Should DCL change how you get Castaway Club tiers?

[bigAWL]

I have a friend that's on an upcoming sailing of the Wish, she's only a Gold. She tried to book either a brunch or dinner in Palo, nope all booked up. Not the first time she's tried to book Palo on a cruise and didn't have any luck, was only able to get something booked once onboard.

While I believe there are probably a lot of Platinum cruisers sailing the Wish these days because it's a new ship. I think the platinum numbers will start to dwindle when those who wanted to experience each ship have been-there-done-that for the Wish. Once cruisers reach Platinum, I think many won't want to go back to the 3- and 4-night cruises that the Wish will sail for the foreseeable future.

There will always be itineraries will attract Platinum cruisers in droves, and there will be very few opportunities for Gold and below on those sailings. But that's not the problem with Palo/Enchante on the Wish. The problem there is the number of Concierge cabins compared to the other ships. By my own very unofficial counts, the Magic and Wonder each have 33, the Dream and Fantasy each have 41, and the Wish has 76. I don't know the capacity of these restaurants on the Wish, but for a 3 or 4 night cruise, all those concierge guests are never going to leave many seatings for anyone else.

As for the original question, I'll start by saying I'm Platinum with 13 cruises at an average length over 7 nights (more long cruises than short ones). But then, I've never sailed concierge and have done many more ocean view cabins than verandas, so I maybe haven't paid as much as some others have. I don't know if there's any one way that's better than any other way to differentiate status. Maybe some sort of point system that rewards higher spending, longer cruises, and frequent cruises each in it's own way. Regardless, I'm sure there will be one way or another to game the system. I just do my thing and enjoy my Disney cruises within my budget.

I think there is good news going forward, though. While more and more cruisers will reach Platinum, they will also be more spread out with new ships scheduled to come on line in the coming years. And keeping with the positive thinking, I'm hoping the new Lighthouse Point setup will offer enough cabanas (or whatever premium options they will have) to satisfy both concierge and loyal customers. But that remains to be seen.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

if you wanna take paid price into account, how are you gonna do that? Kids will take forever to reach a certain status cause you can't take the full amount into account for each member of the family cause that would be unfair towards solo cruisers who pay double anyways.
What about GT rates on a verandah that works out cheaper than a full rate on an outside or even inside?

I think the only really objective items are sailing an number of nights. They could keep their tiers and add stars for thresholds of nights.... platinum 1 star for up to 75 nights 2 stars for 125 nights etc

 

[Marc D]

if you wanna take paid price into account, how are you gonna do that? Kids will take forever to reach a certain status cause you can't take the full amount into account for each member of the family cause that would be unfair towards solo cruisers who pay double anyways.
What about GT rates on a verandah that works out cheaper than a full rate on an outside or even inside?

I think the only really objective items are sailing an number of nights. They could keep their tiers and add stars for thresholds of nights.... platinum 1 star for up to 75 nights 2 stars for 125 nights etc

Celebrity has a hybrid system that indirectly takes into account money and nights spent onboard. Each type of stateroom has a points value for each night, that you multiply by nights onboard. Sailing in a suite on one of the newest ship will give up to 21 points per night, and a basic interior cabin will give one or a couple of points per night. That’s regardless of any deals - kids sail free, 2nd passenger half-off. That allows them to make special points offers, like more points if you forego daily cleaning or points for participating in surveys.

 

[HeatherLassell]

This exact question pops up here every year or so. lol

I think they definitely need to add another tier (as someone who isn't platinum quite yet) above Platinum. But otherwise, keep it the same, based on # of cruises as they currently do.

 

[kps7795]

This is what I'm thinking too, but I'm not sure how fair that would be to those who just became platinum. Would they lose something? I don't know.

All I know is I have 25 and 26 booked in the next year, and all I want is to get my boarding group 1/no PAT perk back! However they can do that, I say go for it!

