Lido Loop Podcast
Lido Loop is a podcast dedicated to the joy of cruising and theme parks, hosted by Jack and Jesse, blending travel insight, industry news, and personal stories to inspire your next adventure.
Lido Loop Podcast
The Lido Loop: Breaking Down the Best Cruise Loyalty Programs
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Jack and Jesse are back with a brand new episode of The Lido Loop, diving into the latest headlines from the worlds of cruising and theme parks.
This week, they unpack a wild story involving a lawsuit against Carnival over alleged over-serving, discuss Philadelphia’s cruise port reopening for the first time in 15 years, and react to a controversial Virgin Voyages reroute that swapped a Bahamas itinerary for Canada—leaving many passengers frustrated.
On the theme park side, Disney makes waves with the official opening date for the new Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster starring the Muppets, along with five new songs set to debut on the ride. The company is also drawing attention for newly announced price increases for 2027, while Cedar Point joins the trend with record-high admission prices.
To wrap things up, Jack and Jesse break down cruise line loyalty programs—highlighting which ones offer the best rewards and which may not be worth your time.
Welcome to this week's episode of The Leto Loop. I am your host, Jack McCraw. With me as always, my good friend, Jesse Barboza. How are we doing today? I'm doing good. How are you doing, Get? Doing good.
SPEAKER_00Hey, what's on the show today, Jesse? Yeah, so a woman wins a lawsuit against Carnival. And the first time in 15 years a ship sells out of the port of Philly, and there's a big controversial itinerary change on a virgin ship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if we'd love anything on the show, it's controversies involving cruise ships, and that will certainly be an interesting topic of conversation later on in the show. On the theme park side of things, Disney has announced an opening date for Rock and Roller Coaster along with an entire new song set list featuring the Muppets. Disney has also increased prices for 2027 to record highs, to no one's surprise. And Cedar Point has announced its highest ticket prices ever in their 156-year history, but it could be a little misleading. And Jessica and I break down the best rewards cruises have to offer. That and much more on this week's episode of the Lido Loop. So as we like to do with every episode, we like to start with the cruise news. And Jesse, I'm hearing a woman won a lawsuit against Carnival that had a little bit to do with a certain drink package. You want to break that down a little bit for us?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so a 45-year-old nurse, Diana Sanders, was selling on the Carnival Radiance in January of 2024. In about eight to nine hours, she was served at least 14 shots of tequila across multiple bars on the ship. After she was heavily intoxicated, she apparently fell down a staircase, somehow ended up in the crew only area. Some of the injuries that she reported was a concussion, possible uh traumatic brain injury injury, back and telbow injury. So I guess her case is that they kept severing her alcohol despite obvious intoxication. I don't know. What do you think, Jack?
SPEAKER_01I'm about to say, like, 14 shots sounds like a Tuesday night on a carnival cruise ship. That's like what you do on a normal C Day. I mean, I feel like there's a little bit of both parties are at fault because the woman certainly didn't have to order 14 shots of tequila, and Carnival also should have been doing a better job of keeping track of how many drinks she was getting. But I mean, if she only got the 14 drinks, that is a part of her drink package because a shot is one drink, correct, Jesse?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. One shot is is equal to one drink. So, and but one thing I did read that it was served based on multiple bars. So if you're a bartender and you're served a drink, right? And you go to a new bar, that bartender's not gonna realize that the other bartender just served you five drinks, you know. Uh so I don't I I like you said, it's definitely Carnival's not completely not to blame here, but I think personal responsibility is definitely on her.
SPEAKER_01I mean, another thing to note is that you know she could have just not been acting wild, and that's why you know she came up to the bar like, hey, I want a drink. But for why do you need 14 shots? Are you just really trying to have a good time?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm definitely not I'm definitely not a shot person, regardless. And I mean, taking shots is definitely the fastest way of getting drunk. Um, but as a a nurse, you would think that she would know that, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've definitely had multiple nurses tell me to lay off the fast food and you know, lay off the alcohol, but somehow they are always the ones partying, and you know, you see them at McDonald's too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Carnival was found 60% at fault, and the pasture was found 40%. She was warded $300,000 in damages. And uh, Carnival is appealing this case.
