RCCL Crown lounge

[doghog]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

Not sure they were casting judgement.  It seemed like it was more like they had no clue and were asking a question. 

Not the way I read it. @sulamyacov said, "What perk is there besides a boring looking lounge-"...

 

[island lady]

13 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Well, I don't think you are the "average" cruiser.  😄

 

I wonder if there are any new RCI cruisers sailing the full WC solo in a JS or higher?  Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Diamond Plus, and Pinnacle all in one cruise.  👍

 

Nahhh...I am just a "newbie".  😉  

 

Actually yes, I was surprised at how many fairly new cruisers are on this ship.  Good for them, dive right in...go for the adventure all the way.  🤗

[sulamyacov]

First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH, for all those that answered the question with information. It was greatly appreciated. By the end of the year my husband and I will be Diamond and a couple weeks ago we were on odyssey and I peeked in the lounge a few times and it was virtually empty. So I really wondered what was the draw. For those of you who think so much of yourselves to berate the question , I seriously hope I never have the misfortune to meet you on one of my cruises. Haughty, self important people are such a drain to hang out with!

Happy Cruising! Harmony of the seas in March! Can’t wait!! Love Oasis class ships and very much looking forward to the New Icon class!!!

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, sulamyacov said:

First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH, for all those that answered the question with information. It was greatly appreciated. By the end of the year my husband and I will be Diamond and a couple weeks ago we were on odyssey and I peeked in the lounge a few times and it was virtually empty. So I really wondered what was the draw. For those of you who think so much of yourselves to berate the question , I seriously hope I never have the misfortune to meet you on one of my cruises. Haughty, self important people are such a drain to hang out with!

Happy Cruising! Harmony of the seas in March! Can’t wait!! Love Oasis class ships and very much looking forward to the New Icon class!!!

Perhaps the tone of some of the answers you received was due to the tone of the original post and question. The question certainly came across as snarky and belittling as it is worded. 

[Tatka]

On 1/22/2024 at 12:03 PM, Oxo said:

Sorry, nothing is free! How many cruises did it take us to make Diamond or Diamond+? 

It is still free because it’s not something mandatory to provide by cruise line. 

[smokeybandit]

9 minutes ago, Tatka said:

It is still free because it’s not something mandatory to provide by cruise line. 

I prefer to view the drink vouchers as "earned"

[Tatka]

2 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I prefer to view the drink vouchers as "earned"

You can say “earned”.. still it’s something nice which is not standard for loyal cruisers of other cruise corporations. 

[alfaeric]

51 minutes ago, Tatka said:

You can say “earned”.. still it’s something nice which is not standard for loyal cruisers of other cruise corporations. 

More like gifts than earnings.  I agree with that. 

[Oxo]

2 hours ago, Tatka said:

It is still free because it’s not something mandatory to provide by cruise line. 

How many cruises did it take you to earn 4 or 5 drinks a day?

How much have the cruise fares increased by?

What other perks have been removed?

How much have the Specialty Restaurants increased?

How much have the drinks increased?

How much have the Coco Cay charges increased? 

Free?????? Nothing is free in this world!!!!

 

[Tatka]

52 minutes ago, Oxo said:

How many cruises did it take you to earn 4 or 5 drinks a day?

How much have the cruise fares increased by?

What other perks have been removed?

How much have the Specialty Restaurants increased?

How much have the drinks increased?

How much have the Coco Cay charges increased? 

Free?????? Nothing is free in this world!!!!

 

Started in 2003.
11 cruises to reach Diamond status in 2018 while also cruising with Princess, Celebrity, NCL, Holland America, MSC, Cunard, Carnival.

 

Up to 2016 we had 5 cruises with Royal. (2 7 day cruises, 2 9 day cruises and 1 10 dayer) 

We kept cruising with other lines too up to 2021 when we had our last non RCI cruise on Celebrity Edge as it was the first ship to restart cruises from US.

Now we have 30 cruises with RCI and 31 with other 7 lines. 
 

We always cruised to have fun … we didn’t consider our cruises to be an investments into status. Of course they cost money. What doesn’t? If you travel, especially internationally you know how much everything costs. 🙂 

 

We consider RCI perks to be a nice free addition to our enjoyment. We didn’t do anything heroic to get it… enjoyed our vacations with them … and btw with other cruise lines (and as we also reached statuses with others we had a chance to compare loyalty benefits which reinforced our opinion on Royal loyalty program).

 

Specialty dining, Coco cay pricing are just additions .. Royal provides adequate included food on ships and places/food in Coco Cay to enjoy our time. 
 

Prices on all listed things would increase whether we have our nice C&A benefits or not. Inflation happens, pandemics etc. 

 

  We enjoy Royal for overall experience and variety of ships/itineraries they provide from places we now cruise (NJ, Baltimore, Boston). In comparison to other lines which sail from same places Royal wins in most categories. That’s why we sail with them… 

Edited January 27 by Tatka

[alfaeric]

47 minutes ago, Oxo said:

How many cruises did it take you to earn 4 or 5 drinks a day?

How much have the cruise fares increased by?

What other perks have been removed?

How much have the Specialty Restaurants increased?

How much have the drinks increased?

How much have the Coco Cay charges increased? 

Free?????? Nothing is free in this world!!!!

 

But those benefits are far from required to give out.  They may be heavily paid for, but nobody is actually entitled to them just because you spend that much money.  They are a really nice benefit that RCI puts in their program.

 

Let alone, specialty restaurant and cococay costs are irrelevant to the benefit- you can spend zero dollars for both and still get the C&A benefits.  AND the increased costs of drinks actually puts real value to the benefit.

