STATUS MATCH FOR RCL GROUP

[Riley]

On 7/19/2024 at 9:34 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Further clarification.  General impression:  The X Z's are NOT happy.

 

Pretty confident some Pinnacles will be equally ticked off if they think this increases the volume of attendees at their specialty meet-ups.  Me? I think the more the merrier!

[twangster]

1 minute ago, Riley said:

Pretty confident some Pinnacles will be equally ticked off if they think this increases the volume of attendees at their specialty meet-ups.  Me? I think the more the merrier!

Not very many Zenith out there and I'm not sure they are looking to switch to Royal.  The odds of encountering masses of Zeniths on any given Royal cruise is a lot worse than the odds of hitting big jackpots in the casino every night of the cruise.

[TXcruzer]

1 hour ago, Riley said:

Pretty confident some Pinnacles will be equally ticked off if they think this increases the volume of attendees at their specialty meet-ups.  Me? I think the more the merrier!

Zeniths are not going to sail Royal, the entire purpose of this new policy was to entice upper tier cruisers to X

[steverk]

1 hour ago, TXcruzer said:

Zeniths are not going to sail Royal, the entire purpose of this new policy was to entice upper tier cruisers to X

I think there's a lot of truth to what you're saying. In fact, I've bumped in to a lot of Pinnacles that are considering X now.

For a different angle, I was on the Celebrity President's Cruise and the issue was addressed by Laura Hodges Bethage, President of Celebrity. 

She explained that many loyal Celebrity customers would sail on another line when travelling with their families.  (She mentioned NCL, but I believe that was a stand in for any other family oriented line) The intention was to try and draw these cruisers in to the Royal Caribbean Group umbrella.

That said, there are probably multiple reasons for the change and she couldn't say that they were trying to entice RCI passengers to X without irritating many people in the audience. 

Also, remember that SilverSea is included in the loyalty match now.

[Doug_Texas]

For D+ mapped to E+ you can get 20% off a Classic Bev Pkg pre-cruise.  If Celebrity runs a discount on that pkg for say, Black Friday, can you combine the sale price with additional E+ 20% off?

The happy hour doesn’t quite address drinking at the pool or after dinner drinking.

[WAAAYTOOO]

7 hours ago, Doug_Texas said:

For D+ mapped to E+ you can get 20% off a Classic Bev Pkg pre-cruise.  If Celebrity runs a discount on that pkg for say, Black Friday, can you combine the sale price with additional E+ 20% off?

The happy hour doesn’t quite address drinking at the pool or after dinner drinking.

I have not sailed on Celebrity so I don't know the answer for certain, but on Royal you cannot combine those discounts so I'm fairly confident that you won't be able to do that on Celebrity either.

[smokeybandit]

I just got an email encouraging me to apply for a Silversea account to get that status match.

[RCIfan1912]

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I just got an email encouraging me to apply for a Silversea account to get that status match.

Me too, and I didn't know you had to apply for it. I thought that was odd. 

[HeWhoWaits]

23 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Me too, and I didn't know you had to apply for it. I thought that was odd. 

"Apply for" = request. Guess they hope that by having a number we'll be more likely to book a cruise.

[WAAAYTOOO]

36 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Me too, and I didn't know you had to apply for it. I thought that was odd. 

Me three

[PhillyLady]

And me, four.  I do not know if I will even bother--not sure I see Silversea in my cruising future.  Of course, I am already well established on RC & Celebrity (all the way back to when they were Chandris in the 1970's!!)

[Rackham]

I've already applied, and received, the matches and still got the email. Seems to have been sent out to everyone on their mailing list.

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Me too, and I didn't know you had to apply for it. I thought that was odd. 

Apply meaning sign up for a silversea loyally account so I could then get the status match.

[Geezer Of The Seas]

Apparently if you don't sign up for the status match or they're  gonna kill you or something.  I've received the email not once, not twice, but 3 times since this morning. 

Apparently Platinum level earns extra spam.......

