Getting R&C Credit For a Past Cruise in 1992

[dannmann]

Hi Guys
Does anyone has any suggestions for getting R&C Credit for a 7 day cruise I took 9/13/92-9/20/92 on Majesty of the Seas.

Unfortunately I do not have any remnants like a Sea Pass or Booking number as RCL would like as proof. I purchased some photos on board but RCL will not honor it unless it has a time stamp. Apparently RCL does Not keep passenger data from that long ago.  I remember getting a “Passenger List” (remember those ?) at the end of the cruise but I don’t have that anymore either.

Any suggestions will be Greatly appreciated 

Thanks

[smokeybandit]

Without hard copy proof you're out of luck 

[Srp431]

My wife keeps files in a file cabinet for each cruise we take and she had a cruise compass from our first in 1993. They accepted our proof and got out points back. 

[Vancity Cruiser]

If you booked through a travel agency they would probably still have a record of it somewhere in their system if they are still in business.

[PRMLVM]

Here is the response I received from the C&A Society help line when I tried to get credit for a cruise taken in 1991:

Unfortunately, we are unable to locate any records containing your sailing onboard the Nordic Empress. Please note; the Crown & Anchor Society did not begin until January 1, 1997. Sailings taken prior to this date are often unable to be located in our system and will require proof of sailing for review to possibly provide Cruise Points. If you have a copy of your SeaPass card for your missing sailing, you may forward that to us for additional review. We appreciate your understanding in this matter. 

Please be advised that we are no longer able to manually add missing Cruise Points, more than 12 months after the sailing's completion, unless we can locate the past sailing within our records. The more information you can provide us, such as booking numbers, the better we can search our records for any missing sailings. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.  

If you have any further questions or concerns, you may respond to this e-mail or call us directly at 1-800-526-9723, for more immediate assistance.
 

Others on this site said they were able to use photo evidence and get credit; I replied around July 5 to the C&A email above stating that I had photos; have not heard back in any way. 

[DDaley]

28 minutes ago, PRMLVM said:

Sailings taken prior to this date are often unable to be located in our system and will require proof of sailing for review to possibly provide Cruise Points

I took a Coco Cay cruise on Sovereign in 1998 and wrote about it in my 4th grade diary (I referred to it as a "Royal Carribean cruz," lol). Would that count as evidence?! hahaha I'm kidding, but now I want to try and find any Seapass or Cruise Compass to try and get credit, too! 

[CruiseGus]

We recieved credit for a 1990's cruise about 10 years ago, but we had the Sea Pass cards.

Without actual evidence I'm afraid you're out of luck. 

[dannmann]

Thanks for all the feedback people !!!

I’m amazed that they can track people on Boats from the likes of the Mayflower as well as the millions through Elis Islands centuries ago but in the computer age not me n my wife in 1992

[PRMLVM]

This is a recent link that also talks about getting credit, and some ways people were successful:

 

[Pattycruise]

I had called a few years back and gotten a 7 day credit for a cruise from the 90's and the guest agent said something to the effect "I'll give you 7 points though it's supposed to be only 1".
I believe the program was 1 point per sailing when it started? not sure.  Anyhow, flash forward a few years and I am on the phone with a C&A with a question and they notice the 7 points, and tell me that they have reduced it to the 1 point, as it should be from cruises that were "that old". 
This is how it shows in my Past cruises.

7 Night Eastern Caribbean

Sovereign of the Seas

Jan 7 — Jan 14, 1995

Points earned: 1

[CruiseGus]

7 hours ago, dannmann said:

Thanks for all the feedback people !!!

I’m amazed that they can track people on Boats from the likes of the Mayflower as well as the millions through Elis Islands centuries ago but in the computer age not me n my wife in 1992

That is because most business/corporate data way back in 1992 was either on a main frame computer or done by hand.  (A business-class 386/33 with 4MB of RAM was from 1992). 

Then there is the software conversion factor when up grades are done.  It costs loads of money to transfer data from an older system to the new one, so only a companies most critical data and summaries are transferred.

As an FYI one of my retirement financials just upgraded their system, in the old system I could look up every transaction going back 10 or more years.  Now it is only yearly summaries on line and I can still down load the Quarterly statements, but the transactional data is gone now, never to be seen again.  They just started the transactional data anew in this new system and as long as they have it I will have that data, at least till the next Major upgrade

[dadLovesNachos]

I had a similar experience of them only accepting old seapass card.  So I was unsuccessful. I have the welcome photo that says "song of norway" and know it was 1993, and pinpointed the date to roughly within 3 days (as my birthday was aboard the ship) and they wouldn't give me credit.

