[Question] Instant Cruise Certificate Through Casino Royale Cancellation

[VillainsGin]

I've received an instant cruise certificate from casino royale after meeting whatever their threshold is for "casino points" There was an expiration of exactly 1 month of the date I was awarded the certificate.

I went ahead and booked Icon OTS for 7 nights western caribbean almost immediately, no problems there and booking was locked in after I paid port/tax fees over the phone.

My Questions:

1. If my booking was cancelled (booking paid before expiration) by royal caribbean will they offer me other similar bookings with icon OTS or do just I just lose out entirely on the comp'd cruise?
2. If I need to reschedule the booking I already paid for after expiration date will they allow me to change to a different sailing date?

Any helpful insight or tips/advice much appreciate regarding casino royal program for comp'd cruised!

Thanks in advance!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Congratulations !  Nice comp !

If a casino comp booking is cancelled by the cruise line it is almost certainly 100% lost.  You would get any money paid, back but since the certificate with which you booked the comp would now be expired, it is almost a certainty that they would not offer you a replacement certificate/booking.  I say almost certainly, b/c there have been a few VERY rare situations where I have heard of Royal honoring a casino comp and allowing it to be transferred to a “replacement“ cruise.

There were quite a few casino customers who recently went through this drill when Royal cancelled the Panama Canal sailings.  As far as I know, none of them were permitted to move their certificate bookings to a new sailing.  I think the single exception to this were those for whom the Panama Canal cruise was their annual tier comp.  I think those folks were allowed to rebook….but those with instant certificates were SOL.

[VillainsGin]

4 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Congratulations !  Nice comp !

If a casino comp booking is cancelled by the cruise line it is almost certainly 100% lost.  You would get any money paid, back but since the certificate with which you booked the comp would now be expired, it is almost a certainty that they would not offer you a replacement certificate/booking.  I say almost certainly, b/c there have been a few VERY rare situations where I have heard of Royal honoring a casino comp and allowing it to be transferred to a “replacement“ cruise.

There were quite a few casino customers who recently went through this drill when Royal cancelled the Panama Canal sailings.  As far as I know, none of them were permitted to move their certificate bookings to a new sailing.  I think the single exception to this were those for whom the Panama Canal cruise was theirs annual tier comp.  I think those folks were allowed to rebook….but those with instant certificates were SOL.

I guess that's the most anxiety inducing fear I have. Hoping I chose a date that will not get canceled, it's a shame RC won't honor and reschedule the booking. The money on the casino was already spent but if you're unlucky and chose the wrong sailing date that feeling could be devastating.

Thank you for your input as always!

[Pattycruise]

I was on a friends casino comp for Oasis.  They oversold the cruise and reached out to offer to move us  we countered that we were traveling with a family member who paid for her own cruiser cabin, we had not linked the reservations.  They let us keep our booking.  So while casino comps may be cancelled, the circumstances can vary so the outcome can vary,

typically you cannot rebook your comp once your offer has expired.

On a side note:  you should check your online account to see if you have other offers.  Clubr oyaleoffers.com

 

[VillainsGin]

19 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

On a side note:  you should check your online account to see if you have other offers.  Clubr oyaleoffers.com

i had no idea they had their own separate website, they never advertised or notified me of this. The entire time i thought everything had to be done by contacting them via phone! Thank you!

[deButler]

A new wrinkle is that some “Online Only” offers only appear on the Advanced Search page of Royal Caribbean dot com under the “My Offers” tab. These don’t always appear on the Club Royale Offers page. 

[VillainsGin]

48 minutes ago, deButler said:

A new wrinkle is that some “Online Only” offers only appear on the Advanced Search page of Royal Caribbean dot com under the “My Offers” tab. These don’t always appear on the Club Royale Offers page. 

So what you're saying is you can use both the casino royale website AND you can also check offers directly on royal caribbean website which is also for casino royal offer?

[deButler]

Yep. Last week my wife got 1 on each at the same time. Booked the “Online” offer that night and called in the regular offer the next morning for a S2S out of Miami. You “should” also get a mailed flyer later in USPS and an email notifying you of the Online offer but sometimes not. 

[VillainsGin]

15 hours ago, deButler said:

Yep. Last week my wife got 1 on each at the same time. Booked the “Online” offer that night and called in the regular offer the next morning for a S2S out of Miami. You “should” also get a mailed flyer later in USPS and an email notifying you of the Online offer but sometimes not. 

