Royal Caribbean Solo Cruisers Get Double Cruise Points Starting October 2013

I've been meaning to post a blog entry about this since I was able to confirm this. I first heard about this on the unofficial Royal Caribbean blog which mentioned a 9 October 2013 article by Franz Neumeier on http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.cruisetricks.de/royal-caribbean-mehr-status-punkte-fuer-alleinreisende/&langpair=de|en&hl=de&ie=UTF8. The article states that solo cruisers who have to pay double to have their own cabin on Royal Caribbean will receive double cruise points starting October 3rd.

I tried to get Royal Caribbean to confirm this information on their Facebook page but, they never answered me. Later, I looked on Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor page which shows the benefits for each level in their frequent cruiser program and, I found the following:

¹⁴ One Cruise Point for each completed night of sailing and an extra Cruise Point per night when you purchase and sail in suite accommodations (categories RL, RS, PS, SL, TS, A1, A2, A3, CL, OS, FS, GS, JS) and/or sail in any category and pay a single pricing type for double occupancy staterooms. All other rates including Travel Agent rates, as well category SI and SB, are excluded from single price type extra point promotion. Cruisetours are included as an additional night per each day on the cruise tour. Points will be awarded by rate paid not rate berthed, for example, in the instance of an upgrade from an outside to a suite category.


This confirmed the German cruise article. Also, Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society did post a blurb in their news section saying the change would take effect October 4th.

For me, this is mixed news. As I always cruise solo, it's a nice little plus for having to pay double. However, I'm a little irked in that Royal Caribbean didn't as far as I know give any heads-up that this change was coming. I would've changed my September cruises to October if I could have so I could have gotten the extra 7 cruise points and made Diamond with their frequent cruiser program. As it is, I'll have to wait until I do my April 2014 Panama Canal cruise with them before I can make enough points to finally make Diamond. Stay tuned for posts on that. Happy cruising all!

Update April 26th, 2014: I am finally able to personally confirm the awesome rule change for solo cruisers. I completed the April Panama Canal cruise I mentioned above on April 16th. It was very nice and, I'll be posting some blog entries about it later. Concerning the double cruise points, I did run into one unexpected problem. Initially, I received half my promised points. Finally, I contacted Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society about the missing cruise points. They're the ones who handle such issues and have the authority to issue missing points. It turned out my reservation had been coded wrong. Because of that, their system didn't know to give me the double cruise points. The lady I chatted with expertly fixed the problem and, I had my missing points before we closed our chat. So, 1) watch for your cruise points, if you don't get all of them, this could be why in which case 2) contact Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society who can fix the problem like they did in my case. It is worth the hassle. Remember, the rewards get nicer as you go higher with Royal Caribbean's frequent cruiser program. Happy cruising all!