People who gamble in cruise ship casinos often do so in order to get free perks.
Those can vary by cruise line even within the same company.
Royal Caribbean, for example, gives free drinks in its casinos to anyone who reaches Prime status. That's anyone who earns 2,500 casino points between April 1 and March 31 of the following year. You earn 1 point for every $5 you put through a slot machine, $10 through a video-poker game, and varying rates for table game players.
Related: These are the biggest mistakes Royal Caribbean passengers make
Once you hit Prime, you don't need to be playing to get a free drink. It's perfectly acceptable to go to the casino bar and take your drink elsewhere, but the bar is open only during casino hours.
Celebrity Cruises, which is owned by Royal Caribbean Group enables all passengers to drink while actively playing in their casinos.
The biggest perk for casino players for both cruise lines, however, is free cruises, which can be earned a number of of ways.
Both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises offer casino players who reach a certain tier in their casino programs an annual cruise benefit.
Players can also earn "instant" certificates on their cruises. Generally, once you hit 1,500 points on a single cruise, you earn an interior room on select sailings. The list of cruises, room types, and free-play bonuses increase at different point levels.
In addition, both companies send mailed and emailed offers for free cruises. Neither company discloses the algorithm used to decide how those are handed out.
Free cruises are a major perk and both companies just changed a key rule on how they work.
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Celebrity and Royal Caribbean penalize no-shows
Many regular cruisers who earn free cruises through Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises book as many cruises as they have offers for. Sometimes work, family, health or some other consideration causes them to miss a cruise.
In most cases that passenger would simply no-show a cruise. But that's something both cruise lines want to stop without angering their loyal casino customers.
On Aug. 22 Royal Caribbean and Celebrity both sent letters outlining a new policy that will give people incentive to cancel their free casino cruises if they plan not to show up.
"We're reaching out to let you know that in the past 12 months you have canceled within two days to sailing or not shown up at the pier for your Casino Reservation(s)," the email says. "Under our new Casino Royale Cruise No-Show & Cancellation Policy, effective September 5, 2024, you will be assessed a $200 USD deposit on all active Casino Reservations, sailing on or after September 5, 2024."
Neither cruise line wants this to be an added cost. It's meant to ensure that people cancel if they plan not to show up.
"This deposit will be refunded as an Onboard Credit once you sail the future reservation. Any unused amount at the end of the sailing will be reimbursed to the card on file. And as long as you cancel outside of 7 days to sailing, you'll receive a full refund," the letter continued.
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What do Royal Caribbean and Celebrity casino cruisers need to do?
People with free casino cruises have 30 days from Sept. 5, 2024, to review their reservation(s) and pay the deposit. If they don't make those payments by Oct. 5, their reservations will be canceled.
Payments can be made online, while canceling a cruise can be done only by calling the cruise line. During the Covid pandemic, Royal Caribbean had a form you could fill out to easily cancel a cruise.
Wait times on the casino-support phone line are a likely reason many passengers no-show rather than cancel.
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Both cruise lines are not adding to the cost of the cruise; they're simply adding the deposit to urge passengers to communicate if they're not going to take a cruise they'd booked.
"As long as you cancel outside of 7 days to sailing, you'll receive a full refund. If you cancel a deposited Casino Reservation within 7 days of the sail date or fail to show up to the sailing, the deposit will be held in penalty. This way you have plenty of time to plan out which sailings you'll be joining us for," both cruise lines shared.
Carnival Cruise Line has a similar policy for all free casino cruises.
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