Card being swiped for every round of drinks in Diamond lounge

[normannna]

Apologies if I've missed this topic being discussed before.  Just back from Oasis Med cruise and each time we ordered drinks in the Diamond Lounge our card was swiped.  So if my husband ordered 2 drinks for us his card was swiped for each round of drinks.  We, and others asked about the reason for this and we were told that it was for inventory reasons.  I wondered if this was to clamp down on interlopers maybe or some other reason as well - as they've not needed to swipe cards for inventory reasons before now.  The waiter said this has been going on for around 4 months now.  

[Clarea]

This was reported from Majesty months (maybe more than a year)  ago.  Same inventory reason.

[h20skibum]

That was the same thing they said on our Indy cruise from Southampton.  However, they only did it the first night and the first drink.  After that, they knew us and knew what our drinks were. 

 

It it was nice, because they brought our drinks as we came in each night. 

[TYMAN]

Last week on the Mariner they were writing cabin numbers down on a piece of paper in the DL. It didn't affect the three drinks loaded on our seapass since we were able to get wine in the dining room. No biggie to me. 

[Big_G]

I would think they would periodically need to get an idea how much inventory they push out in the lounges so they can charge the plebs more at the bars. 😲😀

[cruisegirl1]

Seems to be happening on a few ships. On Mariner it seemed to be in the DL only, unless the Suite Lounge servers knew the number and recorded it behind the scenes. I don’t understand why it is an issue. 

 

M

[twangster]

Happy Hour drinks are paid for by the Crown and Anchor Society.  It's an internal allocation of costs to their budget center.  I can see how they would want to audit and validate the numbers from time to time.

[normannna]

10 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Seems to be happening on a few ships. On Mariner it seemed to be in the DL only, unless the Suite Lounge servers knew the number and recorded it behind the scenes. I don’t understand why it is an issue. 

 

M

I didn't say it was an issue

[Joseph2017China]

Many people get into the lounges with other guests that do not belong there.  The employees need to keep track of this, and on some ships, it's just too much.  Like everything that is good, when abused, the ships will adapt.  If this means that our perk remains than I have no issue with the swipes.

[Cruiser_1977]

This has zero effect on me directly as I have zero status on any cruise line. However, as someone who has operated/managed several small businesses I think it should be done every time. The waste/abuse I've witnessed just on my most recent two trips has been astounding.

 

I realize that most passengers come from a place of I paid XYZ for this trip and I should be entitled to ABC. With that in mind, it still amazes me how often folks attempt to circumvent rules and policies due to this mindset. It would never occur to me to try to get free drink(s) in the Diamond Lounge if I wasn't Diamond. Why other non Diamonds think that's acceptable is beyond my comprehension.

[johnjen]

just watch your charges. I bought DW a coffee card on our last cruise, she got a punch but also asked to swipe her card each time. First two coffee drinks? We got charged. I called about it and they said come to Guest Services. Was miffed I had to stand in line 25 minutes to re-explain and re-dispute the charges....they ADDED two free coffee drinks as an apology for our inconvenience. Being nice helps!

[island lady]

I would not have a problem with that at all either.  I am actually happy to hear they are doing it.  Stating "inventory" reasons is probably just an excuse to ward off the interlopers indeed.  Seems a pretty PC way to do it. 🙂  

[3CatsInMA]

Swiping cards on Adventure this week too.

[gerif]

Purely speculative but maybe trying to see how many people spend the entire happy hour guzzling as many drinks as possible. Wouldn’t be surprised if they started putting a limit on number of drinks allowed. 

[lovesthebeach2]

7 hours ago, TYMAN said:

Last week on the Mariner they were writing cabin numbers down on a piece of paper in the DL. It didn't affect the three drinks loaded on our seapass since we were able to get wine in the dining room. No biggie to me. 

 

On on cruise they had a list of the room numbers with diamond members and we had to say our stateroom when we walked in. Once they got to know us all that stopped. 

