For frequent cruisers - How do you feel about loyalty to one cruiseline

[GUT2407]

Loyalty works really well for us on Regent. At the Platinum level we enjoy complimentary unlimited wifi, 9 hours outgoing telephone time per segment, unlimited laundry service, daily newspaper from about a dozen choices, and no-fee air deviations. We have been truly spoiled by Regent's service as well, so you could call us "Regent Cheerleaders."

 

Those benefits may even be worth some loyalty.

[Kwaj girl]

Regent first earned our loyalty with fabulous, non-intrusive but caring service. The perks just backed that up, in our opinion. 👍

[Robinsoncruiseso]

We are pretty loyal to Princess. Our good friend, who is like family works for Princess... I enjoy larger ships that still have the "cruise ship" feel. Now that our kids are grown, we do not need all the amusements and prefer the familiarity we have with the Princess ships. So, for us it is Voyage and Ship but normally within the Princess line.

[GUT2407]

Regent first earned our loyalty with fabulous, non-intrusive but caring service. The perks just backed that up, in our opinion. 👍

 

Pity that don't spend more time down under.

[iancal]

We select based on ship, itinerary, and price. We have a preference for two or three cruise lines and we always look at their offerings.

 

Loyalty programs are fine and we do impute their value as it pertains to our preferences our pricing comparisons. We find many of the loyalty perks do not have much value to us. RCI is the one exception. We do like their lounge program.

 

A medallion, a pin, a so called 'free lunch', priority boarding, etc have no value to us whatsoever. We most often book inside the final payment window, usually 30-60 days out, sometimes less. We also find large differences between ships within a cruise line and between specific cruises on the same ship.

Edited May 10, 2016 by iancal

[Aquahound]

Do any of you who cruise mainly for the ship feel the need to switch between cruiselines for something "different"?

 

Totally. I got stuck in a brand loyalty rut, booking several RCI cruises in a row. Then the light turned on and I realized what all I was missing by limiting myself so much. Today, I have no loyalty. I still have lines I have no desire to try because I think their ships look like crap but all in all, I'm now an equal opportunity cruiser.

[sail7seas]

Mty late DH and I love aHAL and sailed them over90+ times. :)Extreeme loyalty o the crews and people of HAL[/b]

Edited May 10, 2016 by sail7seas

[kelmac]

After 57 cruises together, my wife and I will still test the waters of other cruise lines. Celebrity is still our "go-to" cruise line with 28 cruises, or about 50%.

 

Here is our current take on things:

 

--Love Azamara and Oceania, but it's too expensive. We keep looking!

 

--We like Cunard, but it's not easy cruising them living in North America.

 

--Celebrity is consistently excellent and the best "bang for the buck".

 

--NCL has been added back in our "rotation" as a result of their UDP (ultimate dining package), UBP and excellent fares.

 

--If you pick and choose selected ships of Royal Caribbean the experience is pretty good, although some of their food is so so.

 

--We are trying Holland America again after a five year absence. Hope things have improved and we will not book a balcony because of their smoking policy.

 

--Princess is the one line we don't get -- nothing really bad, just not that great.

I'm sure we will give them another try down the road.

 

--My wife will retire in two years and that's when we will give Crystal, Seabourn, Silversea, Regent..., and the other upscale lines a try.

 

--Never cruised Carnival, MSC and Costa because of the lack of over all positive reviews. Never say never!:roll eyes:

 

River cruising looks interesting, but expensive. We've tried All-Inculsives and we aren't that impressed. We do loads of land based travel as well.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[lenquixote66]

We have cruised on Carnival,Celebrity ,Cunard,Holland America ,Norwegian and Royal Caribbean.

 

We go for the best itinerary .

[paul929207]

When we started cruising, we tried several lines. We found one (Princess) met our needs much better than the others. So we have travel Princess allover the world.

[gymbomb]

We choose based in a combination of price, ship, itinerary, and departure port. We like some things about NCL (dining and dress code) and they sail from closest to home, so we do them more often. But there are many things I like better about princess. And when my son gets older I definitely want to do RCCL more.

