Crown & Anchor Pinnacle / child question

[ChrisK2793]

Myself, my spouse, and our currently 7 year old son will all be Diamond Plus by the end of 2020 because of booking suites.  On his own, our son is only 14 points behind us because of a cruise we took before he was born.  What I’m wondering is what happens in the following scenario since pinnacle isn’t given to children:

Suppose our son earns Pinnacle before he graduates from high school or college.  When he gets married, I know his wife gets Pinnacle ........ when they have children, what do their children become?  Would their children automatically become Diamond Plus since they can’t get Pinnacle from their parents?

Thanks in advance.

[twangster]

The verbiage suggests there is no dependent tier match for Pinnacle.  It appears to read that only non-Pinnacle tiers can have dependents.  One interpretation would be once your child is Pinnacle your child’s children get no status at all since Pinnacles can only have a relationship with a spouse or significant other.

That seems rather harsh so an email to CAS might be in order.   

CAS Verbiage 
A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the CAS program.

For all tiers except Pinnacle Club, a relationship is defined as a spouse or significant other and children less than 18 years old. For Pinnacle Club a relationship is considered a spouse and/or significant other. Children will be taken out of a relationship with a parent or guardian upon their 18th birthday date. If it is found that a dependent or child is not immediately removed from a relationship upon their 18th birthday and accumulates a higher tier status outside of this time period, the dependents record will be adjusted back to the appropriate tier status.

[Flacruiser99]

Interesting hypothetical question, my guess would be D+.

[karl_nj]

I think it's likely the program will be different when your future hypothetical  first grandchild turns 18, in about 40 years from now.

[ChrisK2793]

8 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

I think it's likely the program will be different when your future hypothetical  first grandchild turns 18, in about 40 years from now.

LOL , true, but going by today’s standards, what I mean is ..... if my son becomes Pinnacle before his first child is born, what status will his child have on say his hypothetical 1st cruise when he’s 1 year old?  

OR ..... say we become Pinnacle and then have another child, what would my then child be for his 1st cruise?

[twangster]

9 minutes ago, ChrisK2793 said:

LOL , true, but going by today’s standards, what I mean is ..... if my son becomes Pinnacle before his first child is born, what status will his child have on say his hypothetical 1st cruise when he’s 1 year old?  

OR ..... say we become Pinnacle and then have another child, what would my then child be for his 1st cruise?

Please come back and let us all know!

[uniongodess]

Don't kids start over at 18?

[ChrisK2793]

4 minutes ago, uniongodess said:

Don't kids start over at 18?

No, my 7 year old son has his own crown and anchor number and has the same status as us on his boarding cards even though he’s technically 14 points behind us  ......... they just can’t have an online account connected to their crown and anchor number until they’re 13

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 minutes ago, uniongodess said:

Don't kids start over at 18?

Not exactly. Kids are allowed to keep their “inherited” status but only keep the number of cruise points that they have actually earned. So if they “inherited” Diamond status from their parents but only have 50 actual cruise points, once they turn 18 they will be Diamond members with 50 points and will not turn D+ until they have sailed enough times to achieve 175 points (or whatever it is for D+....I can’t remember) on their own.

[ChrisK2793]

Yes ...... But what happens if the parents are Pinnacle when their child is born?  Does the child inherit the lower Diamond Plus?  Or do they get no status at all as someone suggested above?

[WAAAYTOOO]

Just now, ChrisK2793 said:

Yes ...... But what happens if the parents are Pinnacle when their child is born?  Does the child inherit the lower Diamond Plus?  Or do they get no status at all as someone suggest above?

That one I cannot answer. I’m going to guess D+ but it’s just a guess.

[Lovetocruise2002]

36 minutes ago, ChrisK2793 said:

Yes ...... But what happens if the parents are Pinnacle when their child is born?  Does the child inherit the lower Diamond Plus?  Or do they get no status at all as someone suggested above?

I cannot answer your question directly but I can tell you that on our Symphony cruise, last month, there was a “younger pinnacle couple” there with their son. The boy could not have been more than 10. When we were at the Top Tier party, they had reserved seats for all the Pinnacle members on the sailing, including the young boy. The seats were marked with each of their names.  He also had a gold pin like his parents. They were recognized for being the cruisers with the 3rd highest C&A points on our sailing.  Over 1000.  All 3 of them went up to receive the honour and Captain Rob gave the gift to the boy.

Interpret what you want from that.

My kids will be stuck at D+ for a while so I won’t be able to tell you first hand lol.

[WAAAYTOOO]

I guess it’s possible that the son was Pinnacle on his own. It would be difficult but not impossible. If he had his own Pinnacle pin then I would have to believe that he has attained Pinnacle status, himself.

