Brand Loyalty Versus Changing Cruise Lines

[MCC retired]

We have been fortunate to cruise a lot for the past 30 some years .

Never stuck with one line but jumped around between lines based on itineraries and prices.

Somehow got to be Platinum on PCL and CCL as well as Diamond on RCI and Cunard , but still book cruises based on itinerary and price.

[Hlitner]

We have cruised on 16 different lines over our forty + years of extensive cruising.  While we have no particular brand loyalty we do favor certain lines over others.  But since the cruise industry is very dynamic, our favorite lines are constantly changing as the lines change and our own taste gets more refined.  To be honest, because we sometimes do a lot of cruising (over 100 days in a year), we would generally find the sameness of sticking with one line to be monotonous.  We enjoy the variety of menus, entertainment and style that we encounter on different lines.

 

Hank

[marco]

We've been on a LOT of cruises, some lines only once or twice but we're top tier on 3 line. The perks are nice, but not a deal breaker.  What's most important is the date/itinerary/price. regardless if it is or isn't one of those  top three lines and their perks.

Edited March 4, 2020 by marco

[dreadpirate3]

17 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

In our case our first cruise was on RCCL 28 years ago and we liked the experience and what that brand offered.  So the next, and the next, etc., got booked with them as each was on a different ship and itinerary.  We never felt the need to change brands or try something different as we liked what they offered and it fit well with our family. 

 

By then we were pretty well involved with their loyalty program (which comparatively IMO is one of the best in the industry, if that is important to a cruiser) so we stayed with them and now are at a high tier level and enjoy the benefits that are provided.  That, however, has never been a primary driver in our choice - just a nice side benefit.

 

Eventually our family grew older and our cruising style changed so we started cruising with Celebrity, and continue to like that brand quite well also.  And having a reciprocal loyalty program - which is the only one in the industry - was icing on the cake in terms of the benefits we enjoy from that. 

 

 

 

Other than the time of our first cruise, I could not have said this better than @leaveitallbehind .

 

We started cruising RCCL in 2008, took another with them 3 months later, and are now booked on our 8th and 9th with them. Once we cruise all planned nights with them, we'll be just one solo or suite cruise away from their diamond level, which provides benefits that make cruising much more affordable for us. We will then transfer our status to Celebrity and use them for our Alaska and Hawaii cruises over the next five years.

 

We cruise with our now adult son occasionally and have all been very happy with the service RCCL provides for a price I like.

[iancal]

Absolutely.  We select on value, not price.

 

the loyalty perks are meaningless to us inasmuch as we factor their value to us into our decision.   Many of the loyalty perks we see seem to be directed at inflating our ego, making us feel important.  Things like priority this or that or access to a private concierge.  Things that cost the cruise line no money.

 

Bottom line is that our on line TA gives us the best benefit....6-10 pecent fare reduction in the form of an OBC.  

[jocap]

As we've aged, the most important thing now is easy access to the embarkation port... we can drive there on the morning of the cruise. After that, it's always itinerary, and we have a choice of 3 lines- two we've used and just CMV to try. 

Most of the lines we've sailed with have been pretty much the same, depending on their size and facilities, but we've always had excellent service on them all.

[rkacruiser]

OP,  a thought provoking question you posed.

 

I guess on some things, I am brand loyal.  If I want fast food, I prefer McDonald's.  If I want to shop for new clothes, I prefer JC Penney.  If I am going to buy a new car, I prefer Buick (the most recent 5 of the 7 that I have owned).  You can see in my Signature my preferred cruise line.  Is it "perfect"?  Those who read my posts on the HAL Board know that I am critical of the "modern" HAL's cruise experience in some ways, but much of the experience is still praise worthy.  Did I begin to sail with them (starting in 1970) with the idea of being a truly loyal customer?  Never even thought about it; not sure there was a loyalty program at that time.  As my cruises with HAL began to add up, I gladly appreciated the increase in perks as I climbed the Mariner Society ranks.  Is my Mariner Society level dominant in my consideration of what cruise to next book?  No.  Why is that, you might ask.

 

Another poster stated "variety is the spice of life" and I ascribe to that thought.  If the cruise itinerary is what I prefer, the price is right, and I am curious to try another cruise line's offerings:  I'll ask my travel agent to "Book It!"  I have yet to be disappointed by trying other cruise lines.  Some have been different from HAL.  (Only one was really overall disappointing:  a trans-Atlantic on QE2 when the ship was having labor problems; even then, there were significant highlights during the crossing.)  

