Does Carnival Have a Loyalty Program Anymore?

[Purvis1231]

4 hours ago, staceyglow said:

That is not correct.  I have been on several journeys cruises were I would bet the percentage of Diamonds and Platinums was at least 25%.

 

That being said, when there is priority embarkation and debarkation the FTTF people go after the Diamonds and Platinums, so those perks are not diluted.

25% still would not be thousands. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

The Diamond level was added after the loyalty program was changed from cruises to number of days. There was no Diamond level before that! 😎

 

 

That was my recollection as well. We cruised on the Liberty over July 4th in 2012, and I think we were their first Diamond guests (they rolled out the red carpet for us on that sailing). It was my 50th birthday and 50th Carnival cruise to boot!

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Except like you posted, you can buy it these perks.  You can also just help yourself to these perks since they don't check other than at boarding by checking boarding passes at start of embarkation.  No one is stopped going to their rooms and no one is checking at debark.

Should they shoot them them? Remove them from the ship?  Isn’t the 4 ft sign enough deterrent ?

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

The Diamond level was added after the loyalty program was changed from cruises to number of days. There was no Diamond level before that! 😎

Bingo, we have a winner. 

[jimbo5544]

20 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

You know that is not what I mean.  Platinum and Diamond parties have more non P/D attendees than P/Ds and the quality of refreshments is seriously poor.  People play games with booking cabins and switching once onboard to double up how many people can get priority boarding, luggage, debark.  How many extra people can be brought onto water shuttles?  Priority water shuttles don't seem like a perk when a solo Diamond can't get onboard

The problem is not the non qualified coming to parties, it is the number of qualified going.  When a ship has a double capacity of 3400 and there are 300 Diamonds and 1700 Plats, there is that problem.  The only answer is to raise the bar, watering down the qualifiers will worsen the problem, not improve it.

Edited June 27, 2023 by jimbo5544

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

The Diamond level was added after the loyalty program was changed from cruises to number of days. There was no Diamond level before that! 😎

 

 

That was my recollection as well. We cruised on the Liberty over July 4th in 2012, and I think we were their first Diamond guests (they rolled out the red carpet for us on that sailing). It was my 50th birthday and 50th Carnival cruise to boot!

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

20 hours ago, Lee Cruiser said:

This has been discussed for years, yet it still hasn't been revamped.  Several years ago, before we became platinum, we had a cruise booked on one of the newer RC ships that was being built at the time.  We booked that cruise two years before because it was "rumored" that the program was about to receive major changes, including raising the number of days to reach platinum.  We were thinking that if they raised the number of days, then it really wouldn't matter if we tried another line and we had a super rate.  In the meantime, the months go by and nothing changed.  We then had enough days that if we took a cruise on Carnival instead, we would reach platinum on that cruise.  So we cancelled the RC cruise and booked another cruise on Breeze.  At the time we were so excited to reach platinum.  Fast forward several years later and now there are 10's of thousands more platinums and they are still talking about changing the program.

 

One of the perks we looked forward to the most was having our room ready when we boarded.  That perk is now gone away and most  likely won't return with any new changes, so for us being platinum doesn't mean near as much anymore.

It is, huh, not for me

[jimbo5544]

20 hours ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

You can be Platinum on Carnival after you spend a boatload of money and a bunch of days on board. So, now you get a few extra perks.  Then Carnival decides to sell the FTTF package and dilutes whatever benefits you have earned with their LOYALTY program.  I'm sure if Carnival does anything to revamp the VIFP program, it isn't going benefit their loyal customers at all.

Pretty sure that fttf was announced at teh same time as the loyalty program (2012), 

Edited June 27, 2023 by jimbo5544

[sgttami]

It's all gonna change in the near future!

 

When I became DIAMOND on RCL you needed 10 cruises.  Then they changed it to amount of days and Diamond Plus is 175.  Top Tier of Pinnacle is 700.  That's a long stretch to be at the TOP!  

  I will dangle between Plus and Pinnacle till the end of time (LOL)

 

I'm at 127 days on Carnival and my guess is they will raise Diamond above the current 200 and I'll continue to dangle before I ever reach the "new" top!.

 

The old perks were better anyway so I'll just cruise merrily along and not stress about status.

A free bag of laundry or a $2 gift of some sort isn't a really big deal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Elaine5715]

3 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

The problem is not the non qualified coming to parties, it is the number of qualified going.  When a ship has a double capacity of 3400 and there are 300 Diamonds and 1700 Plats, there is that problem.  The only answer is to raise the bar, watering down the qualifiers will worsen the problem, not improve it.

It is most certainly the unqualified also in attendance invited by the invited or just in the know.  I as a solo can't find a place to sit because there are huge groups with dangling blue/red/gold cards with a token or two Tin or white cards

[Elaine5715]

3 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

 

That was my recollection as well. We cruised on the Liberty over July 4th in 2012, and I think we were their first Diamond guests (they rolled out the red carpet for us on that sailing). It was my 50th birthday and 50th Carnival cruise to boot!

