If you receive a random email, phone call, or mail about a free cruise that is not clearly from a major cruise line or land-based casino, be very cautious. Offering free cruises has long been a popular scam designed to steal your personal information and credit card number.
Free cruises, however, are a reality. However, to get one, you must be a player at cruise ship casinos. Each cruise line has a different formula for determining who gets free cruises.
Related: Royal Caribbean leans into two big food and beverage trends
Royal Caribbean (RCL) – Get a free report, however, has a refreshingly simple system for at least one of the two ways cruise players can get a free cruise. That system, which the cruise line calls “Instant Rewards,” is based on the number of points a player earns on a single cruise and has been implemented not only in the company's namesake brand, but also in its Celebrity Cruises line. .
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How do Royal Caribbean and Celebrity passengers earn points?
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity track the points passengers earn on both individual voyages and the casino year. Your point total for the year determines your casino level and each level comes with certain benefits. Once you earn a level in a given year, you keep it for the rest of that year and all of the next.
Points earned on a single cruise determine what type of “instant reward” certificate a passenger will earn. On Royal Caribbean ships, you can start earning dollar discount certificates with as little as 400 points. If you can earn 1,500 points on a single cruise, you'll have access to a small list of free cruises that typically run in the coming months.
As you earn more points, you'll have access to better cruise listings. Those lists are displayed via QR codes that can be found at each cruise line's casino counter.
Point totals required may vary ship by ship, and there is usually a different list for shorter voyages than for longer voyages. But, in a broader sense, when you accumulate more points, the available trips become longer and your room can go from an interior one to one with an ocean view, a balcony or even a junior suite.
Points are earned based on the money you put at risk, not the money you lose. For every $5 bet on slot machines, you earn one point, while in video poker you bet $10 per point won. Table games have a less opaque system, but you generally earn between 8 and 10 points per hour playing $15 blackjack.
How to use a free cruise
While other cruise lines offer the equivalent of Instant Rewards, the system is not as transparent. MSC and Virgin have them, but they do not share how many points should be earned.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity customers know exactly what to expect and can track their progress on each cruise. QR codes make it easy to see if a cruise they want to book requires earning a certain amount of points.
To redeem a free cruise, passengers generally must call the Royal Caribbean or Celebrity casino within 30 days of getting off the ship. In many cases, a physical certificate will be left in your room on the last night of your cruise, but it may not reflect the final reward earned.
Additionally, both cruise lines offer free play and sometimes an upgraded room level to passengers who make a “Next Cruise” reservation before leaving ship. This is basically a reservation deposit to secure your next cruise.
At Royal Caribbean, this can only be done through the company app. Passenger pays a $200 deposit that will be applied toward taxes and port fees still due on a free cruise (and any extra will be converted to onboard credit). On Celebrity guests must complete a form authorizing a deposit of $100 per person billed to their ship account to be left at Next Cruise or with the casino host.
Once on land, anyone who has won a free cruise and made a Next Cruise reservation can book their trip from the available list by calling Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Casino. However, cruise ships only have a limited number of assigned casino rooms, so you may not be able to book the exact cruise you want or you may have to pay for an upgrade or accept a downgrade to get on board.
In addition to Instant Rewards, both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity send some customers random free cruise offers. No cruise line shares how they are distributed, and sometimes higher-level players who play more per cruise do not receive offers, while lower-level players do.
