Casino Royale Complementary Cruise Changes?

[Shea]

So, my wife and I are both diamond and prime and we have enjoyed the complementary cruises for quite a while. But the other day, we went to book a cruise in September that was on the most recent voucher we got in the mail. After waiting almost 45 minutes to speak to someone, I was told that there were no more rooms available for royale comps. There were rooms, just no complementary ones. I've never had this issue and wondered if anyone else has experienced this with a cruise that was so far out. We did book the following week, however, they would not let us pick our balcony staterooms as they had all the times before. We just get a GTY balcony. Is that a new thing?

Finally, some friends of ours also have a complementary cruise and were trying to book on the same ship/date we finally got booked on. They have a teenage son who cruises with them, but obviously, they have to pay the 3rd person cost. This time, they were told that the room was only for double occupancy and they would have to upgrade the room from an interior room to a balcony for an outrageous charge. Keep in mind, this cruise is 6 months out. They would not let them add the 3rd person to an interior room, but made them upgrade which ended up costing more than the full price for 3 ppl in an interior room. Made absolutely no sense.

[DoomSlayer]

4 hours ago, Shea said:

So, my wife and I are both diamond and prime and we have enjoyed the complementary cruises for quite a while. But the other day, we went to book a cruise in September that was on the most recent voucher we got in the mail. After waiting almost 45 minutes to speak to someone, I was told that there were no more rooms available for royale comps. There were rooms, just no complementary ones. I've never had this issue and wondered if anyone else has experienced this with a cruise that was so far out. We did book the following week, however, they would not let us pick our balcony staterooms as they had all the times before. We just get a GTY balcony. Is that a new thing?

The casino has a limited number of rooms they are allowed to book on each sailing.  Your sailing was just out of rooms that they casino could use which is why you had to pick a different date.  I did have one time in the past where all that was available to the casino was GTY rooms too, so while not usual, it can happen on sailings that are heavily booked. 

4 hours ago, Shea said:

Finally, some friends of ours also have a complementary cruise and were trying to book on the same ship/date we finally got booked on. They have a teenage son who cruises with them, but obviously, they have to pay the 3rd person cost. This time, they were told that the room was only for double occupancy and they would have to upgrade the room from an interior room to a balcony for an outrageous charge. Keep in mind, this cruise is 6 months out. They would not let them add the 3rd person to an interior room, but made them upgrade which ended up costing more than the full price for 3 ppl in an interior room. Made absolutely no sense.

The casino comps are usually only for a room that only sleeps 2 people.  A 2 person room is a different (and cheaper) class than a 3 person room.  3 person rooms are priced higher and have limited availability.  Your friends probably had to pay an upgrade fee for the next class of room and then paid an added fair for the 3rd person.  I don't think there is any slight of hand on Royal's part here.  People are often shocked at the price of adding a 3rd person and there are several threads on this forum with similar questions.  Here is one that may help explain your friend's situation more:

 

[Shea]

I appreciate the feedback. Guess we have been lucky for a while to have not experienced this before. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Very recently we tried to book a casino comp on one of the listed “eligible” cruises and were told that they had already maxed out the comp rooms so it’s not an unusual circumstance.  Too bad, too, since it would have given us B2B casino comp cruises…but it didn’t work.

[Oli]

I have still not seen my Prime comp loaded into my account yet so not sure if I can even attempt to book yet. I have an existing booking I wish to apply mine to when I get it and hopefully being a UK departure port will not be sold out of Casino comp rooms by the time I do eventually get my comp loaded.

Not sure if I should just ring and try to get it sorted. Is a rather expensive exercise calling from the UK though sometimes.

I do call the toll free number via Skype to get around the charges but this does not always work

[Pattycruise]

13 hours ago, Oli said:

I have still not seen my Prime comp loaded into my account yet so not sure if I can even attempt to book yet. I have an existing booking I wish to apply mine to when I get it and hopefully being a UK departure port will not be sold out of Casino comp rooms by the time I do eventually get my comp loaded.

Not sure if I should just ring and try to get it sorted. Is a rather expensive exercise calling from the UK though sometimes.

I do call the toll free number via Skype to get around the charges but this does not always work

In the Facebook casino Royale group the UK residents were reporting being told their offers will start becoming available April 24. 

[Oli]

17 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

In the Facebook casino Royale group the UK residents were reporting being told their offers will start becoming available April 24. 

Well I can confirm this was indeed the case. The cert was loaded at around 9pm UK time today the 24th.

I shall be calling tomorrow to get it applied to my existing reservation in September.