SPEAKER_01Three- I mean imagine getting so drunk that you fall and then you sue the cruise ship and you get three hundred thousand dollars. That is quite the party to tell. And I wonder if she will ever be able to sell at Carnival again if she sue them. I would assume not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and this makes me wonder like, what's Carnival gonna do uh if this case actually sticks completely? Like, are they gonna go away the drink package? Are they gonna limit to 10 drinks instead?
SPEAKER_01I mean, would that certainly change your opinion on going to Carnival for if your drink package is only 10 instead of 15?
SPEAKER_00I mean, as long as they reduce the price, I'm probably fine with that. Because I would usually max out at 10 anyways, me personally.
SPEAKER_01I feel like you have to really try to max out your drink package every single day. And I'm definitely aware that people do this on a day-to-day basis, but I I mean, in we're in our 30s now, so when you get hungover, it really hurts. I can't imagine what this lady in her 40s that kind of hangover was like.
SPEAKER_00Maybe like after like 10 or 12, they should say, read that sign. If you can read it, you're good to go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, get to get an eye chart behind the bar. Like, what's that? Biggie, uh, good enough. Here's your shot. There, that's the way. And another news, uh, for the first time in 15 years, a ship has set sail out of Philadelphia. Jesse, you want to tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00Yes, Jack. So the Norwegian Jewel just set sail out of the port of Philly. And like you mentioned, it's been 15 years since a ship has settled out of Philadelphia. Um, right now it's just Norwegian Jewel, but later it's gonna be Norwegian Pearl, which are both Norwegian ships, and I actually haven't selled Norwegian yet. But Jack, is this something you would do?
SPEAKER_01Go to Philadelphia? Never as a Cowboys fan. But uh, you know, it's glad that they do have a port now because I'm assuming the people that do live in Philadelphia had to go to New York or you know, had to take take a flight down to Florida or somewhere not relatively close to Philadelphia to go on a cruise ship. So at least, you know, cruising is getting more and more popular each year, and I think since COVID, they have just increased exponentially. So more ports in America is a good thing for these ships, and of course, Norwegian Cruise Line will take advantage of that because they are now the only ship sailing out of that big market, and Philadelphia is one of the, I believe it's number five as far as population goes. If not, it's certainly a top 10 city as far as population. So there's a big demographic of cruisers there, and I think this is a good testing point to see if more people will sail out of Philly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I definitely agree. But me, of course, you're a big history buff too. I think that would be definitely a great place to go to at least visit the history ahead of time and like that. But the the crazy thing is the the cruise terminal isn't even open yet, technically, right now. So apparently, after reading many articles, they had to check in at a local hotel and then they were bust over to the port to enter the cruise ship. I think that's kind of crazy, but I don't know what do you think?
SPEAKER_01I wonder how that process went. I mean, I'm sure that you're just in the hands of other people and delays could happen because if everyone's checking into the hotel, I assume that line was just out the door, especially if it's a big cruise ship. And then, of course, you know how many buses they have running. So those are the little things I thought about. But I mean, I guess as long as you get on the ship, I mean, regardless, you it's the same thing as waiting in a cruise terminal or cruise or a hotel at this point. But yeah, going back to what we were saying earlier, I'm certainly happy that people from Philadelphia can have this experience to go cruising again. Unlike some people from New York who Jesse, you heard about the Virgin ship that had a reroute from the Bahamas to Canada of all places?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Jack, imagine getting on a cruise ship and getting ready to go enjoy the beaches, but not in 80 degrees weather. You're going to Canada's beaches.
