Pearl Castaway level?

[Chipmunkmaniac]

Im from Belgium ao def not from Florida and with three cruises coming up in Jan/feb Ill be Pearl when they activate the status for the anniversary

 

[John VN]

I will admit I have already looked to see if there are some really inexpensive 3-nighters that fit my schedule over the next year or so.

Gamification works. It's amazing how many thousands we will spend for perks worth pennies!

r.e. bold -- EXACTLY why we changed cruise lines. When one can cruise DCL Concierge Level on steroids for thousands less, one need not limit cruising time enjoyment.

 

[DCLMP]

Not really. Since everything is charged to your room card. It's pretty easy to see all charges there.

No cruise lines do that.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

No cruise lines do that.

On Holland America you get extra credits on your sailing history for every $300 spent onboard.

 

[suedon70]

I'm not complaining because it is what it is, and I highly doubt I'll ever get to pearl level. But I am willing to bet the overwhelming majority of those who qualify for pearl are those living in Florida who can hop in their Honda CRV's and drive an hour or two to Port Canaveral or Miami for a quick getaway weekend and jump on one of the ships.

Honda CRV? Please! I hop in my X5 to PC for my quick getaway weekend cruise, thank you very much!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I’ve done the magic dream fantasy wonder. I’ve done Star Wars Day at Sea.

I’m doing an Alaska Cruise, Christmastime and Halloween.

I’ll do the wish and then I’ll be platinum I know I’ll never get to Pearl level but I’m excited for you all who do.


What kind of benefits are you expecting?

 

[CarolynU]

Bit of a strange situation for me. I’m from the uk. Have sailed 18 times and even my 6 year old granddaughter would be gold next trip.
I’ve never sailed less than 7 nights.
But after the last trip I decided without the early boarding group I wasn’t sailing DCL again. That was my number one benefit.
Then we boarded in August and my grandkids reaction changed my mind. However, that was short lived.
I must have the only two kids in my party who didn’t enjoy the kids club. They were bored and my daughter kept getting called to pick them up. So we blitzed character meets, but my little grandson was fed up doing that after three days.
They were too young for trivia and the Goofy pool was like kid soup. So much so that the lifeguards kept blowing the whistle to empty the pool for twenty minutes saying that it was a toilet break. Needless to say most of the kids got out, sat looking gloomy by the edge of the pool and as soon as the whistle was blown simply got back in again.
It all seemed a bit pointless as it’s not as if there were any particular hygiene checks undertaken during that time. They must have had their reasons but my granddaughter ended up crying as she had only just got in the water and the lifeguard said that the pool was having a “45minute break.” It was cold and windy too outside so not particularly pleasant so we’ve decided to give DCL a break and try cruise lines with larger pools or things like climbing walls or something. Or we might not cruise at all for a while.
I’m also defecting to Princess next Feb doing a couple of Caribbean Cruises out of FLL just for a change.
I did consider (I’m retired) flying to Florida and take a series of (2, 3 or 4 night cruises) to get to Pearl in one hit but until I know exactly what the benefits will be and be able to compare the whole experience with the Princess cruises next Feb then I’m sitting right on the fence for the time being.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

Bit of a strange situation for me. I’m from the uk. Have sailed 18 times and even my 6 year old granddaughter would be gold next trip.
I’ve never sailed less than 7 nights.
But after the last trip I decided without the early boarding group I wasn’t sailing DCL again. That was my number one benefit.
Then we boarded in August and my grandkids reaction changed my mind. However, that was short lived.
I must have the only two kids in my party who didn’t enjoy the kids club. They were bored and my daughter kept getting called to pick them up. So we blitzed character meets, but my little grandson was fed up doing that after three days.
They were too young for trivia and the Goofy pool was like kid soup. So much so that the lifeguards kept blowing the whistle to empty the pool for twenty minutes saying that it was a toilet break. Needless to say most of the kids got out, sat looking gloomy by the edge of the pool and as soon as the whistle was blown simply got back in again.
It all seemed a bit pointless as it’s not as if there were any particular hygiene checks undertaken during that time. They must have had their reasons but my granddaughter ended up crying as she had only just got in the water and the lifeguard said that the pool was having a “45minute break.” It was cold and windy too outside so not particularly pleasant so we’ve decided to give DCL a break and try cruise lines with larger pools or things like climbing walls or something. Or we might not cruise at all for a while.
I’m also defecting to Princess next Feb doing a couple of Caribbean Cruises out of FLL just for a change.
I did consider (I’m retired) flying to Florida and take a series of (2, 3 or 4 night cruises) to get to Pearl in one hit but until I know exactly what the benefits will be and be able to compare the whole experience with the Princess cruises next Feb then I’m sitting right on the fence for the time being.

