Major Negative Changes to Club Royale on Royal Caribbean

We just returned on a sailing on RCCL. The long rumored changes to Club Royale have come and they have tightened up considerably.

Changes to the club as seen on our recent sailing, are noted below.

-No onboard rebates

-Casino host has no ability to comp specialty dinners. None, it's been taken away from them. Pay for the dinners on your account, and you have to wait until the end of your cruise and then they decide if they will comp you based on your play at the very end.

-We were told that the threshold for a $300 folio credit was an expected loss of $6,000, after which they would give you 5% of expected loss, this was a 5 night cruise. Up until that point, $0 is comped.

-According to Club Royale, future cruises do not get a set discount, i.e. $750 off. You must call and ask about a specific sailing to find out, and the discount will be based on availability.

--To be fair, all drinks in Casino were comped.

What this amounts to, $5,000 expected loss = nothing more than drinks and the casino points. If you pass $6,000 in expected loss, you can add $300 (5%) to that. There is future cruise credit, which is an unknown.

Maybe the previous program was too generous, though there was rarely a sailing when I didn't cover, and then some, the comped cost of the room. In my opinion this has swung too far.

Will I still cruise, of course!

Will I still play in the casino, where the odds aren't great to begin with, that remains to be seen.

Has anyone else had experience with the new Club Royale (or Celebrity Blue Chip) changes?

Thank God we live in Las Vegas and do not cruise for casinos. :D

The comps we receive in our local casinos are so much better and you don't have to spend too much to get them... :cool:

Which ship were you on out of curiosity. We are leaving the 24th on the empress with a casino comped room. Says complimentary drinks while gaming and all we had to pay was the fees. Do you actually have to be playing for free drinks or can we sit at the bar in the casino as well?

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Which ship were you on out of curiosity. We are leaving the 24th on the empress with a casino comped room. Says complimentary drinks while gaming and all we had to pay was the fees. Do you actually have to be playing for free drinks or can we sit at the bar in the casino as well?

 

 

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Anthem OTS

This discussion is not leaving me feeling thrilled. Past cruises have all been on Carnival and I feel they have rewarded me nicely with comps given I am not a real high roller (lots of hours at table games but typically betting minimum on all spots). We have two short RCCL cruises coming up (November and February). I gamble for fun and part of the fun is receiving comps with free or nicely discounted future cruises being my favorite comp. Will see what RCCL's casino thinks of me and my play. If I don't hear anything after the cruises I will continue booking Carnival.

This discussion is not leaving me feeling thrilled. Past cruises have all been on Carnival and I feel they have rewarded me nicely with comps given I am not a real high roller (lots of hours at table games but typically betting minimum on all spots). We have two short RCCL cruises coming up (November and February). I gamble for fun and part of the fun is receiving comps with free or nicely discounted future cruises being my favorite comp. Will see what RCCL's casino thinks of me and my play. If I don't hear anything after the cruises I will continue booking Carnival.

I sailed the Anthem weekender in March and was called Casino Royale & was offered casino rates plus an extra $1000 off based on 2 players (The breakdown was $550 off the slot player & $450 off the table player). I don't think that was to bad based on 3 nights. (I am an NCL player normally but managed to get a comp for RCL). I am currently waiting to hear back from junket to see if they can do better, will post results when I hear back from them

I sailed RCCL for the first time in 20 years Oct 1st on a 5-day Anthem cruise. No folio comp at the end of the cruise - I also was told the threshold was a $6K loss. I earned about 8K points and I received the certificate for a balcony comp or $1K off. The casino manager sent a bottle of wine to my cabin. It was a pleasant surprise that each point was worth $2 in play money. (NCL is $1.)

I called Club Royale when I got back to see what my offer would be on other cruises (I want to go out of NJ and there was only 1 NJ cruise on the "comp" list on the back of the certificate.) The rep was extremely nice and actually comped 2 additional Anthem cruises for me (2017 dates - one is a 5 day and the other is a 7 day - both balcony comps - total cost of each was about $250) - and discounted a third cruise in a Jr Suite for 5 days for $1200 -- all without using my certificate. I was told to call back later in the month (before my 30 day booking expiration on the certificate) to see if the list of 2017 cruises was out yet.

I can't complain about any of the above - but I agree that NCL is better - particularly when it comes to onboard amenities & folio comps.

On another note, I also called Celebrity Blue Chip this week and was able to book a Concierge class cabin on the Reflection in April for $98. NCL still beats Celebrity in onboard amenities/comps - but Blue Chip cruises are always dirt cheap! (NCL charges an "admin fee" in addition to port taxes.)

I was on a B2B on the Empress this summer. A lot of times I would stop at the bar get a drink then move on to the dining room. I don't think they monitored the drinks.