[Ampurp85]

I got the email and was like . Then I got another one and then one more, so it seems like they really want me to match to Silversea and Celebrity.......despite be matched on Celebrity. 

[smokeybandit]

19 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I got the email and was like . Then I got another one and then one more, so it seems like they really want me to match to Silversea and Celebrity.......despite be matched on Celebrity. 

I didn't get a celebrity one, but I do already have a match there.

[Doug_Texas]

My wife and I have gotten these emails.  We responded where they ask if you will “opt in” for Celebrity and Silversea marketing.  I have to hand it to RCL for this proactive marketing.  Getting all the Royal cruisers into Captain’s Club and Celebrity marketing emails is brilliant. 

[Gadget Hackwrench]

2 hours ago, Geezer Of The Seas said:

Apparently if you don't sign up for the status match or they're  gonna kill you or something.  I've received the email not once, not twice, but 3 times since this morning. 

Apparently Platinum level earns extra spam.......

Yeah I am a platinum level too and have received numerous emails with this offer. Not sure what the rush is, if this is a long-term program. I detest spam.

[HeWhoWaits]

14 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

And me, four.  I do not know if I will even bother--not sure I see Silversea in my cruising future.  Of course, I am already well established on RC & Celebrity (all the way back to when they were Chandris in the 1970's!!)

We didn't register for Celebrity numbers until after booking our first Celebrity cruise. We still got all the perks associated with the match in force at the time. If we ever book on Silversea, we'll do the same.

[Reigert2008]

I'll chime in as person 6, 7, 8, or whatever number (i lost count) of getting the status match email  We created and linked Celebrity accounts a while back when we were looking at taking a Celebrity cruise, but still have not sailed with them.    One day we will cruise on Celebrity, but right now having the drink vouchers at Diamond and above make it so easy to stay with Royal, plus we do love Royal

[WAAAYTOOO]

11 minutes ago, Reigert2008 said:

I'll chime in as person 6, 7, 8, or whatever number (i lost count) of getting the status match email  We created and linked Celebrity accounts a while back when we were looking at taking a Celebrity cruise, but still have not sailed with them.    One day we will cruise on Celebrity, but right now having the drink vouchers at Diamond and above make it so easy to stay with Royal, plus we do love Royal

This is pretty much our position as well.  Even with the full drink package with the X status match we’re not tempted to switch.  We enjoy the Pinn perks too much.  Don’t want to give up daily specialty breakfast, BOGO specialty vouchers and nearly 100% admittance to the Suites Lounges (realizing that this perk is not guaranteed).  The drinks package is basically useless to me so I’d be giving up more than I would be gaining. We enjoy the Royal Caribbean ships so for now, we’re staying put.

[Reigert2008]

13 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

This is pretty much our position as well.  Even with the full drink package with the X status match we’re not tempted to switch.  We enjoy the Pinn perks too much.  Don’t want to give up daily specialty breakfast, BOGO specialty vouchers and nearly 100% admittance to the Suites Lounges (realizing that this perk is not guaranteed).  The drinks package is basically useless to me so I’d be giving up more than I would be gaining. We enjoy the Royal Caribbean ships so for now, we’re staying put.

For us, I think we are sometimes making more of our Diamond perks than we should  We don't drink and I use the vouchers mostly for fancy coffee on ships where the Crown Lounge is inconvenient.  We get the soda package since we can get it for so cheap and while we don't "break even" each day, we certainly do over the length of the cruise.  When my in-laws are with us, we use vouchers for thier mocktails and get them the soda package as well.  One day, we'll get brave enough to drop the soda package, but at the prices we've been getting ($8.99 pppd), you can really make your money in one night sitting at Sorrento's

I guess as an experiment, I should do a solo cruise with no soda package and see if I can do it

 

One suggestion I have made to Royal several times is to give the option of choosing the drink vouchers or the soda package, but they haven't fallen for it yet.  I'm not supposed to have the mocktails anyway since they are nearly 100% sugar, so it's not really a benefit to me.