Mariner Society/Alumni Pricing?

[Sailure]

Doesn't Celibrity Captain's Club membership get you one or two class cabin upgrade for bookings less suite class?

It still does. Being a Captain's Club Member though, I've always booked a mini-suite and have always been upgraded to a Sky Suite and once the Royal! The other thing I love about Celebrity is the Butler service and the in suite services. They seem to be more than what HAL offers and Costa is even better with the suite service and the staff and crew on Costa are the nicest of any line I've ever cruised on.

[jhannah]

I just booked the Prinsendam for next year while onboard. The future cruise consultant gave me HAL's "Mariner" price. Later, she called our cabin with a significantly lower price through our regular AAA agency. It all probably has to do with incentives HAL gives their major cruise bookers to help them fill their ships.

[ron46936]

The only line I have gotten an actual discount on for being a past cruiser is RCCL. It was in the form of dollars off coupons sent to in the magazine to past cruisers. They also have a discount of sorts if you have been on five or more cruises by waiving the fee for air deviations.

[jhannah]

Just noticed this morning in the Mariner Magazine (don't know when it came ... I'm way behind in reading mail that was held in our absence) that the alumni discount is 5%. On a $1,500 fare, that's just $75. While 75 dollars is 75 dollars, it really doesn't seem like much of a discount. My AAA discount was way more than that. Am I expecting too much?

[merryecho]

I don't know about HAL, but have had similar experience with the co-owned Windstar (they even send us mariner info, calling it their 'sister club'). They also give a $75-100 discount. It doesn't do us any good, as we use an online TA who gives a kickback, so I have always found I could get a lower price than the discounted fare.

What Windstar does that I did like is offer a free excursion for past cruisers. Our last trip it was an excellent tour that other passengers paid over $200 for. Windstar also provided a huge plate of caviar and an excellent bottle of champagne to amex platinum cruisers. Since DH and I don't like caviar, it was a terrible waste. Wish they had sent a card first, so we could have declined.

[HeatherInFlorida]

It wouldn't surprise me if soon HAL adopts the new policy recently set forth by Celebrity and RCI. Last week I priced a 14-night cruise from LA to Ft. Lauderdale thru the Panama Canal for October 2005 and no matter where I looked ... from the Celebrity site to every internet site I could find, the price was the same. This is because they have alerted all TAs that they can no longer "play" around with their commissions. Of course it does make the "hunt" a lot easier;) .

 

Despite that, however, when I priced the identical cruise on HAL the cost was considerably higher. The only benefit was it was a smaller ship. Everything else was comparable.

 

A footnote: Since the TAs can't give you any breaks, they now give "points" or other "extras" to entice you. These can be used for future travel insurance, gifts, etc. ... a whole new concept and all the more confusing.

[Spender Nui]

Regardless of discounts, which we seem to agree HAL doesn't do anything special for past guests, their alumni program has to be the worst. 18 HAL cruises, 155 days on board with them ... and what do we get? Another tile (the ones KLM Airlines give out are better) and a medallion to wear to their Mariners party.

 

We sailed on the Rotterdam in an S Suite last May. At the Mariner party they invited those of us with medallions to the stage and took a group picture of their most loyal of passengers. It would have been nice of them to deliver the pictures to us ... but instead they posted them in the photo gallery and gave us the opportunity to purchase them.

 

Other cruise lines offer not only discounted prices but priority boarding, disembarkation, tendering, complimentary laundry, internet, etc.

 

I get a lot more for frequent sailings with other cruise lines and now take that into consideration when choosing my cruises. Since the year 2000 checked in we have taken 14 cruises and have 3 more booked. Of that total number of 17, HAL has gotten 2 and I don't expect that will change soon.

 

The crew on HAL, who everybody loved, was always their strongest selling point. On our last cruise with HAL the crew was grumbling and and there was a great deal of dissension.

 

Most of the reasons to sail HAL are slipping away.