SPEAKER_01About to say in April, correct? Because you're if you're going from New York to the Bahamas, you are escaping the 50 and below weather where you're still wearing jackets and jeans this time of year, to a beautiful, you know, Atlantic Island where you're gonna be wearing shorts the entire time of year, but all of a sudden you're rerouted to St. John's in New Brunswick. Um, I've never been to Canada personally, but this to me sounds like an Alaskan cruise without the beauty of Alaska aspect. Now, no disrespect to St. John's. I've never been there, I can't tell you a thing about it, but if I'm have the expectation of going to the Bahamas, a nice, beautiful tropical destination, and I go to St. John's instead, yeah, I'm gonna be very disappointed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I definitely agree. Like, can you imagine going from one port and you're like, oh wow, we're about to see be nice and warm and enjoy the beaches to even colder port than where you just came out of. I mean, what are you gonna do when you get off the board?
SPEAKER_01Like go to the woods, go see some moose up there? It's like you're you're doing you have the same weather, if not worse, than you are already in New York. And you know, for those that traveled a far away distance to sail out of New York and just to go to St. John's, you would have been better off just exploring the city or going north in New York to explore the actual wilderness of upstate New York. But no, now you're just seeing St. John's, which I mean, some people might like that, but no, I would be definitely be disappointed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so apparently they were notified three days in advance. Uh, but I don't know if that was even I mean, I guess they didn't technically have to notify you all, anybody at all until they were on board, but honestly, there I guarantee there are people already flown in, ready to ready to to sell out and all that, and then now they have to change their whole itinerary for because of the weather.
SPEAKER_01I wonder I'm sh almost positive Virgin would give refunds back if in fact you know people were upset with this that they changed the destination. It kind of reminds me of when we all went on the breeze when we were supposed to go to Cozumel and Progreso, but because you know there was a lot of storms in the Gulf, we couldn't go to Progreso, so we stayed in Cozumel for an extra day. Which I mean, that's really not that big a deal because it's still a tropical climate, and we didn't really get a good chance to see Cosmel because it was raining so bad. The second day was still kind of raining, but much more enjoyable port day. No, uh going from the Bahamas to Canada, that's that's as far of a difference as you could possibly have.
SPEAKER_00And I guarantee you, in our experience, everyone was happy to go to Coast Mel over Progresso, anyways.
SPEAKER_01Like I said, I've never been to Progresso, so I can't say much, but I hear it's a port that exists, and that is it.
SPEAKER_00Alright, so that's the it for the cruise news. So in theme park news, Jack, I hear the rock and roller coaster is opening.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and with a new headlining ban. Are you ready? Starring the Muppets. Now, you and I have kind of talked in the past about the Muppets brand going to uh Rock and Roller Coaster. It's a little dated in my opinion. I mean, do you still think people watch the Muppets nowadays?
SPEAKER_00Uh I haven't even heard of the Muppets in any news until this instance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they haven't really been culturally relevant. Uh I want to say since like the Muppets movie came out, you know, when Jason Siegel was in it and they had like a a human puppet. But that was, you know, 15 plus years ago. So now Disney is re-theming the Rock and Roller Coaster, which had Aerosmith, to the Muppets. Now, the reason they're doing this is because you know they were paying Aerosmith a licensing fee to use their music on the ride, but when that you know agreement ended, instead of tearing it down and building something else, they're essentially re-theming the ride to the Muppets. Now, I got a chance to ride the Rock and Roller Coaster the last week it was open, and you know, it it definitely was de-themed, where the only Aerosmith theming that was there was essentially just the music playing. And here are some of the songs that are will be replacing the Aerosmith song. So, Song 2, Born to Be Wild, which of course we all know, the most befitting song, Love Roller Coaster, which that one will feature Jennifer Hudson in Quest Love, Rock Rock Tail You Drop, featuring Def Leopard. I mean, that's an actual good band. And then, of course, Walkin' on Sunshine with Kelly Clarkson. Uh, are you excited to hear any of these songs, Jesse? Uh I I mean it's not really, but I mean some people I'm sure would like it. Yeah, I mean, I guess it it helps with the ambience, and I I think this is kind of a theme Disney's going, because they have Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster that has 80s nostalgic songs. So some of these songs in the Muppets could be more 80s nostalgia, because that's I think when the Muppets was at its highest popularity. So the opening date for this ride will be on May 26th. So that's really like a three-month turnaround for going from Aerosmith to the Muppets. So that's really good on Disney.