 

My most recent departure from the HAL family was a 7 day cruise on MSC Meraviglia in Yacht Club.  The largest ship on which I have sailed and in an stateroom category that I have never booked.  Why did I do so?  I have been curious about the MSC cruise product.  I like an Italian-atmosphere and I knew the ship's Officers would be mostly Italian.  I was curious about their new private island, Ocean Cay.  Haven't sailed from Miami since 1979, so that would be a new experience.  The sailing date fit my Winter plans for Florida.  The price for my YC suite was "a deal".  (Other than a stop at Ocean Cay, the itinerary was not of any interest to me.)  There were no negatives about trying "a different cruise line" other than the traffic situation within the Port of Miami itself.  (I drove and parked at the Port and will not be doing that in the future.)  

 

As a result of the generosity of MSC's Voyager Club's terms for those who first sail on MSC, I now have another cruise line where I have their highest level of status.  Will I now be solely loyal to MSC?  No, there is a "spot in my heart" for the Dutch, the Indonesian, and Filipino crew.  God willing, I will return.  

 

But, I will still be looking for "something different" that is attractive to me.  

[davekathy]

11 hours ago, MCC retired said:

We have been fortunate to cruise a lot for the past 30 some years .

Never stuck with one line but jumped around between lines based on itineraries and prices.

Somehow got to be Platinum on PCL and CCL as well as Diamond on RCI and Cunard , but still book cruises based on itinerary and price.

Plus you would be Elite if you ever decide to take a Celebrity cruise. 

[geoherb]

I'm semi-loyal to Princess. In the past decade, I've sailed 20 times on Princess ships and three times on Holland America and once on Carnival. Princess has worked out for us with itinerary and price. We have taken four Celebrity cruises but nothing recently. And 20 years ago we took our third and last Royal Caribbean cruise. 

[ontheweb]

We've been on 12 cruises (with a 13th booked) on 5 different line; two with 3 cruises and 3 with 2 cruises. We do look first at lines owned by Carnival partly because we own the stock and partly because I find the newer ships of RCCL too large and also have had issues with out NCL cruises.

 

Primarily though we look at where we wish to go and what is available at the times we can go and at what price.

[cruizergal70]

I don't want to derail the thread but is it appropriate to talk about which loyalty perks you are getting that makes being loyal more attractive. 

[iancal]

I suspect that cruise line loyalty will change with demographics.

 

i also suspect that the market will force an improvement to some of the current cruise line reward programs at some point.

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

I don't want to derail the thread but is it appropriate to talk about which loyalty perks you are getting that makes being loyal more attractive. 

This thread is a great place to talk about the tier level perks/benefits associated with the different cruise lines. 

[cruizergal70]

2 hours ago, iancal said:

I suspect that cruise line loyalty will change with demographics.

 

i also suspect that the market will force an improvement to some of the current cruise line reward programs at some point.

Which demographics?

[Pale Gail Sails]

18 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

...

I guess on some things, I am brand loyal.

...

 

But, I will still be looking for "something different" that is attractive to me.  

On the theme of brand loyalty, a couple with whom we occasionally cruise, had only taken cruises with one line. After 15+ cruises with that line, they tried a different line on a cruise with us. Since then, they have only used the "new" cruise line. To their way of thinking, no point in switching again.  Brand loyalty is important to them plus they feel uncomfortable with change in the way a ship might operate. However, I like the idea of trying different cruise lines to see what is on offer. How would I know if I did not try? I can ask for the opinion of others but what one person considers great, another might not like.

[Toofarfromthesea]

4 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

I don't want to derail the thread but is it appropriate to talk about which loyalty perks you are getting that makes being loyal more attractive. 

 

That would be an interesting discussion, but I doubt it will get going buried in this thread.  You should consider starting a new thread.

[cruisemom42]

46 minutes ago, Pale Gail Sails said:

On the theme of brand loyalty, a couple with whom we occasionally cruise, had only taken cruises with one line. After 15+ cruises with that line, they tried a different line on a cruise with us. Since then, they have only used the "new" cruise line. To their way of thinking, no point in switching again.  Brand loyalty is important to them plus they feel uncomfortable with change in the way a ship might operate. However, I like the idea of trying different cruise lines to see what is on offer. How would I know if I did not try? I can ask for the opinion of others but what one person considers great, another might not like.

 

Another good illustration of how we are all different. I like variety -- variety in food choices, travel destinations, types of entertainment, etc. The same thing over and over would pall for me very quickly. My son, on the other hand, likes consistency and likes to "know what to expect".  Of course, neither of us cruises so often that we would get really bored with the offerings of only one line, but -- my feeling is that I would consider a wider range of options for a given trip and would have no trepidation in trying a new line whereas he might prefer to choose the tried and true.

