Pearl Castaway level?

[Trera]

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!

I dont see the policy ever changing. The 3 and 4 night cruises return DCL the highest revenue per night on average. They want to keep those ships as full as possible at all times and one way they can help that is to let those cruises count in the castaway club status the same as a 7 night. It also encourages back to backs on those cruises because you will get credit for 2 cruises vs. 1 for taking a 7 night or higher.

It would seem that whether they reward loyalty by dollars spent, nights cruised or total cruises taken................there will be those that think the policy is unfair. Currently we dont know what the perks will be for someone who has taken 25 cruises to reach the new Pearl level but based on dollars spent with DCL my guess is that they will seem insignificant.

 

[Peterw0731]

My thoughts it could be an, and or situation. 25 cruises or over 100 days sailed. This makes it a win win situation and all loyal cruisers walk away happy. Just a thought. Happy holidays all!

 

[jrapps]

I dont see the policy ever changing. The 3 and 4 night cruises return DCL the highest revenue per night on average. They want to keep those ships as full as possible at all times and one way they can help that is to let those cruises count in the castaway club status the same as a 7 night. It also encourages back to backs on those cruises because you will get credit for 2 cruises vs. 1 for taking a 7 night or higher.

It would seem that whether they reward loyalty by dollars spent, nights cruised or total cruises taken................there will be those that think the policy is unfair. Currently we dont know what the perks will be for someone who has taken 25 cruises to reach the new Pearl level but based on dollars spent with DCL my guess is that they will seem insignificant.

This! Exactly. Disney WANTS peopel taking the shorter 3/4 night cruises. They make more profit off of those. Until they have a fleet the size of Carnival or Royal, that isn't going to change.

No system will ever be "fair" to everyone. We take a mix of 3/4 and 7 night, and it took me about the same amount of cruises to hit Platinum on DCL as it took to hit Diamond on Royal (which does it by nights instead of cruises). For many of us, that difference balances. Unless you ONLY take 3 night cruises, this isn't as big of a difference as people are making it seem. And even if you do ONLY take 3 night cruises, good for you! DCL is making much more money off of those repeated 3 nights than you think. Try pricing out a B2B on the Dream or Wish the same week as 7 nights on the Fantasy. You will get double points for the b2b, but it WILL cost you more.

In the end of the day, Disney's reward for our "loyalty" is meager at best. This is worse than people spending $150 on lattes at Starbucks just to get 1 free $5 drink. You are spending thousands of dollars on cruises, and what perks are we really getting for that? Not much. The status is nice, but it isn't worth getting this upset and declaring that you will never sail DCL again. If that's your stance, you must not be as loyal to DCL as you think you are. DCL certainly isn't loyal to you.

 

[Peterw0731]

Appreciate your thoughts

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My thoughts it could be an, and or situation. 25 cruises or over 100 days sailed. This makes it a win win situation and all loyal cruisers walk away happy. Just a thought. Happy holidays all!

Much like how Princess does it. # of cruises OR # of nights cruised, whichever gives the higher level.

 

[DCLMP]

My thoughts it could be an, and or situation. 25 cruises or over 100 days sailed. This makes it a win win situation and all loyal cruisers walk away happy. Just a thought. Happy holidays all!

100 days would equal 25 4-day cruises so how is that any different?

 

[DCLMP]

I dont see the policy ever changing. The 3 and 4 night cruises return DCL the highest revenue per night on average. They want to keep those ships as full as possible at all times and one way they can help that is to let those cruises count in the castaway club status the same as a 7 night. It also encourages back to backs on those cruises because you will get credit for 2 cruises vs. 1 for taking a 7 night or higher.

It would seem that whether they reward loyalty by dollars spent, nights cruised or total cruises taken................there will be those that think the policy is unfair. Currently we dont know what the perks will be for someone who has taken 25 cruises to reach the new Pearl level but based on dollars spent with DCL my guess is that they will seem insignificant.

A 4-night cruise out of PC most of time costs more than a 12 night transatlantic. I agree those short cruises out of PC are their bread and butter. People often combine them with a trip to WDW which is a win-win for Disney.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

100 days would equal 25 4-day cruises so how is that any different?

Or 100 days could be 10 10-day cruises.

 

[FLPrincessMom]

100 days would equal 25 4-day cruises so how is that any different?

The difference is for people who don't meet the number of cruises. I have 21 cruises with four of them over 7 nights, then mostly 7 nights with a few 3's and 4's. I have over a 120 days but still only have 21 cruises so I would not be Pearl if they just did # of cruises.

 

[DCLMP]

Or 100 days could be 10 10-day cruises.

My point was people that take short cruises will still be pearl status either way. I have no problem however they decide to do it. If they do it by number of nights it should be significantly higher than 100.

 

[SirDuff]

My point was people that take short cruises will still be pearl status either way. I have no problem however they decide to do it. If they do it by number of nights it should be significantly higher than 100.

I don't think the issue that some PP's have is that people with short cruises can get Pearl status. The issue is that "short cruisers" get it while they ("long cruisers") do not.

 

[DCLMP]

This! Exactly. Disney WANTS peopel taking the shorter 3/4 night cruises. They make more profit off of those. Until they have a fleet the size of Carnival or Royal, that isn't going to change.

No system will ever be "fair" to everyone. We take a mix of 3/4 and 7 night, and it took me about the same amount of cruises to hit Platinum on DCL as it took to hit Diamond on Royal (which does it by nights instead of cruises). For many of us, that difference balances. Unless you ONLY take 3 night cruises, this isn't as big of a difference as people are making it seem. And even if you do ONLY take 3 night cruises, good for you! DCL is making much more money off of those repeated 3 nights than you think. Try pricing out a B2B on the Dream or Wish the same week as 7 nights on the Fantasy. You will get double points for the b2b, but it WILL cost you more.

