Originally Posted by
gooselee
It's a separate line for RCI elites, similar to priority check-in lines for airlines, and I believe some departure ports have a check-in lounge as well with light refreshments. There are also separate lines for RCI elites to get back on board from the ports. Particularly at embarkation for the larger ships, this can be a huge time saver.
I actually haven't been on RCI in a few years, so I was going to bounce over to CruiseCritic before I went to see what the current setup is. In the past, I believe there was also a lounge onboard w/breakfast for disembarkation. Beats sitting around at the buffet waiting for your color to be called.
Here's a brief report from a platinum on a 5 day:
Check-in - not sure if you get expedited or not. At the point after security where there was an opportunity to go in the expedited line we were told that if there was a letter in your reservation you could use it. However, once I checked in there was an indication on my cruise card that I was gold and there was a sign indicating that if you were gold you could use it. So I would try it.
Welcome Amenity - There was fruit and water in the room when I arrived.
Drinks - In my cabin I received a punch card for 10 free drinks that could only be used in the casino.
Specialty Dinner - In my cabin I received a coupon for a free dinner for 2 at one of the two specialty restaurants that would have been $30 each at one and $20 each at the other. I easily made the reservation for the following day and the bill at the end of the dinner was $0. I would have had to pay for alcohol but I didn't drink any. There was no dress code to worry about (jeans and a sweater was fine).
Gold Coupon book - In my cabin there was a gold coupon book that had various discount certificates including a $5 match play (there was another one in another book as well), a 2 for 1 drink ticket, an extra bingo card, etc.
Gambling $$ - For that cruise only (otherwise there was apparently a 3% fee), I could take out up to $2K per day on my account that will apparently be coded as a purchase along with the other purchases. I'll have to report back on that one.
Gambling - I'm not sure how closely they were tracking me and sometimes not at all. Probably partially my fault and partially theirs. The limits were not very high on table games but were playable. The lowest min blackjack table I found was $6 and I saw someone playing with multiple black chips at another table - the only maxes I am sure of are $500 per third and $1000 per 50/50 bet on roulette (min was $1 inside and $5 outside). 2 roulette tables, 4 regular blackjack and 1 single deck blackjack table and 2 three card poker tables along with a craps table and lots of slots.
Departure lounge - There was a separate departure lounge for those who were gold (and others for other levels in their system) but I did not make it down there. I also don't know if the status had an effect on timing of getting off the ship as I was lazy that morning and didn't make my departure group.