 

 

 

 

If Diamond level was created in 2012, the Platinum change was 2013.  I turned Platinum 9/6/2013 under the gun

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, NJEMT29 said:

My wife and I are platinum and we will be sailing on the Mardi gras in August my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter are gold numbers I’m trying to find out if I need faster to the fun to get them to board with us or can they just follow us when they call platinum we just came off the Carnival  legend and when we boarded that ship last week, I noticed one couple had platinum and they had eight people with them and they said they were all family members and they let them board with the platinum group so do I buy faster to the fun or take the chance that port canaveral will let them board with us thanks for any help 

Right on cue

[rolloman]

20 hours ago, Purvis1231 said:

 Sure the water, drinks, and gifts are not delivered to cabins anymore but they are not hard to find.

Said the blind man to his one legged friend. 

[Jamman54]

4 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

If Diamond level was created in 2012, the Platinum change was 2013.  I turned Platinum 9/6/2013 under the gun

The VIFP loyalty program as we know it now was rolled out on 6/25/12. Due to much gnashing of teeth, they allowed people up until 12/31/13 to become Platinum under the 10 cruise rule.

[pe4all]

Just made Diamond a few cruises ago.  Did it the "old" way - took me 31 cruises to get my 200 sea days- not 25 like they used to have.   Never took a cruise shorter than 6 days.  I don't begrudge anyone their status level.  Just don't take my Diamond status away from me - lol!

[staceyglow]

13 hours ago, Purvis1231 said:

25% still would not be thousands. 

It's more than "a few hundred". 

[kdr69]

On 6/26/2023 at 3:43 PM, Old Fart Cruisers said:

Totally agree.  I actually witnessed a diamond hard holder sharing their can koozie with a gold card holder.  Hopefully, both of them were kicked off and banned for life🙃 

Crap i think I was the Gold card holder.....

[kdr69]

22 hours ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

And Carnival then SELLS that same perk with FTTF to the people that are not platinum or diamond making that perk even more useless. 

FTTF goes AFTER Diamond, Platinum and Suite Guests not WITH.  Not sure how that equates to the same perk.  Its just another level of BEFORE everyone else.  Hopefully nothing changes before April of 2024 when i take my Platinum cruise and dont need to pay for FTTF anymore. 😊

[kdr69]

15 hours ago, tbjl24 said:

NCL and Royal have actual real perks once you work your way up the ladder a few rungs.

KA CHING$$$$  damn well paid for em by that time....

[cantw82cruise]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:59 PM, NYcruzzer said:

Carnival's Loyalty program comes complete with a fun onboard scavenger hunt to locate and obtain all your benefits/gifts ??

Like most we missed a lot of cruising due to COVID we cruised in Oct of 2019 and then didn't go again till 12/2022 and some things did change. I don't mind the changes they are what they are and I don't mind having to get the perks a different way than before but it sure would have been nice to have something in my cabin when I boarded to tell me what I get and how to get it. 

[cantw82cruise]

11 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

It is most certainly the unqualified also in attendance invited by the invited or just in the know.  I as a solo can't find a place to sit because there are huge groups with dangling blue/red/gold cards with a token or two Tin or white cards

My wife and I are both Diamond and we both get an invitation to the Diamond party. Sometimes it states you and a guest are invited and sometimes it doesn't. If it does and we are cruising with friends we will ask them to come along. That may be why you see some people there that are not Diamond. It also varies from cruise to cruise if they have a lunch or a gathering. I'm not sure if this is based on the quantity of eligible people or the schedule of the captain and staff. We do not attend the P/D (past sailings) parties because there are too many people in there. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

39 minutes ago, cantw82cruise said:

My wife and I are both Diamond and we both get an invitation to the Diamond party. Sometimes it states you and a guest are invited and sometimes it doesn't. If it does and we are cruising with friends we will ask them to come along. That may be why you see some people there that are not Diamond. It also varies from cruise to cruise if they have a lunch or a gathering. I'm not sure if this is based on the quantity of eligible people or the schedule of the captain and staff. We do not attend the P/D (past sailings) parties because there are too many people in there. 

So...other than the free drinks (which for anyone with Cheers is a moot point), what is the "value" in attending the Platinum and/or Diamond parties?  Rubbing shoulders with all your fellow P&Ders?  Does the Captain come out and mingle, or just give a 3 minute spiel (in garbled Italian-English) and disappear?

 

Sorry to veer off-topic-ish, but just curious.  We won't be Platinum for a while, based on current vacation plans (i.e. not cruising), so I'm sure the VIFP program will alter before we hit it, and we'll be stuck in Gold Limbo land for yonks.

Edited June 28, 2023 by ProgRockCruiser

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, kdr69 said:

KA CHING$$$$  damn well paid for em by that time....

.. and then there's Zenith on Celebrity (3,000 points). For those that make the grade, premium beverage and Wi-fi packages are yours for life, or until they change the program.

 

FWIW, I'm at the next tier down w/1,500 pts (Elite Plus, which begins at 750) so I'm barely half way there, and don't ever see hitting that "pinnacle"  🙂

 

It would be nice to see some level added in between, but that's likely not in the cards.

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

2 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

So...other than the free drinks (which for anyone with Cheers is a moot point), what is the "value" in attending the Platinum and/or Diamond parties?  ...

 

For the most part, we skip those parties now. It's, basically, a waste of good cruise ship time !!

 

Tom

[Elaine5715]

7 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

The VIFP loyalty program as we know it now was rolled out on 6/25/12. Due to much gnashing of teeth, they allowed people up until 12/31/13 to become Platinum under the 10 cruise rule.

I was one of "those"