SPEAKER_00So speaking of Disney, I heard that they're raising the prices for 2027.
SPEAKER_01Yep, and it's an annual tradition. Around this time, every single year, Disney will announce price increases for the following year. So at certain points of 2027, the Disney ticket prices will for the first time be over $210. So they'll start at $219 for Magic Kingdom on specific weekends or you know, closer to holidays. Of course, there will still be value days in late August, early September when kids are back in school. And to me, honestly, that's one of the best times to go because the parks are at their lowest crowds. But yeah, I mean, how much is too much, Jesse, as far as like Disney can price it before these guests say enough is enough?
SPEAKER_00Uh man, I mean, I guess as long as they're selling a ton of tickets, they really don't care. I believe that. But I think $200 that I definitely would not go to a park for $200, would you?
SPEAKER_01It's starting to get less and less you know affordable for everyone else because Disney wants to prioritize a quote premium experience by paying that premium price. So I mean, if just doing simple math, let's you know take taxes out and say family of four goes on a four-day trip to Disney as they would like. So 200 times four, that's eight hundred dollars just for one day for a family of four. You multiply that by four again, that's thirty two hundred dollars just in tickets. That's with no hotel, no flight, no souvenir, no food. I mean, Jesse, at that point, would you rather go on a cruise for that kind of money? And you have unlimited food, drinks, and everything?
SPEAKER_00I would 100% rather go on a cruise than go to Disney, honestly. Especially for that price.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna say, like you're you're almost at it's almost cheaper now to go internationally to Japan or Paris, where their ticket prices are still under $100 for Japan for sure. Paris, I believe it's getting a little bit closer as well, but still, it shouldn't be close, especially if we live here in America. So, Jack, so who also is raising prices is Cedar Point. Is that correct? Yes. So for the first time in their 156-year history, Cedar Point single-day tickets are gonna be over $100. And this is a little bit misleading because that's the price at the gate. I mean, I'm sure fans are still upset that they would even charge this, but if you go online, you can still purchase tickets for $52 if you buy them in advance, which let's be honest. You and I, when we go to theme parks, we've never gone to the gate to go buy a ticket, correct?
SPEAKER_00I haven't bought a ticket at the gate unless I've been to the movie theaters, honestly, recently.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, and even that you mostly can do online and you can pick your own seats. I think that there's such an online presence for everything. I don't know why you would just go up to the gate and say, Oh, hey, here's my tickets. I I think the only time I remember doing that is when your brother took us to Busch Gardens. He, you know, he was active duty, you know, National Guard, so he had four tickets at will call for us. And I believe that's how he did it, or he picked the tickets up physically at his station. But again, I that's the only instance I could think of buying at the gate prices. So for those of you trying to go to Cedar Points, don't buy out of the gate. And if you really need to buy them at the gate, buy a season pass because it's actually ten doll cheaper to get a season pass. So I mean, I think at the end of the day, that's what these like regional theme parks want to do is sell you on the season pass and overcharge you for a single-day ticket.
SPEAKER_00Do you think that also is so they can put it on the website a hundred dollars and have like a slash through it and say online only $52?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that would encourage people to use their to buy them online so that way they can plan for how many people are going to be there. Yeah, you can still buy your tickets last minute online and probably still save that same amount of money or the day before, but it kind of goes back to like COVID times when you needed a quote reservation for certain days or for to go to the theme parks. I think they do this for staffing purposes and like materials and food to see what they need to better value their assets versus you know, hey, let's see who shows up at the park, because that's such a very old-timey thing to do, buy tickets at the gate. So shifting over to our main topic, it's going to be cruise rewards and who has some of the best rewards. But let's go ahead and start with some of the top cruise lines. So, Jesse, why don't you break down a little bit of the Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor Society?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so this is personally, I think is gonna be the the best rewards out of all the cruise lines. Uh because mid-tier, you're you're you know, which is platinum or emerald, either or uh you're gonna be getting priority check-in and boarding. You get free photos, robes, and there's other small perks like that. The high tier, which I think this is the best out of all the cruise lines they offer this, you'll get freely free daily drink vouchers. I think up it can get up to think six drinks a day, which is crazy. That means you would never me personally, I would never get the drink package. Would you ever get it?
