Back in June, Carnival Cruise Line announced a complete revamp of its loyalty program. The new changes were poorly received by the public, with major blowback throughout social media.
Now the cruise line has announced another tweak of its upcoming change, designed to keep its most loyal passengers happy. However, not everyone seems convinced.
A Simple Program Based on Nights Cruised Is Scrapped
For years, Carnival has offered the VIFP (Very Important Fun Person) program as its loyalty scheme.
The concept is simple. For every night you sail on a cruise, you earn a point. So a week-long cruise earned a passenger seven points. And as you sailed more and earned more points, your status would also rise, going from blue for your first sailing to red, gold, platinum and then diamond.
High status such as platinum or diamond (awarded after 200 points) has traditionally shown that you’ve spent years or decades sailing the cruise line.
Meanwhile, the points never expired, and a passenger’s status never fell. The cruise you took 20 years ago counted toward higher status just like one that you took last month.
Months ago, Carnival announced a huge change that rocked its loyal fan base.
The New Program Rewards Spending and Keeps Passengers on a Loyalty Treadmill
Starting in June 2026, the VIFP program is set to go away completely. It will instead be replaced with a new scheme called Carnival Rewards.
Frankly, the new program is much more complicated.
Starting in June 2026, passengers will then have two years to earn “status qualifying stars” that go toward keeping their loyalty level. These are earned at a pace of three stars for every dollar spent on Carnival purchases. So if you spend $2,500 on cruise fare for a vacation, you earn 7,500 stars. Buy a shore excursion for $100? That’s an additional 300 stars. Spend $10 on a cocktail? That’s 30 stars.
Those earning at least 10,000 stars during the two-year period (June 1, 2026 – May 31, 2028) will earn gold status. Passengers earning 50,000 stars see platinum level. And those earning at least 100,000 stars earn diamond level status. Status is good from whenever earned through the next two-year earning window. But if you don’t keep up your spending, then your status will eventually reset.
This regular “reset” of points has been a major thorn in the side of passengers, especially those in the highest tiers. In effect, someone could have sailed Carnival for hundreds of nights and earned diamond status. But if they don’t spend enough money with Carnival over the next several years, then they would lose it.
Carnival fans were incensed. The online feedback from social media was clear: the new program was not liked. Many passengers claimed that after years of loyalty to Carnival, they would take their business elsewhere.
Now Carnival is changing the rules to show more appreciation for its top-tier passengers and help calm the blowback.
After Blowback, Diamond Status Stays Forever
We’ve spent the summer talking with our guests, listening to their comments and taking in their feedback. As a result, I am happy to share that we are making changes to improve the offering to our most loyal customers as we get ready for the program’s launch in 2026,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
With the first rules announced for Carnival Rewards, the plan called for loyalty status to last for two years without additional spending. Diamond status cruisers (the highest loyalty tier) saw their status last for six years.
Now, diamond status passengers (or those who earn it before June 2026) will have lifetime status at this level, instead of it dropping off.
Those who are platinum status level before the switch will get a 10,000 point “boost” every two years to help them maintain their level. And even if they do lose status, it will never drop below Gold level.
With these changes, the highest-tier diamond passengers will keep their status with the cruise line even after the change. That’s a big difference from before. Those platinum guests won’t maintain their level no matter what, but the potential fall won’t be near as bad if they don’t spend enough with the cruise line.
However, the initial feedback from Carnival fans is mixed.
“Still Not Satisfied”: While an Improvement, Not Everyone Is Happy
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald posted the changes on his Facebook page, and the comments vary widely.
Some were highly appreciative of the change.
“Thanks John Heald. I appreciate the update and the value carnival has decided to place on our loyalty! Booking an October cruise now because of this. Have a great day,” wrote one commenter.
“Thank you, John you made my day been sailing with you since 82 at the present time. We are diamond glad to hear we will remain diamond,” wrote another.
But many still weren’t happy with the change and expressed their frustration.
One highly liked post said “Still not satisfied as a Platinum guest so won’t be sailing Carnival after the ones already booked. Lucky for those Diamond guests. Most Loyal guests felt unappreciated per the email. Well maybe some of us haven’t been cruising as long as others, but are still loyal.”
“Have been a loyal to carnival but in December gona go on a royal caribbean cruise hope other guess will follow. When folks stop booking yall will understand,” wrote another.
“I’m only a lowly Gold member so I’m not important enough to count for anything, so I’ll be sailing with other lines with better itineraries. It was fun while it lasted, John Heald,” chimed in one more passenger.
The new Carnival Rewards program starts June 2026. You can use Carnival’s calculator to see how many points and what status you’d earn under the new deal.
Carnival should be ashamed of themselves an easy fix to this mess they made is to not change ANYTHING for guests that have sailed with them and revamp its program for everyone that is just starting to sail with them……