Carnival Cruise Line announced a massive overhaul to its loyalty program, and it appears Royal Caribbean won't make the same change.
While speaking on Utopia of the Seas during the line's annual President's Cruise event, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley was asked about the future of the loyalty program.
He took the opportunity to mention Carnival's changes and then call it out as a direction he doesn't want his cruise line to take.
"Carnival announced changes to their loyalty program," Mr. Bayley said at the event, which was met with a chorus of boos from the audience.
"And that is exactly what we're trying to avoid," he then said, and that was met with a round of applause.
His comments come after Carnival's change sparked a great deal of concern that Royal Caribbean might do something similar.
What Carnival is doing
Beginning June 1, 2026, Carnival will implement a new loyalty system that will change how points are earned and status retained.
In short, it will move to a more dynamic, spending-based model similar to airline frequent flyer programs.
Known as Carnival Rewards, guests earn stars based on cruise and onboard spending, as well as purchases made through the Carnival Rewards Mastercard.
Moreover, status is no longer lifelong. Tier levels will reset at the start of each new two-year earning period.
Since then, Carnival walked back some changes, likely due to negative customer feedback.
Loyalty matters
The reality is loyalty to Royal Caribbean works for both customer and company.
During Royal Caribbean Group's second quarter earnings call earlier this year, Jason Liberty, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, talked about how Royal Caribbean is doubling down on its commitment to its guests, stating that loyalty is a "two-way street."
"Loyalty is very important. I think people want to be recognized. They want to not just be recognized for their spend today, but be recognized for all that they have done in the past," said Liberty.
Working on improvements to the program
Mr. Bayley's comments about Carnival's changes came after a cruiser asked him about improving the Crown and Anchor Society so that points could be earned interchangeable between Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.
He explained how there is a leadership team within the company that regularly reviews the program and works on solutions for the future.
"You'll see over the coming months and year or two that things will continue to improve in terms of accessibility, simplicity, making it easier to sail between the brands, get offers, this type of thing," he said.
He admitted there isn't yet a clear vision for if or when they'll get to one program across both brands.
"Ultimately, we have not defined this yet, but ultimately we are going to get to a one platform database of our loyalty members for Royal Caribbean Group."
"I don't have the exact timeline. And I think we've had this discussion before, and we've maybe over the last couple of years, we started this journey with loyalty two years ago."
Not tipping over the apple cart
While simplifying loyalty programs may seem like a good idea, he also said their team is concerned with making changes that cause more problems than they solve.
"I think we're incredibly sensitive to not tipping over the apple cart," Mr. Bayley explained.
"We don't want to make decisions that maybe are short term benefits and then and then upset our loyal team members."
He also said technically, it's a difficult task to merge things. Merging data between different platforms and databases with the overlap.
"Our aim is to make everybody happy and and also benefit the company in terms of the shareholders and etc., etc.. So we're going to get there and just, you know, try and be a little patient."
