How Are People Feeling about C&A Benefits?

[kchownj]

On our recent Jewel sailing (also our first as Diamond) we decided to wait and play it by ear on the cruise. I ended up buying one beer on the cruise, and had several other drinks in the various ports I obviously had to pay for. Between the nightly Diamond event (which was almost empty and easy to get personal service) and the 3 drinks on my card, I was able to have as many as 6 drinks a night, which was plenty for me, even if I was limited to a window of time.

 

Down side was at the new prices I did not feel it was worth it to buy a few morning bloody Mary's I usually get over the week and I could not order the fancier specialty drinks I have tried on previous packages. My wife did buy a few more drinks and specialty coffees than me, but still no where near making it worth getting a package. It was very easy for either of us to walk a short distance to the lobby bar and refresh both of our drinks over dinner using our 3 credits.

 

Our end of cruise total (including cash and billed tips) for on ship bar and other non alcoholic drinks was less than $250, and that includes a soda package for me. A far stretch from the $800 plus additional tips we would have paid on a package. We are moderate drinkers, so we were fine without. For heavier drinkers, it may be a different case.

 

I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that as a Diamond member on this cruise you received drinks in the Diamond Lounge and 3 drinks loaded onto your card in the evening? I thought it was on or the other. Getting ready for our first cruise a Diamond in September.

 

 

[Clarea]

I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that as a Diamond member on this cruise you received drinks in the Diamond Lounge and 3 drinks loaded onto your card in the evening? I thought it was on or the other. Getting ready for our first cruise a Diamond in September.

 

 

It's not one or the other, it's both. A Diamond (and higher) member gets access to the DL, where they can have unlimited drinks during the nightly cocktail hour. Additionally, they get 3 drink voucers per night that can be used at any bar on the ship during the nightly cocktail hour period.

[kchownj]

It's not one or the other, it's both. A Diamond (and higher) member gets access to the DL, where they can have unlimited drinks during the nightly cocktail hour. Additionally, they get 3 drink voucers per night that can be used at any bar on the ship during the nightly cocktail hour period.

 

That's great. Thanks Bob you made my day!

 

Kathe

[steveru621]

The ability to combine discounts/OBC.

 

The sale of Next Cruise certificates with the same OBC as booking a specific cruise.

 

OBC eliminated for cruises less than 5 days.

 

Thank you Bob, I had forgotten about those benefits. Probably because they were gone before I ever had a chance to use them. :cool: Never used NCC's and 2nd cruise was my only less than 5 days.

 

I also didn't get kicked out of the CL because I was not a Diamond at the time.

[icsys]

I've read a lot of people complaining how their benefits don't mean what they used to. I'm only a gold member and would like to chip my way higher, but am not thrilled with prices currently. I've read what the benefits are, of course, but practically speaking, how much do they matter? Are C&A benefits really worth it? Do I need to at least be diamond for them to mean anything?

 

If you mean, are they really worth staying loyal to Royal for, that would be down to the individual.

 

Yes, reading posts on CC, it would appear that the benefits are diminishing.

For instance, when the benefits became paperless the 'free casino credit match play' disappeared completely, at Emerald you now only get one 'buy one beer wine or soda and get another beer wine or soda free' instead of two.

 

Some benefits seem to have increased....

I believe at Diamond it used to be 30 minutes of free internet and now it is 24 consecutive hours of free internet.

 

Still if you haven't yet reached those levels then you cannot miss what you never had!

[steveru621]

If you mean, are they really worth staying loyal to Royal for, that would be down to the individual.

 

Yes, reading posts on CC, it would appear that the benefits are diminishing.

For instance, when the benefits became paperless the 'free casino credit match play' disappeared completely, at Emerald you now only get one 'buy one beer wine or soda and get another beer wine or soda free' instead of two.

 

Some benefits seem to have increased....

I believe at Diamond it used to be 30 minutes of free internet and now it is 24 consecutive hours of free internet.

 

Still if you haven't yet reached those levels then you cannot miss what you never had!

 

You can never tell ship-to-ship but we had $10 match play on our Serenade TA in May.

[BillOh]

Considering that there is no extra charge for C&A benefits, how can they not be "worth it"?.

 

IMO, they are worth a little less. But they are something. The balcony discount is worthwhile. IMO, they made the old coupon work worth less, getting rid of free things in favor of BOGO, The old Welcome back gifts were of limited value to people who cruise often, or of no value to someone who wears a 7 5/8 cap ;) At least now I get a snack I know i'll like. As for Diamond benefits, I'll let you know. Look out Diamond lounge you just went Blue Collar! :eek:

[PSCruiser]

Very happy to have stuck with RC and now getting the best of the benefits. The perks on RC/Celebrity, once you get to D or above, make it very hard to stray to another line.

No one else has benefits that are anywhere close. Everyone is familiar with the evening cocktails, but often at D level there are little unexpected perks like chocolate strawberries delivered to the room for formal nights, etc. Also seldom mentioned are some of the great snacks available in the DL or CL during evening hours - sometimes tasty shrimp, bacon-wrapped scallops, chocolate strawberries, etc. Makes it tough to save room for dinner!

[Guest maddycat]

We've sailed on several other cruise lines. RCI is our favorite. We just made diamond plus after our last cruise.

 

We enjoy the C&A benefits, especially the balcony discount, the evening cocktail hour, the free internet and the photographs. We're looking forward to the reserved seating in the theater when we sail on the Liberty in Oct. It will be great not having to get to the theater 30 minutes before a show in order to get decent seats.

