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.
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.
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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