Genuine question and no judgement. But why would an early boarding group make or break your cruise? I'm platinum and by the time they'll introduce Pearl I will be Pearl (from Belgium and all long cruises as well) but never fell being on the ship was making a difference to the cruise except for the handful of times I booked that last minute I had missed out on a character reservation or Palo brunch (and even that wouldnt have made a difference to the overall feeling.
As much as I would LOVE to see the first boarding group and differentiated reservation for royal gathering come it, it will not determine whether or not I had a happy feeling.

I feel sorry your grandkids didn't have a good time. I loooove charactermeets but my overall feeling with postcovid activities is that there is only trivia and animation class so I can completely understand if you are not into characters as much you get bored...

 

[CarolynU]

Genuine question and no judgement. But why would an early boarding group make or break your cruise? I'm platinum and by the time they'll introduce Pearl I will be Pearl (from Belgium and all long cruises as well) but never fell being on the ship was making a difference to the cruise except for the handful of times I booked that last minute I had missed out on a character reservation or Palo brunch (and even that wouldnt have made a difference to the overall feeling.
As much as I would LOVE to see the first boarding group and differentiated reservation for royal gathering come it, it will not determine whether or not I had a happy feeling.

I feel sorry your grandkids didn't have a good time. I loooove charactermeets but my overall feeling with postcovid activities is that there is only trivia and animation class so I can completely understand if you are not into characters as much you get bored...

I just used to love not having to get up at silly o clock to complete the online check in and select the port arrival time for all of us. It was the perk I really enjoyed. I can’t really explain why. I can understand that in covid times it was important to stop everyone arriving at the same time, but I was hoping that as travel became more flexible that It would return, but it hasn’t, but it might for the pearl folks but who knows.
The grandkiddies did enjoy the cruise but not the kids club and without doing that the pool couldn’t really cope with such huge numbers of children all wanting to be in it at the same time. They were too young for trivia so that’s why we felt that another cruise line with things like climbing walls and larger pools might be good as well as those that offer sunny itineraries in the Med in our uk school holidays rather than the more unpredictable weather in Northern Europe.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I can understand that in covid times it was important to stop everyone arriving at the same time, but I was hoping that as travel became more flexible that It would return, but it hasn’t,

Actually, I believe, in the beginning (pre-COVID) there was a limit to how many people could be in the building (at Port Canaveral) per fire regulations, that's why the PAT times were started. But, as usual, with Disney not particularly enforced.

 

[CarolynU]

Actually, I believe, in the beginning (pre-COVID) there was a limit to how many people could be in the building (at Port Canaveral) per fire regulations, that's why the PAT times were started. But, as usual, with Disney not particularly enforced.

I’ve boarded at PC, at Miami, at San Juan, at Barcelona , Southampton and at Dover. As a platinum cruiser I enjoyed not only arriving at my convenience knowing that I was automatically be in the first boarding group but even more not having to get up at 5am to start the check in process.
It just seemed a nice perk for platinum guests.

 

[kps7795]

I’ve boarded at PC, at Miami, at San Juan, at Barcelona , Southampton and at Dover. As a platinum cruiser I enjoyed not only arriving at my convenience knowing that I was automatically be in the first boarding group but even more not having to get up at 5am to start the check in process.
It just seemed a nice perk for platinum guests.

Have you sent DCL an email? If not, please do so! The more Platinum CC members that send emails, the sooner DCL will resume our benefit.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

I’ve boarded at PC, at Miami, at San Juan, at Barcelona , Southampton and at Dover. As a platinum cruiser I enjoyed not only arriving at my convenience knowing that I was automatically be in the first boarding group but even more not having to get up at 5am to start the check in process.
It just seemed a nice perk for platinum guests.