[cruiselvr04]

Diamond Plus here. We enjoy the perks we get. A free gift of wine, free drinks in the evening, snacks before dinner all enhance our cruise.

 

We do wish we could stack the benefits. I don't like the "OR". When anyone else can get almost the same fare with OBC as your loyal frequent cruiser it doesn't seem like it's quite the good deal. We have three more cruises booked with them and then I think we will be branching out and looking at other lines.

 

We cruise with them because we like the product but we also are looking at the bottom line. Drink prices have become out of control, fares overall are higher then most mainstream lines.

[John&LaLa]

You can never tell ship-to-ship but we had $10 match play on our Serenade TA in May.

I haven't seen match play since coupon books went away.

 

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[John&LaLa]

We normally only book cruises that are in the $100-$150 (AUD inclusive of all port charges and taxes) a day range, generally we can snag a balcony and a couple of times have even had a JS. but will happily take an inside if the price difference is too great. Often we have cruised for less than this amount. After experimenting with 4 different cruise lines we decided that our preferred lines are RCL or Celebrity but would cruise NCL and then Carnival if the price was considerably cheaper.

 

We spend very little on board the ships as we don't see value in what is available. We can cruise as often as our disposable income allows so we work on the spend less cruise more formula.

 

We now have reached diamond and love the perks. If in the mood we will have 3-6 drinks in the happy hour. (2 before dinner, 1-2 with dinner 1 after dinner and then get1 a few minutes before finish which will last the night.) This would cost us say $20-$40 pp per day to buy.

 

1 free day of internet each. $29 pp.

 

Balcony discount $325 for the cruise we just booked (but we lost $200 OBC)

 

1 free picture each (which we would never buy but are happy to get for free)

 

So just for this cruise for example we have received perks in the range of $600-$800 in value and the cruise cost was comparable to other lines for the same itinerary.

 

 

 

We also get similar on Celebrity.

How do you get drinks at dinner?

 

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[Lmack]

We're the upper level of Diamond Plus and also Elite Plus on Celebrity & over the yrs we've seen the C&A benefits diminish. We sail because we enjoy cruising and not necessarily because of the benefits. We're now beginning to look at other cruise lines for enjoyment of different itineraries being offered. Our priorities now for cruising are: smaller ships, embarkation ports not in FL, and itineraries.

[steveru621]

I haven't seen match play since coupon books went away.

 

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Just to clarify John. The match play coupons were actual physical coupons!

[LisaAtlCruiser]

This thread has me extremely excited now about becoming Diamond! I should be there by next fall when I take my Norway cruise. Diamond lounge and 3 drink coupons....here I come!!!

:D

[39august]

Someone asked how to get free drinks for dinner. Easy, use one of your 3 free drinks. Or take one with you from the CL or DL. This appears to no longer be frowned upon, and is actually encouraged on some ships. We love our balcony discount and the free drinks.

[John&LaLa]

Just to clarify John. The match play coupons were actual physical coupons!

Wow, good for you. I always wondered why you couldn't go to cage and pick up your Match play coupon like you do the spin to win tokens. I realize it would be a logistical nightmare to use your card at the tables.

 

The extra match play coupons were a big incentive on our quest from D to D+, and they went away right before

 

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[shipshape sam]

This thread has me extremely excited now about becoming Diamond! I should be there by next fall when I take my Norway cruise. Diamond lounge and 3 drink coupons....here I come!!!

:D

 

Royal has a very nice program and if you view the benefits as 'extras' and not entitlements that are permanent, you will always enjoy them. We like Royal over Celebrity when it comes to the Club benefits.

[John&LaLa]

Someone asked how to get free drinks for dinner. Easy, use one of your 3 free drinks. Or take one with you from the CL or DL. This appears to no longer be frowned upon, and is actually encouraged on some ships. We love our balcony discount and the free drinks.

Still don't get that it is easy to use your 3 free. No good in MDR, and do you really want to excuse yourself from dinner to get a free drink? Not my style

 

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[shipshape sam]

Still don't get that it is easy to use your 3 free. No good in MDR, and do you really want to excuse yourself from dinner to get a free drink? Not my style

 

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Go to a bar, get your drink, then head to MDR. Works for us. Our 3rd drink is wine if we have already had 2 as we go to MDR. ]

 

On Brilliance last year, we went to Diamond Club, had a drink, then took a glass wine to MDR and had opportunity to get 3 more drinks, although we did have one more afterwards at a bar using our card.

[woodyren]

How do you get drinks at dinner?

 

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I can only speak from our experience on one leg of our Quantum cruise as it is our only one since becoming diamond. We just ordered them at our table from the table waiters. We also dinned with others who were diamond on a previous leg and they did the same. Maybe it's a DD specific thing or a matter of inexperienced crew.

 

Until I read this thread I assumed that you could just order them in any MDR.

[Scotty G]

Purely in response to the OP's question, we are feeling great!

[DarthGrady]

To the OP, I'm very happy with the benefits from C&A. The onboard coupons, cocktail parties and other little perks keep us coming back to RCI again and again; so the program definitely works!

[John&LaLa]

Go to a bar, get your drink, then head to MDR. Works for us. Our 3rd drink is wine if we have already had 2 as we go to MDR. ]

 

On Brilliance last year, we went to Diamond Club, had a drink, then took a glass wine to MDR and had opportunity to get 3 more drinks, although we did have one more afterwards at a bar using our card.

I was just referring to the OP of my comment who said they got 1-2 at dinner. We always bring a drink to MDR from somewhere. I'm just not going to leave to get that elusive 2nd or 3rd one

 

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[yogimax]

Bottom Line - RCCL probably has the best rewards program in the business.