I thought I would start a new thread just to discuss the new benefits which start April 1st. Here is a copy of the SSS tiered benefits, in case you can't get your Adobe to work.

What more could a guest want? I am delighted. And as was said, the WC and SA people receive what they booked for.

What good is the phone time? I am disappointed that there is no laundry for Gold. Also disappointed that there is no mention of earning free cruises. Still, I will stay with Radisson. :D

I would imagine the phone time would be great for people who have parents that don't use the internet. Also it would be good to talk to your children who don't read yet :)

It that phone time per week or per cruise or per year or per day?

I guess we can still do our own laundry, roll it into a ball, and send it down for pressing. :D

First, I'm fairly pleased with the package. Definitely a step up from prior couple of years. The only observation I have is:
If Platinum members get "complimentary liquor" I guess that means RSSC will NOT go all inclusive anytime soon. :(
<img border="0" alt="[beer]" title="" src="graemlins/beer.gif" />
Greg

I would guess that the nights are the cruise nights only and do NOT include any pre or post cruise tours. That is unfortunate. I would think it a good idea that Radisson include those nights as they are quite profitable to the company and would tend to encourage more people taking them. As a first timer and only having 20 nights after the SA cruise does not look like we get much in the way of benefits for the future. I would really like to see the internet access included. That is the way so much of the world communicates these days. More so than phone. The top tier does not seem to provide much incentive to the person extremely loyal to Radisson. All is interesting. A loyalty program can be very powerful. I can say from my experience that the America Airlines program has me hooked. I use AA when ever I can. Even to the extent of going out of our way a bit to use AA.

It is better that what we have now so I'm not complaining. The one thing I'm not crazy about is that other people will get preference for reservations at restaurants ( of course I would love it if I qualified for Gold :D )

What do you understand by "referral opportunities"??

I was a bit disappointed that the upgrades are for "select sailings" only....we never seem to be on those

McKeever, I don't understand what you mean when you said the WC and SA people rceive what they booked for? The tier program isn't starting until AFTER the SA cruise. I agree with Marc that it would have been nice to be able to accumulate enough nights for a free cruise like they have on the Seabourn and Silver Seas but I suppose it is not to be. That would have been a nice incentive.

I wonder how they will do free liquor for platinum members? Will you still have to give your cabin number but it won't show up on your bill? Might be nice to become friendly with a platinum member <img border="0" alt="[beer]" title="" src="graemlins/beer.gif" />

That's a good point Lauri. If the platinum member orders the drinks are all these drinks free?

McKeever can answer how this works. They had free drinks for Grand Pacific passengers.

I'm a bit concerned that reservations at specialty restaurants could become diffcult.Otherwise, seems fair. Gives frequent cruisers something to aspire to...

MANY traveling after April 1st have already booked their cruises. They'll be receiving MORE than they bargained for. Lucky them!

I've yet to cruise with them, but think this is unfair to those who are on the full WC and SA yet are not gaining the benefits. It should have at least given those folks the benefits early.

I don't want to sound negative but we're completely underwhelmed. THIS is what took RSSC so long to formulate??? I also just love the fact that you have to spend ADDITIONAL money on board just to get a society benefit (spa certificate, $100 coupon to an on-board art purchase, etc.)

Also, if you book a suite you get some of these society benefits anyway. Which brings up another question: When is RSSC going to revisit suite amenities? (The suite amenities on Princess are better than RSSC!)

Priority reservations in the restaurants is just a bad idea. Most people want to eat in Compass Rose on Captain's welcome, and Captain's farewell. For this reason, it's far easier to get reservations in Signatures/Lattitudes on these nights. All this benefit is going to do is force " the other" people to reserve in Signatures/Lattitudes on these special nights when they would normally want to eat in Compass Rose. A benefit to some should not be extended at a price to others.

I am very disappointed in RSSC! But no plan is going to make everybody happy. If it hasn't made me happy, I hope it makes you happy.

Best regards,
Bill

Question...if you're a silver member for example, if you take a six week cruise you still only get one hour of complimentary phone service...the same as those taking a week's cruise?

Mark, I would personally like the idea of the free phone service as I have two kids still at home, and parents who are getting on in years. (of course for me this is all pretty much still moot)

It was open bar for those taking the entire Asian Pacific Cruise. Sometimes we had to show our room card (for inventory purposes) and sometimes not. It literally depended on which bar manager was on duty!

