksonville . Love the Dream class ships...

[SNJCruisers]

First 3 cruises in 86, 91 & 93 did not count, so my next 10 from 94-09 qualified me for Platinum.  My 18th is in August, bringing me to 119 days.  Will never see Diamond, since I spread things around and like to sail on newer ships on various lines and there are lines such as Princess and Virgin that I have never sailed on.

[taylor1293]

Our first cruise was in 2006. We expect to be diamond in 2021. If we would have only sailed with Carnival, we would have reached that tier a few years ago. But we like trying other lines/ships.