Platunum boarding

Here’s our April boarding on the Magic in Miami. Still testing at the port for nearly everyone.

I picked 11 am PAT. Then changed it to 11:30 to coordinate with my niece who checked in a day after my midnight check-in.

She was a Covid-recovered cruiser, so no testing at port and went straight to registration. We waited in the queue with 50-100 needing tests.

We tested, waited about 20 minutes for results. Went through registration. Just as our Group #10 or 11 was being called. Concierge and Family of the Day had only gone on a few minutes earlier.

I am wondering if they are saving those early Boarding Groups for Platinum? We may not have Anytime Boarding currently - but has any Platinum gotten a high-number Boarding Group? Let us know if you have.

And I agree - Better loyalty benefits on other cruise lines.
 
Loyalty Programs. I was comparing my Disney Platinum to Royal’ Crown & Anchor.

I have 19 sailings on DCL. Two in Concierge (6 nights) and 37 nights solo. Two points for those 43 nights. The rest of my nights are one point per night. I would have 166 points for 123 nights of cruising Using Royal C’s program. That would make me a Diamond level - and be only 9 points from Diamond Plus.

They have offers for cruise fare discounts, laundry discounts (well done, Disney - I do love self-service laundrettes), and 4 free drinks each day for Diamond. Discount Coupons for their specialty dining.

One more cruise on Disney and I am Double Platinum - a mere number of cruises compared to some. Now that it’s fairly certain DCL is here to stay - 24 years later, it might be time to revamp / update some perks.
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Thanks for listening.
 
I’d love a revamp of the program but every year it seems like Disney takes away from their repeat cruisers.

I would love something like the free drinks that Royal have at Diamond level (I would hit that by the end of this year) - even if it’s just 1 or 2 drinks! Especially since DCL drinks have got really expensive over the years.
 
I loved just rocking up to the port when it suited. That was my fave platinum bonus.
Last cruise despite checking in immediately it opened ii got boarding group 11 and a PAT of 1:30pm!!!!
For the first time ever after my next cruise 28th August I do not have another booked!
 


Well, you get the 10% with Gold, so really with Platinum all you're adding is the free Palo.
You also get a stateroom gift at Platinum. Usually the choices are a bottle of wine, a box of truffles or a fruit platter. Sometimes the fruit platter is fruit cut up on a large platter, other times it was whole fruit in a bowl. We usually get the bottle of wine.

Personally, I would much rather have some free laundry service.
 


You also get a stateroom gift at Platinum. Usually the choices are a bottle of wine, a box of truffles or a fruit platter. Sometimes the fruit platter is fruit cut up on a large platter, other times it was whole fruit in a bowl. We usually get the bottle of wine.

Personally, I would much rather have some free laundry service.

we also get the wine. However we’ve been calling on the first day to get it. In the past you would get a letter. After we were half way through a past cruise we never heard from anyone, so now we are proactive.
 
Since they have stopped testing can platinum board whenever they want again?
Thanks :3dglasses
You also get free Palo and a 10% merchandise discount.
You only get free Palo brunch, free dinner pre fixe or $45 towards ala carte which is basically what the Palo free dinner experience use to be. That is if you are even able to grab a reservation. 29 cruises and couldn't get either on the Wish Maiden or the Wish in September because there is so many Concierge rooms and they get first dibs. We also get to choose between a bottle of prosecco, chocolates or a fruit basket. Last cruise we got a Platinum cooler bag instead of the shoulder bag which was nice. Really there is very little benefit to being a loyal DCL cruiser.

I think the Platinum boarding perk may come back after the Maiden voyage which is filled with just Platinum. It will already be a cluster. If we could all board at the same time it would be really bad.
 
