If you book using Harrahs Total Rewards Gold do you also get free drink card?

This is a general question regarding booking the cruise using your Harrahs Total Rewards card. If you have the basic Gold card the NCL website says you get a 5% discount on the booking. Do you also get the free drink card for use in the Casino? Does anyone know the answer?

I don't "know" the answer, but it's highly doubtful. The Gold card is like a participation ribbon.

All you need to do is sign-up, it gives no indication of your level of play.

So I'd venture that the answer will be "no".

I'm not sure if you do with Gold or not - We are Diamond and on our last cruise, when we went to our room the first day, our "free drink" cards and our Casino At Sea Cards were in the room for us already and then each day, we received some kind of treat (cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, truffles, etc) in the room with a note from the Casino Host. The Free Drink cards are definitely a nice plus!

Called just before the New Year. My husband was a "rated player" with CAS (whatever that means) but not rated highly enough to get any sort of CAS discount on the cruise. He has a Harrah's Gold card and my call was transferred to a different agent (Harrah's agent). My understanding is that the status is not additive (ie play on NCL plus play at Harrah's don't add together). Anyway, very nice Harrah's lady "checked the sailing" that I was interested in booking and we were eligible for a 5% room discount (about 150$) plus drink cards based on his Gold status. Only catch is that through Harrah's they had AE suites on the Jewel but not AD suites with this deal (even though there was one AD suite available on the general NCL website). My guess is that they can only offer certain cabins.

Long story longer...we ended up booking the AD with a 300$ OBC via different means and not through CAS...I really wanted the huge AD balcony.

My advice...call and ask. They are really helpful and nice and worst case they tell you no discount/no drink cards. Based on pretty recent experience, however, yes, there is a Gold Harrah's discount.

Coffeecat

If you book through CAS you will get the drink card that can be used only in the casino. If you don't book through them you must earn 1500 points in the casino and they will give you one on the ship. Booking through CAS also gives you other perks as well such as VIP status when checking in and going through security, (no lines) you are one of the first to board the ship ( even if you are not in a suite) and free treats in your room a few nights on your cruise.

Thanks to all my Cruise Critic friends. I didn't know about the Total Rewards 5% -- booked my cruise on Thursday the 10th, sailing on Monday the 14th .. read about the discount a few minutes ago, dug out my Gold card and called and they refunded the 5% back to my credit card retroactive.

Gotta love em!! Gotta love all ya'll for the tips !!

Did you call the casino at seas number or NCL? Trying to figure out if I can get the 5% even though I'm past final payment.

I called the NCL phone number and gave them my Total Rewards membership number. Their system was hinky and I had to chold but they refunded the 5% to my credit card. I paid on Thursday and sail on Monday so you can do it after final payment for sure.

Did you call the casino at seas number or NCL? Trying to figure out if I can get the 5% even though I'm past final payment.

Technically no because it's a change after final payment. In saying that, that doesn't mean if you call you may not get someone to do it. The worst they can tell you is no, so it never hurts to try and you may get lucky.

Good luck.

Like sjbdtz, I would also say probably not.

The color of your Harrahs card has nothing to do with your rated play at CAS. Granted if you are diamond or 7stars, the chance of your play being higher on the ship is greater and the CAS host may take a chance on you.

Harrahs are partnered with NCL because of a higher up connection and therefore you get a discount dependent on your Harrahs players card.

As stated you have to earn 1500 points to qualify for a casino only drink card.

you are one of the first to board the ship

Not sure why you got this extra special treatment, perhaps it was the port or perhaps you were granted some special VIP status. This is not the norm, we boarded with the other 2000 passengers that were not suite guests.

Yes it gave us another line at check in to choose from, we were eligible to choose between 4 and just chose the shortest. Yes, because we were guests of CAS we got treats in our cabins, an invitation to the CAS welcome party and cute notes form the Casino host and manager. But we did not get priority boarding.

It may depend on the port. I know that at the NY port, there is a sign for a separate check-in line that says, "Suite, Villa, and CAS VIP check-in". This line puts you right up to the x-ray machine and then there is another line for check-in.

I have not used my gold card in over 2yrs. and on my cruise last year we were given 5% off our suite and the drink card was in our room. Booked with NCL and gave them my gold card #.

To answer the OP's original question YES you do get a drink card automatically by booking through CAS (via Harrah's) with ONLY a GOLD card. I know this from experience as I have done it. It is automatic to get a drink card when booked through them as you are a "sent player". That being said as your rate of play isn't established you will get 5% off your cruse. Once your rate of play has been determined by CAS they may offer more of a discount on your cruise. Those who have higher rated cards through Harrah's will also get the drink card, but they will be given a higher % off their cruise price as they are rated (even through Harrah's) as being casino players.

I hope that this clears up the gold card debate :D

Hello everyone i booked a cruise last week and paid it in full- just found out about this and i call NCL and they said theres nothing they can do and actually got kind of nasty? any suggestions on what i should do? should i call again and try someone else??

