Freedom is now Evaluating New Policies/Procedures

Freedom is one of three ships doing a test run whereby they no longer have a "Welcome Back Party" and "Top Tier Party". The Freedom, last week, had a Party for Gold - Platinum - Emerald on one night and then a Party for D / D+ / Pinnacle on another night. This will roll-out fleetwide later in the year. The D / D+ / Pinnacle may still be called a "Top Tier Party". We were told that two other ships are doing the same and the response will be evaluated before any final decision to go fleetwide.

Also, as of last week, Pinnacles are no longer invited to the "Suites Party" at Vintages.

Don't know if this has been mentioned on other threads, the company will be splitting the jobs of Next Cruise Ambassador and C&A Loyalty Ambassador. On Freedom, by the end of the month, there will be one Next Cruise Ambassador (Sandra), and an assistant, in one office, and they will only do sales. They will hire/promote someone to do Crown and Anchor stuff, exclusively, and be stationed in a completely different office/area.

So in other words, no party for anyone who is just a cruiser and not a top tier category??

So in other words, no party for anyone who is just a cruiser and not a top tier category??

They haven't had one of those in years:confused:

Any news on the "meal with an officer" perk for over XXX points?

Thanks, M

They haven't had one of those in years:confused:

How about the champagne toast on promenade. :o

Great news, so glad they will have someone focusing on Loyalty, as it has become increasing difficult to address any issues with someone that is mainly driving sales. And before anyone shouts "Pinnacles expect everything, no I do not. However I do remember how The Loyalty Ambassador was helpful in many ways, which in turn meant I kept coming back and eventually became extremely Loyal :eek:

QUOTE=Tagsalong;45871888]......................... They will hire/promote someone to do Crown and Anchor stuff, exclusively, and be stationed in a completely different office/area.

So in other words, no party for anyone who is just a cruiser and not a top tier category??

As in the past, if one is at least gold, there was a welcome back party. It appears this won't change. If I recall, there were two parties, welcome back and top tier. Those in the top tier could attend both. Now it seems there are two separate parties and passengers will only attend the one that applies to their loyalty group .

There was also a captain's gala for all cruisers, to include new cruisers, so hopefully this will not change.

M

Thanks for the info! :-)

This is what we experienced on our b2b2b on Allure in Jan/Feb of this year. There were two parties as described above.

If there was a party at Vintages for those in a GS or above (which we were booked in) we did not get an invitation.

Great news, so glad they will have someone focusing on Loyalty, as it has become increasing difficult to address any issues with someone that is mainly driving sales.

Yes, great point Chip. Agreed

As in the past, if one is at least gold, there was a welcome back party. It appears this won't change. If I recall, there were two parties, welcome back and top tier. Those in the top tier could attend both. Now it seems there are two separate parties and passengers will only attend the one that applies to their loyalty group .

 

There was also a captain's gala for all cruisers, to include new cruisers, so hopefully this will not change.

 

M

Yep, per Patti & cruisegirl I've been invited to 2 parties, so it's been like this for quite a while with the difference now being that they'll divide up the masses (more crowd control and like-minded interests more than anything I would suspect). This is a positive imo. The only negative for RCI I would think is that when they hand out crystal blocks or anything else, the Platinum/Emeralds don't get to see that.

Great news, so glad they will have someone focusing on Loyalty, as it has become increasing difficult to address any issues with someone that is mainly driving sales. And before anyone shouts "Pinnacles expect everything, no I do not. However I do remember how The Loyalty Ambassador was helpful in many ways, which in turn meant I kept coming back and eventually became extremely Loyal :eek:

 

 

QUOTE=Tagsalong;45871888]......................... They will hire/promote someone to do Crown and Anchor stuff, exclusively, and be stationed in a completely different office/area.

Glad they will have a sales force and a loyalty person, but I feel sorry (already) for that loyalty person. I hope he/she has good training in customer service to handle all the issues passengers might have.

Rather than a person to assist just C&A members, I would rather see some sort of passenger liaison, for all levels including new passengers, empowered to solve an issue. I am not sure why my "problem" as some sort of upper C&A tier is any more important that an issue from a new cruiser.

M

Yes, great point Chip. Agreed

 

 

 

Yep, per Patti & cruisegirl I've been invited to 2 parties, so it's been like this for quite a while with the difference now being that they'll divide up the masses (more crowd control and like-minded interests more than anything I would suspect). This is a positive imo. The only negative for RCI I would think is that when they hand out crystal blocks or anything else, the Platinum/Emeralds don't get to see that.

