Is the Captain Circle Loyalty Program sailing in the wake of the future?

[caribill]

1 hour ago, SCX22 said:

 

My point in this comment was that the very Elites that are wanting more perks for being Elites have no desire to cruise with other cruises lines.  For those loyal to Princess, "it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks."  So this thread just comes off as entitlement for being Elite.

 

 

I do not ask for more perks (but would happily accept any meaningful ones), but I would like the ones they removed put back.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

If you factor out the gratuities and consider the WiFi and other things gravy, the bar tab is 45 a day for drinks.  So that would be 1800 for a 20 day cruise.  The same drinks package on RCI can run close to 1200 for only a 7 day cruise. So 90 a day for a bar tab for 2 people is cheap on Princess compared to some of their competitors.

No matter how "cheap", of course it means nothing if a couple doesn't run up a $90/day bar tab.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

My gawd I don’t go one day in land without 2 drinks before dinner and wine with dinner. Prior to packages we used to pay for 8-10 drinks a day so the plans are wonderful for us

It's obvious that the Plus package benefits you much more than myself. 

Enjoy. 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

That is the value smart way of thinking.  It works better of course if you are in the same cabin for both cruises. 😄

Of course it would be even better if the first leg was the shortest of B2B's.  Although about all I can see gathering up is water bottles and beer.  

[Guest ldtr]

8 hours ago, richsea said:

Interesting. Is there somewhere on the net to find those numbers? Thanks.

I do not have my notes with me on all of the sources that I looked at when this discuss came up last year. I do know Frommers was one that had the average age for several of the line. I just checked them and they have updated the descriptions. The only one of the three (Hal, Princess, and Celebrity) where they show an age in their updated info is HAL which they now show as down to 57.  

 

I recall that it showed up in a few other sources as well but I need to track those down. 

[Torfamm]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The WiFi situation is gravy since it's not the best.  But we'll pay 45 a day for the drinks package every day going forward.  It was even better at 25 per day for our 14 days on the Discovery last year and our 14 on the Majestic this year.  When we cruise is when we consume 95% of our alcohol consumption, so it provides value to us but we know that 45 a day is too much for teetotalers or light drinkers.

It also depends on what you drink. Wine is a lot more expensive than beer or mixed drinks. Even two  $15 glasses of wine a day is $35 with the added gratuity.  If you have just one coffee in the morning and a couple of bottles of water you already are about at the break even point.

[Guest ldtr]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I do not ask for more perks (but would happily accept any meaningful ones), but I would like the ones they removed put back.

You mean you want to go back to free minutes instead of the unlimited discount, but then you would have to give up the excursion discount. Other then  that the Elite benefits still exist.

[MissP22]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

Of course it would be even better if the first leg was the shortest of B2B's.  Although about all I can see gathering up is water bottles and beer.  

And don't forget Peach Schnapps, Baileys, Kahlua, Tia Maria, vodka  and  Chambord.  All great with their juices. 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Still not worth it.

I hear you. 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

We always book way in the future so we would be in the same cabin, but it would be less of a hassle if in the same cabin, that's all.

Agreed for sure since when we return to Ft Lauderdale we usually get off the ship early to do other things and don't have to worry about moving.

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

If you got 5 drinks from Royal, you should be Diamond plus.  Diamond gets 4 and Pinnacles get 6.  Even after our next 3 cruises on them that we have booked over the next 2 years, my DH will be 1 point shy from Diamond and those free drinks.

 

I know, huh.  I even double checked our status today and we are shown as just lowly Diamonds (98 points). Maybe someone checked us in wrong.   Hopefully they won't ask for a refund for all those extra diet cokes!  😄

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

My point in this comment was that the very Elites that are wanting more perks for being Elites have no desire to cruise with other cruises lines.  For those loyal to Princess, "it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks."  So this thread just comes off as entitlement for being Elite.

 

 

Well, I would like more perks and I don't think I'm being a snob in any way.  The way loyalty programs work in general is that those with more cruises, miles, flights, nights, or whatever are going to get more perks.  I wouldn't but I can see how someone would stick with a line to obtain higher status & more perks.   And, when you come right down to it, loyalty program entitlement does come with increased usage.   That isn't snobbery.  

 

Perhaps those who like to proclaim their special status might be bothersome.  Like, "Hi, my name is Sam and I'm Elite".   I find it more humorous than anything else.  

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by ldubs

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

No matter how "cheap", of course it means nothing if a couple doesn't run up a $90/day bar tab.

At 10 bucks a drink, that's 4 for me and 5 for DH.  Any more plus soda, coffee, San Pellegrino etc is all gravy.

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, Torfamm said:

It also depends on what you drink. Wine is a lot more expensive than beer or mixed drinks. Even two  $15 glasses of wine a day is $35 with the added gratuity.  If you have just one coffee in the morning and a couple of bottles of water you already are about at the break even point.

We don't drink wine, but the majority of our drinks are at Good Spirits with their specialty menu at night.  So breaking the 45 per person is a walk in the park.  

[caribill]

2 hours ago, ldtr said:

You mean you want to go back to free minutes instead of the unlimited discount, but then you would have to give up the excursion discount. Other then  that the Elite benefits still exist.

 

At one time platinum and elite passengers as well as full suite passengers had unlimited free minutes. So, yes, I would like to go back to when the benefits included that.

[BamaVol]

17 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

At one time platinum and elite passengers as well as full suite passengers had unlimited free minutes. So, yes, I would like to go back to when the benefits included that.

I do find it interesting that half the posters here want free minutes back and the other half don’t see any value in the “crappy” internet.  

