Each of the cruise lines works hard to get people to try a cruise, and after the customers have had a good time, the companies try to hook them into staying loyal.
They do this by offering loyalty programs, from which the benefits begin to pile up as customers earn more points.
All the major cruise lines do this, but Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) may have the strongest loyalty-based audience. That's because its Crown & Anchor Society starts to offer meaningful perks, freebies, and special onboard status as people reach the upper tiers of its program. So any tweak to the perks offered at higher levels gets a ton of scrutiny.
Royal Caribbean, for example, offers cruisers who achieve Diamond or higher Crown & Anchor status get access to a special lounge on its ships. The Diamond lounge serves a light breakfast, has a 24/7 fancy-coffee machine, offers a concierge who can help with problems like dinner and show reservations, and has a nighttime happy hour with appetizers.
Before the pandemic, that happy hour included an open bar. Now, to cut down on people crowding into the lounge, the cruise line offers Diamond members four drinks each day that can be used anytime on the ship for any drink up to $14. Diamond+ members get five a day, while Pinnacle members get six.
That was a big change, but it both took something away and gave top-tier loyalty members something. Some likely miss the old happy hour while many likely enjoy having the freedom to use their drink vouchers any time they want at any bar onboard or at CocoCay.
Now, however, Royal Caribbean has made another loyalty-program change, one that simply takes away a benefit.
Image source: Daniel Kline/TheStreet.
Royal Caribbean Takes Away a Loyalty Perk
All Diamond or higher members can access the Diamond lounge. On some ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet, Diamond+ members (175 points earned) also had access to a special concierge lounge, depending on capacity and the makeup of the passengers onboard. (If too many Diamond+ or Pinnacle members were onboard, access would be restricted.)
Concierge lounges are only on ships that don't have a suites lounge. Currently, that's Quantum, Anthem, Ovation, Radiance, Brilliance, Serenade, Jewel, Explorer, Grandeur, Enchantment, Rhapsody, and Vision of the Seas. Diamond+ members get access to the suite lounge on ships that have them (as capacity allows) so previously they were given access to concierge lounges on ships that had those.
Now, the cruise line has taken that perk away.
"Access has been largely based on guest count and lounge capacity levels, which are assessed on a voyage-by-voyage basis. Due to high counts of top-tier members on most sailings, we have had to limit access to the concierge lounge altogether," the cruise line said in an email to Diamond+-level Crown & Anchor members.
"As a result, we have made the decision to standardize Concierge and Suite Lounge access across the fleet. This means that beginning on sailings departing on or after December 16, 2022, both Concierge and Suite Lounge access on all ships will be limited to eligible Suite guests and Pinnacle Club members only."
That's a blow to Diamond+ members, some of the cruise line's most loyal customers, because it takes away a benefit without giving one back in return.
This Could Lead Some People to Be Less Loyal to Royal
A program like Crown & Anchor rewards people for being regular customers of one cruise line. It makes someone who sails Royal Caribbean less likely to try Carnival (CCL), MSC, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), or Virgin Voyages. That's because the nights spent on another cruise line's ships are nights that don't add to your point total, or if you have earned a top-tier status, they're trips on which you don't get those perks.
By taking away a perk, Royal Caribbean might see its top-tier customers sample other lines. MSC and Virgin Voyages both have status-match programs where Royal Caribbean Diamond (or higher) passengers get treated as if they have also achieved that status when sailing with the rival cruise lines.
MSC has no equivalent to the free-drink vouchers, but the status match does come with invites to special receptions (with free drinks) and the ability to bypass lines with a special queue in some places.
Virgin Voyages offers onboard beverage credit and other perks to top-tier Royal Caribbean customers.
