Disney Cruise Line Updates Castaway Club Membership Requirements

[allashore]

I totally agree with Disney decision on this it’s actually very generous. I’m also MSC platinum and I have to maintain that point level every two years and points are given based on how much you spend. Same thing with airlines. Once you don’t maintain a level with business you’re out.

A pearl versus silver/ non member has cash benefits if you look at what they pay on opening day versus what someone who’s not a CC member pays. In a way it’s a discount. I can totally get Disney revenue management thinking. OK we have a generation of kids who are pearl or platinum because their parents paid for their sailings. (at a discount because the third and fourth is significantly lower than the first two.). so why should they 10 years later as paying adults get these benefits basically as a “paying“ head of reservation starting at zero?

this is not true for all kids, our kids have many times been the 1st or 2nd listed peron in a cabin, 2 adults & 4 kids.
When the Magic first sailed the non-conierge cabins only slept 4 people. So even when we had just 3 kids, we had to pay for 2 cabins, which means 2 of our children have always been charged the higher adult fair. Now once they were 18+ they could all be in their own cabin, and have continued to accumualte status. Since we just sailed this year, all of them will contiune to keep their staus. Not all kids only pay kids fares.
so if granparents paid for their adult kids, would you say the adults shouldn't accumulate status b/c they didnt pay for the cruise themselves? of course dcl does not ask this, or care. Why does it matter how a persons status was accumulated by whomever paid for it?

 

[holula]

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.

If they were going to do that then I think they would have done it when they added Pearl.

 

[FastPasser.]

We absolutely love DCL but are trying RC next week as DCL was double the price and I just couldn't afford it.

Which ship? It does make a difference.

 

[Pooh2]

Just checked my account and our silver status is still there but we are 5 years 3 months from our last cruise. Was hoping to get gold next year but the whole thing kind of leaves a bad taste.
Seems like Disney should have sent out emails on the topic?

 

[RedHead0186]

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.

I don't think this is true. My CC number is 22XXXXXX and I joined in 2001. So I don't think they started at 0 with the first CC number.

 

[Mommb]

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.

According to the new terms, if you have a cruise booked, your status should not expire. You and your parents should have the status you do now for your 2025 cruise.

 

[Disneymadhouse]

I don't think this is true. My CC number is 22XXXXXX and I joined in 2001. So I don't think they started at 0 with the first CC number.

Agreed. My first Disney cruise was in 1999 on Magic, and my CC no starts with a 2.

I'm 5 years this month since my last cruise, so I guess I've been dumped!

 

[Rochester Disney Fan]

We are DVC members since 2008 and started cruising in 2012. It's a nice break from the parks every few years and I can reset my annual pass. We have taken 4 cruises and we're going to be Gold after our next cruise which I was thinking fall of 2025. Our last cruise was in 2018 and of course COVID messed things up for a couple years and we had to bank vacation points because the parks were closed. So naturally you need to plan a lot of park visits to use up your points after they reopen which cut into our cruise time. If I go back to zero status I am not doing anymore DCL cruises and will research other cruise lines and start a loyalty program with them. With Disney almost doubling their fleet recently (and in the near future) you would think they would be trying to hold onto the loyal travelers they have.

 

[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.

My daughter was 12 when we took her on a Disney cruise. She is 32 now and bought her own house 4 years ago and somehow Disney got her new address and sends snail mail to her, so they must make some effort to turn kid cruisers into adult cruisers.

 

[insureman]

Typical Disney. We're Pearl and my adult daughters are Platinum and have young families with other financial obligations so it's just not possible for them to cruise right now with DCL's expensive fares. They sure know how to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I don't think this is true. My CC number is 22XXXXXX and I joined in 2001. So I don't think they started at 0 with the first CC number.

I have a 6 digit starts with the number one castaway club number back from 1998 as I was on the fourth sailing of the Disney magic

 

[Peaseblossom36]

According to the new terms, if you have a cruise booked, your status should not expire. You and your parents should have the status you do now for your 2025 cruise.

I will keep my status, my parents will not since they have had a long gap. I called to ask.

 

[NAB]

I really don’t think the loyalty program is that strong with Disney anyways. But after looking at the link to the terms and conditions for castaway club members where this 5 year thing is defined, it is interesting or an oversight that at the bottom of the page it says revised, March 2023. So is it new or not?