[lovesthebeach2]

5 hours ago, JennyB1977 said:

This has zero effect on me directly as I have zero status on any cruise line. However, as someone who has operated/managed several small businesses I think it should be done every time. The waste/abuse I've witnessed just on my most recent two trips has been astounding.

 

I realize that most passengers come from a place of I paid XYZ for this trip and I should be entitled to ABC. With that in mind, it still amazes me how often folks attempt to circumvent rules and policies due to this mindset. It would never occur to me to try to get free drink(s) in the Diamond Lounge if I wasn't Diamond. Why other non Diamonds think that's acceptable is beyond my comprehension.

 

That mindset doesn’t only happen on cruises. 

[taglovestocruise]

35 minutes ago, gerif said:

Purely speculative but maybe trying to see how many people spend the entire happy hour guzzling as many drinks as possible. Wouldn’t be surprised if they started putting a limit on number of drinks allowed. 

When we were on the Symphony TA a bartender told me they were anticipating close to 75,000 drinks being served over 12 nights, and another 10,000 bottles of water. I saw a lot of people walking out with many bottles of water. Every night Dazzles, Jazz on 4, the Attic and the DL was fully packed for happy hour and they checked every sea pass card when you walked in. There were over 3000 Diamond and above onboard. 

[Extra Kim]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

 

On on cruise they had a list of the room numbers with diamond members and we had to say our stateroom when we walked in. Once they got to know us all that stopped. 

Why not just show the card?

[karena1]

Never has happened to us.  Just off Navigator and they never even asked for our cards

[taglovestocruise]

21 minutes ago, Extra Kim said:

Why not just show the card?

Because some people share a card like they share drink packages, some even bring a old Diamond card that is borrowed from someone at home. As you walk in the host only looks to see if Diamond is printed on the card, not who the card belongs to. 

[lovesthebeach2]

27 minutes ago, Extra Kim said:

Why not just show the card?

I don’t know why they were doing it that way. 

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Because some people share a card like they share drink packages, some even bring a old Diamond card that is borrowed from someone at home. As you walk in the host only looks to see if Diamond is printed on the card, not who the card belongs to. 

 

I think situations similar to this are one of the reasons they have recently changed the design of the SeaPass card, and the sailing date is more prominently displayed now.

[little britain]

10 hours ago, normannna said:

Apologies if I've missed this topic being discussed before.  Just back from Oasis Med cruise and each time we ordered drinks in the Diamond Lounge our card was swiped.  So if my husband ordered 2 drinks for us his card was swiped for each round of drinks.  We, and others asked about the reason for this and we were told that it was for inventory reasons.  I wondered if this was to clamp down on interlopers maybe or some other reason as well - as they've not needed to swipe cards for inventory reasons before now.  The waiter said this has been going on for around 4 months now.  

Do you know if your cruise was particularly busy with Diamonds?  It doesn’t seem from the (lack of) Roll call activity that  these Med Oasis cruises are full of frequent cruisers? 

[normannna]

5 hours ago, little britain said:

Do you know if your cruise was particularly busy with Diamonds?  It doesn’t seem from the (lack of) Roll call activity that  these Med Oasis cruises are full of frequent cruisers? 

 

It was refreshingly not busy although as we were traveling with non status members we didn't spend too much time in there.  There was a reception on the heli deck and they mentioned there were only 8 pinnacle and 48 diamond plus on board - can't remember number of diamonds.

[Extra Kim]

9 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Because some people share a card like they share drink packages, some even bring a old Diamond card that is borrowed from someone at home. As you walk in the host only looks to see if Diamond is printed on the card, not who the card belongs to. 

I guess that if you borrow a card from a D, you could know their cabin nr too...

Swipe the card like when get on/off the ship and problem is solved.

 

But I have never been in the DL since we are at 74 points right now and won't get to 80 nts until September (& then we still won't get our status change until the next cruise in December).