[caribill]

52 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

I do find it interesting that half the posters here want free minutes back and the other half don’t see any value in the “crappy” internet.  

 

Certainly many feel it is not in their best interest to pay for "crappy" Internet.

[Coral]

4 hours ago, ldtr said:

You mean you want to go back to free minutes instead of the unlimited discount, but then you would have to give up the excursion discount. Other then  that the Elite benefits still exist.

We used to have unlimited minutes. I would give up the excursion discount as I usually book private excursions. Private excursions are cheaper and have smaller groups.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Coral

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I do find it interesting that half the posters here want free minutes back and the other half don’t see any value in the “crappy” internet.  

Have never purchased internet a la carte on any cruise we have ever taken.  If it's part of a package on Princess or Celebrity, we'll use it.  Or if we get 250 minutes with NCL, we'll use it, but it's only to clean up emails and surf cruise critic.  So we can do without for a week if need be and just leave the cell phone in the safe or on airplane mode.

[Guest ldtr]

15 hours ago, caribill said:

 

At one time platinum and elite passengers as well as full suite passengers had unlimited free minutes. So, yes, I would like to go back to when the benefits included that.

If I recall correctly that was back around 15 years ago. Anything more recent?

 

Since you used benefits and not benefit what other Elite benefits have you lost. On my current cruise I have used all of the ones that were available 12 years ago when I first hit Elite with the following changes I was able to get a discount on excursions, not available 12 years ago. I did have a discount on Internet instead of a limited number of minutes.  My minibar swap options were more limited, but the minibar setups (the listed benefit) still arrived on time.

 

So what exactly were the rest of the Elite benefits that you want back?

Edited May 2, 2023 by ldtr

[Guest ldtr]

15 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I do find it interesting that half the posters here want free minutes back and the other half don’t see any value in the “crappy” internet.  

I suspect that if one would do a survey of elite passengers a large majority do get internet, and a majority (though a smaller majority) would prefer a discounted unlimited to the limited number of free minutes.

 

The unhappy side tends to do most of the complaining.

 

On the transatlantic that I just completed, the Internet worked well enough for browsing, and to do wifi phone calls for 12 of the 14 days. There was a 2 day period starting on day 3 where it was extremely slow, though email still would go through. if you want streaming on a regular basis probably out of luck. I was downloading 50 to 80 MB map download fairly quickly.

 

On the second day of the slow period many requested refunds only for it to come back the next day.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 4/27/2023 at 8:41 PM, iamaqt2 said:

Princess is the only cruise line I know of where Elite status can be reached by cruises sailed, and not days sailed.  I am almost at Elite by virtue of doing many 1 night repositioning cruises between Seattle and Vancouver when they transition between the Mexico and Alaska cruise seasons.
Until Princess revamps how they determine tier status, the higher status cruisers may not have actually spent much money at all to achieve them.

You represent the vast minority of CC members.  Unless someone lives in the NW Washington or SW British Columbia area, it's not worth the hassle and expense of traveling (especially with SEA and YVR flights being relatively expensive) for a 1 or 2 night cruise strictly to accumulate cruise credits towards CC status.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:26 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

I will infer that the one line that people choose to be loyal to because of the perks is Royal.  They used to give their free drinks during happy hour and now it's 4 for Diamond, 5 for Diamond+ and 6 for Pinnacles.  This is a very important perk for those loyalists that like to imbibe since Royals drink package is the highest amongst the main stream cruise lines because it's not available as part of a package similar to Celebrity, Princess, NCL or MSC.

It's huge especially if you're a casino player.  Free drinks in the casino if you have at least Prime status plus 4/5/6 drinks to use at dinner or elsewhere on the ship... that saves me from buying a (not inexpensive) drink package.  All on a comped cruise from the casino.

Edited May 2, 2023 by DallasGuy75219

[caribill]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

So what exactly were the rest of the Elite benefits that you want back?

I said benefits, I did not limit them to just being elite.

a) Loyalty OBC

b) Swapping minibar for coffee package equivalent (also a full suite benefit lost)

c) And yes, the free minutes. Yes, I realize that it is impractical to have the system monitor minutes anymore. But, until the recent price increase, the cost of the unlimited Internet package was about the $$ value of the old free minutes. To give an equal benefit, it should be free to platinum/elite passengers.

 

On an upcoming cruise, with the old minutes benefit we would have had a total of 1000 minutes, more than enough for our needs. Instead we now will need to pay $495 (with the platinum/elite discount) to have equivalent usage. You may think switching from free to paying $495 is a great benefit, but I do not.

[Zetta83]

Phew, managed to read the whole thread. Personally, I have not sailed on Princess as I have kids and afraid they will be bored. Despite of this, I have decided to give Princess a go in Dec. This is when I found out the whole family is already at Plat due to sailings for P&O Aus (above 50 nights). 

 

Do I find it easy to attain? Yes.

Am I pleasantly surprised? Yes.

Will that irritate other? No doubt. As P&O Aus is a far cheaper line.

 

Back to the topic, I do think a conversion to OBC is great. However, that would mean lesser revenue for Princess.

 

In regards to the topic of annual status review, it is a line that needs to be treaded carefully. As I read 2/3 of cruisers on board are Plat/Elites. This will open another can of worms where credit cards will give you status upgrades or points.

 

I do credit card churning and I know how easy it is to clock enough points for airline lounge and hotel memberships. This without flying a single mile/night with the airline or hotel.

 

The 'Elites' onboard do not need to sail a night to achieve status.