Disney Cruise Line Updates Castaway Club Membership Requirements

[tvguy]

Agree with others that this has nothing to do with Pearl or Platinum. It's Silvers who cruised back in... 2004 and now booking their 2nd or 3rd cruise, looking for their CC numbers and trying to match up now-adults who cruised as kids way-back-when with new names and/or addresses. It's a basic purge of old records in the database.

Wonder if they will also purse those names from their marketing database or just the rewards database?

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I see no issue with it.

 

[DanCali]

Same thing with airlines. Once you don’t maintain a level with business you’re out.

My own family is likely to be impacted by this but I have no issue with it. AFAIK most loyalty programs in the travel industry require some level of continued activity to maintain status/points/rewards.

Not in all cases. Many hotels and airlines have "lifetime status" based on achieving a certain level of loyalty in the past. I have United Gold for life even if I don't fly a single mile with them because I got to 1million lifetime miles. Now I use them once or twice a year but still get the benefits (free economy plus, and Star Alliance lounge access etc). I also have Marriott Titanium for life (not awarded anymore) even if I don't stay a single night with them because I stayed a certain number of nights with them over many years. Most of my stays now are with the Marriott timeshares, but when I do stay at hotels I get the benefits of free breakfast, lounge access etc.

As far as kids, if parents paid for their flights and they got to lifetime status, they keep it even if they don't fly with that airline ever again. With hotels, obviously only one person gets the credit for the stay.

I don't see what there is to gain by purging kids who got to DCL Gold or Platinum. One day some (or many) of them will indeed cruise. If they have DCL status, they are much more likely to pick DCL themselves. Seems a bit shortsighted.

 

[jdb in AZ]

So DH and I have been "gold" status for years, but since we haven't cruised with DCL for awhile, we go back to rookie status? Guess we won't be making platinum status any time soon. Oh well, there are lots of other cruise lines that value our business.

 

[RedHead0186]

Not in all cases. Many hotels and airlines have "lifetime status" based on achieving a certain level of loyalty in the past. I have United Gold for life even if I don't fly a single mile with them because I got to 1million lifetime miles. Now I use them once or twice a year but still get the benefits (free economy plus, and Star Alliance lounge access etc). I also have Marriott Titanium for life (not awarded anymore) even if I don't stay a single night with them because I stayed a certain number of nights with them over many years. Most of my stays now are with the Marriott timeshares, but when I do stay at hotels I get the benefits of free breakfast, lounge access etc.

As far as kids, if parents paid for their flights and they got to lifetime status, they keep it even if they don't fly with that airline ever again. With hotels, obviously only one person gets the credit for the stay.

I don't see what there is to gain by purging kids who got to DCL Gold or Platinum. One day some (or many) of them will indeed cruise. If they have DCL status, they are much more likely to pick DCL themselves. Seems a bit shortsighted.

Based on your example, then Platinum cruisers could be exempt from this (though I don't think many Platinums would be affected by this, except maybe children sailing with their parents that won't cruise as adults for a few years). But in the example you posed, people have to spends a looooooot of money/fly a looooooot of miles to earn that status.

 

[tidefan]

So, here's a question (and maybe an extreme example)...

Let's say a Pearl cruiser with 30+ cruises in the past for whatever reason takes 6 years between cruises. OK, now they sail and have no benefits. However, once they do sail, would their next cruise after that be back at Pearl, or does the counter start over, as if they had never, ever cruised DCL at all?

 

[FastPasser.]

Oh well, there are lots of other cruise lines that value our business.

That is certainly true. We’re Platinum and after our January Fantasy cruise we’ll be exploring other cruise lines. Loyalty should work both ways.

 

[DanCali]

So DH and I have been "gold" status for years, but since we haven't cruised with DCL for awhile, we go back to rookie status? Guess we won't be making platinum status any time soon. Oh well, there are lots of other cruise lines that value our business.

That's exactly how I would feel. Definitely would be more likely to try out other companies if we went from Gold to nothing (all our cruises to date were DCL).

 

[rhit2004]

So, here's a question (and maybe an extreme example)...

Let's say a Pearl cruiser with 30+ cruises in the past for whatever reason takes 6 years between cruises. OK, now they sail and have no benefits. However, once they do sail, would their next cruise after that be back at Pearl, or does the counter start over, as if they had never, ever cruised DCL at all?

This is the question nobody seems to be asking.

I can easily read the full Terms and Conditions to indicate that once you effectively rejoin the Castaway Club you regain your old tier as it is based on number of completed DCL cruises which still remains the same regardless of Castaway Club active/inactive status. You still had 5+ sailings with DCL if you previously had gold status regardless of losing Castaway Club membership for an intervening period and after another sailing and effectively rejoining Castaway Club you still have 6+ total DCL sailings.

 

[Pens Fan]

Obviously DCL can change it's loyalty program however it wants, but this seems like a really odd decision. I'm surprised they didn't at least give any warning. It would have been a great way to boost bookings: "Book now, or lose your status!"

