Free cruises

[island lady]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

Call the D+ number and ask to speak with the Pinnacle desk. You should have received a certificate in the package that they sent with your pinnacle pins, etc. You only have a year to apply the certificate, so if you haven't received your Pinnacle package yet (ours took a few months to arrive - if I remember correctly), they will have a record of it on their system, and can apply it to whichever cruise you want.

 

BTW, we used our last one to book a balcony on Wonder (just got off yesterday) because it was worth over $5,000 on that cruise.

 

I didn't wait for any of the certificates to be sent months later.   I called RCI right after points were posted and had the agent apply my certificate.  Indeed, they have a record of it.  

 

One I applied the 2400 to a currently booked cruise, and the second one....like you, applied to a balcony cabin on Wonder.  Just had to pay taxes and port fees of 313.00.

[little britain]

There is a lady on an upcoming Australia cruise RC who is saying she has just got offered the cruise for free - she has only travelled with RCI once before on a 2n sampler and she is not a gambler... Perhaps that is an Australian thing?  She even posted a pic of the email.  She had a few cruises to choose from.

Edited July 24, 2023 by little britain

[ReneeFLL]

13 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

 

How much have you lost versus the free cruises that you took and the price they were worth? I’m guessing 99% of people have lost more that what it would have cost to to pay outright. In the end for Royal it is based on people’s losses. They aren’t going to keep giving away free cruises if they aren’t making money off of people. Royal doesn’t play that way.

 

10 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Do you think RCI can make money giving away that to every gambler?

No, that’s why I posted the above. I often think I should gamble after reading such stories, but I never do, because I know the odds are definitely against me. Royal will always win in the end. As for all the cruises not taken, that’s probably why Royal keeps sending the offers. Something tells me if someone was to accept all the offers, they would quit receiving them unless they are losing big time.

[orville99]

2 hours ago, little britain said:

There is a lady on an upcoming Australia cruise RC who is saying she has just got offered the cruise for free - she has only travelled with RCI once before on a 2n sampler and she is not a gambler... Perhaps that is an Australian thing?  She even posted a pic of the email.  She had a few cruises to choose from.

Sounds more like a time share pitch...

[ReneeFLL]

4 hours ago, orville99 said:

Call the D+ number and ask to speak with the Pinnacle desk. You should have received a certificate in the package that they sent with your pinnacle pins, etc. You only have a year to apply the certificate, so if you haven't received your Pinnacle package yet (ours took a few months to arrive - if I remember correctly), they will have a record of it on their system, and can apply it to whichever cruise you want.

 

BTW, we used our last one to book a balcony on Wonder (just got off yesterday) because it was worth over $5,000 on that cruise.

We got our package last week, but made pinnacle in February. There wasn’t any info or certificate in it. I kept forgetting to look into the free cruise. Need to do that asap.

 

18 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Amy 7 day Caribbesn on a ship more than a year old in a valcony regardless of price or a $2400 credit towards a different cruise. Then every 350 points after that.  At 1400 points it's a JS. 

Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize it could be $2400.00 towards another cruise.

[orville99]

7 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

We got our package last week, but made pinnacle in February. There wasn’t any info or certificate in it.

There should have been a Welcome letter in the package, and if I remember correctly, the info on how to redeem the free cruise was buried somewhere in the text of that letter.

 

 

[ReneeFLL]

18 minutes ago, orville99 said:

There should have been a Welcome letter in the package, and if I remember correctly, the info on how to redeem the free cruise was buried somewhere in the text of that letter.

Thanks, I’ll look again.

[grandgeezer]

5 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Casinos will always win. On land, holds are usually around 89%, on ships likely 93% or so. I've had good winning cruises and losing. But, offers don't care what you win or lose. They care about the money you're willing to circulate through the machines because they know in the end, the casino will win. I win/lose the same in the casino now as I did before the casino reward program so the way I see it, I would have played in the casino regardless, but as a reward, I'm not having to pay for gambling plus a cruise fare. 

 

Losing $5k-10k on a comped cruise is better than losing $5k-10k plus paying for the cruise. 

