If you get a random email, phone call, or mailer about a free cruise that's not clearly from one of the major cruise lines or land-based casinos, be very wary. Offering free cruises has long been a popular scam designed to steal your personal information and credit card number.
Free cruises, however, are a very real thing. To get one, however, you have to be a player in cruise ship casinos. Every cruise line has a different formula for determining who gets free cruises.
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Royal Caribbean (RCL) -), however, has a refreshingly simple system for at least one of the two ways cruise ship gamblers can get a free cruise. That system, which the cruise line calls "Instant Rewards," is based on how many points a player earns on a single cruise, and it has been implemented not just on the company's namesake brand, but also on 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 sailings and for the casino year. The year-long points total determines your casino tier and each tier comes with certain benefits. Once you earn a tier in any given year, you hold onto it for the rest of that year and the entirety of the next one.
Points earned on a single cruise determine what sort of "Instant Reward" certificate a passenger will earn. On Royal Caribbean ships, you can start earning dollar-off certificates with as few as 400 points. If you can earn 1,500 points on a single cruise you get access to a small list of free cruises that are usually in the next few months.
As you earn more points, you will get access to better lists of cruises. Those lists are displayed via QR codes which can be found at the casino host desk in each cruise line's casino host desk.
The point totals needed can vary ship by ship, and there's generally a different list for shorter sailings compared to longer ones. But, in a broad sense, when you earn more points, the available sailings get longer, and your room may go from an interior to an oceanview, 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 video poker is $10 bet per point earned. Table games have a less opaque system, but you generally earn 8-10 points per hour playing $15 blackjack.
How to use a free cruise
While other cruise lines offer the equivalent of Instant Rewards, the systems are not as transparent. MSC and Virgin both have them but don't share how many points need to be earned.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity customers know exactly what they have coming to them and can track their progress on each cruise. The QR codes make it easy to see if a cruise they might want to book requires earning a certain amount of points.
To redeem a free cruise, passengers generally have to 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 evening of your cruise, but it may not reflect your final earned reward.
In addition, both cruise lines offer free play and sometimes a higher tier of room to passengers who make a "Next Cruise" reservation before they leave the ship. That's essentially a placeholder deposit to secure your next cruise.
On Royal Caribbean, this can only be done through the company's app. The passenger pays a $200 deposit which will be applied against the taxes and port fees that still must be paid on a free cruise (with any extra going becoming onboard credit). On Celebrity passengers must fill out a form that authorizes a $100 per person deposit billed to your ship account that must be left at Next Cruise or with the casino host.
Once on land, anyone who has earned a free cruise and made a Next Cruise reservation can book their trip from the available list by calling Royal Caribbean or Celebrity's casino. Cruises, however, only have so many casino rooms allotted so it is possible that you might not be able to book the exact cruise you want or may have to pay for an upgrade or accept a downgrade to get onboard.
In addition to Instant Rewards, both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity send some customers random free cruise offers. Neither cruise line shares how these are handed out, and sometimes players with higher tier levels who play more per cruise don't get offers while lesser players do.
