Are cruise line credit cards really worth it?

I have been considering getting the NCL Mastercard but am wondering if it really does any good? We have a Hilton Honors credit card and really like it for earning free hotel stays and have thought that if it works the same way it might be beneficial to be able to accrue points (or miles-however they do it) and be able to cruise more often. I see that several of the other cruise lines (RCCL, Princess, Holland America...) also have them. If anyone has any experience using any of these cards, I would really appreciate any insight, opinions,advice. Thanks!

They can be as long as you pay it off in full every month. If not, then the interest you would be paying would completely defeat the purpose.

We do not limit ourselves to a cruise CC card though. We have a card that gives us points which allows us to use for many, many different things, including cruising.

For just about all the affinity cards, the first question is will you pay the bill in full & on time EVERY month, If not it is a bad deal

I use my Princess Visa for everything (gas, groceries, etc...) and pay it off every month. I got $500 off my last cruise in August 2011 and will be getting $750 off my cruise in December.

It all depends on your vacation type ...

We have the RCCL card, pay in full every month. I let my points accumulate and just booked 7 day cruise for free!

What dollar % do you get for every dollar spent using the Princess credit card ?

How about redeeming the points? Is it difficult? Some cards that I have looked into seem soooo complicated when it comes time to redeem the points; the process seems overwhelming !

D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL - I earn 1 point for each dollar spent on anything except Princess related items, for those we get 2 points per dollar. So if my cruise is $2500 and I pay with my card, I get 5,000 points which I use for a Champagne Balcony Breakfast.

minimom5- All you do is go to the cards website a few weeks in advance of your cruise and drop the items you want into the shopping cart to purchase them. If you’re short on points for an item you want you can even purchase extra points. Or you can always call their toll free number.

If you cruise a lot no ..More than one a year .

As people have mentioned, they can be good if you pay them off every month. If you are disciplined, reward cards can be very valuable!

But you should always do the math on what the Credit Card is really giving you in value, often the reward specific cards (cruise/airline, etc) are not the best bet. It can feel good to get a reward specifically for your cruise, but often other cards give you more $$ back in your pocket that you can use.

The Airline and Cruise cards often equal about 1% reward, although with Airlines you can sometimes redeem for more valuable flights, if you spend time and research. For example on our October cruise, we were able to get 2 Business Class tickets for 120,000 points total vs. paying $2,200 for coach or $10,000 for business. In that case we got about 8% back on the Airline value, but we had to book the flights 9 months in advance and be flexible in our flight schedule (had to fly on a Thursday and could not get direct)

We use Credit Cards for everything we spend money on, that will accept a credit card. But we use different cards for different purposes to maximize rewards.

For example:

AmEx's Blue Card gives you 6% on groceries, 3% on gas, 3% on Dept Stores

Discover gives you 5-20% off online purchases at most major retailers

Fidelity's AmEx cards gives you 2% off all purchases (including our business travel)

American Airlines Mastercard for anyone not taking AmEx for the miles

For the AmEx Blue and Discover, we just leave the Reward Dollars in the account until vacation, then use the Reward Balance to pay the Bill when we get back from Vacation

And make sure you put any major purchases you can on these cards! Buying a car, put the downpayment on a card, doing home improvement projects, put it on the card. We just replaced all the doors and windows on the house, the window/door company was offering financing, but we got them to take the Airline Card instead and that is good for a couple free flights on American.

It can be a fun game to see how much you can save between vacations!

We use our NCL card for everything. We also have a RCL card as well. We change cards depending on which cruise we will be going on the next year. In a years time, I have gotten approx. $600 for my Norwegian cruise. I cashed $350 in to pay for the cruise and will be using the additional for OBC.

We do not use credit cards. We only use debit cards and cash. To us , a credit card is only useful if you pay it off every month. After seeing so many people in debt from credit cards , we do not like to use them.

We do not use credit cards. We only use debit cards and cash. To us , a credit card is only useful if you pay it off every month. After seeing so many people in debt from credit cards , we do not like to use them.

Been there done that. I am paying off a cc that I let slip up. Luckily it was a lower interest/non-rewards card BUT it can happen to anyone. We have a Disney card through Chase that we've had since 9/05 and I have paid it off every month since we got it. (Except that one time I wanted to split a car repair between two months and the interest was CRAZY - lesson learned.) ANYWAY we used it for trips - 2 cruises and 2 trips to WDW - between 600 -1000 each time. That's probably about 3K that was free money - through discipline. For our upcoming WDW trip we have $1000+/- in rewards. Even my 84 year-old Aunt uses a Discover that "pays-you-back"! (She is 84 going on 54 however - different story.)

You have to be disciplined but credit card companies have loosing business, people are not charging as much, and there are perks to be had.

Before my Disney cruise I got a Chase card and used it for a year. With the $100 I got for getting the card, I was able to have about $300 to spend on the cruise. Since then I got a card through the major US car services club (don't think I can name it because it has a travel agency). It gives me 3 points for every dollar of travel related expenses, 2 points for grocery/drug store purchases and 1 point for everything else. I think this is a better deal than the Disney card. With this card (which is through Bank of America) I can get cash for my points or use them in other ways. Therefore I can get money to use no matter what cruise line I am on.

IMHO...no. I have a Carnival Card that I have had for 13 years. I use it as a secondary card to my citi rewards. We put everything on our citi rewards and pay it off. We get much more dollar for dollar on that card. I use the Carnival card here and there and also pay it off every month. In 13 years, I have gotten about $500 off.

