Woo Hoo... Pinnacle now equals Zenith on Celebrity

[Starry Eyes]

12 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Interesting observation.  We are also E+ and D+ and miles away from P or Z.  One reason is that we have been splitting cruises between the two lines.  Although chasing one of these next levels is not really a priority for us, it now makes sense for loyalty members in this situation to focus on one line for awhile and get to P or Z.  Then get an automatic Loyalty match.  

For those who prioritize chasing loyalty levels, it always would have made sense to concentrate on one line.  Others just pick the cruise that works best for them and let loyalty benefits come as they will.  Some fall somewhere in between.

[TeeRick]

8 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

For those who prioritize chasing loyalty levels, it always would have made sense to concentrate on one line.  Others just pick the cruise that works best for them and let loyalty benefits come as they will.  Some fall somewhere in between.

There are many (not us) that get on the treadmill chasing Z or P.  We generally sail in suites so we are not really helped by making one of these levels at all.  But those chasing now have a strategy to concentrate their efforts.  We are E+ with 1040 pts on Celebrity so about 2000 pts away from Z!  That is quite the steep treadmill!  Same for our D+ reaching P.  

Edited June 2 by TeeRick

[nelblu]

19 hours ago, orville99 said:

With Royal targeting young families and millennials, us Pins are getting in the way of their prime revenue generator. 

Most of the Pins that I have encountered and sat at the MDR or other events were/are big Casino players who also have accumulated nights from earned free cruises.  If many as you suggested move over to X that will impact Royal's bottom line even though it may be neutral on the overall company.  I don't see many young families and to some extents Millennials gambling enough in the Casinos to offset any exodus.

 

Ps.  I hope as a shareholder we don't have a Budweiser scenario that by targeting a new segment and ignoring loyal customers.

[cruise wizard]

We started with our first Royal cruise in 1996 - loved the product and stuck with them.........but now with the direction of floating amusements parks at sea and emphasis on young families......they just don't fit our "older lifestyle". Junior suites and balcony cabins were our choices - suites on Celebrity are just too pricey (2X and more $) for what you get. We will sail in the SV cabins on "X" and purchase dining packages and save a lot $$$$. We enjoy the Celebrity experience (were E+) for my wife and I - will continue to book Royal for family gatherings because of the grand children. So we are still "Loyal to the Royal family".

[cruise wizard]

5 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Most of the Pins that I have encountered and sat at the MDR or other events were/are big Casino players who also have accumulated nights from earned free cruises.  If many as you suggested move over to X that will impact Royal's bottom line even though it may be neutral on the overall company.  I don't see many young families and to some extents Millennials gambling enough in the Casinos to offset any exodus.

 

Ps.  I hope as a shareholder we don't have a Budweiser scenario that by targeting a new segment and ignoring loyal customers.

 

It will be interesting to see what actually transpires. Casino smokers won't be happy with the smoke-free Casino's on "X". Pinnacles & D+ moving over to "X" will open up more cabins on the floating amusement parks for newer cruisers that will be buying shore excursions, souvenirs, photos, drink and dining packages. The newest ships are selling out a huge price increases and now the newest will be doing 3 & 4 days in the Bahamas & Coco Cay.

 

I think that this is a win-win for the RCCL company..........switching the "Golden Age" folks over to Celebrity (maintaining their loyal customers) while opening up space for the newer generation of cruisers. 

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, cruise wizard said:

We started with our first Royal cruise in 1996 - loved the product and stuck with them.........but now with the direction of floating amusements parks at sea and emphasis on young families......they just don't fit our "older lifestyle". Junior suites and balcony cabins were our choices - suites on Celebrity are just too pricey (2X and more $) for what you get. We will sail in the SV cabins on "X" and purchase dining packages and save a lot $$$$. We enjoy the Celebrity experience (were E+) for my wife and I - will continue to book Royal for family gatherings because of the grand children. So we are still "Loyal to the Royal family".

We have booked Crown Loft suites on Oasis -class ships on RCCL.  They are on deck 17 which is quiet and away from the hustle and bustle with great access to CK and the SL.  Coupled with our D+ we do not need a drink package at all.  And we use our BOGO for specialty dining in addition to CK.  We have found this to be a pretty good, less expensive alternative to the Retreat on Celebrity.

[Tlbecker1]

On 6/1/2024 at 3:40 AM, nelblu said:

I'm not going anywhere until they X institutes a "Solo Supplement" policy and the drink allowance benefits.

