Celebrity’s Captain’s Club vs Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society: Our First-Time Experience
You too can be the captain of any ship you are on.
Even though we have been cruising for more than a decade, mainly with Royal Caribbean, in the fall of 2025, our family went on our first Celebrity cruise. We went on the beautiful Celebrity Beyond and did our best to experience everything that Celebrity had to offer.
Because we had already reached Diamond Plus with Royal Caribbean, we were able to match our status to a relatively high level. If you are Diamond on Royal Caribbean, you automatically receive the level of Elite in Celebrity’s Captain’s Club. Diamond Plus will transfer to the level of Elite Plus and Pinnacle will automatically put you at the level of Zenith, their highest level. We are currently Diamond Plus with the Crown and Anchor Society, so we stepped on the ship with the status of Elite Plus.
One detail that we learned differentiates the Captain’s Club from the Crown and Anchor Society is that kids cannot join the Captain’s Club until they turn 18. Once they turn 18, all of their past cruises will be taken into account when determining their status but they do not simply inherit the same status as their parents. However, if they are Diamond plus when they turn 18, then they will automatically be Elite Plus with Celebrity’s loyalty program (assuming the same rules still apply with status match).
Until recently (the new policy goes into effect February of 2026), you could get your status matched but your number of cruise points with celebrity will accurately reflect how many actual Celebrity cruises that you have been on. So, even though we are Elite Plus with Celebrity (which you typically reach at 750 Club points), we actually only have 51 points. The new policy called Points Choice allows you to choose between the loyalty programs of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Silversea where you want your earned points to go. We have two Celebrity cruises planned currently and one Royal Caribbean cruise planned but we will likely opt to have all of our future earned points go to our Crown and Anchor loyalty because we currently have the most points accumulated there. Then, if we ever were to reach Pinnacle with the Crown and Anchor loyalty program (from these typed words to God’s ears, lol), then we would automatically be status matched to the highest level on Celebrity and Silversea (assuming that the same rules still apply in the future).
The Wine Tasting
When we boarded the Celebrity Beyond for the first time, we were skeptical about the perks that we would be receiving from Celebrity’s loyalty program. We had become accustomed to our free drinks and free days of wifi on Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity didn’t seem to have anything that would be as convenient and worthwhile as that. Instead of 4 or 5 free drinks a day, Celebrity offered a healthy discount off of the drink package and a happy hour each day from 5-7pm. During this time, most bars would have a limited, but solid drink list available for Elite or higher. To make the most out of this, we would go to a bar (Eden was our favorite place on the whole ship), get a drink, then get a glass of wine to take with us to dinner. Sometimes we would even leave dinner to grab another glass of wine. This worked out very nicely for us.
Happy Hour
Celebrity also offers free laundry service at various levels, which we always take advantage of and really appreciate. They offer discounts on the internet as well as a certain number of free minutes, which I don’t really understand (I mean, who counts their internet usage in minutes anymore). Instead of two free days of internet on Royal Caribbean, we would receive 35% off and 240 minutes (what? Weird). There are some other discounts and perks that don’t impact us much, like 40% off photo packages or discounts in the spa. You can read all about every benefit on their website.
What we were pleasantly surprised to discover was the value in the onboard events that were offered to the Elite members and higher. We received a list of these when we got into our stateroom. Many of these required that your RSVP, which we didn’t realize until it was too late to attend some events. Other than the happy hour, we attended a Welcome Party (actually opened to all members of the Captain’s Club), which was really nice and similar to Royal’s loyalty event. We also attended a Senior Officer’s party, which had fun appetizers and tasty drinks being served. On our class of ships, there was a “Sneak Peek at Eden” (a preview of the show that they have planned for the venue), which we didn’t attend but heard was really cool. My mother-in-law and I attended the wine tasting, which was really fun and informative. There was a backstage tour that we didn’t get to do because we had not made a reservation in time, but we will definitely sign up for in the future. Another event that we did not attend but plan on doing on our next Celebrity cruise, if it is offered, is the Create and Pour event, where assumedly you learn to make and then enjoy some tasty cocktails. We went to a Music and Mixology event in The Club, which was great because we got to see the talented bar staff at work. All of these events were complimentary and would otherwise cost, depending on the event, perhaps $35-55 per person. Not only did we enjoy these events but we found ourselves surprised by the value of them as well.
We highly recommend our dresses as they pack well and look good.
Because we attended many of these events, we got to mingle with and talk with some of the other passengers at these events. Often you will find in the cruising community that passengers who have reached a high level of status with a cruise line can come across as entitled and rude. This is certainly not true with everyone, but we have found it to be generally true with many passengers that we have met and mingled with that are higher up in the Crown and Anchor Society. We were pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case on Celebrity Beyond. We met a very nice, older man, Mac, who had reached the Zenith level and loved cruising with Celebrity. He was so pleasant to talk to and offered to take our family’s photo when he learned it was our son’s birthday. We chatted with others at the bar and even joined some of their trivia teams. The encounters that we had with others in the Captain’s Club were refreshingly positive.
My martini from happy hour with one for the road . . .I mean, dinner.
We are not entirely sure as to why the vibe was so different or if this is the case even fleet wide. Perhaps it was the time of year that we cruised, perhaps it was the ship that we were on, or perhaps we just got lucky. We will find out on our next Celebrity cruise if this is a more standard experience, but I would hazard a guess that this lack of entitlement and rudeness (that we sometimes see on Royal’s ships) was due to the fact that many of the perks are less transactional and more experiential. Maybe those that tend to be more entitled aren’t attending the events that we did and therefore aren’t the ones that we would be mingling with. Whatever the case, our next Celebrity cruise is coming up in May of 2026 and we are very excited to see how are experience varies form our time on the Celebrity Beyond.
Interested in giving Celebrity a try? Contact me so I can help you plan that next amazing getaway.