That is something I'm definitely going to be trying, thank you for this information! All the bookings also qualify for C&A points as well?

I assume every booked cruise where you pay port/tax fees will qualify for C&A points, only ones that do not qualify is when you have a special promo where port/tax fess is waived or covered.

[WAAAYTOOO]

We had something of a disappointment with our recent instant award certificates.

We just disembarked from Wonder on Sunday.  When we left the casino on Saturday night, we verified that our awards were: 

(1) Dan had a complimentary (interior) cruise from a 1-page list (this is the lowest level comp cruise certificate that they offer).  It was a list with plenty of options...we found one right away that we would choose to book.

(2) I had a $250 off certificate, which we planned to use to upgrade the complimentary cruise that Dan had won.

Great.  

We already knew that we needed to purchase an open-ended NextCruise certificate in order to receive all of the casino/NC rewards, so we did that on the last night.

When we got up on Monday and were ready to call and book the comp cruise that we had chosen, we found that BOTH of our certificates had been significantly upgraded !  Great news, right ?  Dan now had a much better list of cruises to choose from plus $150 in freeplay.  My certificate had been upgraded from a $250 $$ off to an even HIGHER level comp cruise than Dan's and my freeplay was $250 !  Sounds like a great surprise, right ?

But here's where the disappointment comes rolling in.  We had only purchased 1 NextCruise open booking b/c we understood FROM THE CASINO MANAGER that we only had 1 comp. offer.  By not buying but 1 NC certificate, we could only take advantage of ONE of our freeplay offers. The casino rep with whom we spoke, once we finally decided on a NEW cruise (the page of offers had gone from 1 page to 7 pages in length !  We had a much greater number of cruises (with MUCH better ships to choose from)) told us that there was nothing she could do - the freeplay is a NC reward, not a casino reward....so b/c we only had 1 NC booking, we could only receive freeplay from one of our 2 instant reward offers.  Naturally, we chose to use mine, since my FP was $250 and Dan's was only $150 but it was so frustrating !  ...and we basically lost $150 !  We were told directly what our reward would be, we purchased the NC certificate in accordance and then found out that we should have purchased 2 !  How could we have known that they were going to upgrade the certificates ?

Now....I realize that this is a good problem to have.  I'm grateful for the additional comp offer...but it really baffles me how I could have avoided this unfortunate dilemma. If I had arbitrarily purchased 2 NC open-ended certs and then we only had 1 offer (which  is precisely what we were told) then we would have had an open booking that is only good for 30 days.  Could we have used it for SOMEthing ?  Almost certainly, but for those who fly in and cruise only a limited number of times a year, this kind of overkill would certainly be risky.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem ?  Do you purchase multiple NC open bookings without knowing whether or not you can actually use them ?

 

[Ampurp85]

@WAAAYTOOO That sounds sucky. I am not getting casino offers, so I have to utilize the certs. I am making my brother prime on our cruise in Oct and now I have to worry about another issue.

[Pattycruise]

4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Now....I realize that this is a good problem to have.  I'm grateful for the additional comp offer...but it really baffles me how I could have avoided this unfortunate dilemma. If I had arbitrarily purchased 2 NC open-ended certs and then we only had 1 offer (which  is precisely what we were told) then we would have had an open booking that is only good for 30 days.  Could we have used it for SOMEthing ?  Almost certainly, but for those who fly in and cruise only a limited number of times a year, this kind of overkill would certainly be risky.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem ?  Do you purchase multiple NC open bookings without knowing whether or not you can actually use them ?

 

I believe you might, not on this, have been able to combine your offers on the reservation and then you both keep your freeplay.  It most certainly couldn’t hurt to call and ask, and if the answer is no, hang up, call back, and ask again. 
 

had you purchased 2 next cruise reservations and used one to book a BS cruise offer you had no intention of keeping they would have applied the port fees/taxes and then you just cancel that cruise and get it back. 
 

The next cruise reservation is good for 60 days-to keep the associated OBC, otherwise the reservation # is valid for one year.  However you will not be able to use it for onboard instant certificates and get the freeplay as that requires a next cruise booking that was booked during the cruise you earned the instant certificate.