Do you think that they really care??:)

I've never seen a suite party on any ship either. Maybe I need to pay more attention.

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Do you think that they really care??:)

Hehe.... well??? :rolleyes:;)

ok ok, I'll admit it out loud.... earlier in my cruising career I was at one of the top tier parties and they called up of few of the higher tier cruisers. I did not know at all about the blocks at the time at all, so I did go up to congratulate one of them and to ask to see it. I thought they were really cool actually and had always thought it'd be great to reach those milestones someday... so as a new(er) cruiser gave me something to look forward to, or a goal to achieve if you will. I would've reached 140, 210, etc regardless because I love cruising (love?? ok... I'm addicted) but this was just another way for me to see how the loyal cruisers were being acknowledged so to speak :)

So in other words, no party for anyone who is just a cruiser and not a top tier category??

They haven't had one of those in years:confused:

Hey, you're on a CRUISE!!!:rolleyes:

That IS a party!! :p

Do you think that they really care??:)

You took the words right out of my mouth. :) And many are not presented at any party I have many blocks, and ALL have been left in the cabin.

M

Does anyone go to the parties for a reason other than the free drinks? :confused: I don't find them that interesting.

I've never seen a suite party on any ship either. Maybe I need to pay more attention.

 

 

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on GR, we were invited to a suite only event in the CL one afternoon. a few officers came by to mingle. the usual premade drinks(bellini, fuzzy navels, one red, one white) but no nibbles. lasted maybe an hour.

did not get anything similar on EN or NAV.

on NAV, however, they did full on buffet lunch in Chops for 'top tier' not sure if it was D and up or D+ and up or what but it was beyond packed.. SRO in fact little bit of everything from the specialty restaurants( sushi, the guac from Sabor, etc) Officers served. very nicely done aside from the crowd

Am I one of the only ones that does not go to the welcome back parties. Normally they are during happy hour and my family and friends of ours are all on a cruise together and we just normally stay in the diamond lounge during that event and continue our conversations and meet new people. Our family finds it worthless to go because we normally go on non peak times and there are so many pinnacles that my parents who have a lot more points then my self art even close in the running for the gifts so they don't attend. After all most of the times I have poked my head in there its the normal clap if you have been on this ship slide show, and them giving you information that can be found on royals website about ships and deployments so no real new super secret squirrel information being presented.

I don't recall any special suite parties on any of the ships that we have booked suites (Liberty, Indy, allure). Unless your talking the helipad party. However, when we were on the Brillance we were invited to a really nice lunch for being Diamond. It was so nice and the food was out of this world. It was in one of the speciality resteraunts (chops?). So far, Brillance has been our best cruise/ship thus far.

Does anyone go to the parties for a reason other than the free drinks? :confused: I don't find them that interesting.

Same here, BUT, we were just on the Allure and the welcome back party was held in the Aqua Theater with a special sneak peek of the divers and acrobats. This was actually alot of fun. Also, the captain and hotel director put on a little show.

Ali

As in the past, if one is at least gold, there was a welcome back party. It appears this won't change. If I recall, there were two parties, welcome back and top tier. Those in the top tier could attend both. Now it seems there are two separate parties and passengers will only attend the one that applies to their loyalty group .

 

There was also a captain's gala for all cruisers, to include new cruisers, so hopefully this will not change.

 

M

This is correct. The Freedom still does the Captain's Champagne Party in the Promenade on the second night (first formal night). I didn't go, so I forgot about mentioning it and, of course, this is not a change.

Interesting. Sounds like positive changes. Thanks for posting!

The only negative for RCI I would think is that when they hand out crystal blocks or anything else, the Platinum/Emeralds don't get to see that.

Freedom plops them on the bed in your cabin. We got one last week. The top cruiser (we were third) got handed a bottle of bubbly at their table during the Top Tier Party but no picture with the Captain, or any other officer. They did announce the top three cruisers and their point counts.

Positive changes, especially adding a dedicated loyalty embassador to address C&A issues rather than just sell cruises. I think that's an excellent move.

The other changes make sense logically. D through Pinnacle are logically regarded as the "top tiers" of the C&A program, deliniated by the fact that a special lounge becomes a benefit upon reaching D. It makes sense to me then that a top tier party would be D and up (no offense intended to anyone -- just making an observation). RCI probably also felt they should make the switch since they're now flooded with D and up members.