You're about to discover the best things
and the worst things about staying loyal to a cruise line.
I'm Gary Bembridge.
This is another of my Cruise Trips for Travellers.
I'm taking a look at loyalty programmes with cruise lines
and look at the pros and the cons
of staying loyal to one particular cruise line.
But what is a cruise line loyalty programme?
They're free to join, you normally get signed up
when you go on your very first cruise on a cruise line.
Often, you need that to be able to get in
to manage you cruise booking, for example.
You then earn points based on the number of cruises you do.
Now for most cruise lines, it's based on the number
of nights you do.
So most of the different tiers that you hit and move up
depend on the number of nights.
The great thing about that is
not like many loyalty programmes, say on airlines,
they don't wipe the nights free
and you have to reset every year.
So basically your nights keep building up.
So as you get to a new tier, you keep that tier
and you keep working your way up the tiers.
That then enables you to redeem those various points
for either free benefits or at certain tier levels,
it unlocks a whole range of benefits.
So all of the cruise lines have loyalty programmes.
I thought I might just mention five of them
for the five biggest based on the number of passengers
cruising on them.
So Carnival Cruise Line, for example, their loyalty programme
is called the VIFP:
the Very Important Fun Person.
The Crown & Anchor Society is
Royal Caribbean's loyalty programme.
Norwegian Cruise has the Latitudes Awards programme,
MSC has the MSC Voyager's Club,
and Princess, which is the fifth biggest cruise line
in terms of number of passengers in the world.
They have the Captain's Circle.
So what are the worst things about staying loyal
to one particular line?
Before we look at the upside of those,
it's worth talking about some of the downsides.
There's two kind of worst sides or two key watch outs.
The first of those is that for most cruise lines,
as you earn status and tier points on one cruise line,
it's strictly for that cruise line only.
Unlike airline loyalty programmes,
where airlines tend to be part of bigger groups-
so you have for example, One World, you have Star Lines,
you have Sky Team.
So groups of airlines belong to those.
And as you build up status with those,
you can use that status on other airlines,
and you can often move the points between them.
This is not necessarily the case on cruises.
For example, Carnival Group, I have very high status
on Cunard, so I have platinum status, kind of which
only gives me the top status.
But if I go on other Carnival corporation brands,
like Carnival, Seaborne, Holland America, Costa, Aida,
for each individual programme have to build up status.
The same, I think, is true of Norwegian Cruise Lines.
You're a part of the Norwegian loyalty programme,
or your're a part of the Oceania loyalty programme,
or you're part of Regent Seven Seas loyalty programme.
The key difference for those is as follows:
So if you actually cruise with Royal Caribbean Group,
you find that your status moves
between their different brands.
So if you cruise Royal Caribbean, and you build up status
on their Crown & Anchor Society, you'll find if you go
for example on Celebrity, or you go on Azamara,
you find that your status
actually keeps building and adding,
and your status applies across the different cruise lines.
So it's a little bit more similar to the airline situation.
The other great thing to understand is that with MSC Cruises
they do a status match.
So if before you go on a cruise, you are perhaps
very high status like I am on Cunard,
you are very high status on Royal Caribbean.
They will match that status if you apply in advance.
So you then unlock all the benefits on MSC.
So as you look to choose who you're gonna be loyal to,
you want to bear in mind do you want to be loyal
to one particular cruise line
where you can't transfer that loyalty,
or do you want to be loyal to one cruise line
that's part of a group that will let you move stuff around.
That is kind of the worst side of being
a loyalty club, particularly if you cruise lots of
different cruise lines like I do,
you kind of don't have status on many of them
because you're chopping and changing so often
and you can't transfer that across.
The other kind of worst thing
or risk and watch-out is you
should never let status
get in the way of a great deal.
So you shouldn't only look at that cruise line,
because you might find you get great other experiences
or you get phenomenal deals to cruise the Caribbean,
cruise the Mediterranean,
go to Alaska on another cruise line.
Don't just turn down because of the perks
that you might get, because in practise,
as you'll see in a little while,
while there's some great perks,
they're not necessarily so magnificent
that it should stop you chasing a great deal.
So this is probably the two worst things
about cruise loyalty programmes.
So what are the six best things about staying loyal
to a cruise line and building up status?
So the best thing of all is you get discounts, upgrades,
and potentially even free cruises by staying loyal.
