The crown and anchor are a symbol of Royal Caribbean, and fittingly, the name of their loyalty program is The Crown and Anchor Society. Crown and Anchor won “Best Overall Loyalty Program” in 2014 from Travel Weekly, and the program definitely has a lot to offer.
Elite Status Levels
Past guests are eligible to join after their first Royal Caribbean cruise, when you will be afforded Gold status. Gold is just the beginning as there are six levels of elite status in the program.
Program members earn one cruise point for each night of your cruise with an additional point per night bonus for Junior Suite and above accommodations. Further, guests who travel alone and pay a single supplement will receive double cruise points for each night of their cruise.
The Benefits
Crown and Anchor Society’s Gold and Platinum levels offer a basic level of elite benefits. including onboard discounts, a welcome back party, and priority check in. Platinum members, in addition, receive robes for use on board, the much coveted lapel pin, and an onboard even in addition to the the welcome back even all returning cruisers receive.
At 55 cruise points, you will be elevated to Emerald status which offers a welcome back amenity in addition to the usual Platinum and Gold benefits. At the Diamond level (80 points) the amenities become more respectable with access to a Diamond Lounge on select ships or an exclusive nightly Diamond Event on ships that don’t have a specific lounge. The nightly Diamond event is a favorite of mine because it offers the chance to sit down with your fellow cruise enthusiasts over a complimentary drink and share stories. In addition, you’ll receive priority wait lists for shore excursions and spa visits, a daily breakfast including complimentary specialty coffees, and priority departure services.
At 175 points, members are elevated to Diamond Plus status. Diamond Plus offers all the benefits of the lower status levels and adds new benefits including priority onboard dining table choices, special onboard gifts, exclusive cruise reservations phone access, and even member luggage tags. Beyond these benefits, Diamond Plus members receive complimentary stateroom upgrades when available. They also have concierge lounge access where you’ll enjoy complimentary continental breakfast in the morning and beverages and snacks in the evening hours. Concierge access is a key Crown and Anchor Society benefit as Royal Caribbean’s excellent concierges usually excel at making things happen for their guests.
Notably, Diamond Plus members who are traveling alone and have achieved 340 cruise points are afforded a discount or a 150 percent single supplement for staterooms as opposed to the usual 200 percent supplement. You’ll also be dining with an officer of the ship at 340 points.
The highest level of Crown and Anchor status is known as Pinnacle Club, and a true pinnacle it is. 700 cruise points are required for this level of elite status. In addition to all the benefits afforded Diamond Plus and below status members, you wil receive a complimentary cruise at 750 and 1050 points, and a complimentary cruise in a Junior Suite stateroom at 1,400 points and every 350 points thereafter. Pinnacle Club offers additional benefits that I’m sure aren’t even published. You can review the specifics of each elite level at royalcaribbean.com.
As a Diamond Plus member, I’ve received bridge tours, fruit baskets, any number of snacks in the stateroom, bottles of wine, etc. In fact, I have the option of selecting what kind of wine and snack I want delivered on day 1 on the Royal Caribbean website.
Further, there are numerous benefits afforded to Royal Caribbean elite members via reciprocity with sister lines Celebrity and Azamara as well as M Life. Elite status reciprocity will be covered in greater detail in an upcoming InsideFlyer article.
Summary
In summary, Royal Caribbean’s Crown and Anchor Society is a solid loyalty program with the right kind of perks to make your cruise vacation a memorable one. Elite status reciprocity with sister lines Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises only make it more attractive.
Princess cruise line has a much, much better program. 700 days to get to the top level on RC. That’s 2 years of cruising on their line. It would take your average cruiser 20 years to reach this level. 175 days would take the average cruiser 10 years to achieve. Even just 15 short cruises with Princess will get you to their top level with much better rewards. I’m Elite with Princess and get back $800 in OBC on a 14 day or longer cruise.
Thanks for commenting Jim. Princess’ Captain’s Circle is a great program, and we will be covering it here very soon. Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society is just the first of many cruise line loyalty programs in our series.