[Ampurp85]

1 hour ago, Oli said:

Well I can confirm this was indeed the case. The cert was loaded at around 9pm UK time today the 24th.

I shall be calling tomorrow to get it applied to my existing reservation in September.

Just make sure it is not a Next Cruise booking because they no longer allow the Annual prime certificate to be applied to Next Cruise bookings. 

[Pattycruise]

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Just make sure it is not a Next Cruise booking because they no longer allow the Annual prime certificate to be applied to Next Cruise bookings. 

They did it for me and my husband.  it will be interesting to see if they undo it

[Ampurp85]

43 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

They did it for me and my husband.  it will be interesting to see if they undo it

I spoke to 3 different reps who sail previous Next cruise bookings are exempt from the annual cruise. However, if you book a cruise at Next cruise with the certificate you are fine. 

[Pattycruise]

3 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I spoke to 3 different reps who sail previous Next cruise bookings are exempt from the annual cruise. However, if you book a cruise at Next cruise with the certificate you are fine. 

Both of our tier cruises were booked using a next cruise reservation #. Both show the OBC.  Maybe I got in under the gun before club Royale said no.  I actually had an extremely competent rep, and had one booking done and the other almost complete when I realized I forgot to give her my next cruise reservation numbers.  She apologized to me for not asking if I had a NC reservation  # and I kept apologizing to her because I felt it was my screw up in the first place. 
 

as far as “if you book a cruise at next cruise with the certificate you are fine”I’m not sure what that means. I’ve read that the Tier cert and inbox offers cannot be booked at next cruise.  The onboard instant certificate can be booked at next cruise-or currently within 30 days of your sailing if you purchased the reservation while onboard the sailing the certificate was issued.  Also inbox offers can be used with a Next cruise reservation #.  

[WAAAYTOOO]

We have recently booked 2 of the “monthlies” (email offers) on 2 separate ships using NC so I feel confident that this is allowed.  We received the NC OBC for both.  I can’t recall if there is any free play involved but I don’t think there is for those.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the discussion, but I think the question is whether or not you can book through NC and then convert that booking to your annual tier comp.  I’ve never tried to do this so I have no idea.  Until very recently, we never ever used NC b/c they didn’t want anything to do with casino bookings before the pause.  Now that they’re all up in the casino bookings, we use them often.  TBH, NC seems far more competent with the [often mysterious] casino bookings than the casino phone reps.  I almost never get what I want the first time, with the phone reps.

[Ampurp85]

@Pattycruise Was that an open NC booking? I.e. not assigned to any direct cruise. Because that is okay. What I am talking about is an already booked cruise, like maybe you booked in Dec/Jan and want to apply the prime certificate. I was told that is no longer allowed. 

Also @WAAAYTOOO is correct, you can use the Club Royale monthlies to book at NC.

[Wheeler825]

On 4/23/2023 at 9:33 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Very recently we tried to book a casino comp on one of the listed “eligible” cruises and were told that they had already maxed out the comp rooms so it’s not an unusual circumstance.  Too bad, too, since it would have given us B2B casino comp cruises…but it didn’t work.

I managed to get B2B on Voyager in september.  Cheap flight down there and doubled up on the cruise, win win!

[Snotarni]

Wife and I are both Prime and both received our Tier Comp cruises...  we asked to combine for a single cruise with an upgraded cabin and were told we couldn't do that (anymore?) and that the only way we could combine the comps was if we combined the $500 values for each.  Anyone have any info?  Did the policy change?  This is our first year at Prime so we always been told we could combine.  Thanks!

[Snotarni]

23 minutes ago, Snotarni said:

Wife and I are both Prime and both received our Tier Comp cruises...  we asked to combine for a single cruise with an upgraded cabin and were told we couldn't do that (anymore?) and that the only way we could combine the comps was if we combined the $500 values for each.  Anyone have any info?  Did the policy change?  This is our first year at Prime so we always been told we could combine.  Thanks!

We're going on Indy this weekend, so maybe we'll check it out at Next Cruise...

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, Snotarni said:

Wife and I are both Prime and both received our Tier Comp cruises...  we asked to combine for a single cruise with an upgraded cabin and were told we couldn't do that (anymore?) and that the only way we could combine the comps was if we combined the $500 values for each.  Anyone have any info?  Did the policy change?  This is our first year at Prime so we always been told we could combine.  Thanks!

I am skeptical of this.  I would certainly try again.  If they have made this a new rule, it totally sucks !

[Oli]

Well, after many many phone calls to both the U.K. and U.S. Prime call centres I believe I may have managed to get my Prime cert applied to an existing booking, this was an online booking made on the U.K. website and that was what caused me so much drama.

