I haven’t posted about cruising at all on here, and Christle and I are close to boarding our 9th cruise in the last 6 and a half years.
Backstory
In 2019, the company I was working for had a health challenge, most likely an attempt to bring our premiums down on health insurance, but there were three challenges to complete throughout the summer. If I remember correctly, walking 10,000 steps a day for 50 days straight, going to a gym and checking in at least twice a week for 6 weeks, and I honestly can’t remember what the 3rd challenge was. If you completed all three challenges, your name would be put in the hat for a drawing that consisted of three $2000 gift cards for an airline or cruise line of your choice.
I had been hinting at possibly going on a cruise with Christle for several years, but she never wanted to be in a position to not be able to get to the kids in an emergency situation, so she never let those conversations go very far, and I understood that. When I found out what the prize was for the challenges, though, she agreed that if I won, we would take our first cruise. I knew from the start that I would win it, and I have no idea how I was so confident, but it happened.
We took our first cruise in early February 2020, right before the pandemic hit, and we were hooked. We took our second cruise just over a year later just a few weeks after the cruise ban was lifted. We have since taken our oldest two girls on two cruises, Alaina was married just a few months after her second cruise, and they even went on a cruise for their honeymoon. We have most recently taken Lily on her 3rd cruise and Sunni experienced that as her first cruise at the end of April this year. 3 years ago, Christle and I flew to London, took a train to Paris and then Barcelona to board a ship across the Atlantic to New York (15-day cruise), and that was probably our favorite to date.
VIFP
Christle and I have exclusively sailed with Carnival and were introduced to the VIFP program at the beginning, and we were excited to make our way to platinum and then diamond status, but over time. We knew the perks weren’t that great, but the fact that it was directly related to our experience and we would have memories associated with that status when we got there was the real reason we were excited to get there. Up until Monday, we were only 15 nights at sea away from getting to Platinum.
With our current status of Gold, the perks were one free 1.5L bottle of water each, and up to a $16 drink. We didn’t have to spend a significant amount of money to get that perk. We could take the cheapest cruises and just enjoy time at a free beach in the Caribbean at the ports of call to get it.
That’s not all we did, but it was possible. We’ve done many excursions and enjoyed specialty dining on every cruise we’ve taken, but we didn’t have to spend a bunch of money to get to gold status, and we weren’t planning to spend a bunch to get to platinum, either, but we would have been there by the end of next year, for sure.
Just for reference, Platinum status only includes a couple bags of laundry service on top of what we currently get with Gold, as well as a Platinum and Diamond party with the captain for one hour… but there’s literally hundreds of people at that party, sometimes over a thousand.
Carnival Rewards
Carnival Rewards replaced the VIFP program on Tuesday, September 1, and everything has changed. We get to keep our status that we had when the swap happened, at least until the end of 2028. In order for us to stay in gold status, we have to spend at least $6,667 total to maintain our status for an addition two years, which honestly is probably not a problem. What I find to be an issue is that for us to ever hit Platinum status, Christle and I would have to spend a total of $33,333 before the end of 2028 and then again every two years to maintain that status, and I’m just not chasing it… had we already been at platinum before September 1, that amount would be reduced by 20%, but I just don’t see the value added either way. I almost forgot to add that we would have to spend $66,667 for diamond, which really only adds another bag of laundry and priority boarding.
That spending for status resets every two years, so if I spent that money and got my points, I would attain the status in the window I’m in and the following window, but the spending would reset every two years, so if we spent $200,000 with Carnival before the end of 2028, we would have diamond status through the end of 2030, but If I only took one cruise and spent less than $6,667 in the 2029-2030 rewards season, we would be back down to red status.
They didn’t completely overlook the milestones. They still plan on celebrating with us when we hit milestones such as 100 days at sea, but it’s a one-time thing, and we’ll still most likely hit milestones moving forward, but not really something that excites us.
In Summary
Christle and I were in the mindset before that we would get our status up on Carnival before cruising with anyone else. We were then planning to use that status to try to get bumped up on other cruise lines later on… like way later on… but there’s really no point in waiting any longer. The value that the status adds to our experience does not equal what they want us to spend to get there, and I have no interest in chasing it. Christle and I love cruising and do not plan to stop. We’ll just be broadening our scope to get the best experiences we can without just going to carnival (dot) com right off the bat moving forward.
I’m excited about my next cruise, please don’t get me wrong, but I’m no longer excited about the status we were getting close to.