Balcony Discount - Starting with Platinum Level

[tigstoy]

Question for anyone and everyone.

 

With the new flavor of the week sale (many times same sale rephrased), how often have you actually been able to use your balcony discount without having to choose between it and some sort of promotional price or onboard credit?

 

Also, ranking the perks (targeting mainly platinum and emerald level), how important would you rank your balcony discount?

 

What is the most valuable perk for you (any level)? I know for many diamond and above that it could be the daily drinks and lounge.

 

The perks loaded on your SeaPass card adds up but how many people take advantage of enough of them for it to add up to a significant amount per cruise.

 

 

You can find the complete list of "perks" here https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/cas/benefits.do

 

 

Sorry. This ended up with many questions to think about.

[leinhto]

Significant amount...no

Favorite perk(Platinum level)...what perk?

Balcony discount v sale...haven't found the comparison worth effort

[Clarea]

Most valuable perk for us is the balcony discount.

 

The balcony discount is combinable with the fake sale prices, but not with any of the additional fake promos, such as "instant discount" or additional OBC.

Edited April 20, 2017 by clarea

[kruzerci]

We have never been able to combine the balcony discount with any OBC offer or "instant savings" fake sale since they started them. The only thing it is generally combinable with is the BOGOHO,60%, etc fares and the onboard booking OBC.

 

For us, the D+ balcony/suite discount has always outweighed the OBC offer for balcony and JS categories.

[tigstoy]

Significant amount...no

Favorite perk(Platinum level)...what perk?

Balcony discount v sale...haven't found the comparison worth effort

 

Exactly my point. The only real perk promoted to this level is the balcony discount and they make it where you can never use it.

 

Most valuable perk for us is the balcony discount.

 

The balcony discount is combinable with the fake sale prices, but not with any of the additional fake promos, such as "instant discount" or addtional OBC.

 

Agree. They raise the prices and exorbitant amount and then have a sale that might bring it down to the original price. They always offer something that is just over what the balcony discount is so that you cannot use it.

 

Crown and Anchor has very little value to their program.

[kruzerci]

Exactly my point. The only real perk promoted to this level is the balcony discount and they make it where you can never use it.

 

 

 

Agree. They raise the prices and exorbitant amount and then have a sale that might bring it down to the original price. They always offer something that is just over what the balcony discount is so that you cannot use it.

 

Crown and Anchor has very little value to their program.

 

Until you hit the Diamond level and can utilize the DL. It has really cut down on our bar tabs.

 

I would have said D+ also because we get the BOGO specialty restaurant coupon, but that seems to have become a first night promotion on almost every cruise anyways :rolleyes:.

[ONECRUISER]

Exactly my point. The only real perk promoted to this level is the balcony discount and they make it where you can never use it.

 

 

 

Agree. They raise the prices and exorbitant amount and then have a sale that might bring it down to the original price. They always offer something that is just over what the balcony discount is so that you cannot use it.

 

Crown and Anchor has very little value to their program.

No. Diamond and now Diamond Plus balcony discounts & free drinks benefit me. I also get some price reductions with sales, you just have to watch and check prices often. Some sales help, some don't...

[grapau27]

No. Diamond and now Diamond Plus balcony discounts & free drinks benefit me. I also get some price reductions with sales, you just have to watch and check prices often. Some sales help, some don't...

Balcony discount for us plus Diamond lounge.

 

43 cruises and counting.

[John&LaLa]

Most valuable perk for us is the balcony discount.

 

The balcony discount is combinable with the fake sale prices, but not with any of the additional fake promos, such as "instant discount" or additional OBC.

OBC for booking onboard is combinable with balcony discount. Just don't change the booking. 😉

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

[BecciBoo]

Combinability doesn't mean much when the current "special" is cheaper than using the D discount:mad:

 

Haven't used my discount in 3 cruises now. So lets see, why am I doing our D+ on Vision in our first suite to put us up one level....gees...I don't really know!:confused:

[SG65CB]

Look forward to getting your lapel pin, it will end up being more valuable than the balcony discount which you will never be able to use.

 

EDIT: What I really use the most is the "buy one drink, get one free" offer loaded on the SeaPass card. And sometimes the "buy one photo, get one half price".

[John&LaLa]

I'm confused, we've never had discount denied. Most of our bookings are done onboard so the obc denial is not an issue either. We recently could not get an OBC when booking online, $100, but balcony discount was $350

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

[tigstoy]

Look forward to getting your lapel pin, it will end up being more valuable than the balcony discount which you will never be able to use.

 

EDIT: What I really use the most is the "buy one drink, get one free" offer loaded on the SeaPass card. And sometimes the "buy one photo, get one half price".

 

 

Agree

Those are about the only perks loaded to our SeaPass card that we use.

 

Again it confirms that unless you have hit Diamond and above that the Crown and Anchor has no value to it. The only people I have seen post that says they receive value is the Diamond level and above.

 

Believe me. I check the pricing and sales constantly as well as my sister who travels with us. One of us is probably checking daily if not more often between us.

 

The cruise we booked for February 2018 has increased in price by $900 per person so there will not be any sale to our advantage. We have a whopping $50 OBC.

 

The cruise we booked for February 2019 has stayed fairly stable in price but because they had a "Carib Escape Discount" of $150 we were not able to use the balcony discount. My complaint is that any 1st time cruiser gets the same pricing as we get. We have first time cruisers traveling with us so I can compare pricing line by line.

 

So Again my point is the Crown and Anchor has zero value because I would be paying the same thing if this was my very first cruise.

[Davidlmc]

We are Platinum members so Is there no balcony discount when in a GS or higher ? I don't see any discount when doing a mock booking.

[Clarea]

We are Platinum members so Is there no balcony discount when in a GS or higher ? I don't see any discount when doing a mock booking.

Sure, there is a Platinum discount for any stateroom with a balcony. Be sure to put your C&A number in the mock booking, merely logging in does not work anymore.

[Eslader]

Again it confirms that unless you have hit Diamond and above that the Crown and Anchor has no value to it.

 

Well, I think C&A does have *some* value to it. Like you two, I use the BOGO drink (and actually it's 2 BOGO drinks since each card gets loaded with it). Then there's a separate 10% discount on a drink, which isn't much but is nice. We also use the coffee discount.

 

So, there's value, it's just that they frontload the best value to Gold status. Which in a way is nice, because it means that if you cruise once with them, you get the best offers from the program and you aren't made to feel like you shouldn't try other lines if you want to due to missing out on better benefits as you climb. I note that this is nice for *us,* but not quite so nice for *them*. ;)

[Tillie43]

I booked our September 2018 cruise online using my new Platinum C&A balcony discount of $100 off stateroom. At the time RCI offered $100 OBC and $125 instant stateroom savings. I didn’t know the extra discounts offered would not be possible with the C&A discount. My bad. Lost a substantial amount. I do like the BOGO beer/wine offer on the sea pass card for Platinum. Whether I use the balcony discount next cruise will depend on what extra is offered by RCI during booking.