 

[HokieRaven5]

I really don’t think the loyalty program is that strong with Disney anyways. But after looking at the link to the terms and conditions for castaway club members where this 5 year thing is defined, it is interesting or an oversight that at the bottom of the page it says revised, March 2023. So is it new or not?

Yeah that was listed in the terms back in March apparently, DCL just also updated the FAQ today and appears to be going more towards enforcement of it now.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I am disappointed with DCL and am very happy that Princess hadn’t followed that when we went on our Alaska Cruise and Cruise tour in 2019. It had been more than 5 years since we had been on one, and they still gave us the perks we had earned. The other cruise line that we have significant perks on is RCCL.

Both Princess and RCCL cruise lines have better perks than DCL IMO, so, I really don’t understand why they are doing it.

 

[dreamer17555]

While I don't really have an issue with this change I am wondering what is going on with DCL lately.

Between the Castaway change (which will encourage some people to book as to not lose status) and the 50% off deposits there seems to be a big push to fill ships but I am not seeing a lot of new Restriction Rate Discounts being offered so it can't be that bad...

Also DCL might want to take a deep breath before announcing anymore changes- Between the kids club age change and this, they risk really turning off some loyal guests.

 

[kiford]

So, if someone books a cruise that's 2 years out, but booked 4 years and 11 months years after their last one their status won't change. Then what happens if they cancel the cruise (before penalties, of course)? Immediate cancellation of status?

That would be my assumption since their actual next cruise would be after 5 years. I can't seem them leaving this as a loophole where you can just keep booking a cruise and then cancel. I suspect the intent was to be flexible in allowing someone to book a cruise that is more than 5 years out from the last one and still be able to anticipate that they would keep their status but not to allow them to perpetually move the dial.

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

In Canada, due to anti-spam legislation (which Disney follows for Canadian guests), you can continue to send marketing information to people with whom you have a relationship and that is (in its simplest form) someone who bought something previously from you within a certain period of time or explicitly opted into to marketing information. I think the GDPR legislation in Europe has some similar requirements. So, yes, they may have to purge those guests after a certain period of time from their marketing database. Unless it's interpreted that, as long as you have an account, they can market to you, but I remember having to explicitly opt into certain marketing from Disney (multiple divisions/products) to make sure I was going to keep getting offers.

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?

My interpretation is that once you lose status, the clock restarts entirely. So if you are Pearl and you cruise 6 years after the last one, you are now Silver and you'll have to take another 24 to make it back to Pearl. It doesn't say that specifically, I can't see the point of reinstating you at the higher level after you've done one cruise again. The whole point is to keep you cruising on a regular basis and only rewarding you for doing so.

 

[tvguy]

In Canada, due to anti-spam legislation (which Disney follows for Canadian guests), you can continue to send marketing information to people with whom you have a relationship and that is (in its simplest form) someone who bought something previously from you within a certain period of time or explicitly opted into to marketing information. I think the GDPR legislation in Europe has some similar requirements. So, yes, they may have to purge those guests after a certain period of time from their marketing database. Unless it's interpreted that, as long as you have an account, they can market to you, but I remember having to explicitly opt into certain marketing from Disney (multiple divisions/products) to make sure I was going to keep getting offers.

Is this restriction on e-mail or Postal Mail? My daughter is getting Postal Mail from Disney, not e-mail That law sounds like our "Do Not Call" list in the U.S. which is a joke because of the exemptions to it. Political groups are exempt. Charities are exempt. Those are the two groups I would most like to prevent from calling me. Other exemptions are given to a company if you ever made contact with them. And ANY company they are affiliated with is exempt as well. So you buy a Toyota. Every Toyota dealer and every Lexus dealer can now call you with out violating the do not call list law.

 

[OKW Lover]

I think this is a good decision for DCL. It makes sense. Why carry somebody that hasn't sailed in 5 years? Yes, the CC membership benefits are meager, but I doubt that matters much for people who haven't sailed in that long.

Many airline/hotel programs have similar limitations.

 

[fenrir58]

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).

My SO and I were planning on booking a cruise for next year. I haven’t sailed since before that global thing that stopped cruising for a hot minute and to find out from a third party blog post I was going to be bumped down from gold to nothing sorta bums me out and makes me not even want to try to sail enough to reach other levels.
(We were originally going to cruise this year but ended up changing our trip to Aulani)