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I’m certain this will not be a popular opinion on this forum but I’m gonna say it. I think the Suite Lounge should be reserved for suite guests who pay a premium for something special. I think people with RC Pinnacle Status should stick to the Diamond Lounge. It would be less crowded and offer a more special experience for those of us who pay. You could make the case that they got to Pinnacle by spending money, however, it’s not difficult for a person of means & time to cruise in inside cabins to obtain status. If I’m going to pay larger sums of money for a suite then I want an experience. Sorry Pinnacle folks. 

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14 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I’m certain this will not be a popular opinion on this forum but I’m gonna say it. I think the Suite Lounge should be reserved for suite guests who pay a premium for something special. I think people with RC Pinnacle Status should stick to the Diamond Lounge. It would be less crowded and offer a more special experience for those of us who pay. You could make the case that they got to Pinnacle by spending money, however, it’s not difficult for a person of means & time to cruise in inside cabins to obtain status. If I’m going to pay larger sums of money for a suite then I want an experience. Sorry Pinnacle folks. 

Hey, what's your problem, I'm 4 cruises away from Diamond+ and probably 20 years away from Pinnacle, but by golly when I get there I want to use the Suite lounge, lol...

Seriously, I actually think that if you cruise in a suite that is at that next level of suites, think Star Class Suites or the Presidential suite on non O or Q ships, that the per night award points should be more, but I get why they aren't, I'm in a Grand suite my next 3 cruises, then a Star Loft and then an Owners suite, but I like the idea dropping down to a Junior and still getting 2 points per night, IMHO.

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19 minutes ago, tiny260 said:

Hey, what's your problem, I'm 4 cruises away from Diamond+ and probably 20 years away from Pinnacle, but by golly when I get there I want to use the Suite lounge, lol...

Seriously, I actually think that if you cruise in a suite that is at that next level of suites, think Star Class Suites or the Presidential suite on non O or Q ships, that the per night award points should be more, but I get why they aren't, I'm in a Grand suite my next 3 cruises, then a Star Loft and then an Owners suite, but I like the idea dropping down to a Junior and still getting 2 points per night, IMHO.

I think any Suite level above JS should enjoy exclusive perks that are separate from what the Pinnacle folks receive. One is based on Ststus and the other is based on spending more money to have a more exclusive experience. It’s great that you have achieved Pinnacle but if you didn’t book a suite for a particular cruise then you shouldn’t have business in the Suite Lounge. Just my opinion. 

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is this a change in policy or the way its always been?

 

Don't these people that pay lots of $$ for a suite get all kinds of perks for their money already? Surely sharing a lounge with some seasoned cruises doesn't ruin your experience or make you feel like you aren't getting what your entitled to? And I cant imagine they are over crowded.

 

I guess these are problems I will never have to worry about....staying in a suite and being waited on or reaching pinnacle.

 

There is lots that I don't like or agree with that Royal does...this doesn't even register as an issue for 95% of cruise passengers....just the elite ones I guess!..lol Sounds like those who sit in first class and complain about how NOT first class enough it is......first world problems eh?!....

 

Maybe cruise on a ship that doesn't have a suite lounge...then you wont have to deal with those pinnacle people that spent like 700 nights in a inside room to reach that status...haha

 

Now if your are pinnacle AND you can still afford to book a suite...then you deserve a whole lounge to yourself.....:4_joy:

 

Oh..and this thread should prob be under Discussion rather than News and Rumors?

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7 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

is this a change in policy or the way its always been?

 

Don't these people that pay lots of $$ for a suite get all kinds of perks for their money already? Surely sharing a lounge with some seasoned cruises doesn't ruin your experience or make you feel like you aren't getting what your entitled to? And I cant imagine they are over crowded.

 

I guess these are problems I will never have to worry about....staying in a suite and being waited on or reaching pinnacle.

 

There is lots that I don't like or agree with that Royal does...this doesn't even register as an issue for 95% of cruise passengers....just the elite ones I guess!..lol Sounds like those who sit in first class and complain about how NOT first class enough it is......first world problems eh?!....

 

Maybe cruise on a ship that doesn't have a suite lounge...then you wont have to deal with those pinnacle people that spent like 700 nights in a inside room to reach that status...haha

 

Now if your are pinnacle AND you can still afford to book a suite...then you deserve a whole lounge to yourself.....:4_joy:

 

Oh..and this thread should prob be under Discussion rather than News and Rumors?

It’s just an observation that clearly only the 1% will take note of. PS: I didnt put it under “news & rumors”. 

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To add even more fuel to this fire...I wonder (I know that no one knows the answer to this, yet) if the new "suites area" of the Spectrum will be for Suites only or if P's will be invited.  I'm predicting that P's will be included but I certainly do not know.