[karl_nj]

2 hours ago, ChrisK2793 said:

LOL , true, but going by today’s standards, what I mean is ..... if my son becomes Pinnacle before his first child is born, what status will his child have on say his hypothetical 1st cruise when he’s 1 year old?  

OR ..... say we become Pinnacle and then have another child, what would my then child be for his 1st cruise?

It's certainly an interesting question.

Keep in mind that cruise lines change over time.  Even if C&A stays the same, Royal Caribbean may change.

The Norwegian Caribbean Line cruise I went on when I was a kid in the 80's was totally different then the NCL of today.  The NCL cruises my wife went on with her family in the 90s were also very different then the NCL of today.  If we were to pick a cruise line to sail on based on points from a loyalty program, we wouldn't be sailing on Royal, we would have stuck with NCL.  But NCL is different now, and they don't currently meet our needs.  So we sail on other cruise lines, like Royal, and Disney (and Cunard).

Loyalty programs are a nice bonus, but I don't feel it's a great idea to limit yourself to one cruise line to chase after some level in a loyalty program.  Not that I'm saying that is what you are doing, it's certainly possible you have sailed on other lines before deciding that Royal Caribbean is the best for you and your family.  I'm just saying that things change, and that may not always be the case .

In any case, it's still an interesting question to debate.

[Lovetocruise2002]

26 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I guess it’s possible that the son was Pinnacle on his own. It would be difficult but not impossible. If he had his own Pinnacle pin then I would have to believe that he has attained Pinnacle status, himself.

If that was the case, that kid probably spent half his life on a cruise! He was not very old at all lol.

[Zap fink]

I have just called Royal Caribbean to check on my children c&a status. What I was informed was that if you do not enroll them before they are 18, they will not resume your status (sucks for my children). They will receive there points for there cruise taken, but will not receive the parents standing as of there 18 birthday (non published gray area so enroll your children as soon as possible). I am not a happy camper at this time 

[SpeedNoodles]

@Zap fink I'm sorry to read that, but welcome to the message boards!

[twangster]

3 hours ago, Zap fink said:

I have just called Royal Caribbean to check on my children c&a status. What I was informed was that if you do not enroll them before they are 18, they will not resume your status (sucks for my children). They will receive there points for there cruise taken, but will not receive the parents standing as of there 18 birthday (non published gray area so enroll your children as soon as possible). I am not a happy camper at this time 

Not exactly a gray area, it is documented that dependents have to be lower than age 18.  See the 2nd post in this thread.

My step daughter couldn't get our status in this way.  It is what it is.  She remains gold.

[Zap fink]

twangster

you are correct that the dependent has to be blow 18 years of age. As of there 18th birthday they maintain your status (gold, platinum, emerald, diamond ect. except pinnicle) of the parent or guardian, but there points revert back to there actual amount of days sailed until they accumulate to the given status. They can not advance until the accumulate the points at that tier.

[twangster]

42 minutes ago, Zap fink said:

twangster

you are correct that the dependent has to be blow 18 years of age. As of there 18th birthday they maintain your status (gold, platinum, emerald, diamond ect. except pinnicle) of the parent or guardian, but there points revert back to there actual amount of days sailed until they accumulate to the given status. They can not advance until the accumulate the points at that tier.

Correct.  Has always been that way, even for the adults in a declared relationship.  The system displays the higher point count but each person has only the points they have sailed in the backend that we don't see.

[Charlet]

Hello - looking for some help on how to enroll our children into the Crown and Anchor account (from what I heard under our account through a relationship). Having difficulty actually finding how to do that. Can someone help?  Thanks

[twangster]

8 hours ago, Charlet said:

Hello - looking for some help on how to enroll our children into the Crown and Anchor account (from what I heard under our account through a relationship). Having difficulty actually finding how to do that. Can someone help?  Thanks

Contact Crown and Anchor.  If you are in the US they operate with typical business hours plus a few hours to cover most US time zones.

‭(800) 526-9723‬

Emailing is them is another option but response times by email are not what they used to be.  The email address is crownandanchor@rccl.com .

[wordell1]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Contact Crown and Anchor.  If you are in the US they operate with typical business hours plus a few hours to cover most US time zones.

‭(800) 526-9723‬

Emailing is them is another option but response times by email are not what they used to be.  The email address is crownandanchor@rccl.com .

Calling is definitely the best option, but you can also visit the loyalty ambassador while on your cruise to get them enrolled.

[I_Love_RCI]

Interesting question. I have been a longtime lurker, but this finally prompted me to sign up to respond. 

