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Royal Caribbean Visa Card


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We booked our first RCCL cruise through RCCL and got the offer for the credit card. We have it and my wife uses it for her "stuff" and together for the RCCL cruises. We have used it for the On Board Credit for multiple cruises now. We just booked another cruise next summer and will have about 40K points which converts to $400 in OBC. What I haven't done is look into cruises, companion fares, etc. to see if they are a better deal than just OBC....

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Personally I've weighed many options out. I opted for the Capital One Venture card with no annual fee and 1.25miles earned per dollar spent and 30,000 bonus miles. This card is good for any type of travel so car rentals, hotels, cruises and flights. I also got the American Airlines Citi Advantage card which is mostly 1 mile per dollar with a few exceptions like gas and dining also had 60,000 bonus miles. These miles are good on American and their alliance airlines. The card also gets you priority boarding with the first group and free checked bags for you and up to 4 people you're traveling with. American worked well for me as Philly is an American hub and we can pretty much fly anywhere. We swipe these cards for everything and pay them off weekly via the apps. Doing this we've had free non stop flights to and from Vegas, as well as around $500 off our cruise in April and by the time October came around $175 to put towards out hotel in Vegas. 

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I guess we're one of the few that actually use this card and love it.  I agree that there are other cards that offer more "cash back" rewards but IMO there are none more convenient for cruising with RCCL.

Because we spend a lot of time in the casino our bill at the end of the cruise is generally around $15-20K (depending on the length of the cruise).  When you get double points for $20K that is 40,000 points or $400 instant OBC for your next cruise.  When you spend $5-10K purchasing the cruise and then $20K on the cruise, pretty soon you're looking at real money !  LOL.  We generally generate between $200 - $500 in OBC from each cruise.

The only rule with using the RCCL Visa card is you canNOT carry a balance on this card.  The interest rate is WAAAY too high (not that you should ever carry a balance on ANY credit card) so as long as you can pay it all off at the end of the cruise, it's a very useful tool and the automatic OBC that can be directly redeemed online to be applied to your next cruise is very convenient.

And yes...it has a very nice picture of an RCCL ship on it !

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For those that don't cruise often, it doesn't make a lot of sense.  Essentially you get 2% on RCI purchases,  but I have a Citi Double Cash card that gives me 2% on EVERY purchase.   And on top of that, I can use those rewards for statement credit (aka I can use it right away).   The RCI card can really only be used when you go on another cruise.  So often you're sitting there with points accrued and  a) You don't have enough to get anything  b) you have to wait 4 months before you can realize that reward.

Also, there aren't really any intermediary things you can by.  And by that I mean, you need lots of points to buy anything and there's nothing you can really spend any extra you have on, until you accrue more again.  

I agree the sign up bonus was really the only perk that caused me to get it years ago.  I never use it now.

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Can anyone tell me how long it takes from the time you submit points for redemption until it shows up in your Cruise Planner?  I submitted it on Nov 12, and nothing has shown up yet.   Thanks.

I called the other day and they said "two weeks before the cruise", which is in July. I seem to remember it showing up sooner than that in the past. Before I started using MEI it came in handy to use the OBC to cover the gratuities (I don't prepay). All 3 upcoming cruises MEI is paying gratuities so I would probably use the OBC towards casino credit assuming that remains in the cruise planner.

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3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

On our last cruise (NAV 18 Nov) we redeemed $700 worth of OBC one evening and the next day it was showing up on our Cruise Planner as available OBC.  I think we redeemed these points about 10 days prior to the cruise.

So you can submit several OBC's to your account?   The largest I've seen is $500, if so that's awesome new to hear.

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Well, crap. I wonder what happened to it. It was $100.  

**** update - I finally found where it says that it will be applied either 3 months prior to cruising, or 2 weeks prior to cruising.  Kind of vague, but since my sailing isn't until June, this makes sense. From now on, I think I'll wait to redeem them, so I don't give myself a panic attack.

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Just now, janza said:

Can you do this after purchasing a cruise or do you actually book through them?

We always book our cruises either directly with Royal (through the casino) or through a travel agent.  I have never booked any cruise through Visa.

I believe that "back in the day" you could save up your reward points and actually redeem them for a cruise but I'm not sure they offer than anymore. We have only ever used the points for onboard credit.  Not sure how an upgrade would work...but maybe you can...

 

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Thanks.  We book the same way.  I did look on the BOA RC Visa site and they do still offer upgrades and cruises along with RC gifts and charitable donations.  I'll stick with the casino rates and still use for OBC. Just booked Anthem through CR yesterday for Oct '19. Enjoy your Christmas cruise!

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1 hour ago, janza said:

Thanks.  We book the same way.  I did look on the BOA RC Visa site and they do still offer upgrades and cruises along with RC gifts and charitable donations.  I'll stick with the casino rates and still use for OBC. Just booked Anthem through CR yesterday for Oct '19. Enjoy your Christmas cruise!

Thank you !!

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