Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises recently decided to fully match status tiers across both brands and Silversea Cruises. All three of those brands are owned by the Royal Caribbean Group and had previously only offered limited tier matching.
It's a major perk for any higher-level members of any of the three cruise line's loyalty programs.
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The Loyalty Status Match program gives you the best benefits at sea. Members can now receive one-for-one tier matching across all three Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea.
That's a very smart move by the cruise company because it incentivizes customers to keep it within the family, so to speak. A family that usually cruises Royal Caribbean might include parents who would prefer a more adult environment on Celebrity or a true luxury experience on Silversea.
If they choose to do that, they get recognized at the equivalent level as whichever of the three cruise lines you have the highest status. You will get recognized at the same level, albeit under a different name, but the perks are not the same.
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How the Royal Caribbean Group status match works
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises still maintain separate loyalty programs. If you sail on a Royal Caribbean ship, you earn Crown & Anchor Society (C&A) points while any sailings on Celebrity will earn you Captain's Club (CC) points.
Your points do not get combined. Instead, both cruise lines give you a comparable status level. That means if you are the following Captain's Club level, you also have this Crown & Anchor Society level and vice versa.
Crown & Anchor Gold equals Captain's Club Platinum while Both C&A Platinum and Emerald equals CC Select. C&A's Diamond, where the most meaningful benefits kick in, matches CC Elite and Diamond Plus and Elite Plus matching as well.
The program now includes matching Crown & Anchor Society Pinnacle members and Captain's Club Zenith members. Previously, the matches topped out at Diamon and Elite.
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Celebrity Cruises offers different perks
If you are sailing on Celebrity Cruises and hold Diamond status with Royal Caribbean, you will get Elite perks. Those are different than what Royal Caribbean offers Diamond-level members.
Elite, for example. get invited to a daily cafe-style breakfast held in one of the ship's restaurants. Diamond members get 24/7 access (in most cases) to the Crown Lounge, a dedicated space on the ship with a fancy coffee maker, a concierge, snacks, and hot bites, as well as bar service from 5-7 p.m.
Diamond and higher members also get 4-6 drink vouchers each day (one more for every level you climb). Those can be used at any venue on the ship, with the exception of branded Starbucks locations as well as on the Perfect Day at CocoCay private island.
Celebrity Cruises does not offer vouchers. Instead, the line does an all-you-can-drink happy hour at many bars onboard nightly from 5-7 p.m. Many Elite and higher Captain's Club members would like to see celebrities adopt the voucher system.
That's because the vouchers (which are digital and not actual printed vouchers) can be used on any drink up to $14. They can also be used at all times of the day, which is much more flexible than a limited happy hour.
During a recent Cruise Critic Ask Me Anything session, many people asked Celebrity President Laura Hodges Bethge whether her cruise line might adopt Royal Caribbean's voucher system.
"At this point, we are not planning to change our drinks benefit to match Royal. The Crown & Anchor Society benefit is more focused on the drinks while we are more focused on the cocktail hour and the experience for members to get together," she said.
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Celebrity's president noted that the match was not an attempt to make the programs the same.
"The match program gives you the equivalent tier status on our sister brands so you can enjoy the benefits they offer when you sail with them. We have not changed the benefits to be the same across brands. Each program is tailored to the individual brand," she added.
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