You only get free Palo brunch, free dinner pre fixe or $45 towards ala carte which is basically what the Palo free dinner experience use to be. That is if you are even able to grab a reservation. 29 cruises and couldn't get either on the Wish Maiden or the Wish in September because there is so many Concierge rooms and they get first dibs. We also get to choose between a bottle of prosecco, chocolates or a fruit basket. Last cruise we got a Platinum cooler bag instead of the shoulder bag which was nice. Really there is very little benefit to being a loyal DCL cruiser.

I think the Platinum boarding perk may come back after the Maiden voyage which is filled with just Platinum. It will already be a cluster. If we could all board at the same time it would be really bad.
With so many concierge rooms I imagine they don’t get everything they want either. We were thinking of upgrading to concierge on a cruise in February but it will be a standard room and the cost is 80% more than the family veranda room. If I can’t get everything I want (which includes a cabana on Serenity bay) then I would be mad about paying that much more for concierge. We sailed concierge once and didn’t get better service than our regular cruise and paid thousands more. We did get a cabana though. I doubt that would happen on the Wish and we are low tier platinum with 13 sailings.
 
You only get free Palo brunch, free dinner pre fixe or $45 towards ala carte which is basically what the Palo free dinner experience use to be. That is if you are even able to grab a reservation. 29 cruises and couldn't get either on the Wish Maiden or the Wish in September because there is so many Concierge rooms and they get first dibs. We also get to choose between a bottle of prosecco, chocolates or a fruit basket. Last cruise we got a Platinum cooler bag instead of the shoulder bag which was nice. Really there is very little benefit to being a loyal DCL cruiser.

I think the Platinum boarding perk may come back after the Maiden voyage which is filled with just Platinum. It will already be a cluster. If we could all board at the same time it would be really bad.
So, if we are unable to get a reservation for Palo brunch or dinner, we should tell someone in Guest Services? Or, do they keep track of this? (We are Platinum, sailing on the Wish, and have not been able to book either, as they are all sold out.)
 
So, if we are unable to get a reservation for Palo brunch or dinner, we should tell someone in Guest Services? Or, do they keep track of this? (We are Platinum, sailing on the Wish, and have not been able to book either, as they are all sold out.)
I guess you could bother them and see if they'll give you a credit? But they probably can't do that. And at least for this summer, most of the Wish sailings are going to be full of other platinum guests booking everything. The additional concierge rooms aren't helping, of course.

There is a wait list, though. Guest Services will be happy to add you to the wait list. I don't know if they service that list by order of signup or by loyalty level or what, but it's worth a try.
 
So, if we are unable to get a reservation for Palo brunch or dinner, we should tell someone in Guest Services? Or, do they keep track of this? (We are Platinum, sailing on the Wish, and have not been able to book either, as they are all sold out.)
I'm sure they are very away of the situation and there is only so much space. Again, with the amount of concierge rooms and them getting first dibs before Platinum it is going to be very hard to enjoy this perk on the Wish. I was online booking at exactly midnight for my September cruise and there was zero brunch and very limited dinner available.
 
With so many concierge rooms I imagine they don’t get everything they want either. We were thinking of upgrading to concierge on a cruise in February but it will be a standard room and the cost is 80% more than the family veranda room. If I can’t get everything I want (which includes a cabana on Serenity bay) then I would be mad about paying that much more for concierge. We sailed concierge once and didn’t get better service than our regular cruise and paid thousands more. We did get a cabana though. I doubt that would happen on the Wish and we are low tier platinum with 13 sailings.
Back when we began sailing DCL, we were primarily on the Magic and sailed in what were the Cat 1 the Walt Suite, the Cat 2 the Roy suite and Cat 3s. There was no concierge lounge but the concierge spoiled us everyday in everyway. The cost was no where near as obscene as it is now. Recently we sailed on the Fantasy in concierge. There was a lounge but really very little value otherwise. We found it to be a huge waste of money, especially since we were rarely in the room. I have no desire to sail concierge and am happy with a larger verandah balcony. I have long ago given up any hope of perks for being loyal. These days I just hope that at least we find something special about the cruise because that is also becoming harder and harder to find.
 

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