Now the different perks differ by cruise lines,
so you need to check into the details.
So for example on Celebrity,
you can often get cabin upgrades,
you can get discounts on voyages on pretty much all lines.
Silversea, as you build up you can get a free sailing.
You can get free specialty dining on MSC,
you can get discounts on future sailings
with most cruise lines, especially Seabourn and Fred Olson.
You can get savings on shore excursions on Fred Olson.
You can get fares at special rates
for third and fourth passengers on Holland America.
There's a whole mismash of discounts, upgrades and benefits
that you can get through status.
The second big plus of staying loyal is
services and amenities are often bundled in.
So you'll find all sorts of things will come
as you hit the different status levels.
So you'll get things like photos, internet access,
you might get all sorts of dining included,
you might get champagne breakfast.
So all the different lines offer different benefits.
So for example on Cunard you'll get things like WiFi
which builds up,
you'll get some free laundry services,
and all sorts of different features are built in
as you build up
including things like special dining.
So again, on Cunard as you hit different stages
you get special dining for free.
The third perk, which I think is a really great one,
is you get faster embarkation and disembarkation.
This is particularly great if you're on a cruise line
which is really big.
So you don't have to be necessarily travelling in a suite
so obviously if you're travelling in a suite
you get faster embarkation.
But after you go up priority you get to get on the ship
and get off the ship quicker.
So that's a real big plus.
And you'll find often there's little special lounges
for different cardholder levels
where you can have teas and coffees and refreshments
before you go you might be sitting in a nicer lounge
and different facilities for when you get off.
So definitely, faster embarkation/ disembarkation
I tink is a real big plus, because it just makes the whole
cruising experience much smoother.
The fourth big plus, and this appeals to a lot of people,
is they have different events, they have different parties,
and different activities available
for people as they go up tiers.
Most of the cruise lines will have
some sort of cocktail party, or captains or officer's party,
for members of their different loyalty programmes,
and sometimes, depending on your level, might even have
smaller, much more intimate and special ones.
Often you'll find if you've got status you'll get invited
for the chance to do the things like behind the scene tours,
or go on the bridge, which is increasingly difficult to do,
and they offer those often first
to people who have status.
You'll also find often people with status are more likely
to get invited to the Captain's table or to be hosted
by officers and members of the crew, if that' something
that the cruise line does.
So activities, parties and events is a real big plus
and often bundled in.
The fifth big plus is often the cruise line
will give you little gifts and various bits and pieces
as you build up status.
So it could be as simple as, for example again,
using the Cunard as example, you get different little pins
to indicate your level of status.
Some of the cruise lines will give you luggage tags.
Some of the cruise lines will give you special bags
which you can use to go off on excursions,
you know, nice little canvas bags.
And so different little gifts are bundled, and again
it differs a lot by cruise line.
The other big plus is as you build up status,
you'll also often be given access to concierge
services. So often that's only available
for people travelling in suites,
but you'll often find they will have special services
available for people with status.
And it's normally hosted by the person who manages
the actual club on board, so you can go to them
and they'll help sort out excursions or dining,
or bookings, they'll give lots of tips and advice,
if you've got any problems they'll help solve it.
So you actually have somebody other than just guest services
or your cabin steward you can go to,
to help sort out problems.
And that can be a real big plus.
Obviously, most cruise lines will have some sort of service
like that for suite members,
but you'll find pretty much on every single cruise
there'll be one person allocated who looks after
people who're members of the loyalty programme
and particularly people with status.
And they're often the ones that will organise the special
treats and bits and pieces,
so it's always good to build a relationship with them,
because they often organise lots of bits and pieces
that could be added to improve your cruise experience,
Whether that's an extra bottle of wine,
some champagne, some chocolate covered strawberries,
whatever that may be.
Those, in my view, are the best things and the worst things
about staying loyal to one cruise line.
Bear in mind, no matter how loyal you are,
don't let it get in the way of constantly
looking for new experiences and new destinations
and of course you don't lose out on great deals
because you're sticking loyal to just one cruise line.
In my view, there's great perks, there's great benefits,
however, they don't always outweigh
the savings you could make by finding a better deal
or another cruise line.
And also, you might get a different experience.
I have many more tips and advice videos,
so why don't you watch another one of those right now!