So on my Prime e-mail it had a U.K. phone number, so I called this and straight away was shot down, only able to apply this on new bookings but feel free to e-mail Club Royale they told me.

I then call the Club Royale Prime number in the U.S. who tell me I could do it, it is a thing but as it was a booking made on the U.K. website, the U.S call centre are unable to apply it and I should ring the U.K.

I call back the U.K. office and would you believe it, same rep answers, but I proceed to tell them that the U.S. prime rep told me I can very much do it and you should crack on and get it done. Off she goes to speak to her supervisor, comes back and tells me "OK Sir, I can do this but I will have to re issue you a new invoice and forward it to head office which will take of the discount and send you another new invoice in 3-4 weeks which will reflect the discount correctly"

Am I confident this will happen, nope. I did get an amended invoice which indeed displayed my cert number etc and some form of discount but with the cabin rate repriced much higher than I booked. So we will see, I will await my new invoice with hopefully only taxes and gratuities due etc.

I'm off on Harmony next week so I'm going to forget about it for now and see what happens.

Moral of the story for me is I will not be pre booking in future with the expectation of applying my prime cert, I will just book a new cruise when I get them. It is just to much of a ball ache booking on the U.K. site and then having to deal with Royals nonsense. I have booked many a free monthly or instant cert direct no problems, the problem seems to lie solely in the fact that Club Royale does not play nice with bookings made outside the U.S., the U.S. rep could not even see my booking on their system.

[WAAAYTOOO]

3 hours ago, Oli said:

I did get an amended invoice which indeed displayed my cert number etc and some form of discount but with the cabin rate repriced much higher than I booked.

This is pretty much the way it works (or used to, anyway) in the US.  Essentially they are rebooking the existing cruise at the current rate and then applying the comp cert….so sometimes it doesn’t work to your advantage to apply your comp to an existing booking b/c the base price of the cruise has increased so much.  Let’s hope that it works out for you.

[deButler]

17 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Both of our tier cruises were booked using a next cruise reservation #. Both show the OBC. 

The onboard instant certificate can be booked at next cruise-or currently within 30 days of your sailing if you purchased the reservation while onboard the sailing the certificate was issued.

Does your open reservation made with NC while onboard still provide the OBC after completing the booking of an Instant Certificate earned on that same cruise?

We earned a 2K point instant cert on our Symphony TA in March and opened a booking at NC before getting off in Barcelona. After getting the printed cert from Chris Wong we applied it to that open booking with the casino dept when we got back home in the states about 2 weeks later. We are now on Explorer, the booking made on that certificate, but we did not receive our $100 OBC. Next Cruise here says we should have but sometimes Casino Reps apply their codes wrong and wipe out the NC OBC code and asked me to place StS call back to central casino reservations to correct it. Wen I spoke to them they indicated that a casino discount could not be combined with a next cruise OBC so therefore I received the casino discount and lost the OBC. At least we still got the free play associated to the cert for booking with NC while onboard. 

[togo]

I was able to use the annual tier cruise on a Next Cruise reservation I made three months prior.  But I had to call three times to get the right agent to do it.  

[togo]

On closer examination, it appears the $100 OBC that was there, is now gone.  So I am assuming the OBC was dismissed as a result of the annual tier being used.  But at least I was able to hold the room I wanted for three months with the Next Cruise until the annual tier came in.  This was my recent experience.

[Pattycruise]

On 4/26/2023 at 6:17 AM, togo said:

On closer examination, it appears the $100 OBC that was there, is now gone.  So I am assuming the OBC was dismissed as a result of the annual tier being used.  But at least I was able to hold the room I wanted for three months with the Next Cruise until the annual tier came in.  This was my recent experience.

A 3 month old next cruise reservation would have automatically lost its OBC.  To keep the OBC you must book within 60 days of purchasing the reservation.

[Pattycruise]

On 4/25/2023 at 11:19 PM, deButler said:

Does your open reservation made with NC while onboard still provide the OBC after completing the booking of an Instant Certificate earned on that same cruise?

We earned a 2K point instant cert on our Symphony TA in March and opened a booking at NC before getting off in Barcelona. After getting the printed cert from Chris Wong we applied it to that open booking with the casino dept when we got back home in the states about 2 weeks later. We are now on Explorer, the booking made on that certificate, but we did not receive our $100 OBC. Next Cruise here says we should have but sometimes Casino Reps apply their codes wrong and wipe out the NC OBC code and asked me to place StS call back to central casino reservations to correct it. Wen I spoke to them they indicated that a casino discount could not be combined with a next cruise OBC so therefore I received the casino discount and lost the OBC. At least we still got the free play associated to the cert for booking with NC while onboard. 