If you get any success, would love to know.  or find a way to look up old sailings.

you would think they would give credit for very old cruises easily, as recognition really doesn't cost them anything, yet happier customers are more likely and willing to spend more money and share the positive experience with others to entice onto RCL cruises.

[Traveling Mike]

On 7/22/2022 at 6:23 PM, dadLovesNachos said:

you would think they would give credit for very old cruises easily, as recognition really doesn't cost them anything, yet happier customers are more likely and willing to spend more money and share the positive experience with others to entice onto RCL cruises.

I am like you.  I would think they would want to make us happy, but Crown and Anchor does not seem to want happy customers.  They told me I had to show them pictures and I showed them pictures with date stamps, and they would not take them.  I ended up finding the booking number from my old travel agent and they were not going to take it until I asked for a supervisor.  I tried to work with the C&A rep on my cruise last week and she was a nightmare to work with.  I left her never wanting to sail on a Royal Ship again.  I had to tell myself that is just one person; the bad thing is the entire C&A seems to be that way.  They need to do something different.

[hoagie]

You can do anything with Photoshop nowadays and fraud is rampant. For them to actually offer this is nice. For them to be tough about it, is not surprising. Be grateful that they are going this far. They certainly aren't under any obligation to go this far.

[PRMLVM]

20 minutes ago, hoagie said:

You can do anything with Photoshop nowadays and fraud is rampant. For them to actually offer this is nice. For them to be tough about it, is not surprising. Be grateful that they are going this far. They certainly aren't under any obligation to go this far.

I agree, it's their program - their rules.  And like Pattycruise said, their old rules even say it's one point per cruise, not night, so it's not worth it to get upset over 1 point (or, even 3 in my case if they were to graciously give me the points from my '90s cruise).

Having said that, I also agree with the other posters that granting those 1,2,3 few points would be a nice gesture that encourages the warm&fuzzies. 

Either way, it won't stop me from enjoying cruising.

[dadLovesNachos]

its quite easy if someone is very fraudulent for them to see if there are a ton of credits added manually through C&A.  I would imagine they would just periodically scan or check.

I just got off Oasis of the seas and like Traveling Mike mentioned, the C&A rep on ship is useless and discouraging.  I have photos, even bought the photo when you get on the cruise ship, and the rep wouldn't even look at it. 

The experience does leave a sour taste in my mouth and honestly I've been quite loyal to royal.  But with MSC entering the market and many cruises not booked out you would think they would want to increase loyal customer's satisfaction.  This has made me a bit more apprehensive to book my next cruise with them.  I actually booked a non-royal cruise next (disney, since I have young children)

 

Takeaway:

I'm glad some people were able to work with C&A online, I just know the ones on the ship are pretty useless.  So if you do have a request, don't bother asking on a ship, better off just calling and email.

 

 

[Matt]

Can you explain the issue in greater detail? Not sure I understand the problem you ran into

[dannmann]

Thanks Matt  I love all ur videos on YouTube 

i went on Majesty of the Seas 9/13-9/20/1992 The only proof I have is a souvenir photo I bought from the Photo Shop along with RCL paper frame it came with. RCL says they don’t have records that go back that far so they can’t validate my claim that I was on board and won’t award me the 7 C&A points that I’m entitled to. I’m asking for any suggestions on how to proceed. 
 

Thank You

- Dan S

LI, NY

[PhillyLady]

Wow--I sailed with Chandris in the 1970s and I might still have my sea pass cards.  (I think they were little cardboard squares.)   Chandris then became Celebrity, and was purchased by Royal Caribbean.    Not sure they would give me any points for those travels...

Unfortunately for me, I have also sailed on a few cruise lines that have completely disappeared, such as Dolphin Cruise lines and American Hawaii Cruises.  I also sent my parents on the Mississippi Queen from Delta Queen Steamboat Cruise Lines.

Oh well, at least I have lots of happy memories!

[jeffmw]

I don't get this either. I'm not sure why they hold such a high standard for something with so little at stake. They seem to be going out of their way to be stringent on a program that really only serves to make the passenger happier and is of minimal cost to them. You need so many points to actually get anything of real value (the lower tiers are really just conveniences for the customer that cost RC little).