I had heard just the opposite on the payout percentage so I googled it. The articles I found had a 90% or higher, payback, depending on the cost per line in Vegas. On cruise ships it was in the 75-80% range. The percentage is based on the life cycle of the machine not over a specific period of time. The difference in percentages were based on the ships not being regulated and they have a captivated crowd, no other place to play. The articles were fairly recent, all in 2023.

 

 

[colesc15]

24 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

I had heard just the opposite on the payout percentage so I googled it. The articles I found had a 90% or higher, payback, depending on the cost per line in Vegas. On cruise ships it was in the 75-80% range. The percentage is based on the life cycle of the machine not over a specific period of time. The difference in percentages were based on the ships not being regulated and they have a captivated crowd, no other place to play. The articles were fairly recent, all in 2023.

 

 

Sorry! You're correct. My numbers in my head didn't come out the way I wanted them to early this morning lol. On land, 90ish percent, on ships, less. Thank you for the correction!

[ngrund]

15 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Last year I went on 7 free casino cruises and lost $950 in various casinos over the year. 
 

This year I have 17 free casino cruises booked/already cruised, not to mention several offers I didn’t use for various reasons. So far this year I have lost $3200 in casinos this year. That number is likely to go up on future cruises, but at  the moment I think losing $4150 for 24 free cruises in two years is a pretty good return on investment. 

Your loss figures are out of pocket $, I presume.

 

You are cycling much more through the machines-all your wins along the way that you are not cashing out are being put back in.

 

To get a better idea of what these cruises are actually costing you, look at your point totals.

 

As long as you are enjoying this as entertainment, and love cruising, more power to you!

 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

56 minutes ago, ngrund said:

Your loss figures are out of pocket $, I presume.

 

You are cycling much more through the machines-all your wins along the way that you are not cashing out are being put back in.

 

To get a better idea of what these cruises are actually costing you, look at your point totals.

 

As long as you are enjoying this as entertainment, and love cruising, more power to you!

 

 

The point totals (I am at 8998 this year right now) aren’t an accurate way to measure what it costs me because points only tell you how much you have “risked”.  Points don’t tell you how much you have actually won or lost, which is why I have a spreadsheet that tracks what I have won or lost every cruise. 
 

I start every cruise by putting $500 into whatever slot machine I am playing, plus any free play (usually between $100 - $300). On some cruises I never put any more money in the machine and play on the $500 for the entire cruise. So the most I have risked is $500 of my money. On other cruises I may lose $500 in 30 minutes, which results in me putting another $500 at risk. 
 

Obviously it is nice when I leave the ship with more money than I came with, but my main goal is to accumulate as many points as possible while risking as little as possible of my money. 
 

When I was on Adventure a month ago or so, I earned 1500 points using only the initial $500 I put into the machine (Wheel of Fortune). I was never up more than $200 and never down more than $300 during the cruise. So while points show I risked $7500, the most I could have walked away with at any point during the cruise was a $200 profit, which is why points aren’t a good indication of what you actually risked. 

[ngrund]

Yes, you only put in $500 of your cash.

 

The 1500 points you earned means $7,500 was played.

 

Every spin that "won" you anything back, even just  $1 is your money that you are putting back in.

[tvo7]

That is what I am talking about.  I hear people on this post are getting emails for free cruises. 

How do I get those emails?

[George C]

I just got a offer for a free cruise for celebrity involving gambling, this was a first for us , have done 19 cruises on rccl and just 9 on celebrity, doubt we will use the ones offered and they are for inside cabins and we would need to upgrade it to a suite, I do gamble on all my cruises but just a hundred or two a day.

[Tree_skier]

11 hours ago, orville99 said:

Sounds more like a time share pitch...

That is what got me addicted to cruising.  I got a Hilton Vacations time share deal that offered a free stay (3 night) in Orlando at one of their properties as well as a free Royal Caribbean 3 or 4 might cruise to be used at a later date if I sat through a time share pitch.  We did.  It was excruciating but after it was all done we did, in fact, get the 3/4 night certificate.  We ended up taking a 7 night cruise on Liberty.  The certificate ended up being worth $500 towards the cost of the 7 day cruise.  I've been addicted to cruising ever since.

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, tvo7 said:

How do I get those emails?

Donate enough at the casino.......

[nolimits]

People that Gamble like myself would be Gambling on a pd$$ for cruise.

Better to gamble on free cruise Win or Lose