 

 

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[cruiseapril]

We cruise for the itinerary. Have been on most

major cruise lines- many more than once. Enjoy variety.

[lamchops]

We cruise for the itinerary and price. Have been on most

major cruise lines and all were good. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be NCL for it's "freestyle" and consistent service experience.

[NLH Arizona]

I'm loyal to three cruise lines; Crystal, Celebrity and NCL. I can pick and choose by itinerary, but I have a luxury line, a premium line and a mass-market line to pick from.

[Capt_BJ]

As you see from my condenced list of cruises in my sig' brand loyalty is not our thing. We like variety- altho not oppposed to repeat esp if there ais a big $ savings (some of our cruises have cost well under $100 a day)

 

more and more we're choosing smaller ships ..... fewer folks on the ship means much better service IMO.

 

We're kinda past the rock climbing wall and ice skating rink age ... recently tried river cruising and I can def' see that happening again and anxious to return to Windstar but maybe in a place we've not been b4 ...

 

Our last cruise was a crossing on QM2 and we enjoyed it but kinda getting past the need to dress for dinner too .... Windstar and most river cruises consider khakis and a polo shirt sufficient and it makes packing so much easier.

 

Variety and smaller ..... that's where we look. Once grand kids enter the picture I can see Disney returning to our list as well.

[Cruzaholic41]

I'm not loyal to any cruise line, or any brand of anything for that matter. If anything, I'm loyal to not cruising certain lines. Those are NCL, Carnival and Costa because I think they're the bottom feeders of the cruise industry. I also won't cruise HAL again until they join the rest of the industry and change their balcony smoking policy. Otherwise, it's fair game.

[pris993]

We live in FL and have been cruising from FL ports for quite a few years now, mostly for the ports.

 

We cruised on the same ship, Celebrity Equinox which was lovely, two years in a row with different ports. However, we found that the second year it was a bit "same old/same old" with regard to the entertainment, menus, bars, pools, etc.

 

We are cruising on the Oasis this year, mainly for the ship/not the ports.

 

Probably will cruise next year for the ship again, rather than the ports. Wondering if we should switch to a larger ship with NCL or another line from FL.

 

Do any of you who cruise mainly for the ship feel the need to switch between cruiselines for something "different"?

 

Over 50+ criuises on 9 differnt lines over the years... now we narrowed to Princess, Holland America and Cunard.

[Keith1010]

We have been fortunate to have found a cruise line that we just love so often we sail on that cruise line. If there is a specific itinerary we desire that is not offered by that line then we will sail another line for the specific itinerary.

 

Keith

[SuiteTraveler]

We're not loyal to any one line. We like to experience different cruise lines. All of them have pros and cons. To me, it just doesn't make sense to be loyal to one line.

[kimlovesfl]

We go for itin and price. We've only cruised princess and celebrity, bit I certainly look at all my options (except carnival). Don't really care so much about the ship- if the price and timing are right, and it goes where I would like to go, I'd cruise it.

[Cruise Junky]

We have no loyalty to any one cruise line. We've sailed on 5 different lines. Our last two cruises have been on Celebrity and we both really like the vibe but if a better itinerary comes along we'll take it

[margeecruiser]

We have been mostly staying with Royal Caribbean because their products fit us pretty well. We have been on all the other mass market cruise lines and Royal ships satisfies most of our requirements. As we have climbed up the loyalty ladder, the balcony discounts really make a difference. We do like the free drinks in the evening, but still buy higher level wine and top shelf liquor. We will stay with Royal but will never attain the top level.

 

Margee

 

 

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[geoherb]

Our determining factors are date, price, cruise line, itinerary, ship. After DH retires at the end of July, the date won't be as much of a factor. (I'm hoping to fit in at least one cruise in the fall before my retirement six months after his.) We have the most cruises on Princess, but I'll consider HAL and Celebrity and even RCI if the price is right and the itinerary appeals to me.

[Rosy1013]

I don't feel the need to be loyal to a line at all. My husband, however, has never been on a cruise but is saying that our upcoming Oasis cruise will mean we will be loyal to Royal from now on! He's always loyal to the brands he likes, but I've tried to convince him he will miss out on ships and itineraries by avoiding other lines.