But...those couple hundered dollars have convinced DH to book a cruise...so on 2nd thought.... ;)

I had gotten a Princess card a few years back, but hadn't even activated it...then I realized it was a good deal since I pay off easily each month thru my phone from my bank...so EZ not to carry a balance...

I am up to 40,000 points which gives me 500$ off my cruise.....another 6 thousands to 60,000 and I will get 750 off my cruise....and I am also waiting for my bonus points from using it or my cell bill and utility bills.....I also use a Barnes & Noble card- every 2500$ is a 25$ gift card....but 40,000 would only be

400$...so Princess value is 200$ more....in savings...so pretty much everything I can pay for- goes on Princess...

Bernadette

I have had my RCI Visa since a year before my first cruise (originally booked on RCI but switched to Carnival). I put EVERYTHING on that card, including work expenses for several years before they forced me to use a corporate card. I pay my balance in full, on time every month.

I have gotten:

• Various amount of on board credit
  
• One free companion fare on a 4-night cruise
  
• One free cruise for two (7 night, oceanview)
  
• And I just cashed in more points for another free cruise for two for my Freedom cruise in June
  

With RCI the points are very easy to cash in. They now have a website you can request the rewards and it goes straight to the cruise line. Before it was a lot more complicated (but not hard). They have very few sailings that the rewards are blocked out of, mainly Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's sailings.

There is no correct answer on this one. It will vary by person.

Keith

I would get to 60,000 points so easily....but the bonus points

helped get me there...and double points for Princess purchases..

I just redeemed them for 750$ off my Princess cruise this summer.

Remember, I had the card for over a year and had never started using it...

If it wasn't so easy to check my CC, and pay bills from my i-phone...I might not have done it...

When my son applied for Amex last year, he got me a card...again, I never used it.

Well, I decided to activate it, set-up online and i-phone access. Put thru a 1.00$ payment to make sure it was going to credit properly from my bank...

Went to Costco...spent 530$. Normally would have paid cash...but by using the card....we get back a percentage, including the gas I bought.

I put thru a payment of 500$ as I was sitting and waiting for my eyeglasses to be ordered. Sent the balance yesterday, when I got my total.

EZ peasy...

Bernadette

They can be as long as you pay it off in full every month. If not, then the interest you would be paying would completely defeat the purpose.

 

We do not limit ourselves to a cruise CC card though. We have a card that gives us points which allows us to use for many, many different things, including cruising.

We use multiple cards. The only one that has an annual fee is our Delta American Express, which is offset by checked bag fees being waived and priority boarding.

We also use a HAL credit card due to the bonus points for the multiple HAL cruises we were taking. They have also offered bonus points in the past for other purchases, such as purchases at grocery stores. As far as redeeming the points, they just convert them to cash and apply a credit to your card, so you don't have to use the points for cruises, but if you accumulate a huge amount, I do think you would get an even better return for the points if they were used for a cruise.

We also use a Choice Hotels credit card, which gives you 2 points per dollar. Those points accumulate for free hotel nights. (Obviously not comparable to a stay at a Hilton, but we are low budget travelers.)

And we use a Chase Freedom credit card that gives the standard 1 point per dollar, but also gives 5 points on different categories every quarter. We only use it for those bonus categories and recently cashed in the points to buy the new laptop I am currently typing on :D .

And yes, we pay them off every month.

I went to my online account (you can call to redeem).

I waited till after I was paid in full and it was credited by TA AND Cruise company.

I logged in, clicked redeem, chose 60,00 point 750$ off cruise and clicked redeem. I entered booking number....and that was super EASY!

I received an e-mail confirmation and a few days later (they state it can be longer than that) 750$ was credited directly to my credit card.

I did it AFTER final payment, because my 225$ On Board Credit from my warehouse club I booked thru...ties the OBC as a percentage of actual fare paid..

I did NOT WANT to risk losing a penny of my OBC...

So we got 750$ off from CC,

225 OBC thru TA

200 FCC OBC (Future cruise credit).

100 CCL Shareholder credit...

525 OBC & 750$ towards cruise...on a brand new ship

one word SWEET!!!

Bernadette

No No No ...

I also cashed points for more on board credit and balcony breakfast.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

I was very happy to get the email in August announcing that the RCCL VISA was extending the double-rewards points to Celebrity Cruises and Azamara in addition to Royal. I've been using this VISA to pay for all of my RCCL cruises for over 5 years. My next cruise happens to be on Celebrity, so I charged the final payments for 2 cabins on the RCCL card. I got my statement and lo and behold, they did not give me my double points on the Celebrity charges. A reward point is worth a penny, but when you are charging over $4k that's over $40 in rewards value.

So I went online and spent 45 minutes in online chat with 2 customer service guys from Bank of America. They said they need to send it for research and I would hear back in 7-10 business days. When I expressed dissatisfaction :mad: with that slow turnaround on their error, they had me call customer support. That guy was condescending and told me I misinterpreted the rules and that he felt the double points on Celebrity only applies to on-board purchases! So ultimately I was again told they would "research" this and send me a letter in 7-10 business days, but if I don't want to wait that long I could call them back in 4 days.

So, anyone who is using the RCCL card for Celebrity or Azamara charges, you might want to check your statement for those "bonus" points. If you did not get the bonus points you are entitled to, you need to submit your claim within 60 days of the statement.