Have you sent DCL an email asking them to reinstate our Platinum CC benefit? If not, please send them an email. The more people that they hear from, the sooner they'll bring back Group 1 boarding for Platinum CC guests.

Tracy (Disney Cruise Line) Nov 4, 2022, 10:06 AM EDT Dear Ken, Thank you for your email. While we have not been provided an update on the return of the Castaway Club benefits we truly appreciate your concerns and your email has been shared with the appropriate management teams. It is not our intent to upset our loyal Disney Cruise Line Guests. We regret any disappointment and hope these concerns will not affect your regard for Disney. The Disney name has the power to inspire hope and optimism in people everywhere and we anxiously anticipate sailing with you and your family in the near future. Sincerely, Tracy Shoreside Guest Services Disney Cruise Line

 

[HeatherLassell]

Have you sent DCL an email asking them to reinstate our Platinum CC benefit? If not, please send them an email. The more people that they hear from, the sooner they'll bring back Group 1 boarding for Platinum CC guests.

Tracy (Disney Cruise Line) Nov 4, 2022, 10:06 AM EDT Dear Ken, Thank you for your email. While we have not been provided an update on the return of the Castaway Club benefits we truly appreciate your concerns and your email has been shared with the appropriate management teams. It is not our intent to upset our loyal Disney Cruise Line Guests. We regret any disappointment and hope these concerns will not affect your regard for Disney. The Disney name has the power to inspire hope and optimism in people everywhere and we anxiously anticipate sailing with you and your family in the near future. Sincerely, Tracy Shoreside Guest Services Disney Cruise Line

I totally agree that more people need to email DCL about it.

 

[Sykes]

The structure and benefits of the Castaway Club render it effectively meaningless. There are too many people vying for too few benefits. Whether or not that is actually hurting DCL is another question, but with the Platinum pseudo-tiers that they created for the initial Wish maiden bookings you can see that they recognize at least parts of the problem.

When I sailed on the Ruby Princess I went to a Cruise Critic meetup on-board. I mentioned that it was my first time sailing Princess, but I regularly sailed Celebrity and DCL (and others). Several people mentioned to me that they had heard lots of good things about Celebrity and the changes they've made in recent years and would love to sail them some day, but they were unwilling to give up their loyalty benefits on Princess. The loyalty program created a lock-in that kept people coming back even though they were really interested in a competitor.

As someone who usually books suites (albeit less so on DCL) and prefers 7+ day sailings, I do wish the tiers at least vaguely correlated with spend (I feel much more appreciated on pretty much any other cruise line), but Disney may not need that. They're already able to charge a premium with a small fleet of mostly-full ships. But the structure of the program really fails to do anything of note except make frequent cruisers feel superior to the hoi polloi, so I'm not particularly worried about whether it's nights or sailings.

 

[Garyjames220]

Doesn’t really bother me what they do with it as it’s not much of a loyalty programme anyway. The benefits are very poor compared to other lines

 

[Cheburashka]

if you wanna take paid price into account, how are you gonna do that?

Spend per passenger is easy for DCL to calculate. That would determine each passenger's CC status. I don't think DCL wants to go that route, though. Number of cruises has been working fine for what little benefits they give. I just wish they'd restore the Platinum no-PAT benefit.

 

[Cheburashka]

I think the only really objective items are sailing an number of nights. They could keep their tiers and add stars for thresholds of nights.... platinum 1 star for up to 75 nights 2 stars for 125 nights etc

Nothing objective about that as some 3-5 night cruises cost more than some 7+ night cruises, depending on time of year. Pricing on DCL is tightly correlated with school schedules, sometimes doubling from one week to the next based on a school holiday. A number of nights system would disadvantage cruisers who can't sail while school is in. DCL wouldn't want to alienate their guests who routinely pay a lot more to sail during school holidays.