Since it appears that Royal is mimicking Norwegian for this "ship within a ship" concept, I guess a good question to ask is whether or not the NCL top level (I don't even know what they are called on NCL...the P equivalent on NCL) cruisers are invited to the Haven area.  That might give us a hint about how Royal is going to manage this.  Does anyone know ?

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@monctonguy, there are getting to be more and more Pinnacle's, as well as Diamond and Diamond+, I remember in one of @twangster live blog's. I believe on Anthem that he said there were over a 1000 diamonds on the cruise and that the diamond lounge could not hold them all and it spilled out over to an adjoining room, I agree, there probably shouldn't be an issue, but depending on the cruise it could get crowded.

I just figured it out, I will reach Diamond+ next year on a 9 night Anthem cruise, it will then just take me 37.5 more 7 night cruises in a suite to reach Pinnacle, 2 cruises per year=18.75 years, I'm 56 now so I will reach Pinnacle when I turn 75 approximately!!! Hope I stay healthy.

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6 minutes ago, tiny260 said:

I just figured it out, I will reach Diamond+ next year on a 9 night Anthem cruise, it will then just take me 37.5 more 7 night cruises in a suite to reach Pinnacle, 2 cruises per year=18.75 years, I'm 56 now so I will reach Pinnacle when I turn 75 approximately!!! Hope I stay healthy.

Yep, there's a BIG OL' gap there between D+ and P.  They've been talking, for years, about inserting another level in there somewhere but for some reason, haven't done it yet.

I also read (only one time, in 1 post) that the Emerald Level (created a number of years ago) was supposed to be that D+ - P level but that they released the information incorrectly and prematurely and it ended up between Platinum and Diamond by mistake.  I have NO idea if this is true or not....but it sounds kinda plausible since there are really so few points between levels at that area of the C&A ladder.  It really didn't make much sense to throw another lower level in there.  Whatever....

I'm with you though.  I will be WAAAYTOOO old to enjoy P if I live that long and do not run out of money first.  LOL

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Just curious:  On a ship like Harmony how many Pinnacle members are there on an average sailing, and how many suite guests are there?

Before I ever try to form an opinion I want to know if OP is complaining about a few extra people in a pool of hundreds, or if this is an actual noticeable thing.

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3 minutes ago, NS8VN said:

Just curious:  On a ship like Harmony how many Pinnacle members are there on an average sailing, and how many suite guests are there?

As far as number of pinnacle guests, we can make an educated guess thank to @twangster's tallies on his live blogs:

  • Indy had 9 reported
  • Liberty had 37
  • Freedom had about 20
  • Anthem B2B had 30 on the first leg, 22 on the second

Assuming Harmony has a number consistent with Anthem, since they're pretty similar capacity, you could argue 20-25 Pinnacle passengers on average. That's versus 101 non-JS suites on the ship (remember, JS doesn't get access to the suite lounge; number per Cruise Deck Plans). Assuming standard double occupancy, that's 202 suite passengers; it will really be a smidge higher due to 2BR ATS and other large suites, so let's call it 210.

25 / 210 = ~11.9% of suite passengers are "duplicated" and competing for space in the Suite Lounge by Pinnacle on average.

Or if you prefer, looking at the total you have Pinnacle making up 25 / (210 + 25) = 10.6%.

Either way, you're looking at about 1 in 10 people in the Suite Lounge not actually being a suite guest, assuming every passenger who can use the room does use it daily.

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I'm not sure I see the problem.  

I can see it in Concierge Lounges on ships that don't have a Suite Lounge such as Anthem. I can see the hoards of D+ and P plus suite guests creating a very packed CL.  

RCI has already alienated some of the D+ level by converting CL into SL and denying D+ access to the very room they used to be able to access simply by changing its name.  That I think was a reasonable measure to create a better suite experience.  As a new D+ member myself I'm okay with this but it does have many long term D+ members talking about this "reduction in benefits".  As more and more CL disappear across the fleet I can see how this is being interpreted by those D+ folks.

Pinnacles tend to gravitate to certain sailings, especially "hometown favorites".  For Galveston or Bayonne I suspect P numbers are elevated compared to FL where there are many cruise ports and even more ships to distribute the P load across. 

In many cases I see Pinnacle in the D lounge despite an SL right across the hall.  In some cases I think they are there for the social aspects of the DL where friends who haven't made it to P are hanging out.  

I've only had SL access on Oasis class ships.  I'm not sure I even noticed there was Pinnacle present on those occasions.  I know of one P guy I met on my 1st RCI cruise and a year later saw him on Harmony in the SL.  We talked and joked at the SL bar for hours.  I certainly never felt like they were impacting my use of the SL or the Suite sundeck on Oasis class.

