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Casino Karause – I Earned a “Free” Cruise on a Casino Ship – Here’s How It Costs, Plus Tips
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Casino Cruise
This is a story about gambling, although I am not much of a gambler. Before I started researching for this story, I don’t recall anything being played in a casino on a cruise ship. Anyway, this is the story of how I played slots at Royal Caribbean Casino Royale to earn a “free” cruise. Your results may differ from mine. Please play responsibly.
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I have always been fascinated by the concept of free casino cruises. Were they mythic or exclusive? Could I start from scratch, take a cruise, keep a tight gambling budget and turn it into a free sailing? The idea was exciting—addictive even—and once it took hold, I couldn’t let go.
Although I don’t play much, I come from a long line of slot machines. So I channeled my grandmother’s luck and dove into researching the Royal Caribbean Club Royale Casino program with the goal of beating the system and offering a competitive cruise. Here’s how it went down, what I learned, and how much it cost me—plus tips on how to get “free” casino gambling trips on board.
A casino bonus is a free item or bonus offered by a casino to entice you to play more. To earn casino rewards on a Royal Caribbean cruise, you must first spend time and money at Casino Royale using your Sea Pass Cruise Card to track your play. That you are “rated” as a player of the Line Club Royale Casino loyalty program, which in turn gives you rewards and comps based on a point system. (Note: These levels are in no way related to Royal Caribbean’s loyalty program for Crown and Anchor frequent cruisers.)
Depending on the game you choose, you earn a different amount of points per dollar played. Slots earn 1 point for every $5 played, including replayed winnings; Video poker machines earn $1 for every $10 played; and table games earn points based on your average bet and time spent at the table (which is somewhat subjective). The number of points you earn in the 12-month period from April 1 to March 31 determines your level for the next 12 months.
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Each level comes with benefits and discounts; Once you’ve reached Tier 2, Prime and beyond, you’ll also receive a paid cruise at the end of the current program year. For example, Prime members earn a paid inside cabin on every cruise, as well as free drinks at the casino bar as soon as the level is reached.
Note that a free Royal Caribbean cruise includes a cruise ticket for two, but you will still have to pay additional taxes and port fees. You can upgrade cruise ships to higher cabin categories by paying an upgrade fee based on the price difference between your award category and the preferred category of the voyage you booked.
In addition to rewards earned through the tier system, anyone, regardless of tier status, can earn Instant Reward Certificates while on a cruise. They are only awarded based on the number of points earned on your current cruise. The chart showing the number of points required to earn an instant bonus changes frequently and is only available at the casino’s host desk.
Each reward has two parts. The first part is an instant reward certificate, often a discount on a cruise or a cruise, that you can redeem when you book a trip from a select list of cruises within a certain period of time. The other is a bonus fee that you only get if you book a cruise (or at least pay a seat deposit) through the Next Cruise booking program during your current sailing.
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For example, if you reach 800 points on a single cruise, you’ll receive an Instant Rewards certificate for $250 off select cruises and an onboard booking bonus with a free lounge on select dates. (Note that if you book a free cruise, you won’t get the discount either.) At higher point levels, the certificate earned can be for a paid cruise, and the onboard bonus booked is for free play (money in your account that is only valid for casino play). In this case, if you have booked the cruise on board, you will receive both benefits.
If you leave the ship without booking a cruise or making a deposit for a TBD future cruise, you will lose the bonus offer, although you will still redeem the Instant Rewards certificate within the allotted time. Instant Reward Certificates become especially difficult if you peak on the last night of the cruise.
The third opportunity for Club Royale members to earn rewards is the most mysterious. This is when the cruise line selects recipients based on demographic criteria such as age, residence, number of trips per year, average bet, average time spent at the casino or even marital status, and sends them targeted offers that can range from $100. cruise free in junior suites. These marketing-driven offers are usually limited to specific voyages, often with narrow dates, for various cruise lengths and cabin categories. Members report receiving them via snail mail, email or strictly through the Club Royale Members website.
The more points you earn per cruise, the better your marketing offers are likely to be. Players who receive marketing offers for junior suites usually run money through the casino or have done so at least once; a cruiser who spends $20 on a cruise is unlikely to receive any marketing offers at all. There is also no guarantee that once you start receiving these offers, they will continue; they can end as mysteriously as they begin.
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My trip to the free cruise mainly includes this last type of compensation, but as you can see, a better understanding of the other types of bonuses can help us save even more.
If I want a free casino cruise, I have to go on the cruise and play in the casino first. My main goal was not to spend too much (because that would take away the value of a compensated sailing), so I found a five-night sailing with Quantum of the Seas in early May when Alaska prices were low. My husband and I used Southwest Airline points for flights to Seattle to keep our upfront costs low.
Every night he played blackjack and I played slots. I budgeted $200 for the seats. I arrived at this amount primarily because losing much more than that is beyond the value of a short cruise in an inside cabin, which is a standard cruise offering. Hubs set his blackjack budget at $500. My average bet per spin was about $1, sometimes even $2. I played the same money machine during the cruise. Hubs played at $10 blackjack tables with bets ranging from $10 to $25.
At the end of the cruise I still had my $200 and earned 291 Club Royale points. Hubs had about $300 left and 139 points. Note that I earned points by putting my winnings back into the machine; 291 points needed to pass the $1,455 machine ($5 per point). The machine’s counter doesn’t differentiate between your original money and the money you paid on the way.
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At this point we had enjoyed a nice Alaskan cruise at a bargain price and enjoyed playing at the casino without losing too much money, so it was a win no matter what.
It took a full week after the cruise for our points to show up on the Club Royale offers website. Two weeks into the cruise, the first $100 marketing offer for the cruise appeared. I have now received a total of 20 of these $100 off offers. (The Hubs received zero bids.)
On July 12th, two months after our May cruise ended, I received a marketing offer for a free cabin for two. The cruises offered were all for the coming fall and lasted three to five nights. Two weeks later I got another offer for a free interior room for two, also with autumn dates. This listing was for six to eight night cruises. So far these are the only compruise offers I have received.
The booking window is tight for these offers. Facebook casino friends