Not sure why you got this extra special treatment, perhaps it was the port or perhaps you were granted some special VIP status. This is not the norm, we boarded with the other 2000 passengers that were not suite guests.

 

Yes it gave us another line at check in to choose from, we were eligible to choose between 4 and just chose the shortest. Yes, because we were guests of CAS we got treats in our cabins, an invitation to the CAS welcome party and cute notes form the Casino host and manager. But we did not get priority boarding.

In NY we got to go through the VIP line since we had booked through CAS and were one of the first on the ship

In NY we got to go through the VIP line since we had booked through CAS and were one of the first on the ship

Sorry never embarked in NY and I'm not saying it's never happened. Not to us in Miami or LA.

LA had 2 only waiting areas; the concierge lounge (I believe thats what its called) for suites and the big room for everyone else. Yes I could choose the VIP check in line for CAS, which I did. But once I gave them the info, got my photo taken, got my room key we had to go sit in the big room with everyone else until they called each numbered group to board. They stood there and said OK I'll call the numbered groups randomly and thats what he did. We were the 2nd group to board and that had nothing to do with CAS or VIP, just the luck of the draw.

In other words, anyone counting on anything more than just a dedicated line may be in for disappointment. And that is all that CAS promises is "priorty checkin" not "priority boarding", there is a difference but it sounds really good in print and is stated that way to make you feel special.

THis is why I love these forums - we are booked in December and we did get the Harrahs TR 5% discount but no one mentioned anything about a free drink card. I am leaving for Vegas in 3 hours and spending thanksgiving week out there - after I return with a bunch of fresh play on my card I will be calling my TA and maybe CAS direct to find out if I should be expecting this perk - cause its a huge one in my mind!

Thanks all

Going in Dec on Spirit with an offer from Total Rewards- Has anyone ever done this? Will we get all the goodies and drink card as well? I am happy with just my free (almost free-taxes & port chg) cruise but this would be awesome

We are booked next week though the TR certificate and I have been told that we would have the drink card in our cabin upon arrival. I don't know about any of the other goodies but at this point I am just happy to be going!! We actually got a postcard to come and pick up another cruise certificate in Vegas in Jan, but alas already have other plans -- shoot, I hope they offer that again this year!!

VIP and CAS - you could be one and not the other, so do NOT assume that since you booked through CAS you will get VIP treatment. Some do, not all.

Drink Card and Total Rewards - as discussed in another current message thread, having a total rewards card will get you NOTHING onboard, no matter how much your play, or even if Diamond or 7 Starts with Caesars/Harrahs. If you book through CAS, you will get the drink card.

VIP and CAS - you could be one and not the other, so do NOT assume that since you booked through CAS you will get VIP treatment. Some do, not all.

 

Drink Card and Total Rewards - as discussed in another current message thread, having a total rewards card will get you NOTHING onboard, no matter how much your play, or even if Diamond or 7 Starts with Caesars/Harrahs. If you book through CAS, you will get the drink card.

Actually thats not true. I just called and spoke with a CAS agent, she reviewed my reservation and confirmed that:

1. At the time I booked with an NCL agent I did provide my Total rewards number.

2. Because I was booked at a 5% discount based on my harrahs TR gold membership I should expect a free casino drink card.

VIP and CAS - you could be one and not the other, so do NOT assume that since you booked through CAS you will get VIP treatment. Some do, not all.

 

Drink Card and Total Rewards - as discussed in another current message thread, having a total rewards card will get you NOTHING onboard, no matter how much your play, or even if Diamond or 7 Starts with Caesars/Harrahs. If you book through CAS, you will get the drink card.

Actually booking through Harrahs using the Total Rewards discount does get you the drink card. I've done it twice, most recently in September. I also think that, when you book this way, your reservation is somehow linked with CAS because we had a welcome letter from them, an invitation to a CAS cocktail party and goodies delivered a couple of times complimemts of CAS.

I also think that, when you book this way, your reservation is somehow linked with CAS because we had a welcome letter from them, an invitation to a CAS cocktail party and goodies delivered a couple of times complimemts of CAS.

Because you have booked via Harrahs you are then considered a guest of CAS.

Kind of like if you were going on a vacation to a place you had never been and were nervous but your Mom's cousin lived there. She would contact her cousin and say "hey while so and so is in town, maybe you could look out for him/her and make sure they have a nice time".

Because you have booked via Harrahs you are then considered a guest of CAS.

I totally (get it totally - total rewards bad I know) think this is the language somehow causes confusion to readers here. When I read booked via harrahs I think I called harrahs. In my mind I booked via NCL and provided my TR number.

Confusion aside I am just trilled with this perk. Having saved several previous cruise folio's on other lines, consistently across all my cruises nearly half of my bar purchases come from the casinos so this is a huge savings and I am trilled to have the perk.