In my opinion Pinnacles have paid their dues by sailing a lot and I mean a lot.  Royal needs to reward such loyalty and the hundreds of thousands these folks have paid over the years compared to someone who drops $6k every couple of years for a GS.  As such I am fine with the current system.  

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6 minutes ago, twangster said:

I'm not sure I see the problem.  

I can see it in Concierge Lounges on ships that don't have a Suite Lounge such as Anthem. I can see the hoards of D+ and P plus suite guests creating a very packed CL.  

RCI has already alienated some of the D+ level by converting CL into SL and denying D+ access to the very room they used to be able to access simply by changing its name.  That I think was a reasonable measure to create a better suite experience.  As a new D+ member myself I'm okay with this but it does have many long term D+ members talking about this "reduction in benefits".  As more and more CL disappear across the fleet I can see how this is being interpreted by those D+ folks.

Pinnacles tend to gravitate to certain sailings, especially "hometown favorites".  For Galveston or Bayonne I suspect P numbers are elevated compared to FL where there are many cruise ports and even more ships to distribute the P load across. 

In many cases I see Pinnacle in the D lounge despite an SL right across the hall.  In some cases I think they are there for the social aspects of the DL where friends who haven't made it to P are hanging out.  

I've only had SL access on Oasis class ships.  I'm not sure I even noticed there was Pinnacle present on those occasions.  I know of one P guy I met on my 1st RCI cruise and saw him on Harmony in the SL.  We talked and joked at the SL bar for hours.  I certainly never felt like they were impacting my use of the SL or the Suite sundeck on Oasis class.

In my opinion Pinnacle has paid their dues by sailing a lot and I mean a lot.  Royal needs to reward such loyalty and the hundreds of thousands these folks have paid over the years compared to someone who drops $6k every couple of years for a GS.  As such I am fine with the current system.  

To my point, why are we paralleling loyality to booking a suite? I am very simply stating that the Pinnacles need to be somewhere else (whether it be the diamond lounge or another designated location) and not intermixed with people who have paid for exclusivity. It is of no concern to me how many hundreds of thousands have been spent over the course of X years to gain Pinnacle status. That’s wonderful and these people should be recognized but I just don’t think they should join the ranks of people who have spent lots of $ to enjoy an experience that is a cut above the average. And FYI for the $ I am spending (minus this time around because I was comped due to a casino error) it doesn’t take me a Pinnacle lifetime to spend $100k+ cruising RC when booking these loft suites it’s easy to cruise a few times a year and spend $30-40k. To my point, it’s apples and oranges. 

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8 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

To my point, why are we paralleling loyality to booking a suite? I am very simply stating that the Pinnacles need to be somewhere else (whether it be the diamond lounge or another designated location) and not intermixed with people who have paid for exclusivity. It is of no concern to me how many hundreds of thousands have been spent over the course of X years to gain Pinnacle status. That’s wonderful and these people should be recognized but I just don’t think they should join the ranks of people who have spent lots of $ to enjoy an experience that is a cut above the average. And FYI for the $ I am spending (minus this time around because I was comped due to a casino error) it doesn’t take me a Pinnacle lifetime to spend $100k+ cruising RC when booking these loft suites it’s easy to cruise a few times a year and spend $30-40k. To my point, it’s apples and oranges. 

Because there is limited real estate on a ship and in all cases the Suite Lounge used to be available to others before becoming a Suite Lounge including OA class.

With respect, you didn't pay for Suite Lounge exclusivity.  That has never been policy.  So is the issue that it's called "Suite Lounge"?  If they kept calling them Concierge Lounge but kicked Diamond Plus out how is that any different?  It's just a name. 

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So then the lounge has never been exclusive to only suite guests, and Pinnacle guests make up 10% or so of the people able to use the lounge?

OP is quite welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but the complaint seems to come down to just knowing that when you walk in to the lounge a small fraction of the people in there have not paid to be in a suite.  Is there another way to interpret this?

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2 minutes ago, NS8VN said:

So then the lounge has never been exclusive to only suite guests, and Pinnacle guests make up 10% or so of the people able to use the lounge?

OP is quite welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but the complaint seems to come down to just knowing that when you walk in to the lounge a small fraction of the people in there have not paid to be in a suite.  Is there another way to interpret this?

100% correct interpretation. 

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I think Junior Suites should be given access to suite lounge.  Maybe they can set up kid tables in the corner of suite lounge so that everyone can see "those are the junior suite people" sitting in smaller chairs at a low table.

Seriously - all that money for JS and what do you get?  A walk in closet and double points.  On a handful of ships you get Coastal kitchen dinner.  RCI needs to throw the JS people a bone.   