SPEAKER_01No, especially if you're allowed that many drinks for completely for free. Like the drink package, what that'd be just a few extra drinks. Instead, you could just get this many for free.
SPEAKER_00So no, I wouldn't. Yeah, for like me and my wife, that would save us like over five hundred dollars easy on like a actually more than that, I guess it'd be save us like almost a thousand dollars on a seven-day cruise, it would it would save us a lot of money. Just because honestly, I maxed out with a drink package, I probably max out at probably ten drinks a day if I was really trying. Uh, but six is in reality, I could probably do six a day on a normal day. Uh, but some of the other stuff you get, you get your special lounge, you get priority on anything. And of course, there's gonna be discounts on on internet and dining places.
SPEAKER_01I think that last one is one of the most interesting things to me because you know, I've paid for the internet on Carnival, you know, you I believe have at one point, and it can get expensive. So any kind of discount, I prefer it to have on a longer cruise ship versus a shorter one, and also discounts on dining. Like if you go to one of the top steakhouses, you know, I think that'd be worth it alone just in the rewards because you can get yourself a premium meal at a fraction of the cost. So, how would you say that Royal Caribbean's benefits compared to Carnival's VIFP Club?
SPEAKER_00I definitely don't think it's not near as good, especially since they're gonna be changing to Carnival Rewards. They're now gonna be changing over to a pay system instead of how many days you've been on it, how loyal you've been. It's not really a loyalty program anymore, it's more of how much money you can spend.
SPEAKER_01I kind of hearken that back to the Las Vegas model where you know you see these people go to play slots and they spend so much money that you know their status gets higher and higher because they're spending more money at the casino, not from just you know, days that they used they stayed at the MGM or any of the other properties.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. And that's exactly what I feel like Carnival's trying to do. Uh but right now, yeah, some the mid-tier perks, which is gold and platinum, they get priority boarding, uh free drinks at events, they got laundry perks. Uh top, you get dedicated concierge, you get better boarding and priority services. So honestly, the only thing that I think is good with Diamond is you get free laundry and you get like I think it's one free drink, which is nothing compared to Royal Caribbean.
SPEAKER_01Not to get off topic, but this is my first time hearing that there's a laundry service on a cruise ship. I mean, I'm I'm sure I knew it existed somehow. I mean, they have to wash the sheets and everything like there. I'm assuming they have a dedicated area, but you know that that's the more you know about Kurt Cruises. I mean, that is a good perk to have. Uh, I do think that essentially like it's nice, but it's like you said, it's not nearly as good as Royal Caribbean. How about Norwegian cruise line? Because they have the latitude rewards. How do you think those that compare to the other two as well?
SPEAKER_00So you so basically you get points per night. Uh you actually get more points if you book a different cabin. So it's not exactly days and sales like that. Um Tiers, you're gonna get five to ten percent off cruise discounts, some of the small onboard credit, uh mid-tier, which is gold and platinum. Um, you're gonna get free specialty dining, which I think is pretty good. Unlimited laundry. Now that's that's a huge value, definitely better than carnivals. Uh priority board boarding and tendering. Uh the top tier, you actually get free cruise, which is an ambassador level.