 

By the way, I don't want to research, but does X have the same gifts as offered by the C&A. eg..  water, wine allowances, bogo, etc. 

No, you don’t receive water or wine, BOGO, etc.  We have received flowers in our room each time.

[orville99]

2 hours ago, nelblu said:

Most of the Pins that I have encountered and sat at the MDR or other events were/are big Casino players who also have accumulated nights from earned free cruises.  If many as you suggested move over to X that will impact Royal's bottom line even though it may be neutral on the overall company.

As long as the same smokescreen metrics are used to "comp" high rollers, where the casino is located is probably  not consequential to the parent company's bottom line. In our experience, those casino folks rarely did anything outside of the casino that would generate any sustainable revenue stream. I'm sure X's casino would welcome taking their $$🤑

[cruise wizard]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

We have booked Crown Loft suites on Oasis -class ships on RCCL.  They are on deck 17 which is quiet and away from the hustle and bustle with great access to CK and the SL.  Coupled with our D+ we do not need a drink package at all.  And we use our BOGO for specialty dining in addition to CK.  We have found this to be a pretty good, less expensive alternative to the Retreat on Celebrity.

 

We visited one of our friends in their CL - beautiful cabin, location and space. They are out of our budget for sure. Our prime locations are on the aft - Royal has some good ones on the older ships but the new ones are Aqua Suites and a budget buster. We have enjoyed the SV and SC cabins on "X" - lower noise levels from the hallways and larger balconies...........not a fan of the "non-balcony" balcony on the Edge class.

 

Neither my wife or I drink alcohol, so both RC and "X" aren't losing money on us!!!!

[ladysail2]

Are all Pinnacles being converted to Zenith…regardless of # of points?  Thanks!

[not-enough-cruising]

8 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

Are all Pinnacles being converted to Zenith…regardless of # of points?  Thanks!

Granted Zenith is more appropriate than converted, but yes

 

[ladysail2]

5 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Granted Zenith is more appropriate than converted, but yes

 

Sorry…’granted’ Zenith status…will everyone receive an email to that effect?  I have sailed on X, so they should have my email..it hasn’t changed.

[not-enough-cruising]

1 minute ago, ladysail2 said:

Sorry…’granted’ Zenith status…will everyone receive an email to that effect?  I have sailed on X, so they should have my email..it hasn’t changed.

I have not received any communications, but my Status on X just automatically upgraded from Elite to Elite plus 

[ILCTCRUISER]

23 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Totally agree with your observations my friend.  🙂 

Agree as well.  Those who have a longer cruise history are often D+ or P on RCL (though we do know there are some very young people who’ve reached those levels).  Consider if you will a lot of comments that have appeared on CC regarding pricing, diminished or MIA perks, etc.  Many, and this applies to us as D+, have started to question whether or not is pays to be loyal to RCL and have started to explore other cruise lines.  And one has to believe the powers that be at RCG recognize this. They don’t want to lose our business; they’re just doing something in the hope we spend our money elsewhere in the group—X or SS.  We know that so many of our cruises have been on RCL.  It started out as a perceived value thing and then there was the loyalty program hook.   Have three RCL cruises booked between now and mid-January 2025.   None of them are on any of the Amusement Park of the Seas ships.

[ILCTCRUISER]

@cruise wizard  I entered my post and THEN read your posts.  If I had I would have saved a couple of minutes of my time as you hit the nail on the head.  Interesting we share the Amusement Park of the Seas notion.  Of course, looking at publicity photos for Icon, it’s more like Amusement Park and Circus all rolled into one.

[orville99]

59 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

Sorry…’granted’ Zenith status…will everyone receive an email to that effect?  I have sailed on X, so they should have my email..it hasn’t changed.

 

57 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I have not received any communications, but my Status on X just automatically upgraded from Elite to Elite plus 

I would not hold my breath waiting for any personalized communication.

 

We have received two emails from X, but none from RCL or Silversea. The first one announced the new status match scheme, and the second was a video from the X president discussing the match from an X perspective. We have not received any communication from any of the three lines informing us of our new status on the lines - it just magically changed in the apps and on the web account pages.

[island lady]

On 6/1/2024 at 2:14 PM, RFerrington said:

…and even more to the point, I suspect that those Pinns who had already started to stray (you, @cruise wizard and @island lady come immediately to mind) have caught their attention….and perhaps Royal is trying to plug that dike before it gets any bigger !

