The Royal Caribbean rumor mill has churned out a few intriguing possibilities this week.
In reviewing new trademark applications that Royal Caribbean has made with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, there's a few related the line's customer loyalty program that might indicate new options coming soon.
Earlier this week, Royal Caribbean filed a series of trademark applications for words and phrases that reference it's intended for the customer loyalty program.
Trademark applications are notoriously vague, but they give a general indication of which aspect of the business the word or phrase is intended for.
To be clear, Royal Caribbean hasn't announced anything related to this, and this post is merely speculating at a possible offering coming in the near future.
Trademarks for customer loyalty
A few of the trademarks are centered around being intended for customer loyalty program.
"Royal Rewards" and "Royal One" were registered on April 8, and they are described as, "trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of customer loyalty services and customer club services, for commercial, promotional and/or advertising purposes."
Another two terms were trademarked related to customer loyalty.
"Anchored", "Aspire" and "Boundless" were also registered on April 8, and, "intended to cover the categories of customer loyalty services and customer club services, for commercial, promotional and/or advertising purposes."
The last two terms are "Flagship Rewards" and "Flagship" and are described as, "intended to cover the categories of customer loyalty services and customer club services, for commercial, promotional and/or advertising purposes."
Royal Caribbean already has a customer loyalty program with its Crown & Anchor Society, which offers benefits for repeat cruisers.
There are six tiers to the program, with some of the best benefits coming at the upper echelon of the program, with complimentary drinks, free WiFi access, and even a free cruise.
There is also a casino rewards program for passengers who gamble in the ship's casino. The Casino Royale program also has multiple tiers that offer complimentary drinks in the casino, discounted and complimentary cruises, and other additional benefits.
Read more: I gambled enough in Royal Caribbean's casino to get free drinks and a cruise
These new terms may or may not have any relationship to the existing Crown and Anchor society or Casino Royale programs.
Moreover, it could refer to a brand new program for something else completely.
Royal Caribbean has openly talked about the idea of merging its loyalty program with sister cruise line Celebrity Cruises.
Nothing has been announced, but Celebrity Cruises indicated there's an opportunity for combining the program.
Andrea Shay, AVP of Loyalty for Celebrity Cruises, took the reign on this question, responding by saying, "I'm so glad that this question came up, and it's something that members are asking for."
"We have some status match between the brands today, but there's such a huge opportunity for us to do more and really take advantage of the connection and us being part of the same family."
According to Shay, the status match doesn't thread the three Royal Caribbean Group brands together, so they're working with their sister brands. Hopefully, more will be revealed in the coming months.
Online marketplace
There was one other trademark filed on April 8 that doesn't appear to be related to customer loyalty, but is equally intriguing.
"Royal Xclusive" has the following description:
"Trademark is intended to cover the categories of provision of an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of goods and services; retail store services; online retail store services; retail and online retail store services featuring a wide variety of consumer and commercial goods; Advertising; Advertising services; Online advertising services; providing product sales information; providing product sales rankings information; providing consumer product information; providing a website featuring ratings, reviews, and recommendations on products and services for commercial purposes posted by users."
Too early to know what it all means
These new trademarks are something to keep in mind, but far from any kind of announcement or confirmation of a change.
Royal Caribbean often files trademarks in batches, just in case they want to use the names later. In many cases, they register a few trademarks with the idea they will end up using just one of them. Cruise ship names are often trademarked in this fashion as well.