I get that they don't want people showing up with photos of cruises from 30 years ago worth dozens of nights, but then maybe have a cap. Say you can get credit for up to 10 or 15 nights from sailings pre-1997 if you can provide reasonable documentation. 

I sailed twice in the 90s for a total of 12 or so nights but I don't have Sea Pass cards and so I haven't gotten credit either.

[twangster]

5 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

Wow--I sailed with Chandris in the 1970s and I might still have my sea pass cards.  (I think they were little cardboard squares.)   Chandris then became Celebrity, and was purchased by Royal Caribbean.    Not sure they would give me any points for those travels...

Celebrity is part of the Royal Caribbean Group.  That's different than Royal Caribbean International which is also owned by the Royal Caribbean Group.  That makes this Royal Caribbean cruise line (focus of this site) a sister company to Celebrity, Celebrity is not owned by, or part of Royal Caribbean International.  They are two separate companies.  The loyalty programs for the two separate companies are not the same despite this Royal Caribbean cruise line having a name that is similar to the parent holding company.  

 

[twangster]

30 minutes ago, jeffmw said:

I don't get this either. I'm not sure why they hold such a high standard for something with so little at stake. They seem to be going out of their way to be stringent on a program that really only serves to make the passenger happier and is of minimal cost to them. You need so many points to actually get anything of real value (the lower tiers are really just conveniences for the customer that cost RC little).

I get that they don't want people showing up with photos of cruises from 30 years ago worth dozens of nights, but then maybe have a cap. Say you can get credit for up to 10 or 15 nights from sailings pre-1997 if you can provide reasonable documentation. 

I sailed twice in the 90s for a total of 12 or so nights but I don't have Sea Pass cards and so I haven't gotten credit either.

Few companies hold customer records going back several decades when there was no electronic means to document anything.  It would be super easy for anyone to forge a paper record of something from the days before computers were common in the workplace and very time consuming for a company to fact check the claim.  It's not reasonable to expect a company to have passenger records going back 25+ years.  In this day and age anyone who was able to gain points from decade old travel would quickly proclaim on social media how to scam the system and millions would jump on the effort to gain undue points.  Placing time limits on such claims is reasonable in any loyalty program.  

[Carlos A.]

Before January 21 2011, RC awarded "cruise credits" to cruisers, not points.

1 credit for every sailing

1 additional credit if sailing in a JS or higher

On January 21 2011 RC converted all of those "cruise credits" into "cruise points".

So this was the conversion table for credits to points

If you had 1-4 credits = # of credits x 7 + 1

If you had 5-7 credits = # of credits x 7 + 3

 

I had 2 sailings (one 7 night, and one 3 nights) previous to 2011. They only gave me 7 points even that I should got 15.

[jeffmw]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Few companies hold customer records going back several decades when there was no electronic means to document anything.  It would be super easy for anyone to forge a paper record of something from the days before computers were common in the workplace and very time consuming for a company to fact check the claim.  It's not reasonable to expect a company to have passenger records going back 25+ years.  In this day and age anyone who was able to gain points from decade old travel would quickly proclaim on social media how to scam the system and millions would jump on the effort to gain undue points.  Placing time limits on such claims is reasonable in any loyalty program.  

I get it, but I don't think there is that much to gain that people are going to start massive forgery operations. We're not talking about airline miles or hotel points. In those cases, those companies have to put significant regulations around their programs because the points have actual monetary value. These points are pretty small stakes as far as the benefits provided. We're talking small perks that really cost RC very little.  And, again, they could easily offer a relatively low cap to ensure no one really abuses the system. 

[hoagie]

On 7/24/2022 at 10:35 AM, PRMLVM said:

I agree, it's their program - their rules.  And like Pattycruise said, their old rules even say it's one point per cruise, not night, so it's not worth it to get upset over 1 point (or, even 3 in my case if they were to graciously give me the points from my '90s cruise).

Having said that, I also agree with the other posters that granting those 1,2,3 few points would be a nice gesture that encourages the warm&fuzzies. 

Either way, it won't stop me from enjoying cruising.

I agree - Warm and fuzzies are great!

I was last on Jewell and can't wait to get on Oasis in March.

[Summer Bee Sweet]

Back in 2017 I went to the Loyalty Ambassador on a ship and asked about a cruise on Majesty from 1992. I had no documentation with me, just the dates and port info. They gave me credit for the cruise and my crown and anchor number starts with 100, not 3-something like my husband.

It may have helped that I have an uncommon name and listed the others in our group. 
This was also the cruise where I showed my Sams card as a photo ID to board the ship