Does a 3 night cruise "count"?

[Flossbolna]

I think it's ridiculous for a 2-day cruise to count as much as a 15-day cruise. Everyone should get some kind of credit each time they cruise, but get extra points for cruises that are more than a week long.

If you look at prices for some of the shorter cruises, I am sure that there are plenty of people who paid less for their inside cabin on a Transatlantic cruise than other who had a veranda stateroom on a 2-night cruise to nowhere.

Personally, I would benefit from it if it were determined by nights as my four cruises so far add up to 34 nights. But I think the only way to make it really fair would be to give people one point per dollar spent. Nights are just as arbitrary as cruises.

 

[jjgarv]

... Really, though, as a PP pointed out, the perks are pretty minimal, costing DCL next to nothing.

This made me curious about what folks view as the 'best' perk at gold or platinum levels? If it's a shot at a cabana, these were already taken by concierge pax when the platinum window opened for our October cruise. If it's an early Port Arrival Time, there were still 11:00AM slots open for first time pax for our October cruise. The 'free' Palo is a great perk though. Anyway...just wondering what other folks see as the 'best' perk for gold or platinum cruisers?

 

[jdb in AZ]

I like being able to reserve shore excursions earlier than the newbies. We don't care about trying to reserve a cabana.

 

[CM Dad]

Actually everyone doesn't as I don't live in Florida I live in Europe and the cost is just not justifyable. Other cruiselines do number of days and I just think its strange that Disney doesn't in some way but as said I think it should be no. of days or number of trips which ever is sooner so Gold for example could be 5 cruises or 20 days (which would be the equivalent of 5 x 4 day cruises). This would mean everyone felt that they were being rewarded more equally

Maybe DCL should also take where you live into account. Since Florida residents have an easier time to get to the port and sometimes get special discount rates, they should have to take MORE cruises than people in other states

Just kidding.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

Amount paid is an interesting idea. Since we must cruise during peak times, the $/day we pay is really high. Just for fun I priced out next years 14 night Panama Canal cruise (which we would love to take but can't) and found that the total cost for that cruise would not be that much more than the 7 night Eastern we took 2 years ago! Oh well, since we get to cruise DCL and we hit gold, we can't really complain!

 

[kiford]

It is a loyalty program, meant to encourage more cruising on DCL.

But the only reason that they want to encourage more cruising on DCL is to make more profit. I've no idea which makes more profit for them: shorter or longer cruises or if it's relatively equal on a person night per person basis. If they make more profit on longer cruises then they'll want to reward that and encourage people to move from shorter to longer cruises. If they need to fill the shorter cruises on a more regular basis, then they'll want to continue to encourage shorter ones. Only Disney knows those numbers and stats and their decisions will be based on and driven by that data in addition to what they want to encourage, the subsidiary profits that they gain (e.g., pre/post nights at WDW) and general goodwill and positive PR.

For myself, it's fun to be able to reach different levels but doesn't really impact our decision of what location or length to choose. I like being able to pick my excursions earlier (we're Gold) but other than that, the benefits don't really encourage or discourage my loyalty to DCL - the cruise experience does that.

 

[GarakDS9]

In terms of dollars and cents, the best perk is available to both gold and platinum. Being able to book a cruise one day ahead of the general public and silvers can save many hundreds of dollars when booking new itineraries. Our Norway/Iceland cruise saw dramatic price increases.

On that same cruise I witnessed many silver and first timers get shut out of Port Adventures or at least out of their top three choices. Thus, I'd suggest that the advanced PA booking window might be the second best benefit.

Selfishly, since we just became platinum, I'd suggest a new benefit for the top tier. A dedicated phone line for advanced booking days. I wouldn't expect this to be a high cost for DCL and it would save us from sitting around for hours in queue.