I guess I jave to rephrase more to what would have been the reason you d have a bad cruise if you wouldnt have gotten up at 5am for that early pat. Have waited til 8am and gotten a 12.15 pat instead (i did enjoy the perk as well but it would never be the reason not to go on a cruise. I actually just hate the overall crazyness of the first afternoon anyways…

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I’ve boarded at PC, at Miami, at San Juan, at Barcelona , Southampton and at Dover. As a platinum cruiser I enjoyed not only arriving at my convenience knowing that I was automatically be in the first boarding group but even more not having to get up at 5am to start the check in process.
It just seemed a nice perk for platinum guests.

Oh, I get it. I'm Platinum, also. I love that I can (could) arrive when I wished.

I was just pointing out that PATs were part of the process from the beginning at PC. At least since we've started cruising with DCL.

 

[CarolynU]

Have you sent DCL an email? If not, please do so! The more Platinum CC members that send emails, the sooner DCL will resume our benefit.

I haven’t sent an individual email but they sent me a post cruise survey and I incorporated my thoughts on there re the boarding perk for Platinum guests being withdrawn. With the arrival of Pearl status I see it as potentially a perk that will now be offered to that group plus concierge alone.
Right now I have two Princess Cruises for a change so that I can work out whether or not I’ll take a break to try a variety of different experiences or go back to DCL and utilise my placeholder.

 

[Peterw0731]

Hello all,
My family and I have cruised 17 times which total to over 100 days solely on Disney Cruise Line. Each time we needed to book flights and other travel arrangements because we are from New England and driving 24 hours is just too much stress for a vacation. We are obviously big fans of Disney Cruise Line and felt we certainly demonstrated that fact with our loyalty to the brand. When I discovered the new requirements for becoming a Pearl castaway club member it just didn’t sit well with me. To find out a person who simply sailed 75 days would experience more benefits than my family was to put it bluntly, hurtful. I wrote Disney and explained my feelings and told them I will not book another cruise until this policy is revised to recognize the days sailed. I realize there are bigger things to worry about in life however what’s right is right and for all of you fans that have cruised nearly one third of a year deserve your pearl recognition as well! I hope you all have the best holiday ever!!!

 

[KevinFL]

Hello all,
My family and I have cruised 17 times which total to over 100 days solely on Disney Cruise Line. Each time we needed to book flights and other travel arrangements because we are from New England and driving 24 hours is just too much stress for a vacation. We are obviously big fans of Disney Cruise Line and felt we certainly demonstrated that fact with our loyalty to the brand. When I discovered the new requirements for becoming a Pearl castaway club member it just didn’t sit well with me. To find out a person who simply sailed 75 days would experience more benefits than my family was to put it bluntly, hurtful. I wrote Disney and explained my feelings and told them I will not book another cruise until this policy is revised to recognize the days sailed. I realize there are bigger things to worry about in life however what’s right is right and for all of you fans that have cruised nearly one third of a year deserve your pearl recognition as well! I hope you all have the best holiday ever!!!

Hi Peter this is a tough one for them. What is your concern if someone sailed 75 days vs your 100. Does each day at sea equal being rewarded or is it the dollars the guest has spent? If I sail in a Concierge 1-bedroom for 75 days then I will have spent significantly more than someone who has sailed 100 days in a verandah. Or someone in a verandah spends more than an inside cabin. They have to pick between either nights sailed, number of cruises, or dollars spent. They have always done their tiers by numbers of cruises so we all knew that was what we were signing up for when sailing with DCL. The addition of a new tier is a great thing as 10 cruises was very low. As long as Platinum retains their original benefits.
These are not the biggest benefits in the world anyway and like you said we all see how insignificant these things end up being in our lives. Happy holidays to you and your family!

 

[Peterw0731]

Hello,
I appreciate your thoughts. I do feel time spent on the ship is the most accurate reflection of loyalty because a family that can afford an inside stateroom receives the same recognition as a family that can afford to travel concierge. I don’t feel price should be part of the equation. All the best!

 

[Peterw0731]

Oops, Not be part of the equation

 

[Peterw0731]

Never mind, I said it right the first time