SPEAKER_01I wonder how much you have to put in to get that level, because I think that alone is probably the best benefit that we've ever heard as far as the three that we listed, because it's a you you do still get those carnival offers where you kind of essentially can go for free. I think you just have to pay certain fees, or you know, you have to you have a certain amount have go a certain amount of length in order for it to be of a great value, but a whole free cruise sounds amazing. I'm sure you have to pay like fees on top of that as well, but that's a great, great value for a Norwegian cruise line. And what about MSc? I know you recently went on an MSc cruise, so they have the Voyagers Club.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so what what what is best about MSc is that they do status matching. So if you're at the top tier like Diamond on Carnival, they're gonna match your status, which is amazing because a lot of people want to try new stat new cruise lines, but they won't don't want to give up their old status, which I mean that's definitely understandable. If you're so used to getting on the ship early and getting free drinks, why would you go to another new cruise line where you're not gonna? You understand?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think that you were of that mindset until you saw the price of MSc and you thought maybe I would try it. And at certain points in times, MSC is cheaper than Carnival, even if you do have the Carnival status.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then when I heard that they they match my status, I was like, wow, that's that's even better. So uh, but some of the key perks with them is they give you discounts on future cruises. Uh they get free Wi-Fi and spa access, which is the higher tiers, which I think that's really good. They got like, of course, cocktail parties and exclusive events. I think most of the cruise lines offer that too. And they just give you specialty dining perks.
SPEAKER_01I think that going back to kind of what we said earlier, the free Wi-Fi and specialty dining, that would sell me alone because those are two things I look forward to on a longer cruise is you know, access to even if it's just a minimum plan, so I can check social media or message someone if I need to, and specialty dining. You and I talked about this in length, you know, in previous episodes. We like to eat. So any kind of sp like we can get a great steak for a fraction of the cost. I think it's worth being a rewards member for that one as well. And of course there are some others like Princess and Celebrity Cruises, but you know, when looking up those, they didn't really there wasn't really much to compare as far as the top four with MSc Norwegian cruise line Carnival and Royal Caribbean. So but that kind of begs the question is it worth chasing these rewards in your opinion, Jesse?
SPEAKER_00Honestly, no, because I feel like that it's just gonna kind of cloud your judgment. Because there's been so many times I'll look at, because I'm really high up in Carnival. Sometimes I'll look at a cruise and I'll be like, wow, if I go on this cruise, it's a goes to a great destination to exactly where I want to go, and the price is is great, but then I see a carnival one that I'm like about it's uh it's more expensive, but I get status, you know, I give it more rewards because I'm high ranked up in with Carnival. So I feel like that is actually probably hurt your cruising experience because you'll want to go to the where you actually want to go, not based on a reward. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01It does, and I think you should pick a cruise based on one where you want to go to cost. And I think you know, rewards will happen organically, and if you they do happen, great, but if you're over there chasing rewards, then it's like, oh, you can keep booking these carnival ships over and over and over again to try to get that reward status. But I mean, it's not as easy as just hey, there's a you went on one, now you're in sign up for these rewards for the next one. You have to go on a couple different cruises to really see the results of that. And if you're a frequent cruiser, that's great. But if you're not, I don't think you should be cruising just based on what kind of rewards they offer you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. As of as of right now, though, after going through all this rewards and all that, if you are chasing the rewards, it's good for you, I guess. But definitely go for Royal Caribbean because they definitely got by far the best rewards out there.
SPEAKER_01And sorry guys, we kind of forgot to mention Margaritaville at sea. Uh, I think they're still not only trying to work on rewards, but probably trying to get people to go on their cruises at this point, right, Jesse?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I definitely think so. No, I'm not hating on Margaritaville. I haven't even tried them, so I can't really hate on them, but from what I hear, it's not the best experience. And they also have the highest gratuities out of all the cruise lines. So I don't understand why they do, considering that they're ranked one of the worst cruise lines, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_01What do you think? I think they have to have those high gratuities because it only costs like $120 to go on the a three-day cruise out of Tampa or Miami. The number is a little exaggerated, might be a little more, but the sad part is we're in the ballpark. Uh, maybe one day we would try to Margaritaville, and you know, maybe they'll welcome us with their rewards. So if you're listening to Margaritaville, we're in for a free cruise. But that'll do it for this week's episode of the Lito Loop. As always, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, wherever you get your podcast. Our YouTube channel is the Lito Loop. I'm Jack, that's Jesse, and we will see you on the Lido Deck or on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship because they got great rewards.