[Viajera7]

On 1/22/2024 at 12:29 PM, Oxo said:

Congratulations on becoming a P!

We cruise other lines and will never become P.

Celebrity Elite+

HAL Copper

MSC Diamond

NCL Sapphire

Princess Elite

RCI Diamond+

No one cruise line has it all. They all offer something different.

Happy Cruising! 

 

The same here and I agree with you. I have status on various cruise lines but the only one that I can see reaching the highest status is Carnival since I am Platinum and reaching Diamond. Last month I became Diamond on NCL and it will take me the same amount of points to reach Ambassador, I also just reached Diamond on RCI last month so sailing different cruise lines, I don’t see how can I reach Pinnacle. I am very excited to use the lounge at least in the morning for the good coffee machine that I hope it is like the one in the solo cabins lounge on NCL. I know that I won’t probably be able to use the lounge in most ships in the afternoon if it’s crowded with people with higher status. That’s ok but I’ll check how  it is on my next cruise next month.

[Cigar King]

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I prefer to view the drink vouchers as "earned"

Bought is more like it.  

[Tatka]

16 minutes ago, Cigar King said:

Bought is more like it.  

Gifted… 

 

We wouldn’t get them on other lines when we reach/reached similar status even though we paid same amount of money.

[cruzsnooze]

"For those of you who think so much of yourselves to berate the question , I seriously hope I never have the misfortune to meet you on one of my cruises. Haughty, self important people are such a drain to hang out with!"

 

 

you put your question in a very negative way so got answers commiserate with your attitude. I wouldn't hang out with you because of your negative attitude. You didn't even consider some people would love something that didn't appeal to you!

Edited January 27 by cruzsnooze

[doghog]

28 minutes ago, Tatka said:

Gifted… 

 

We wouldn’t get them on other lines when we reach/reached similar status even though we paid same amount of money.

Celebrity does. 

[Tatka]

7 minutes ago, doghog said:

Celebrity does. 

Same corporation. Belongs to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. 
I think they now have a weaker offering with only 2 hours and limited menu. Kind of what RCI had pre pandemic, but with 3.5 hours.

[doghog]

21 minutes ago, Tatka said:

Same corporation. Belongs to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. 
I think they now have a weaker offering with only 2 hours and limited menu. Kind of what RCI had pre pandemic, but with 3.5 hours.

I know that. Actually Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International belong to Royal Caribbean Group. The CAS is better than the CCs two hour (5 to 7) HH that is at most bars (ship specific). Also excludes the theater and all dining venues. But better than nothing. 🍻

Edited January 27 by doghog

[Tatka]

4 minutes ago, doghog said:

I know that. Actually Celebrity and Royal belong to Royal Caribbean Group. The CAS is better than the CCs two hour (5 to 7) HH that is at most bars (ship specific). Also excludes the theater and all dining venues. But better than nothing. 

Thank you. We don’t use CAS.

We like Celebrity for various reasons and we enjoyed Elite breakfast. We would sail with them again if we see an advantage over RCI and price is not much higher (with 5 cruises a year it matters). We are watching New England itineraries.

[doghog]

3 minutes ago, Tatka said:

Thank you. We don’t use CAS.

We like Celebrity for various reasons and we enjoyed Elite breakfast. We would sail with them again if we see an advantage over RCI and price is not much higher (with 5 cruises a year it matters). We are watching New England itineraries.

Interesting. So you don't take advantage of the CAS beverage offers for your tier level?

 

So far we've done two 12 + night New England/ Canada Celebrity cruises (2019 and 2022). We picked Celebrity over Royal because the itineraries (in our opinion) at that time were better with Celebrity than Royal. 

[Tatka]

I never play, my husband may visit casino once in a blue moon. 
 

We are looking at Celebrity as we want to visit Quebec City again.. We used to drive there often, not anymore. So maybe next year instead of usual 9 dayer round trip out if NJ we will do X. 🙂 

[MichaelCMTX]

I heard "not that far to Diamond" and snickered but thought it over and made some calculations.  We may only do the one cruise a year but the 2x points for a suite made up for it (11 nights Hawaii sure helped).  5 years to Diamond.  But now that your vouchers are what get you the drinks in the Crown lounge, and things flow more freely in the Suite lounge, well....

 

I know many P's reminisced fondly of the double-points sailings during the winter months and credited them for helping get their status. Let's face it, there's a loooooooooooong gap from D+ to P.  

 

But the double points to jump start things post-pandemic sure helped.  13 nights in a GS ("Royal upped" to an OS) was a huge step to the doorstep of D+.

[doghog]

9 minutes ago, Tatka said:

I never play, my husband may visit casino once in a blue moon. 
 

We are looking at Celebrity as we want to visit Quebec City again.. We used to drive there often, not anymore. So maybe next year instead of usual 9 dayer round trip out if NJ we will do X. 🙂 

CAS is the RCI Crown and Anchor Society. We aren't casino (gamblers) either. We do use our CAS casino vouchers. 

[OCSC Mike]

5 minutes ago, doghog said:

CAS is the RCI Crown and Anchor Society. We aren't casino (gamblers) either. We do use our CAS casino vouchers. 

 

Yep, that's us. We pop in to use the free $6 or $8 or whatever it is and usually leave with nothing. My wife actually won $80 with her free play last cruise, lol. It helped pay for a specialty dinner. Woohoo!

[toad455]

The Happy hour unlimited free drinks from 5pm-8pm is gone for all ships, correct? I remember on the Jewel in 2019, some people would get trashed during those 3 hours. The liquor also appeared watered down during that time frame.

Edited January 28 by toad455