I’m going to assume you did tables.  to avoid this in the future ensure you get your points on the final night.  Ensure your table play is “closed out” -which means your points were added to your account since you left the table, it’s not typically done immediately, or even within an hour or two-depends on the out boss.   I like to ask nightly what my table points are-if you didn’t want to do that inquire of the host  before you sit for your final day of play snd at the end of the night inquire again.  If the number remains the same they did not close you out at the table and record your points. 
additionally you should have your points converted to freeplay-I do kind to slots….I get to see my slot and table play points in one place this way….so I know where I stand in regards to my points and which certificate I will have. 
 

just an FYI-next cruise IS open on disembarking day so if you didn’t want to use the app to purchase a reservation (I don’t put all my trust in that) you can buy one before you leave. 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

11 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

I believe you might, not on this, have been able to combine your offers on the reservation and then you both keep your freeplay.  It most certainly couldn’t hurt to call and ask, and if the answer is no, hang up, call back, and ask again. 
 

had you purchased 2 next cruise reservations and used one to book a BS cruise offer you had no intention of keeping they would have applied the port fees/taxes and then you just cancel that cruise and get it back. 
 

The next cruise reservation is good for 60 days-to keep the associated OBC, otherwise the reservation # is valid for one year.  However you will not be able to use it for onboard instant certificates and get the freeplay as that requires a next cruise booking that was booked during the cruise you earned the instant certificate.

I’m going to assume you did tables.  to avoid this in the future ensure you get your points on the final night.  Ensure your table play is “closed out” -which means your points were added to your account since you left the table, it’s not typically done immediately, or even within an hour or two-depends on the out boss.   I like to ask nightly what my table points are-if you didn’t want to do that inquire of the host  before you sit for your final day of play snd at the end of the night inquire again.  If the number remains the same they did not close you out at the table and record your points. 
additionally you should have your points converted to freeplay-I do kind to slots….I get to see my slot and table play points in one place this way….so I know where I stand in regards to my points and which certificate I will have. 
 

just an FYI-next cruise IS open on disembarking day so if you didn’t want to use the app to purchase a reservation (I don’t put all my trust in that) you can buy one before you leave. 

 

Thanks, Patty.  I know we could have combined our certs but I guess I never thought that the free plays would combine, too.  I guess we were too greedy to combine the certs LOL b/c we wanted 2 separate cruises.  Choices, choices, choices. 

It never occurred to me that we can always book a throw-away and then cancel.  If you do that will they refund the entire $200 from the NC booking ?  This may turn out to be the way to go, going forward.  Great suggestion if they will refund the entire down payment when/if you cancel.

Thanks for the response.

 

 

[Xaa]

I'm not a gambler because I don't have the personality that allows me to do it responsibly, but I am always intrigued by the posts around earning and harvesting the rewards from Casino Royale.  You all certainly have a skill when it comes to making the most of the opportunities.  I love to ride along.

[VillainsGin]

2 hours ago, Xaa said:

I'm not a gambler because I don't have the personality that allows me to do it responsibly, but I am always intrigued by the posts around earning and harvesting the rewards from Casino Royale.  You all certainly have a skill when it comes to making the most of the opportunities.  I love to ride along.

Although I'm not the biggest gambler out there nor do I have the bankrolls of a lot of cruisers, I do manage to get prime within a 3-night sailing consistently every time it expires.

Prime personally for me has been a mystery on how points accumulate since I play tables exclusively and have never been given a real answer to how points are generated through tables.

I know they always say to play slots because there is a confirmed point structure that is made public for everyone. That's mainly because their slot machine odds are much higher than ANY land casino favoring heavier on the house.

The most points I've ever gotten was 22,000 I WAS SO CLOSE TO SIGNATURE and this was purely on tables with their arbitrary point system.

Some things I naturally picked up to maximize my point yield below:

• I always charge a large initial sum of chip to my seapass card which will notify the pitboss to verify. While the pit boss is there they will usually also see your initial 1st bet before the move elsewhere. This is important because they do not check until an hour later or longer, so I would always place a larger than normal minimum bet so they input it into their system. Then I would go back to betting bare minimum.
• Through the entire session/night I would pay attention to the pitboss, they always do a walkaround every 1hour or so to update everyone's current bets and checking to see if they're still gambling or left. So when I know they're making their rounds I would increase my bet above average again.
• I always charge more chips on my seapass card than I actually intend to play with because it seems to help contribute to my points, I always have leftover that I put back into my account after I return home. There is a 5% charge when you charge to your seapass card so ideally I'm trying to at least win 5% to break even.
• If I'm running low on cash or on a tighter budget I would play tables that requires a lot more time per deal/hand because I believe the time spent also contributes to your points. So I would find roulette tables, usually the slowest game they have due to the host having to clear all chips on the board, payout winners, drop the ball and wait for it to land on a #. I also sometimes skip a hand or two to increase my playtime.