Yes, it does.

call the casino Royale and ask them to put the OBC on.  I’ve had this happen a few times.  One time NC gave me lower than should have been OBC and the casino Royale actually caught that!

[togo]

8 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

A 3 month old next cruise reservation would have automatically lost its OBC.  To keep the OBC you must book within 60 days of purchasing the reservation.

But I already had the reservation made with the OBC.  It was only after I called and applied the annual tier comp to the reservation that I saw it gone.

[deButler]

14 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Yes, it does.

call the casino Royale and ask them to put the OBC on.  I’ve had this happen a few times.  One time NC gave me lower than should have been OBC and the casino Royale actually caught that!

Thanks Patty!!! I’ll have a call put back in to the Casino Dept. 

[Ampurp85]

2 hours ago, togo said:

But I already had the reservation made with the OBC.  It was only after I called and applied the annual tier comp to the reservation that I saw it gone.

Annual prime cruise certs will always cause the OBC to fall off if not booked onboard. My 2022 prime cert was applied to a Next cruise booking and I lost the $100 OBC. I had a wonderful MEI TA and he did all he could but that was and still is the case. 

[kspam]

HOw much do you have to play to get a comp room from the casino?  we never have gotten one.

[Ampurp85]

6 hours ago, kspam said:

HOw much do you have to play to get a comp room from the casino?  we never have gotten one.

You need to earn points, 1500pt can get you a comped interior on select sailings. How much that cost you can vary wildly. For someone they could play $500 and do it and for others it may be in the $1000s. 

[Bowen]

12 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

You need to earn points, 1500pt can get you a comped interior on select sailings. How much that cost you can vary wildly. For someone they could play $500 and do it and for others it may be in the $1000s. 

I only just started playing in the casino to see how much it would cost me to get to 1500 points. On our last sailing I spent $700 myself, and I got a white card so a friend traveling with me could also apply their points to mine. They "spent" about $60, but kept winning, I spent $700 and just kept losing. All in all I came away with about 800 points, and my friend had an additional 150 points or so that they accumulated on their own card before we thought to get the white card. So clearly YMMV on this.

[WAAAYTOOO]

20 minutes ago, Bowen said:

I spent $700 and just kept losing

We must have similar gambling styles !  LOL

[WAAAYTOOO]

I guess miracles do happen - even with the current prices !

I just got a fare refund on a casino comp that I upgraded (again).  The upgrade cabin category was actually cheaper than the original upgrade booking and to my amazement, they actually refunded the difference !  I figured they would upgrade me at no cost but I never EVER thought they would actually refund me the difference.

This is for the 8-20-23 sailing on Wonder.  This is Dan's annual tier comp.  We had originally upgraded our "regular" interior to a Central Park interior view (never been in this category before) but today the Central Park balcony (a "629" double balcony) was actually cheaper than the CP interior so I called and changed rooms and will get $98 back !  WOOHOO !

[perfectdayheyhey]

Sit tight.  Demand will decline and those offers will come back in a hurry.

[Vacation Crazy]

On 5/15/2023 at 12:41 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

I guess miracles do happen - even with the current prices !

I just got a fare refund on a casino comp that I upgraded (again).  The upgrade cabin category was actually cheaper than the original upgrade booking and to my amazement, they actually refunded the difference !  I figured they would upgrade me at no cost but I never EVER thought they would actually refund me the difference.

This is for the 8-20-23 sailing on Wonder.  This is Dan's annual tier comp.  We had originally upgraded our "regular" interior to a Central Park interior view (never been in this category before) but today the Central Park balcony (a "629" double balcony) was actually cheaper than the CP interior so I called and changed rooms and will get $98 back !  WOOHOO !

I love price checking...... We are sailing on Allure in September under a casino comp interior room.  Last week the price to upgrade to a Boardwalk Balcony room was only $48.  This morning I noticed the price is the same as the interior rooms. I called and they are refunding the $48.  This is the first time staying in a Boardwalk balcony room.  We are excited to try something new.  

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, Vacation Crazy said:

I love price checking...... We are sailing on Allure in September under a casino comp interior room.  Last week the price to upgrade to a Boardwalk Balcony room was only $48.  This morning I noticed the price is the same as the interior rooms. I called and they are refunding the $48.  This is the first time staying in a Boardwalk balcony room.  We are excited to try something new.  

I think you'll enjoy the Boardwalk balcony.  It's much nice than an interior !!