The Things We Do for Diamond

Last year, Carnival announced upcoming changes to their loyalty program, ending lifetime status for everyone except Diamond members. This trip is all about the race, or should I say regatta, to earn lifetime Carnival Diamond before the new rules come into effect on September 1st.

In the new loyalty program, Carnival dropped the "loyalty" part by announcing an end to lifetime status for everyone. In the future, guests will need to requalify every two years based largely on spend. Tiers and benefits remain similar, but how you get there is totally different.

Naturally, there was a revolution. Under enormous pressure, Carnival relented, a little. They said Platinums could keep their status for a few years and would get a boost toward qualification. Diamonds could keep their lifetime status forever (or until Carnival changed their minds).

While part of me wants to be a hater, there's another part of me that recognizes giving everyone lifetime status wasn't a great business model and a lot has happened in the cruise industry in the last 10 years like a pandemic, travel booms, an increase in remote work and cruise wifi capabilities. Some of those are minor, and others rocked the industry. At the same time, every repositioning cruise I took had to suspend Diamond and Platinum benefits because everyone had Diamond or Platinum.

When Carnival announced the revisions, they said you could keep lifetime Diamond if you made it by the end of May.

At first, I didn't plan to go for it. I was at 155 nights and still needed 45 nights with much less than a year to get them.

But then they extended the deadline to August 31st and offered me a 15-day adults only transatlantic for $200. I'm a sucker for a deal. 170 down, 30 to go.

They followed this up with a double nights promotion and I was able to book an inexpensive 5-night cruise for August, that would count for 10 nights. It was far enough out that I could cancel it if I wanted, but it could prove highly valuable if I decided to go for it. 180 locked up, 20 to go.

The go / no-go point came in spring when I had to decide whether or not to cancel my 5-night double nights cruise or pay the final installment. At the time, there was a 14-night transatlantic to Dover, England. This was more expensive than any cruise I'd ever taken, but reasonable by most people's standards. It didn't make sense. Diamond isn't that good, but I decided to go for it anyway. 194 nights down, 6 to go.

This left me needing to take my previously booked double nights 5-night cruise plus another 6 nights. There were some interesting 7 night cruises out of New Orleans but they were right around the deadline and I'd need more flights and hotels. In the end, I found two ultra short 4-night cruises on either side of my 5-night Bahamas cruise out of Miami. One ended up being back to back, and the other required a very cheap night in Miami. No new flights.

And so I spent roughly 13 nights on party barges trawling between Miami, RelaxAway Cay, Celebration Key, and Nassau over and over again.

Todo...

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