Marshall, Is there a way to follow this topic series, not just this post?
re: top level on Cruise lines, there are shortcuts to achieving status as stated in the article. Any travel “hacker” can figure out how best to make the system work for them. I personally like the booking single and getting double credits. This is especially good on close in bookings when prices are low b/c the cruise line wants cabins filled.
I’m currently elite on Princess, but I’m interested in gaining status with Royal Caribbean. I just need to get started.
Brigit,
Thanks for commenting. All the articles will have a common tag, Cruise Line Loyalty Programs, that should make them easy to find. Save that link to your favorites. There’ll be roughly one article a week on loyalty programs until we work through the majority of the programs. This will be in addition to other cruise coverage we have.
Thanks! Will do that. Looking forward to following along, and learning more.
RC used to do a “Diamonds in December” promotion, which is how I made D+ much faster than I ever thought I would. I’m thinking they may have discontinued it due to the abundance of D’s and D+’s they now have in the system. I’m curious if they are going to add another level at some point.
Irene, I took a cruise on December just because of that promo. 🙂
Hi,
We were just on a 7-day eastern Caribbean on Allure of the Seas. We’ve been on several RCI cruises before and have enjoyed Diamond status the last few cruises we’ve been on. Can anyone out there tell me if RCI is making serious changes to their loyalty program? It certainly seemed so on this latest cruise we just came home from. Last year on Liberty of the seas my husband, kids and I felt like we were treated like royalty and certainly enjoyed the Diamond Lounge while on that ship. This time on Allure, we felt very disappointed. The loyalty ambassador didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on and the Concerge in the Diamond Lounge was brand new on the job and didn’t have any answers for us when we asked questions. He also told us on the first night that our kids were not welcomed in the lounge during the evening cocktail hour. We weren’t happy to hear that as not only have our kids been on as many cruises as we have,
What were we going to do with them right before dinner if we wanted to have a glass of wine?
We found that many staff on this ship didn’t seem to either know much about what was going on or had just joined this ship and it was new to them. We heard that many many times over the week!
Additionally, even though I’ve spent a lot of
$ with Royal Caribbean and been a loyal customer it was all about the “suites guests”. They had their own line on Flowrider, had their own restaurant on 17 and had priority seating at the shows.
Very disappointing to be a loyal Crown & Anchor member to be treated so poorly by our beloved Royal Caribbean.
Can anyone tell me if these changes are specific to the one boat or is the whole company/fleet making that shift from the loyalty program to that of what kind of room you are booked into for the week?
Hello Meredith,
I am very sorry you did not enjoy your Allure of the Seas cruise. I was last onboard Allure in November and had a great time on the trans-Atlantic repo from Barcelona. I cannot speak to the tenure of the Suite and Diamond Concierges, but it would not surprise me if many of Allure’s most experienced staff were somehow involved in the recent delivery of Harmony of the Seas, and backfilled with less experienced staff.
The Diamond Lounge access rules listed in the Crown & Anchor terms and conditions are as follows:
“Diamond Lounge is an exclusive benefit for only Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle Club members and cannot be extended to include friends and family. Complimentary specialty coffees are only available in the dining room on days when breakfast is being served. On ships where a Diamond Lounge is available there will be no Nightly Special Diamond Event or complimentary Specialty coffees available in the dining room. Open to guests 21 years of age and older. We respectfully request that guests observe a Smart Casual dress code when visiting the Lounge (no swim or pool attire is allowed, footwear is required at all times).”
Allure is equipped with both a concierge lounge (for suite guests and Pinnacle Crown & Anchor members), which is in the former Viking Crown, and a Diamond Lounge. The Diamond Lounge is located in the former Concierge Lounge space. Both lounges have slightly different access rules.
Please note that Diamond and higher members receive electronic vouchers for 3 complimentary alcoholic beverages on their SeaPass account each night so you can obtain a comp beverage in any bar, not just the Diamond Lounge between 5:00 and 8:30pm. This should have been explained on a letter in your stateroom when you boarded.
Suite guests do enjoy some special access privileges not afforded other guests, including their own access lines to shows, reserved seating at shows and more.
We just returned on a 10 day cruise to ABC islands on Navigator of the sea. While on the cruise we made Emerald status. We did not receive any welcome in our room and no welcome back cocktail party. Very disappointed .