Late to the Prime Party but better late than never

[Steve C]

We are currently on Odyssey (love this ship) and have just reached Diamond Plus and decided to up our casino antics and go for a free cruise. We (I) ended up as prime and a 2000 point instant cruise after day 2.

Lesson 1. The last couple of hundred points cost us as we chased them rather than playing as we had been previously.

Lesson 2 we need help with....

We have an existing booking for a 2 week b2b in same cabin next year on Allure and would like to use our prime cruise award for 1 of the weeks. Can we just apply the free cruise as a discount and stay in same room or do we have to cancel (change the booking we already have to a new cruise in 2026) and then book a new "comp" and pay the upgrade to the room we want? Will we be able to book the room we already have when we release it

Lesson 3 is easy getting second prime for both of us next year just takes time, patience and obviously money/luck

 

[The Fox]

I recently applied an instant certificate to a b2b cruise that I had already booked. Just call the casino number and let them know. We were able to keep the same room also. My cert was not as valuable as yours, but I was able to save $1000 on an 8 day on Adventure.

[WAAAYTOOO]

38 minutes ago, Steve C said:

We have an existing booking for a 2 week b2b in same cabin next year on Allure and would like to use our prime cruise award for 1 of the weeks. Can we just apply the free cruise as a discount and stay in same room

Congratulations !  BIG achievements on this cruise.

Back in the day you used to be able to convert an existing booking to a casino comp (not just the $$ value, but making it a true comp) but they have changed so many things with Club Royale, I wouldn't count on them allowing that.  I would certainly try that FIRST before settling for a $$ off.  As with all things, it totally depends on who you get on the other end of the line when you call.  If it were me, I would just call and tell them you want to use your prime comp on an existing booking and don't even mention the option of taking $$ off....then if you get someone who doesn't seem like they're going to  cooperate, hang up and call back.  If the same thing happens again, then you can consider discussing $$ off...but personally, I would never accept $1000 off when you can get a completely complimentary cruise instead.

Good luck and again, congratulations !

[Ampurp85]

Congrats on making prime. As long as the booking wasn't a Next Cruise booking you should be able to apply your Prime certificate. The 2000pt cert has to be a new booking through a next cruise booking or you can apply the value of it to the other half of the B2B you have booked. 

[Pattycruise]

16 hours ago, Steve C said:

 

We have an existing booking for a 2 week b2b in same cabin next year on Allure and would like to use our prime cruise award for 1 of the weeks. Can we just apply the free cruise as a discount and stay in same room or do we have to cancel (change the booking we already have to a new cruise in 2026) and then book a new "comp" and pay the upgrade to the room we want? Will we be able to book the room we already have when we release it

 

Using your prime week

1. the week cannot be on the “exclusion list” which you won’t know until mid April when prime cruises show up in your clubroyale account. (Hope you know about this account-if not ask!)

2.  If you are inside final payment of the cruise you want to use your  prime cruise towards as a comp you may be out of luck.  Same if you wanted to use the $500 trade in value of the prime cruise. 
 

3. Never cancel an existing booking if you can help it-you lose any cruise planner purchased you’ve made

4. you CAN apply a prime certificate comp despite having a next cruise reservation on an existing booking BUT you lose the OBC part of the next cruise booking. 

5.  Depending on the cabin category you are currently booked in (needs to be a certain interior category) you might have to pay more to stay in the cabin you currently have booked(assuming it doesn’t violate #1 or #2 above))-you’d have to look at the going rate at that time and decide if it’s worth the upgrade cost. 

6. if your original cabin is booked with a TA it MAY create an issue for you to swap in the prime cruise , assuming it doesn’t violate #1 or 2 above. You’d need to discuss that with your TA (travel agent) if you used one. 
 

Side note-while keeping the same cabin for a B2B is fantastic it’s not the end I of the world to change cabins. 

 

[Hoppy2BHere]

6 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

Using your prime week

1. the week cannot be on the “exclusion list” which you won’t know until mid April when prime cruises show up in your clubroyale account. (Hope you know about this account-if not ask!)

2.  If you are inside final payment of the cruise you want to use your  prime cruise towards as a comp you may be out of luck.  Same if you wanted to use the $500 trade in value of the prime cruise. 
 

3. Never cancel an existing booking if you can help it-you lose any cruise planner purchased you’ve made

4. you CAN apply a prime certificate comp despite having a next cruise reservation on an existing booking BUT you lose the OBC part of the next cruise booking. 

5.  Depending on the cabin category you are currently booked in (needs to be a certain interior category) you might have to pay more to stay in the cabin you currently have booked(assuming it doesn’t violate #1 or #2 above))-you’d have to look at the going rate at that time and decide if it’s worth the upgrade cost. 

6. if your original cabin is booked with a TA it MAY create an issue for you to swap in the prime cruise , assuming it doesn’t violate #1 or 2 above. You’d need to discuss that with your TA (travel agent) if you used one. 
 

Side note-while keeping the same cabin for a B2B is fantastic it’s not the end I of the world to change cabins. 

 

Thanks for posting this. I can never remember all the little tricks/details of casino bookings. Might be nice if we had a sticky thread with tips on the Club Royale program like this and other things in general…deciphering the comp award codes, maybe highlight how to earn on a cruise, yearly timelines, etc…Just a thought…I think it would help new people as well as us with bad memories that have to go searching for things..

 

[Ampurp85]

@Pattycruise I was told by several reps that as of July something in 2023 they will no longer apply the annual prime certificate to a NC booking. I was successfully able to do it beforehand and lose the OBC.  They said NC is considered a discount and going forward they will cancel and rebook, meaning you lose the deposit.

[cruzmaniac]

On 10/13/2024 at 11:41 AM, Ampurp85 said:

@Pattycruise I was told by several reps that as of July something in 2023 they will no longer apply the annual prime certificate to a NC booking. I was successfully able to do it beforehand and lose the OBC.  They said NC is considered a discount and going forward they will cancel and rebook, meaning you lose the deposit.

I also made a mistake using a and Next Cruise certificate and later got the cabin changed over to a lower $ group rate that was held by my agent. Later when I qualified for my prime Cruise I tried to have the trade in value applied and they told me they couldn't do anything with it because it was now in groups. So my husband and I both had the prime tier cruise that we got April 1st this year so I had the casino make two new bookings for solo cabins using those Prime tier cruises. I asked them to transfer the money from the original next cruise booking on the same ship and sale date so I would not lose my $200 and they told me they couldn't do that. So now I am rethinking the whole thing of the next cruise certificate the next time when I get a instant certificate in the casino. The next cruise certificate gives you onboard credit but it also makes the cruise deposit non refundable . This particular cruise was only a 5-day cruise and would have only given me $50 on board credit. And now I'm losing $200 unless I can find someone that will convert it to onboard credit for me since it is on the same ship and sale date so wouldn't qualify for the non-refundable deposit rules...

 

Any ideas?  Thanks!!

[Ampurp85]

Just an FYI, next cruise is required for the certificates earned on the ship but for the annual prime certificate no discounts can be used. You won't get the promotions running either......like OBC. It's it own standalone promotion. I believe group rates are also exempt from other promotions in regards to the casino.

When I lost the OBC and next cruise deposit I was okay because it was on Wonder for 7n and the cost of the cruise more than outweighed what I lost.