What's it cost to make Pinnacle?

[island lady]

Cost to make it to Pinnacle.  Priceless.  😉  

 

We cruise because we enjoy it, and cruise a lot.  Pinnacle just happens along the way.  

 

Kind of like trying to decide how much that luxury car is costing you before it dies and takes up it's new residence in the junk yard.  Worse yet...that new luxury RV motor home.  🤑

[Jimbo]

What ever the cost is, don't let the extra drinks draw you in . Pretty sure it's not worth it.

[firefly333]

9 minutes ago, topnole said:

Didn’t realize you are talking solo.  Since you are paying either double or 50% more depending on your status it’s obviously going to cost way more.  Kind of an apples to oranges comparison.  

I'm always baffled why people quote a per person rate which isnt the rate for the cruise solo or for a couple. Meaningless. 

 

I am diamond on carnival 200 pts and have pts on celebrity ncl and princess. I started with princess. Rcl came late.

 

So I'd be pinnacle if I could add them all together. So not impossible but not soon. Maybe never. 

 

Dec paid for regular but next year solo rates kick in so makes it cheaper than carnival, though I'd like to do jubilee and ncl prima out of Galveston  .. but wouldnt help pinnacle. Ncl wants even more for prima, over 2k. For a inside!

[topnole]

10 minutes ago, George C said:

We would be pinnacle if we just cruised rccl , have done about 75 cruises and suites for more than last dozen or more . We are diamond plus and not even close to pinnacle. I sailed on about 20 cruises before discovering rccl.

I would easily be pinnacle if I had only cruised Royal.  But I’m just just approaching half way there.  Not a huge deal to me either way.  Nowadays we generally cruise in suites so we get every perk that comes with pinnacle (that matters to us) on most of our cruises anyhow.  

[neverbeenhere]

1) You must really, really, really love Cozumel and Costa Maya

 

2) You must live on Galveston Island or let's say; Texas City

 

3) Pick your cruises and you can cruise for $ 120 per couple per night

 

So, $ 120 X 700= $84,000 (less with the just about expired double points)

Edited November 4, 2022 by neverbeenhere

[ARandomTraveler]

It's crazy to me that anyone cruises enough  to reach that status. Do people not enjoy seeing other parts of the world that can't be visited by ship? I guess if you live near a cruise port and just hop on cruises for the weekend or for a week when you're bored and have nothing else to do, it could be easy, but I would much rather not repeat the same vacation over and over and over (and over and over) again. 
 

I also don't book my cruises based on when they're cheapest, I book them for when I want to take vacation, and pay whatever it costs. I also have to fly to the port, and stay in hotels, and that usually doubles the cost of the cruise. A balcony cabin during busy times of year (summers, holidays) runs about $200/day per person at its cheapest. 
 

My Singapore to Japan cruise next summer is costing me $4600 for a balcony cabin for 12 days which isn't that bad (under $200/day), but the hotel we're staying in is costing $800/day. I'd much prefer to vacation this way, than to choose to take the same trip multiple times a year during the cheapest times possible just to get a couple free drinks, which I can afford to pay for myself anyway. 
 

I take at least 1 big vacation a year, sometimes 2 or 3. And most of them are not cruises. I take a ton of 3-4 day mini trips, all land vacations. I can't imagine giving up all of those varied travel experiences to take the same cruise every time instead. But to each their own I guess. 

Edited November 4, 2022 by ARandomTraveler

[topnole]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

I'm always baffled why people quote a per person rate which isnt the rate for the cruise solo or for a couple. Meaningless. 

 

I am diamond on carnival 200 pts and have pts on celebrity ncl and princess. I started with princess. Rcl came late.

 

So I'd be pinnacle if I could add them all together. So not impossible but not soon. Maybe never. 

 

Dec paid for regular but next year solo rates kick in so makes it cheaper than carnival, though I'd like to do jubilee and ncl prima out of Galveston  .. but wouldnt help pinnacle. Ncl wants even more for prima, over 2k. For a inside!

Your baffled?   Doesn’t take much to baffle nowadays I guess.  I don’t find people citing per person rates baffling in any way.  The cost of a cruise is set per person not per room.  This isn’t the hotel industry.  The common metric is price per person.  It really makes any baffling.  Sure lots of people cruise sole, but you see in the very very small minority.  

[topnole]

1 minute ago, ARandomTraveler said:

It's crazy to me that anyone cruises enough  to reach that status. Do people not enjoy seeing other parts of the world that can't be visited by ship? I guess if you live near a cruise port and just hop on cruises for the weekend or for a week when you're bored and have nothing else to do, it could be easy, but I would much rather not repeat the same vacation over and over and over (and over and over) again. 
 