We're only Gold now and have to wait till next Jan for the Platinum. Sure would have liked that free booze now. I hate signing chits! Most of the other stuff is useless for us. Guess Lynn will do the spa thing, but that's about it. Free internet would have been much nicer than free phone time. We've always gotten daily canapes anyway. Why, I don't know.

Doug, internet is free for Silver and up. Or did you already see that?

We always get the daily canapes, too. Sometimes we eat them, sometimes (like sushi) we don't. I guess we should tell our butler this time, what we don't like. Last year on the last day, we got a complete caviar setup. Mark doesn't like caviar, so I got it ALL....but I was kind of wary of overindulgence with a full day of travel ahead of me.

I am hoping that Lauri and Maria are speaking with "tongue in cheek" when they say it may be beneficial to become friends with a platinum member. My personal opinion is that it would be extremely unethical for any platinum member to misuse the privileges he has earned.

Ardis

When we want afternoon canapes, we just call room service so I don't see much of a benefit there. I think there are some good and bad points about the plan. I guess we'll have to take a cruise, use the benefits and then see what we think about it.

The silver level does seem like an improvement from what we have now but the benefits for gold and platinum are pretty meager additions. Well, maybe all inclusive for platinum is nice, but if you've spent 200 plus days with them, it's really pretty minor. Bigger discounts, more generous upgrades and free cruises should be rewards for loyal passengers, not daily canapes (which everyone can get now from room service!)

RSSC really dropped the ball on this one, especially by snubbing the WC and SA guests.

Time for some comparisons.

Seems like Silversea, Seabourn, and RSSC all have about the same loyalty benefits for their initial members. Not sure what the referral coupon is on RSSC, but I know that SS gives you a $250 onboard credit when you refer someone that travels with you and they double your cruise day award so that you accumulate points faster. They also give your friends the same 5% or 10% Venetian Club savings if they are sailing with you.

Here are the areas that I see SSS excels in over the Silversea Venetian and Seabourn Club programs.

Once you turn Silver (21 days)
Free Internet (a biggy with me)
Free Phone Calls for 1 hr. (not such a biggy
for me)
Pressing on Formal and Informal nights (a nice
touch)

Once you turn Gold (75 days)
Additional hour of phone calls
Pressing
Complimentary Photo (I have a camera)
Spa Certificate (yes, I will take that
additional massage!!!)
Priority disembarkation (may or may not be a
big deal)

Once you turn Platinum (200 days)
Additional 2 hours of phone time
Bridge tour (again not a biggy. I think you
can do this on SS anyways, though we never
have.)
Free laundry (nice on longer cruises)
Liquor and priority reservations are moot,
since the liquor already comes on both and
reservations are not needed on either.

With Silversea and Seabourn the advantages are primarily larger discounts and free cruises.

At 100 days with Silversea you get an additional 5% discount on ALL cruises and that is in addition to all other discounts (including Venetian Club, onboard bookings, and B2B savings). Oh, and you get free laundry, but no dry cleaning or pressing.

After each 140 days on Seabourn you get a free 14 day cruise. (Now that is what I call a perk!)

At 250 days with Silversea you get an additional 10% off each cruise booked and early embarkation and late disembarkation.

At 350 days with SS you get a free 7 day cruise and at 500 days you get a free 14 day cruise.

Well, as I'll be a Silver member after my FP cruise, I definitely will appreciate the free internet, as I use it a LOT. Any benefit that involves food (i.e. canapes) seems superfluous to me, given the already massive quantities of high-quality food we all consume on these cruises. I never eat canapes, or I won't be able to eat dinner!

The all-inclusive liquor at the Platinum level seems a bit disingenuous -- it does suggest that RSSC will not be going all-inclusive, and it's a benefit that would not be useful to those who don't drink, or who only drink at dinner. I only bought a few drinks on my last cruise -- mainly an after-dinner single malt Scotch or two -- as I did most of my drinking at the dinner table, so my bar tab was pretty low. But that's just me. (Although, I guess I should mention that I did have several drinks sent my way early in the cruise by that shipboard lothario who was so enamoured of me -- until I managed to convince him I wasn't interested! I suppose I should have turned down the drinks....nah!) ;)

Personally, I too would rather see more in terms of discounts and free cruises, which would make me feel more inclined to be loyal.

I'm also curious what the exclusive aboard/ashore Gold and Platinum activities are. Can anyone enlighten me?