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@tonyfsu21...I genuinely find this discussion very interesting.  I'm not sure which side of the fence I sit on for this one but I definitely like hearing everybody's point so far.  I am wondering though...has the suite lounge been very crowded this past week on Allure?  Is that what prompted this post? 

I suppose if the suite lounge was so crowded to the point where I couldn't enjoy myself (and I paid for a suite) then I would totally agree with you.  However, the times that I've had access to a suite lounge it was always pretty quiet so it never bothered me.  Most times I can't even tell who is Pinnacle and who isn't.  The only time I was mildly annoyed (and this only happened once) was when we were in CK, a few minutes after being seated, we had to move because Pinnacles wanted our table....

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I have never been in a Suite Lounge as I haven't yet sailed on a ship that has one. I have used the Concierge Lounge many times, either due to being in a suite or because I am D+, or both. Mostly, suite guests and Pinnacle (and D+) mix very well and accept that each deserves the perk. After all, whether one spends the asking price of a suite for one sailing or has spent an inordinate amount of money over many years to attain the loyalty status, the cost of entry has been paid.

However, at times it has been amusing to see the tension between just a few members of each category on some occasions, where each feels they are more entitled than the other. This is sometimes exhibited in grabbing territory (for example, Pinnacles congregating in their favourite seats in the CL and showing an element of displeasure if suite guests beat them to those seats) or suite guests, on occasion, monopolising the Concierge's time.

To be honest, I think Pinnacle members get very little above D+ in real benefits, particularly considering the number of points (and the money that represents) required.

So my vote is to rename the Suite Lounge and let everyone who has earned it, in whatever way, enjoy the privilege.

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5 minutes ago, JohnUK said:

To be honest, I think Pinnacle members get very little above D+ in real benefits, particularly considering the number of points (and the money that represents) required.

On paper, perhaps.  But Pinnacle members are often coddled by the crew onboard with special events and access.  Go to any C&A reception and/or suite event and there is more than meets the eye when it comes to their benefits.

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17 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The only time I was mildly annoyed (and this only happened once) was when we were in CK, a few minutes after being seated, we had to move because Pinnacles wanted our table....

I agree with @twangster, that's beyond over the top. I would have refused to move and told them to go pound sand.

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19 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

@tonyfsu21...I genuinely find this discussion very interesting.  I'm not sure which side of the fence I sit on for this one but I definitely like hearing everybody's point so far.  I am wondering though...has the suite lounge been very crowded this past week on Allure?  Is that what prompted this post? 

I suppose if the suite lounge was so crowded to the point where I couldn't enjoy myself (and I paid for a suite) then I would totally agree with you.  However, the times that I've had access to a suite lounge it was always pretty quiet so it never bothered me.  Most times I can't even tell who is Pinnacle and who isn't.  The only time I was mildly annoyed (and this only happened once) was when we were in CK, a few minutes after being seated, we had to move because Pinnacles wanted our table....

Plenty of room. My point was not the space but rather the exclusivity of paying for a suite. Your last paragraph gives credibility to my post though. This AM we were in the Suite Lounge and the quintessential Pinnacle husband and wife came rolling in on their scooters (with their pins displayed). They wizzed around us in their zoot scoots and demanded the concierge change their outbound flight. They were mad because the concierge didn’t take the initiate. I don’t know the back story but it was kind of annoying and it prompted me to post. I would prefer the Suite lounge is for suites only (PS they were not in a suite). 

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I feel the need to chime in and I might be off topic a bit and PLEASE, you guys know me by now I hope so no haters please!  I understand being in a loyalty program and that extra perks come with it, but I don't understand (and I mean this very sincerely) why there is such a huge deal to get Diamond or Diamond Plus or Emerald or whatever? Is it just the perks, the recognition from the cruise line, all of the above? and it sounds to me to reach Pinnacle you have to sail at least every other week from the age of 2-60? I get miles etc with airlines, upgrade etc but do these tiers get you upgrades after a certain point? I really am asking a sincere question.  

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3 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

 This AM we were in the Suite Lounge and the quintessential Pinnacle husband and wife came rolling in on their scooters (with their pins displayed). They wizzed around us in their zoot scoots and demanded the concierge change their outbound flight. They were mad because the concierge didn’t take the initiate. I don’t know the back story but it was kind of annoying and it prompted me to post. I would prefer the Suite lounge is for suites only (PS they were not in a suite). 

I'm not disagreeing with you, Tony....but couldn't this couple JUST as easily have been inconsiderate suite guests ?

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1 minute ago, tonyfsu21 said:

 (PS they were not in a suite). 

I've seen plenty of annoying non-Pinnacle suite guests in the lounge.

I swear if I ever make it to Pinnacle I'm not going to wear the badge but do things to annoy the entitled Pinnacles.  When they complain I'll whip out my SeaPass card like a trump card ?

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