Royal Caribbean offers gamblers who play in its Casino Royale onboard casinos three ways to earn free cabins on future trips. These include:
- Instant Offers: These are free-cruise certificates awarded for earning a certain amount of points during a single sailing. The number can vary by ship and by sail date, but 1,500 might get you an inside cabin on select sailings while 2,500 get you the same cabin and a much longer list. Earn more and your cabin classes, choices, and free-play numbers go up.
- Annual Tier Cruise: If you earn 2,500 points in a Royal Caribbean (RCL) casino year (April 1- March 31), you become Prime and get a free inside cabin up to a seven-night cruise on any ship that has been in service for more than a year. (Earn higher casino tiers and that room becomes a balcony or even a suite.)
- Email Offers: These are less specific and the cruise line does not disclose the criteria it uses to decide who gets them. Basically, an Instant Offer is an email with a list of cruises you can book for two people. The lists can vary. Some people get offered nicer rooms while others might get a longer list. Again, Royal Caribbean does not explain how it determines eligibility, but it’s based at least somewhat on how many points you earned on your previous cruise as well as on other factors.
DON'T MISS: Royal Caribbean Makes a Controversial Casino Move
Instant Offers for a free cruise would be just that -- except passengers must pay taxes and fees. The cruise line does send some dollars-off offers, which provide discounts. But the free cruises were always for a dual-occupancy cabin in which a solo traveler would be welcome as long as they were the person who was sent the offer.
Now, the Royal Caribbean Casino Royale community has reacted poorly to new offers from the cruise line that enable one passenger to cruise free and the second at a discounted price. And if you opt to book solo, you still have to pay the fee for the second passenger.
Image source: Daniel Kline/TheStreet
Royal Caribbean Makes a Casino Move
While these offers are not the new normal, it’s fair to say the cruise line has, at least for the summer, raised the bar on what it takes to get a truly comped room.
The problem is that because the system weighs criteria that are not publicly disclosed, people who get the not-so-free offers can't easily know where they stand.
Royal Caribbean factors in the points earned on your most-recent cruise, but it may also consider how many cruises you have booked and your overall spending when you are on board. It may not give free offers to passengers who gamble the most because those customers will then have earned their next trips via Instant Rewards.
The cruise line has made clear in communications with customers that this is just one offer. The customers in question are ones who complained about the new offers, likely because they had received free offers in the past. The company has reiterated that in a letter it has sent to people who emailed the cruise line and complained.
We have not changed the general format of our Royal Caribbean offers. This offer does include the unique feature of one complimentary guest fare and the second guest at a deeply discounted cruise cost. where their play might not qualify them for a full complimentary stateroom on these select itineraries.
If this offer does not fit your needs, please watch for future offers from Club Royale.
That does not mean that Royal Caribbean's next offer will be free cruises for everyone who has gotten free cruises in the past. It means only that this particular buy-one-get-one deal is not going to become the only deal offered.
How Royal Caribbean Fills Its Cabins
Many people in the various Casino Royale Facebook groups attributed the new offer to ships sailing with full complements of passengers and the cruise line not needing to give away rooms. That's both true and false as some comped passengers bring more revenue to the cruise line than those who pay full fare.
That's an equation the cruise line and the people who operate its casino must constantly balance. It's easy to give away rooms on a half-full ship to people who will gamble a little and maybe buy some upgraded dining or a drink package.
On busier sailings, however, the cruise line has to look at the revenue it makes selling a room versus what it may make on a casino player. That means that at certain levels, it's better for Royal Caribbean's bottom line to give a gambler a room, or even a suite, than it is to sell it.
With ships sailing with more cruisers, comps will be harder to come by for marginal players. That's because if someone else will pay full price for a given room, then filling it with a casual gambler makes little sense.
Free offers won't go away. Royal Caribbean will always want the people who earn Instant Rewards on its ships and will likely send them offers for more cruises.
But exactly which ones and for whom may shift (and could shift again in the slower seasons).