 

[RAD]

Maybe they should just dump the entire program? Many folks here have said that the loyalty program isn't using it in their decision to cruise DCL so why not cancel it and DCL saves themselves some money?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe they should just dump the entire program? Many folks here have said that the loyalty program isn't using it in their decision to cruise DCL so why not cancel it and DCL saves themselves some money?

I imagine it would be difficult to get people to join DCL cruising with the price point they have if there isn't something to it.

And I think the reason why it's less important now to people posting is they are already set on DCL. Talk to people who are thinking about several cruise lines and see if they would be willing to pay the prices and pay multiple times if there's no future reward to it. I would say though my DISer friends have said they were wanting to be Platinum for their Wish sailings presumably for the benefits so while they would still cruise DCL having some rewards is a point for them.

The unfortunate problem is that they have diluted the end part of their program because it's become too prevalent my guess likely due to the pandemic offering the ability to get in quick cruises. The DISer friends I know in Orlando are Platinum now and living in Orlando is directly related to getting that in. They did not used to cruise this frequently and for short trips before moving there.

 

[RAD]

Frankly, when I look at the benefits of CC almost all of them really benefit DCL. One of the big benefits is the early booking window which gets folks to say I've got to book as soon as the window opens so I can save money. Yes you save some money but DCL is still making a bunch. You can save some money at the stores buying high priced merchandise. The only really 'free' thing you might get is the Palo dinner, that's if you can get a reservation.

We're doing a cruise on RCCL in January which has us in at their diamond loyalty level due to status match with Celebrity. We get access to a private lounge area for diamond and above level and each of us get four vouchers for drinks each day. We also get one day of free internet access (not 50MB like DCL). That's just a few of the benefits that they give, and they're costing RCCL money without us having to spend money to get the benefit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Frankly, when I look at the benefits of CC almost all of them really benefit DCL.

That's any program, the main benefactors are the company themselves. Even your Royal Caribbean psychologically speaking getting drink vouchers will make people more likely to spend more money somewhere because they can say "oh well we had these for free" I also don't know about tips for each drink too. It still benefits the cruise line the most, not you. But you look at what you're getting and say "well that's nice!"

 

[RAD]

That's any program, the main benefactors are the company themselves. Even your Royal Caribbean psychologically speaking getting drink vouchers will make people more likely to spend more money somewhere because they can say "oh well we had these for free" I also don't know about tips for each drink too. It still benefits the cruise line the most, not you. But you look at what you're getting and say "well that's nice!"

Using the drink voucher example, for us we would have purchased the beverage package but because of the four free each day we aren’t, saving us money while costing RCCL.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Using the drink voucher example, for us we would have purchased the beverage package but because of the four free each day we aren’t, saving us money while costing RCCL.

Yeah...but that's you, as in you personally. They've done the market research on these things, companies in general do these things. They look at what do customers want and what's the behavior elsewhere. For Americans especially drinks are something highly desired. Don't think for a second throwing some freebie drinks your way is costing them money in the end. It's not.

For DCL like a few of us have said it's working for them for now, they have it set up per sailing not per days for a reason but I get the complaints. It also may be something they re-review in a few years time when things have settled back down because the pandemic def. has helped boosted people up faster and that effect to that may not be seen as much quite yet. Could still be a positive to DCL thus continuing the status quo or they look to tweak things.

 

[Marc D]

.Several people mentioned to me that they had heard lots of good things about Celebrity and the changes they've made in recent years and would love to sail them some day, but they were unwilling to give up their loyalty benefits on Princess. The loyalty program created a lock-in that kept people coming back even though they were really interested in a competitor.

That’s why some cruise lines are beginning to offer level-match from other lines (up to a certain level). Carnival and Royal/Celebrity do it but only with their own brands. MSC and Virgin will match your level from competing lines.

