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No worries. I guess your airline goes by the adage, "What have you done for me lately?" Part of the "fine print" on all these programs is that they can change at anytime. For what it's worth, my traditional airline suddenly introduced a new level of status that effectively devalued my "lifetime" status making it harder to get an upgrade and reduced the number of miles that I earn.

Can you explain more? Did they pull over taxis or private cars? Did you see this in Valle or down in Ensenada?

Assuming you can get off the ship quickly, you should still be able to spend a couple of hours on the beach. Just take the water taxi or a regular taxi to Medano Beach as soon as you get off. The sun doesn't go down until between 5:30 and 6:00pm. After that you are free to head out and get some drinks, snacks or dinner in any number of areas. BTW - my least favorite part of Cabo is the Marina even though I can understand its appeal to some tourists.

Me too. I am not complaining regarding any lifetime benefits. These loyalty benefits must pay off for the lines too and probably don't cost much at all. One thing that I find fascinating is how hard the cruise lines promote status attainment. I guess it's just good marketing... This makes a lot of sense. I have also thought about this as well but have so far stayed mostly with a single airline program and alliance.

I have been inside El Cielo a couple of times and once did a tasting there. The tasting room is in the basement and process includes a video of the history of the winery. It is owned by a hotelier from Cancun if memory serves my correctly. Overall it's not a bad experience but I am not in a hurry to return. The room rates at the resort are pretty darn high. Did you think it was a good value?

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mexico and is not a holiday. All of the stores and restaurants will be open. However, since you are in an area close to the border where many people from the US reside and/or visit it is likely that some restaurants and hotels will serve traditional US thanksgiving style dinners.

I actually believe the use of a name not associated with the loyalty program makes it easier to implement another status level and/or dynamic lounge access. "Deserves" is kind of a strong word to me. It is certainly nice to receive benefits for life, but this is simply a marketing decision made by the company and is pretty much unique to the cruise industry. Perhaps you are right as other travel loyalty programs are not so dependent on purely leisure travelers like the cruise industry.

What do you expect if points never expire? This really isn't too surprising a result.

This is a necessary result of "lifetime" benefits that never expire. On my recent cruise it was announced that 25% of the ship had "elite" level status. I personally expect that benefits on many lines will continue to be "watered down" over time. What's really interesting is that cruise lines seem to be the exception as award programs for airlines and hotels tend to require annual qualification until a truly high level of activity over many years has been achieved.

Incorrect. It is 4 drinks / day

You mean the AI's? 🙂 Hasn't that happened in some of the mountain communities as well where mountain sports exist? The stores might not be Diamonds International, but many don't serve or are priced beyond the means of the locals. I do that too, however it's driven more from the perspective of trying to be healthy rather than further limiting my environmental profile. For sure with air travel being the most CO2 intensive. For my most recent trip involving flights to Honolulu and from Sydney generated about 2.5 tons or over 1 year of CO2/person budget as determined by activists. https://curb6.com/calculators/plane Hopefully I will never see the day where travel once again becomes only an activity for the very rich. BTW - with respect to the original question, I am all for tourists being in my own community as it adds to the level of services that we enjoy and helps economic activity. The big negative is beach parking at times in the summer.

On my last cruise I saw the tape of the “captain’s corner” chat. A passenger asked the question why the water to wash hands at the buffet entrance needed to be so warm. The premise of the question was that by lowering the temperature of the water, energy consumption by the ship could be reduced materially. My bottom line is to enjoy affordable tourism while I can.

Better get there soon before all the new restrictions get in place! The bottom line is that all these steps will reduce the number of people visiting these sites by causing prices to rise to meet these government restrictions.

Absolutely. The carbon/waste impact of smaller ships on a per passenger basis is greater than on a small ship than on a large one. It’s no difference than flying business class versus economy. The business class environmental footprint is much higher per person than with an economy class ticket. Let’s face it, modern travel isn’t exactly a “green” activity.

It’s most definitely the close proximity which seemed to drive the rate of disease spread. Plus sharing food in a crowded restaurant/buffet setting rather than at home helped too in my mind. The “wave” seemed to just explode after largely being at sea for about 10 days with very limited port stops. I had never heard/seen anything like it. It actually was humorous when we made a port stop in New Zealand and while we were at tourist location and someone from off the ship wondered about all the people coughing and sneezing.

Just got off last week from a transpacific cruise from Honolulu to Sydney. About 8 days in the ship seemed to absolutely in a toxic mix of colds, flu and a bit of COVID. Has this ever happened to any of you? It so, what techniques due you use to avoid getting sick? My own main resolution was to avoid the buffet as what I say in terms of food handling by passengers left lots to be desired. Finally, are “sick ships” becoming more common as passengers avoid going to the sick bay to avoid being isolated in their cabins as well as medical chargers which were running over $1k and more on our ship?

RCCL was smart to change the name of the Diamond lounge to the Crown Lounge. The sign went up during our Ovation cruise to Sydney. It makes sense as the ship had almost 1000 Diamond and above members. Let’s all face the facts that the C&A society elite status isn’t well designed as points never expire and largely the credits aren’t tired to directly to customer spend. I must confess that I would miss the lounge if I was banned due to a lack of status mostly because we enjoy the people we meet there as at least we all share an interest in cruising. For me the change is just another reason to consider alternative cruise lines.

Great tip. I hadn't been considering this part of the trip too much! This is nice to hear. I would prefer simply dealing with the locals. Thanks! I will certainly reach out if I can think of anything else. Good to hear the dinners were executed well and the service remains good. This is our first RCCL cruise since the menu change of course every ship is a bit different.

@Mikamarii Yikes, that is my cruise starting on the 15th! I was hoping for fresh menus every day. My suspicion is that the menu changes of late aren't a plus in terms of variety. Regardless, I think we are going to have a great time. BTW - do you have any suggestions or lessons learned from taking this cruise last year?

I have been on cruises from Tampa and Houston. I liked my Tampa cruise better as the ports were outside of Mexico which I would rather visit via a land vacation.

I think that's a good idea. One might also consider New Orleans and Tampa as well. Some of the older ships make more affordable cruises from these ports as well.

Thanks for the information! I wouldn't expect a spur, but an 8 mile journey via cab, ride share or bus to the terminal makes lots of sense.

Thanks so much. We will be leaving on a similarly long cruise and hoped that things would be still switched up given all the menu changes that have happened of late.

I hope you are correct. I would hate to see the same menu occur 2 or more times on a single cruise.

Kids are one of the only groups where discrimination is still allowed. I found you a link with decent information for Gatwick along with some further embedded links for making a reservation to take away the issue of not being able to enter the lounge due to overcrowding. https://www.airtravelgenius.com/london-gatwick-airport-lounges/#:~:text=Clubrooms Gatwick North Terminal&text=Children under 12 are not,a selection of newspapers%2Fmagazines.&text=Free access for Qatar Airways and Westjet premium passengers.