Some of the small things I do, hopefully it helps and if anyone wants to chime in with more insight that'd be amazing for me as well!

 

[billdauterive]

37 minutes ago, VillainsGin said:

 

• I always charge a large initial sum of chip to my seapass card which will notify the pitboss to verify. While the pit boss is there they will usually also see your initial 1st bet before the move elsewhere. This is important because they do not check until an hour later or longer, so I would always place a larger than normal minimum bet so they input it into their system. Then I would go back to betting bare minimum.
• Through the entire session/night I would pay attention to the pitboss, they always do a walkaround every 1hour or so to update everyone's current bets and checking to see if they're still gambling or left. So when I know they're making their rounds I would increase my bet above average again.
• I always charge more chips on my seapass card than I actually intend to play with because it seems to help contribute to my points, I always have leftover that I put back into my account after I return home. There is a 5% charge when you charge to your seapass card so ideally I'm trying to at least win 5% to break even.
• If I'm running low on cash or on a tighter budget I would play tables that requires a lot more time per deal/hand because I believe the time spent also contributes to your points. So I would find roulette tables, usually the slowest game they have due to the host having to clear all chips on the board, payout winners, drop the ball and wait for it to land on a #. I also sometimes skip a hand or two to increase my playtime.

 

Good advise.  FYI, prime waives the 5% fee to charge your seapass so I always do this instead of bringing on a bunch of cash (DON'T DO THIS IF YOU CAN'T STICK TO YOUR LIMIT!).  I also do it for the reason you mention of making sure the pitboss comes over to see the initial 1st bet, plus getting credit card reward points.

I think time is also a much larger aspect of attaining table points than people realize.  It doesn't appear to be linear as the rate of points I get seems to grow at a faster rate the longer I'm there, even though my betting pattern never changes.  For example, I might get 50 points after an hour of play, 110 points after 2 hours, 250 after 4 hours, and 600 after 8 hours.  Purely anecdotal but it seems around 6 hours of constant play at the same table seems to be where the points rate really starts to take off in my experience.

[VillainsGin]

4 minutes ago, billdauterive said:

FYI, prime waives the 5% fee to charge your seapass

This is absolutely right! which we can get into manufactured spending when your 5% is waived. I was assuming they were working on achieving prime for comp'd cruises so I included the 5% charge of their total charge.

When you get prime waiving the 5% charge is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for manufactured spending if you want to get into making accumulating credit card points in the direct messages!

[Pattycruise]

5 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Thanks, Patty.  I know we could have combined our certs but I guess I never thought that the free plays would combine, too.  I guess we were too greedy to combine the certs LOL b/c we wanted 2 separate cruises.  Choices, choices, choices. 

It never occurred to me that we can always book a throw-away and then cancel.  If you do that will they refund the entire $200 from the NC booking ?  This may turn out to be the way to go, going forward.  Great suggestion if they will refund the entire down payment when/if you cancel.

Thanks for the response.

 

 

I did book a next cruise reservation and wound up not needing it…super long story.  I had no comps in my account to use it on but my good friend did.  She booked a cruise with it, the port fees and taxes were used from the next cruise $200, then we cancelled the cruise 2 weeks later and the port fees and taxes were refunded.  They don’t trace it back to say “oh this was next cruise it goes back to being a deposit “.  There are no cancellation fees on full comps. (Not yet-let’s hope it stays that way!)

 

btw if port fees and taxes are under $200 (happens when I book solo on some cruises) they refund the difference to your original payment form.  So when it is a $160 port fees/taxes I’m immediately -well you know Royal-sooner or later/-given a $40 refund.  When/if I cancel the cruise I get the other $160 back since it was applied to port fees/taxes.  Note:I can’t speak to upgrades-I’ve not yet cancelled a cruise where I had paid to upgrade my cabin-but of course in this example you wouldn’t upgrade a cabin you would knowingly be wanting to cancel.

side note:always check your booking confirmation to ensure freeplay is showing as well as your next cruise OBC.  Guest services and the casino host can’t seem to fix these errors once you realize the mistake onboard.