Category: Crown & Anchor Society

Breakfast and Crown & Anchor Past Guest Party

6/30/2014

We grabbed breakfast in the Windjammer. It wasn't terribly busy. I really do not enjoy cruise ship buffet breakfasts. I feel like it's the same few things. Royal really does a terrible job of making biscuits with sausage gravy. I didn't even plan on attempting it. My mom did despite my warnings. She was upset because the "gravy" was sweet and had no sausage. I told her that it wasn't going to be good!! Thankfully there is a Park Cafe and we'd spend future breakfasts there. My son didn't seem to mind the buffet one bit.

The Crown & Anchor top tier event was held in the Viking Crown Lounge in the morning at 10:30am (I think). I apologize for these estimates, its been almost a month and my brain is fuzzy with everything I've done over the last month. We brought my son with intentions to leave if he decided to act up.

Connor enjoyed climbing on the glass walls of VCL. The Hotel Manager (I think) came over to speak with us for a while. She was a young woman from Canada. She loved holding my son and talking to us. She said she really missed her nephew back home in Toronto. Then he saw the stairs. Oh boy. He spent the remainder of the time going up and down the three steps... Hey, it's cheap easy entertainment! We arrived early to Nassau. It was nice to watch us pull in from the top of the ship. They announced the top people. A couple Pinnacles onboard. I dont remember the exact numbers for the other tiers, but I think it was something like 200-300 C&A people on the ship.

They served mimosas and other typical mixed drinks along with canapes.

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Enchantment Balcony Stateroom

6/19/2014

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The Upgrade:

I originally booked this cruise back in June of 2013. I chose one of the new Panoramic Ocean View Cabins on deck 7. We were supposed to be in 7100. I chose it because it had additional space compared to an inside, OV, or balcony cabin. I thought the window would be great for my son to look out because there is a little seat/lip area in front of it from what I saw in photos.

Exactly two weeks before the cruise I logged in and saw that my cabin number had changed. We were now assigned to 7030. At first I was disappointed. I was looking forward to the extra space and large window. In hindsight I am so happy we were upgraded from that room to the balcony cabin 7030. My son spent 75% of his awake time in our cabin, out on the balcony! I liked the bathroom. It looked new and modern, however I wish there was a sliding shower door instead of the yucky curtain!

I have never received a Crown & Anchor upgrade before. I firmly believe it's all about being in the right place at the right time! The next category above mine was balcony, so we had the highest "ranked" oceanview cabin. I am Emerald currently, 8 nights away from being Diamond. So we had that on our side as well. I don't really expect to get another upgrade ever again. Typically we book inside cabins and we're happy with that. Although now I wish I had booked balconies for our future cruises. We have an October Brilliance cruise (myself, husband and son) in a OV and a November Liberty cruise in an inside. My son has only been in balcony cabins so I don't know how he'll react in an OV or inside this fall! We booked those under Kids Sail Free so if I change the category now we'll pay A LOT more!

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Crown and Anchor Upgrades

5/13/2014

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The Crown and Anchor Society upgrade process seems to be a tightly held secret. I began sailing with Royal Caribbean in 1999, we've completed 11 cruises with them since. In all of my cruises I have never received a Crown and Anchor upgrade, until now! I have heard others brag about getting a free upgrade numerous times. I recently studied what the cruise line does about 2-3 weeks before the cruise and watched how things shift around. I am here to shed some light on the process just in case you'd like to know what your chances are for getting one of these coveted upgrades!

My Recent Experience
My mother and I always go on a short trip for mother's day. This year we're going on the Enchantment of the Seas for a 3-day Bahamas cruise. We're also bringing the little guy along with us this year. We were originally booked in a Panoramic Ocean View cabin on deck 7. We were excited because this is a new type of stateroom offered on select ships. The entire back wall of the cabin is glass looking out to the sea. It also affords us some additional space as it is the size of a standard balcony cabin plus the space that would normally be the balcony. About 3 weeks before the cruise I went on to my My Cruises account on RoyalCaribbean.com and noticed that my cabin number had changed. We were now listed in 7030, which is a Superior Ocean view with Balcony. Part of me was disappointed that we weren't going to have the special cabin, but the balcony will come in handy for hiding from my son at bed time!

The Crown and Anchor Upgrade Process
Here is my perspective on what they do based on what I saw happening within the reservation system prior to my upgrade. I will use the cabin categories from the Enchantment of the Seas for example purposes.

About 3-weeks prior the the cruise they pull all cabin categories offline from the booking engine except for interior cabins.
They start at the highest cabin category that has not yet been booked, let's use the Owner's Suite for our example. They look at the booked passengers in the category directly below it, Grand Suite, and find the guest(s) with the most Crown & Anchor points that are booked in the GS. The person with the most points within that category gets upgraded to the OS. So if the person with the most points is only Platinum, they get that upgrade over a Diamond member who is booked in a regular balcony. This is because they upgrade people one stateroom category at a time.
Now there are some open GSs, lets say three of them. So they look at the category beneath that, a Junior Suite. They use the same process again. Look at all the guests booked in a JS and select the three people with the most Crown & Anchor points from within the JS category, upgrade those three staterooms in to the, now open, GS staterooms.
The process continues on down the different types of stateroom categories.

I think this should clear up why there are people who get stateroom upgrades from lower Crown & Anchor levels than Diamond, Diamond Plus, Pinnacle. If you need a refresher on the levels, they are as follows:

Pinnacle- 700+ cruise points.
Diamond Plus- 175+ cruise points
Diamond- 80+ cruise points
Emerald- 55+ cruise points
Platinum- 30+ cruise points
Gold- 3+ cruise points

Cruise points are earned per day on cruises. A 7-day cruise is worth 7 points. Double points are awarded for sailing in a Junior Suite or above or sailing as a Single in one room.

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Breakfast and Crown & Anchor Past Guest Party

Enchantment Balcony Stateroom

Crown and Anchor Upgrades

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