I also don't book my cruises based on when they're cheapest, I book them for when I want to take vacation, and pay whatever it costs. I also have to fly to the port, and stay in hotels, and that usually doubles the cost of the cruise. A balcony cabin during busy times of year (summers, holidays) runs about $200/day per person. 
 

My Singapore to Japan cruise next summer is costing me $4600 for a balcony cabin for 12 days which isn't that bad (under $200/day), but the hotel we're staying in is costing $800/day. I'd much prefer to vacation this way, than to choose to take the same trip multiple times a year during the cheapest times possible just to get a couple free drinks, which I can afford to pay for myself anyway. 

Lots of people love the ocean and

cruising in the Caribbean on modern ships is so cheap, easy, and low stress compared to land based international travel.  It’s easy to see why some people do it so much.  But I agree, if they aren’t traveling in other ways, they are missing so much.  I like both types of travel because on a cruise you really aren’t experiencing much when you visit a port.  

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

1) You must really, really, really love Cozumel and Costa Maya

 

2) You must live on Galveston Island or let's say; Texas City

 

3) Pick you cruises and you can cruise for $ 120 per couple per night

 

So, $ 120 X 700= $84,000 (less with the just about expired double points)

I'm just north of dallas and go down the day before. Hotels are getting crazy. And I saw someone post they paid to park at the new rcl terminal and it cost them $184 I think they said. Covered idk .. but parking at the new terminal is crazy high. A huge jump from the old terminal. Nice but not inexpensive.

 

Flying to miami is crazy high from dfw. Glad I bought as early as I could. I'm see $908 for the airfare if I booked it now and many over $1k though it is for next spring break. .. 

 

I agree if you live close to a port and someone drives you so you dont pay to park .. but it ain't cheap.

 

One pinnacle told me he wears his pin because it's the most expensive jewelry he owns. I agree.

[ONECRUISER]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I'm always baffled why people quote a per person rate which isnt the rate for the cruise solo or for a couple. Meaningless. 

 

I am diamond on carnival 200 pts and have pts on celebrity ncl and princess. I started with princess. Rcl came late.

 

So I'd be pinnacle if I could add them all together. So not impossible but not soon. Maybe never. 

 

Dec paid for regular but next year solo rates kick in so makes it cheaper than carnival, though I'd like to do jubilee and ncl prima out of Galveston  .. but wouldnt help pinnacle. Ncl wants even more for prima, over 2k. For a inside!

Yeah with me always traveling SOLO plus Royals Double Points, 4 points a day I earned 108 points just last month alone. Cruise cost for me was $5400 but that was all Aft/Balcony Cabins, Solo 340+ points and inc Panama Canal Cruise. Did score few Cruises this last yr at $60 a Day, Balcony and Solo. Years ago right after 9/11 did a 5niter on Royal, cost $9 each plus $50 ea total $118 for 2 of us

[soremekun]

I would cruise more but:

April 2023 Carnival Mardi Gras cruise in an inside stateroom, $1,700.

Roundtrip non-stop flight (for 2 people) on Southwest, $2,400.

Edited November 4, 2022 by soremekun

[ONECRUISER]

24 minutes ago, soremekun said:

I would cruise more but:

April 2023 Carnival Mardi Gras cruise in an inside stateroom, $1,700.

Roundtrip non-stop flight on Southwest, $2,400.

Reason I started doing B4B, Airline Cost. At one time was doing 4 Cruises a yr at different times, cheaper do all at once. My Kids were younger a couple decades ago it was $1800 for 7niter for 4 of us in an OV. Flying would have added $2000+ so we'd drive 21hrs each way. Gas was about $1 gallon and cost about $80 each way in my Ford Expeditions. Now I don't drive anymore then local always Flying to Ports but always arrive 2 days early...

Edited November 4, 2022 by ONECRUISER

[topnole]

1 hour ago, soremekun said:

I would cruise more but:

April 2023 Carnival Mardi Gras cruise in an inside stateroom, $1,700.

Roundtrip non-stop flight (for 2 people) on Southwest, $2,400.

2400 round trip?   Wow.  Are you flying in from Europe?   I just booked a pretty long flight on SW for next Feb and it was only about 300 RT.  

[ew101]

3 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

1) You must really, really, really love Cozumel and Costa Maya

 

2) You must live on Galveston Island or let's say; Texas City

 

This is funny.  B to B aka Consecutive is one way to get there.  Transatlantics are/can be cheap- but return air can be pricey.  What about those getting comped players cruises (though one must consider losses there I suppose).  