In the end of the day, Disney's reward for our "loyalty" is meager at best. This is worse than people spending $150 on lattes at Starbucks just to get 1 free $5 drink. You are spending thousands of dollars on cruises, and what perks are we really getting for that? Not much. The status is nice, but it isn't worth getting this upset and declaring that you will never sail DCL again. If that's your stance, you must not be as loyal to DCL as you think you are. DCL certainly isn't loyal to you.

The cheapest cruise per night I've ever taken was our 13 night transatlantic. My upcoming 4 night cruise on the Wish is the same overall cost, but triple the per night cost. We have 190 nights on board and 28 cruises. We've done a number of short cruises, long cruises and everything in between. When I averaged it out it comes out to 6.7 nights per cruise.

What you get for being platinum is laughable so unless Disney comes out with something spectacular for Pearl status I agree it's not worth getting worked up over.

 

[jrapps]

The cheapest cruise per night I've ever taken was our 13 night transatlantic. My upcoming 4 night cruise on the Wish is the same overall cost, but triple the per night cost. We have 190 nights on board and 28 cruises. We've done a number of short cruises, long cruises and everything in between. When I averaged it out it comes out to 6.7 nights per cruise.

What you get for being platinum is laughable so unless Disney comes out with something spectacular for Pearl status I agree it's not worth getting worked up over.

You mean the shimmering pearl lanyard isn't going to be "spectacular" enough for you?

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

My point was people that take short cruises will still be pearl status either way. I have no problem however they decide to do it. If they do it by number of nights it should be significantly higher than 100.

Curious…why should it be significantly more than 100 nights? 75 nights could get you there if all you take are 3-night cruises. 100 nights seems logical to me. I won’t get to Pearl status whether it’s based on sailings, nights, money spent, or any combination of them, so it’s more of a theoretical question for me.

 

[DCLMP]

Curious…why should it be significantly more than 100 nights? 75 nights could get you there if all you take are 3-night cruises. 100 nights seems logical to me. I won’t get to Pearl status whether it’s based on sailings, nights, money spent, or any combination of them, so it’s more of a theoretical question for me.

I look at my own cruises if I subtract the last 3 we would be at 177 nights and 25 cruises. 8 of those being 4 night cruise and 5 being over 10 days. I think we’ve done a good mix of cruise lengths. 100 nights seems to easy to obtain to me. Despite the claims on here I doubt that are many pearl cruisers that have done nothing but sail 3 night cruises.

 

[holula]

100 nights would let too many people into Pearl IMO. I assume that’s why they put it at 25 cruises so it’s just a really small section of their cruising base.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

I look at my own cruises if I subtract the last 3 we would be at 177 nights and 25 cruises. 8 of those being 4 night cruise and 5 being over 10 days. I think we’ve done a good mix of cruise lengths. 100 nights seems to easy to obtain to me. Despite the claims on here I doubt that are many pearl cruisers that have done nothing but sail 3 night cruises.

I guess whether 100 nights would make pearl status too easy to obtain depends on what the benefits of pearl status are. If there’s nothing of significant value, it shouldn’t be all that hard to get there.

 

[AquaDame]

Think of it like a restaurant... do you consider your "loyal" guests the ones who spend little but come in every few weeks? Or the big family that comes in once a year and spends gobs? Regulars win, hands down; they can be counted on, whereas the big family can take a year off, or suddenly go somewhere else.

I admit we choose the longer itineraries, for good reasons, which means they see us less frequently. If they decided the folks who come through the door more frequently, no matter how long they're there, are the ones they want to reward, then so be it.

 

[Trera]

Think of it like a restaurant... do you consider your "loyal" guests the ones who spend little but come in every few weeks? Or the big family that comes in once a year and spends gobs? Regulars win, hands down; they can be counted on, whereas the big family can take a year off, or suddenly go somewhere else.

I admit we choose the longer itineraries, for good reasons, which means they see us less frequently. If they decided the folks who come through the door more frequently, no matter how long they're there, are the ones they want to reward, then so be it.

Well, everyone has the same opportunity to be rewarded and everyone knows going into the Castaway Club understanding that more short cruises get you status quicker than less longer cruises. We as customers just have to decide how important the status and perks are.................and then plan our cruises accordingly. It is wasted energy trying to get DCL to change their policy to reflect what is best for your family. They are a business that understands the importance of the shorter cruises in maximizing their profitability and I imagine there are lots of high dollar exec level people calling the shots in an effort see this continues.

Should there be another system that rewards days and cruises? Maybe, but I dont worry about it. We have cruised 24 times now since 2014 and we have done a mix of 3, 4 and 7 night cruises to get there. (A few B2B 3 and 4 night). We might try to sneak one more in by mid year 2023 if the perks of Pearl look like they may be worth trying but we definitely arent cruising as much as we did before Covid.

It seems like there are a high level of platinum cruisers currently (not sure of the number though) and once DCL rolls out Pearl, I wonder how many platinums will then become Pearl?

 

[Geomom]

Much like how Princess does it. # of cruises OR # of nights cruised, whichever gives the higher level.

I do like that idea, cruises or nights cruised. If they want to reward 3/4 nt cruisers, maybe base the equivalent days on 5nt cruises. That would still benefit families like mine who have only done 7 nt cruises...it would take me 4 cruises to reach gold vs 5. (We have completed 3 cruises so far, 21 days total).

If they based it on an avg of 5nt cruises it would be:
Gold: 25 days or 5 cruises
Platinum: 50 days or 10 cruises
Pearl: 125 days or 25 cruises