 

[mmouse37]

I don't think it should be based just on price or spending. Maybe a combo of cruises and nights sailed. My next cruise will be #53 (with 340 nights) on DCL so I definitely think another level is in order. We have been cruising with DCL since literally Day 1 of their sailings. We were on the MV of the Magic when they only sailed 3/4 night cruises. We took our first 7 night in 2001. I prefer longer cruises than shorter ones. We have done a 2 Transatlantics and a 2 Panama Canals plus 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 night cruises.

We were able to snag a Palo brunch on the MV of the Wish by some stroke of luck once onboard. Every sailing I have been on since cruising restarted (6) I have not been able to get Palo brunch before I boarded. I was able to once onboard but I hate having to wait in a long line to put my name on a waitlist. I do feel with so many DCL cruises they would recognize loyal customers and somehow let them book Palo before the cruise. This last cruise I had to leave my group eating lunch in Rapunzel's while I waited 30 minutes in Promenade Lounge to get on a waitlist. That is nuts. We had a PAT of 11:45 but our friend's was not until 12:15 or so, so we had to wait for their boarding number to be called to board (I asked about them boarding with us and was told no). What good is a perk like Palo brunch or dinner if you have to fight to get it.

I do not like any of the Platinum perks like the fruit tray (who needs a fruit tray when you can get fruit pretty much whenever you want), the Prosecco which I don't like or the truffles which taste nasty. I'd prefer 1 or 2 8x10 photos as perk or some comped internet time or some comp nursery time for when we cruise with grandkids or some drinks on the house.

I do not understand why they can't bring back the perk of boarding group 1 or 2 for Platinum. There really is no reason not to offer it again. They dropped their covid protocols so it can't be for that reason.

MJ

 

[phinz]

Yes. When they changed the alcohol policy they said they were, “bringing their policies in line with other lines.” Do it with Castaway too. There’s no reason somebody with 11 3-day cruises in an inside stateroom should be at a higher level than someone who has done 9 transatlantic cruises in Concierge.

 

[71 Truck]

Ask yourself was it worth to get to the level you are at based on the number of days a sea and the amount of money you spent.
Are the benefits even worth it anymore based on other cruise line loyalty programs and how Disney seems to be reducing theirs.

Then ask yourself is it fair for someone who has done ten, three day cruises vs someone has has done ten, seven day cruises or longer to become a Platinum member.

Some will say yes and some will say no. I have a feeling how those questions will be answered and by who.
The three day cruise people will say yes while the seven day or more people will say no.

My wife and I have been on twelve seven day Disney cruises with thirteen and fourteen booked.
We have been on Princess once, a anniversary gift paid for by my parents many years ago and one Norwegian cruise we paid for ourself back in February 2020.
While it seams the other cruise lines value their repeat customers and most reward programs are based on the number of nights sailed it appears Disney does not.

In my opinion what I think Disney needs to do is create 2 more levels above Platinum (whatever they want to call it - Emerald and Diamond, double and triple platinum etc).

Everyone who has achieved a certain status should remain at that status, however to achieve the next level higher it will be based on the days at sea. So for example if you took 10 - 3 day cruises and are platinum now, you will remain, but if the next higher level is 55 days at sea, you will need to do 9 more 3 day cruises to make that next level, but some one doing 7 day cruises would make it in 4.

Disney could easily reinstate the past platinum benefits, less say the captains reception and then add the captains reception and maybe some additional benefits to the higher levels to make it even more rewarding. Things that really don't cost them anything like - Port arrivals times, additional discounts for shopping (NCL gives you a discount starting at cruise 2 and it climbs from there) Shore excursion credits, credits toward WiFi programs (or as someone else said - free basic WiFi level), one free drink of the day, Free use of laundry facilities (say 1 free wash and dry - NCL will actually take a bag and do your laundry for you based on your levels). Free onboard fun event valued at $xx or less (say free beer tasting). Simple things like this that don't cost much if anything and would entice you to do more.

Other lines have long lists of benefits they offer their loyal guests. Disney just doesn't seem to offer much at all.