[CFLRetired]

9 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

Last year I met a gentleman in the Diamond Lounge, who told me it cost him $400,000 to make Pinnacle. It got me to thinking, full suite passengers, could spend $1,000,000++ to reach Pinnacle. 

I suspect a good number of Pinnacles took advantage of Diamonds in December promotions years ago and lived within driving distance of a cruise port.   Some I met would have had to because the above amounts far exceeded what they made in several years of income.  Some may have spent way more, but I believe many didn't.  JMHO.

[Toddcan]

That's like asking the cost of the 50+ pounds I've gained since I was 20.  

[orville99]

5 hours ago, BND said:

$400,000 seems very,very high unless he stays only in full suites and even that seems high.  We only stay in JS and we currently have 491 points.  I don't think it's cost us $150,000 and we started in GS and now only stay in JS.  We've only been in a regular balcony cabin one time.  

Our cruise experience is quite similar to yours, although early on we usually sailed exclusively in JS cabins. We started moving up to full suites once DW retired (two years after I retired). Probably similar $$ however. I think the journey was around $160,000 for the 59 cruises that got us to 700. BTW, only had 4 cruises (three 7 nighters, and one weekender) in the book before they switched to the new point system.

[orville99]

4 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

It's crazy to me that anyone cruises enough  to reach that status. Do people not enjoy seeing other parts of the world that can't be visited by ship?

DW and I both travelled the world as part of our careers. Both of us had more than 1 million air miles under our belts when we decided to slow down and relocate to Florida. Spending an average of 175 nights a year in hotels during that span, we both decided we would never get on an airplane again if we could avoid it, and if we would only spend any more nights in hotel rooms if the hotel floated to a different location every night.😇

[docsneeze]

Not just the financial cost.  What about the medical costs of morbid obesity from spending too many days at the trough in Windjammer?  The costs of Tylenol or Ibuprofen from travel headaches?  The dermatology visits for sun soaked destinations and sunscreens?  The elbow pain from hoisting too many cocktails, not to mention the alcohol contained within?

 

Diversity in cruise lines, vacations, and other life experiences may be the true costs of the road not taken.

[pcur]

I don't know about the cost, but I can tell you the length of time for me.  It took 49 years, but the Double Points Promo took me finally to 702 points.

[topnole]

9 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

Last year I met a gentleman in the Diamond Lounge, who told me it cost him $400,000 to make Pinnacle.  I got me to thinking, that a single passenger, for the World Cruise, could make this, the most economical way possible.  It got me to thinking, full suite passengers, could spend $1,000,000++ to reach Pinnacle.  Is this a reasonable estimate, how much do you all think the cash outlay is, as well as how long it on average takes to achieve?  

FYI.  That is $571 per point.  Assuming 700 nights was needed for it, that is awfully expensive.  If he did all suites (350 night needed) it would $1141 per night.  I tend to think his story is a bit of a “fish this big” type of story.  I’m guessing his number has grown in his mind.  
 

Maybe he is including all other expenses as part of his trips, but even that would seem really off.  For a non suite, 200 max per night would be in the normal range and more common would be near $100 per night (or sometimes much less).   You have to work hard to spend an additional $371-471 per day on top of cruise fare.  That $3-4K extra on a week long cruise.   Pretty sure his story is probably triple what he actually spent.  

[orville99]

5 hours ago, Jimbo said:

What ever the cost is, don't let the extra drinks draw you in . Pretty sure it's not worth it.

At a daily cap of $14/drink, it works out to $588 for each of us on a 7-night cruise if we were to take full advantage of them. Add in the free VOOM Surf+Stream, and those two perks potentially exceed the cost of a cruise if one were to sail in an interior cabin. 😇

[orville99]

23 minutes ago, docsneeze said:

What about the medical costs of morbid obesity from spending too many days at the trough in Windjammer?

We usually lose 2-3 pounds each on a 7-night cruise, but then we average over 4 miles/day in our walks around the ship and ports.

[bonsai3s]

23 minutes ago, pcur said:

I don't know about the cost, but I can tell you the length of time for me.  It took 49 years, but the Double Points Promo took me finally to 702 points.

pcur...Holy Canoli!!! That's a long time...but congratulations!

[Starry Eyes]

I certainly have not tracked my expenses.  We cruise for the cruise experience not in an attempt to make Pinnacle.

 

Some people are only including the cruise fare in their calculation.  Others would get a much higher number by include all travel related expenses.  Some people’s expenses are much higher.  They may indulge more, they may live further away, they may travel at more expensive times of year.  There is no set cost to make Pinnacle.