We are almost a "younger pinnacle couple" as we will hit the status on our next cruise in August. We also have an 11 year old who has been sailing since he was 8 months old. Thus, we will be able to better answer some of these questions in the near future. 

As I understand it currently, our child gets our status until he turns 18. He goes to the lounges with us and he likes to take advantage of his free non-alcoholic drinks. Then, it reverts to whatever status he has accumulated from his own points at 18. Which, by that time, he will also hit pinnacle on his own. 

 

 

[twangster]

1 hour ago, I_Love_RCI said:

Interesting question. I have been a longtime lurker, but this finally prompted me to sign up to respond. 

We are almost a "younger pinnacle couple" as we will hit the status on our next cruise in August. We also have an 11 year old who has been sailing since he was 8 months old. Thus, we will be able to better answer some of these questions in the near future. 

As I understand it currently, our child gets our status until he turns 18. He goes to the lounges with us and he likes to take advantage of his free non-alcoholic drinks. Then, it reverts to whatever status he has accumulated from his own points at 18. Which, by that time, he will also hit pinnacle on his own. 

 

 

 

Congratulations on soon making Pinnacle!  And welcome to the club!

Here is the verbiage directly from CAS:

• A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the CAS program. For all tiers except Pinnacle Club, a relationship is defined as a spouse or significant other and children less than 18 years old. For Pinnacle Club a relationship is considered a spouse and/or significant other.

This has generally been reported by users as.. a dependent can receive relationship status for all levels except Pinnacle which in a relationship only gets transferred to a spouse or significant other and Pinnacle dependent children being capped at D+.  

Having said that...

There was a Pinnacle couple recently who commented in a FB group.  Their 6 month old was given a Pinnacle card on it's first cruise ever.   This needless to say had the Pinnacle FB group up in arms.  Personally it doesn't matter to me, it has zero impact to me.  I thought the reaction of many in the group was a bigger story than the baby being a Pinnacle.   "How can someone who has never cruised before be a pinnacle!" (not my words). 

More relevant to your situation a number of Pinnacle chimed in to say their dependent children were not given Pinnacle status but held at D+ when they cruised.  The change to recognize dependents as Pinnacle was reported to be a recent change according to the couple with the baby yet CAS has not updated the verbiage above to reflect this change.  I feel it was probably a one off that a particular loyalty ambassador did but time will tell if that's the case.

No where in the verbiage of CAS does it address what happens at 18.  In some cases users have reported dependents being kicked back to the natural or actual earned level based on their their actual points while others have reported their 18 year olds were frozen at whatever level they were upon turning 18.  Since it isn't documented there is no arguing their case with the CAS team.

Please come back and let us know your experience once you get there.

[I_Love_RCI]

I will report back. We earn the points in August, but our first cruise as pinnacle is in November. We'll see what they list him as then. 

I'm not on the FB pages that you referenced. Per this line, "In some cases users have reported dependents being kicked back to the natural or actual earned level based on their their actual points while others have reported their 18 year olds were frozen at whatever level they were upon turning 18." Was some of that due to the large gap between D+ and pinnacle? It seems like forever ago since we hit D+. 

[twangster]

40 minutes ago, I_Love_RCI said:

I will report back. We earn the points in August, but our first cruise as pinnacle is in November. We'll see what they list him as then. 

I'm not on the FB pages that you referenced. Per this line, "In some cases users have reported dependents being kicked back to the natural or actual earned level based on their their actual points while others have reported their 18 year olds were frozen at whatever level they were upon turning 18." Was some of that due to the large gap between D+ and pinnacle? It seems like forever ago since we hit D+. 

That statement applies to all levels.  Most cruisers in the past were lucky to reach Diamond.  In modern times more are reaching Diamond Plus.  That is where the bulk of users who have commented in other threads have posted about their experiences once dependents reach 18.  Diamond being the most popular dependent status to achieve for the lounge benefits and now drink vouchers for when they are 21.

It's pretty clear to see in the verbiage that dependents of Pinnacles are not supposed to gain Pinnacle status until they themselves have earned 700 on their own merit.  However we all know Royal can be inconsistent.  There are some younger members who have earned 700 primarily through many suite cruises so Pinnacle Youth are not unprecedented, just not very common.  Loyalty ambassadors have a Pinnacle Youth on board offer letter template for those occasions when one does sail. 

The FB groups for Pinnacle require being Pinnacle to join.  Close doesn't count.  I just left one Pinnacle FB group that was too toxic.  The other Pinnacle FB group is more tolerable.  

[smokeybandit]

38 minutes ago, twangster said:

I just left one Pinnacle FB group that was too toxic.

Wasn't your pineapple upside down enough?