Ugh. The benefits are very cunning (and I intend for the negative connotation of that word to come out). These so-called benefits really are designed to spur further on-board spending. The ones that aren't seem to be rather useless (like the aforementioned free phone time). I understand that it is hard to replicate what the airlines do for frequent fliers given the vast differences in frequency of travel and price point (not to mention that all guests will always be treated well on RSSC), but this "loyalty plan" is as exciting as a milquetoast trying to perform improv comedy. There really isn't a compelling reason to sail RSSC exclusively over Silversea, Seabourn, and Oceania. Oh well.

Lawrence - I agree with you - knew you could say it better and you did - Joanna

Much ado about nothing. I think the art is overpriced and wasted on us. The phone cost me $75.00 to make an emergency call home on our Bermuda cruise for 15 minutes - so that's worthwhile. Pressing? I bring wrinkle proof clothing for cruises for the most part. Priority reservations - we prefer Compass Rose usually.
We'll be Gold by end of 2006.

A sailing discount would be the best way to encourage us to be repeat customers.

I'm with you Don!! This would have been very nice!
I can't imagine using 4 hours of phone time (still not sure if this is per week, per cruise, per segment etc.?) The free internet is great!

Not to ever worry Lauri or Maria, I ALWAYS look after my friends so I'll put a basket out in front of my door so all my LCT friends can drop off their dirty clothes! :D

Oh Marcie thanks!!! You know how much I hate doing laundry - Joanna

After waiting with anticipation (as was everyone else), I find the new SSS program to be very anti-climactic. I have to concur with Lawrence.

Speaking for myself, I would like to have seen such incentives as free cruises, more substantial discounts on a wider range of cruises, upgrades, free laundry, to name just a few of the incentives that are of importance to us. I do like the free internet.

I, too, am concerned about the priority reservations in the specialty restaurants. I think this was a huge mistake, as I feel it will create problems getting a reservation for those not qualified to receive priority reservation status. This type of preferential treatment is not going to sit well with those who are unable to get reservations easily.

I wish Radisson had done better with their new loyalty program. It really amounts to much less than expected. A big disappointment.

A sailing discount would be the best way to encourage us to be repeat customers.


So right Kathy - much ado about nothing!!! Joanna

As for the art auction.......if you EVER catch me at the Art Auction, have me committed at once.

P.S. No offense to Arlene who is sooooooo
gifted!!

Not sure how often we'd use the specialty restaurant reservations either since we love CR so much!

I once or twice looked at that art - art?? Maybe it was a bad selection but I didn't want any of it - now Arlene's is different story - she can hang in my house any old day!! Joanna :ohmy:

We won't use the spa, art auction, picture of captain, phone, priority disembarkation (already taught the way to do this by Ngaire :D ), or priority dinner reservations (Arlene can already sweet talk all the Maitre' D's :D ).

We will use free internet, free pressing, and exclusive Gold activity.

I, too, am disappointed that free liquor shows up on Platinum list; means not going to be available for the rest of us any time soon.

Only negatives for me are lack of free laundry for Gold and no "free" cruise after so many nights. This doesn't give Platinums any incentive to sail exclusively with Radisson.

It will be interesting to see if internet gets overloaded with all of us free-loaders. If we sail again over New Years, I will be able to "watch" the bowl games on the computer without worrying about how much my computer time costs.

One thing to note is this caveat included with the description:

Maybe they will be responsive to feedback. ;)

Just a word about incentive programs; "cash" does not create loyalty. All it does is enter into the bottom line for an "apples to apples" comparison. Of course, nothing in the Radisson program, like others have said, will drive loyalty. After you get to 200 nights, what difference does it make anymore if you continue to be loyal?

As much as I like the idea of free internet, I wonder if free will result in more usage which could result in a reduction of available computers and, perhaps, a slowing in the connect speed.
I can recall cruises where I had a difficult time finding an available computer. I also recall sometimes when the connect time was as slow as slow can be because of heavy usage.
Do they plan to upgrade the abilities of each ship? That would help big time!

Doug

I think the spa deal and art coupon are cheesey - if I didn't have so many going on Mush I would jump ship to SS and look for a special - too many and too complicated now - of course the computer room will be swamped!!! And I don't like getting special treatment for restaurants (again we love CR) but that is divisive! I think the majority of it stinks - Joanna

Points very well taken, Marc and Doug.

One other item. On Mariner in October, I stopped using internet to assist with daily quiz. I know marinergal and others think it is cheating using the computer to answer the quiz; I have always thought of it as broadening my knowledge of some important facts or, often, trivial facts by researching the quiz. Now, I recognize probably half the questions. The rest I use the library or research online. Now, I will probably go back to using the computer much more than the library.