When my son went off to college we took a break from DCL to try other cruise lines. Our last cruise was in 2016 and was our fifth so we are gold. We did book one that was cancelled during the pandemic and have two more booked so we are fine, I guess. But man if we somehow had to go back and start from scratch I'd be pretty upset about that - almost to the point that I probably just wouldn't book DCL. We're platinum on NCL and would most likely just stick with them. Heck, some other cruise lines will even match your status from other lines just to entice you to book. I really don't understand why DCL would do this.

 

[Peaseblossom36]

I get it but it stinks. It feels like they should have waited until all the covid cancellations were past 5 years or done a bigger window for now.

We booked for 2025 but haven’t cruised since 2019 (cancelled three during the pandemic) and my parents are going with us but haven’t cruised since 2004. Was hoping to do Palo, but probably won’t happen now.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This change saddens me. It takes us years to save up for a Disney cruise so now the threat of losing our status doesn't help. It's already far more difficult to move up compared to other cruise lines so this change is just another negative.

We absolutely love DCL but are trying RC next week as DCL was double the price and I just couldn't afford it. It will be different to be with another cruise line but I'm excited to see what they offer!

 

[ljhayes]

This is the question nobody seems to be asking.

I can easily read the full Terms and Conditions to indicate that once you effectively rejoin the Castaway Club you regain your old tier as it is based on number of completed DCL cruises which still remains the same regardless of Castaway Club active/inactive status. You still had 5+ sailings with DCL if you previously had gold status regardless of losing Castaway Club membership for an intervening period and after another sailing and effectively rejoining Castaway Club you still have 6+ total DCL sailings.

If this was how it worked, though, what would be the motivation? All that would change is that you couldn't book new itineraries early? Would that alone make this change worthwhile to them? ETA: or are you saying you wouldn't get status back until AFTER your cruise? So you'd not get any benefits on that sailing. I guess that at least would be some kind of benefit to Disney.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

This seems like such a weird decision for a cruise line that barely offers any benefits in their loyalty program to start with.

Maybe those lanyards cost them more than we think

Exactly what I think like you barely get anything to begin with

 

[Clarkson U]

I am thinking this is there way of drumming up business and creating more demand for all of their sailings.

This might eliminate need for discounted cruises etc if people now sail at least once every five years plus with two new ships coming (Treasure and Global in Asia) maybe they want people to book for regularly. The miscalculation might be if DCL believes that their loyalty program is so great (it’s not IMO) that people will definite sail every 5 to retain it.

Just a different thought.

 

[Bonnie1222]

I wonder if they’re planning to enhance the benefits at each level and need to purge the database for that reason as well?

That has been a long time coming IMO. I personlly feel they need to do the levels by days at sea like other cruise lines. Plantinum can be reached by 10 - 3 day cruises or 30 days OR 10 - 7+ day cruises for 70+ days. That is a huge difference in time and money spent yet both have the same reward. I really think they need to add a couple more levels and "revamp" the benefits to match the time spent on their ships. But again - that is just my opinion. It just seems like another thing Disney is taking away.

 

[princesscinderella]

The next step is a DCL exclusive credit card that if you keep charging you never lose your status, similar to airline cards.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I really think it’s true logistical overload. My kiddo (aged 6) Castaway # is 3XXXXXXX

Which means there has been 39 MILLION names who hypothetically have sailed/booked on DCL (since even booking generates your castaway number) before 12/17 (when we booked her first cruise)

That’s a LOT of names who probably only like 10% are even active cruisers.

So if you add a span of say 5 years (at 4 million unique cruisers a year) that’s still 20 million names in a data base.

And statistically how many names in that database will never cruise again as they are deceased…

If you can’t sail just book a cruise and cancel it- that’ll reactivate your number for another 5 years.

 

[ljhayes]

That has been a long time coming IMO. I personlly feel they need to do the levels by days at sea like other cruise lines. Plantinum can be reached by 10 - 3 day cruises or 30 days OR 10 - 7+ day cruises for 70+ days. That is a huge difference in time and money spent yet both have the same reward. I really think they need to add a couple more levels and "revamp" the benefits to match the time spent on their ships. But again - that is just my opinion. It just seems like another thing Disney is taking away.

I agree that is how I would prefer it to be, however that doesn't benefit Disney as much because the price per night is much higher on the shorter cruises than the longer ones and there really isn't a whole lot of cost involved to Disney for having people at a higher tier. I suppose if their goal was to fill longer cruises then it would work but that has never seemed to be their goal.

 

[OpieDoodle]

That has been a long time coming IMO. I personlly feel they need to do the levels by days at sea like other cruise lines. Plantinum can be reached by 10 - 3 day cruises or 30 days OR 10 - 7+ day cruises for 70+ days. That is a huge difference in time and money spent yet both have the same reward. I really think they need to add a couple more levels and "revamp" the benefits to match the time spent on their ships. But again - that is just my opinion. It just seems like another thing Disney is taking away.

Most often the shorter cruises DCL is making more money per day per passenger on the shorter cruises than longer. Like I just looked and for the same week for a 3 night its $553 a night for a verandah, $500 for a 7 night on a verandah per person. That was for 2 adults.

So lets say every room has just 2 adults booked no one else. That means DCL is making over $130,000 per day on the shorter cruise than the longer one, plus adding in all the kids and such. I doubt DCL will start prioritizing longer sailings over shorter ones. For them their bread and butter are those 3/4 night Bahamas cruises.