 

[iancal]

We are certainly less brand loyal than our parents.  Our children are even less so. Travel product or anything else.

 

As an example, we do not care about pins, medallions, etc.  Our children scoff at it as a cheap trick to attract them in preference to something that has tangible value.  Same for different coloured keys, priority this or that, or a so called exclusive on board lunch, etc.

Edited March 5, 2020 by iancal

[dreadpirate3]

6 hours ago, cruizergal70 said:

I don't want to derail the thread but is it appropriate to talk about which loyalty perks you are getting that makes being loyal more attractive. 

 

We enjoy the top tier party once per cruise, our balcony and suite discount, other on board discounts, and when we go to the next tier of loyalty in November, we will get a gift in our room. When we get to diamond next spring, we'll get free internet, laundry, and daily drinks with the reciprocal benefits on Celebrity.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/countries/crown-and-anchor/pdf/CAS-member-grid.pdf

https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/captains-club-tiers-and-benefits-chart.pdf

 

Those benefits make it much less expensive to cruise in the fashion we choose to.

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, dreadpirate3 said:

Those benefits make it much less expensive to cruise in the fashion we choose to

 

This is an excellent point to make.  50% off wine packages, 2 free dinners at a specialty restaurant, free laundry (particularly valuable on a long cruise), etc.:  if one paid for all of that, that would increase the end-of-cruise bill considerably.   

[dreadpirate3]

Just now, rkacruiser said:

 

This is an excellent point to make.  50% off wine packages, 2 free dinners at a specialty restaurant, free laundry (particularly valuable on a long cruise), etc.:  if one paid for all of that, that would increase the end-of-cruise bill considerably.   

Yes. In fact, this thread caused me to check deals and I just booked a solo weekend cruise to help us get to diamond faster. On RCCL, you accrue double points as solo or in a suite, solo in a suite is triple points.

[ducklite]

4 hours ago, iancal said:

We are certainly less brand loyal than our parents.  Our children are even less so. Travel product or anything else.

 

As an example, we do not care about pins, medallions, etc.  Our children scoff at it as a cheap trick to attract them in preference to something that has tangible value.  Same for different coloured keys, priority this or that, or a so called exclusive on board lunch, etc.

There is some very good research from the AMA that says Millennials are "brand loyal" but aren't retailer loyal.  So they might like Coke over Pepsi, but will buy it wherever they can get the best deal--the grocery store, gas station 7-11, Dollar General, etc.  With cruises they will be loyal to a line but not a travel agent, and will purchase from whoever they can get the best deal from.

 

 

 

[Pale Gail Sails]

15 hours ago, ducklite said:

There is some very good research from the AMA that says Millennials are "brand loyal" but aren't retailer loyal.  So they might like Coke over Pepsi, but will buy it wherever they can get the best deal--the grocery store, gas station 7-11, Dollar General, etc.  With cruises they will be loyal to a line but not a travel agent, and will purchase from whoever they can get the best deal from.

 

 

 

Along that same vein, we select our cruises on where we want to go and what we want to spend. However, if two lines offer almost identical itineraries, for a costing within +/- $250, we start to drill down into what exactly we get as perks, loyalty points, etc. It still comes down to the best deal.   You raise an interesting point regarding the travel agent and your observations are bang on. Older members of my family always use the same agent while younger members of my family purchase from the agent offering the best deal.

[dreadpirate3]

23 minutes ago, Pale Gail Sails said:

Along that same vein, we select our cruises on where we want to go and what we want to spend. However, if two lines offer almost identical itineraries, for a costing within +/- $250, we start to drill down into what exactly we get as perks, loyalty points, etc. It still comes down to the best deal.   You raise an interesting point regarding the travel agent and your observations are bang on. Older members of my family always use the same agent while younger members of my family purchase from the agent offering the best deal.

 

Same here. I could not have found a lower price anywhere (I did look), and I have some doubts about service on the other line sailing to the same areas for a similar, but not as good, price.

Edited March 6, 2020 by dreadpirate3

[iancal]

When our choice comes down to two ships on different lines and they are equal based on our preferences we the take a look at the value to us of the perks on both lines.

 

We assign a value to them.  Not the cruise lines’s price rather what we would realistically spend for the benefit.   The savings across several lines are not very significant to us...especially when there is a difference in cruise fares.

 

 For us, at our levels,the most attractive seem to be RCI/Celebrity and Princess.  The least attractive is HAL’s party because it takes so long to get anything of much value to us.   

Edited March 6, 2020 by iancal