 

LOL...yup, we and my friend Gary/Mary were already starting to stray.  Gary way earlier than us.  😉  Though we have gone further...more to to the "dark side"...with Viking.  😄 

[island lady]

23 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Many more D, D+ and P's coming from the World Cruise folks!!!!

 

I was unable to book a suite on WC...just one point a night.  😉   So, actually our four weeks during double points on Wonder doing the med/TA to PC in a GS...112 points.   

 

63 nights on first quarter WC...63 points...half of what we had on 28 day Wonder.  Go figure.  😄 

[orville99]

2 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I was unable to book a suite on WC...just one point a night.  😉   So, actually our four weeks during double points on Wonder doing the med/TA to PC in a GS...112 points.   

 

63 nights on first quarter WC...63 points...half of what we had on 28 day Wonder.  Go figure.  😄 

7 night in a CLS on Allure right after the restart got us the same number of points as our 28 night Panama Canal WC shakedown cruise in a balcony. X is not really all that different - 7 night out of PC in a Sky suite = 56 points; 11 nights on Ascent in a Concierge suite (same price for both cruises BTW) = 55 points.😇

[island lady]

6 hours ago, nelblu said:

Most of the Pins that I have encountered and sat at the MDR or other events were/are big Casino players who also have accumulated nights from earned free cruises.  If many as you suggested move over to X that will impact Royal's bottom line even though it may be neutral on the overall company.  I don't see many young families and to some extents Millennials gambling enough in the Casinos to offset any exodus.

 

Ps.  I hope as a shareholder we don't have a Budweiser scenario that by targeting a new segment and ignoring loyal customers.

 

First of all....playing in a casino...I would not consider to be an "investment". 😉  Those pax will tell you all about their winnings...but do they tell you how much they have parted with?  So, yeah...RCI thanks them for the time they did not win...and here are your perks.  😄 

 

Next, yes as a shareholder myself...I basically hold stock for OBC credits.  Though much to my stock broker's eating crow against buying that stock...I have gained quite a bit on value over the last couple of years.  Yahhh!  Win..win there.  🙂   But agree...at some point...RCI will find out the loyal customers are mysteriously jumping ship....perhaps too late to see it.    

[island lady]

6 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

We started with our first Royal cruise in 1996 - loved the product and stuck with them.........but now with the direction of floating amusements parks at sea and emphasis on young families......they just don't fit our "older lifestyle". Junior suites and balcony cabins were our choices - suites on Celebrity are just too pricey (2X and more $) for what you get. We will sail in the SV cabins on "X" and purchase dining packages and save a lot $$$$. We enjoy the Celebrity experience (were E+) for my wife and I - will continue to book Royal for family gatherings because of the grand children. So we are still "Loyal to the Royal family".

 

Same with us my friend.  Not what is used to be...such as the theme park bulldozer at Coco Cay...which IMHO was just the beginning.  

[island lady]

5 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We have booked Crown Loft suites on Oasis -class ships on RCCL.  They are on deck 17 which is quiet and away from the hustle and bustle with great access to CK and the SL.  Coupled with our D+ we do not need a drink package at all.  And we use our BOGO for specialty dining in addition to CK.  We have found this to be a pretty good, less expensive alternative to the Retreat on Celebrity.

 

We are not a fan of the two level CLS cabins.  But wow...our favorite "go to" cabin of a GS...is perfect on Wonder.  Love being on the same level as CK/SL, but in a better layout for us.  🙂 

[nelblu]

5 hours ago, Tlbecker1 said:

No, you don’t receive water or wine, BOGO, etc.  We have received flowers in our room each time.

You can keep the flowers😊

[orville99]

21 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We are not a fan of the two level CLS cabins.  But wow...our favorite "go to" cabin of a GS...is perfect on Wonder.  Love being on the same level as CK/SL, but in a better layout for us.  🙂 

The GS layout on Wonder is great. Too bad that’s the only thing we like about that ship.☺️

[nelblu]

25 minutes ago, island lady said:

First of all....playing in a casino...I would not consider to be an "investment".

For me, playing slots in the Casino is part of the relaxation.  It's not an investment as I don't expect to win, however, I want to lose slowly and with grace.  The perks are secondary and, in some respect, even better than on land.

 

The investment was buying and holding Royal stock and presently sitting a nice fat gain.  Bought as I believed in the company and the shareholder's benefit is nice little perk.