How many cruisers out there use the "free" offers from the Casinos for cruising?

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Yes, I have used and get "free" rooms from Holland America casino offers. The only thing I pay is port fees and taxes. Often the free option is an interior room but you can upgrade starting at $99 for a oceanview. We often add on my daughter and niece and most time the only room they have left on the offer is an interior for four people. The last cruise I went on 01/03/2020 on the 8 day Western Caribbean on the Zuiderdam was $740.00 interior room for two adults and two children under the age of 5. Again this was just port fees and taxes, which was $185 a person. My last offer was on 02/26/2021 and they are now offering a free interior stateroom, $250 in casino play and Free drinks while playing. Sadly all out of the USA, so until cruises start again.... I am not sure how I got sign up for the casino offers for Holland America, but would love to be offered other lines such as Royal Caribbean or NCL, as Holland America is nice but would like ship with more of a night life. Don't get me wrong I will take a "free" cruise all day long!

My sister-in-law is one of the casino benefactors who gets many "comped" cruises and upgrades. When things were normal, she would sail 2-3x per month (mostly Carnival). (self employed) As things have been shut down, the casinos have been sending her to land based casinos, like Bilioxi Miss and other places. She gets a comp'd room and only pays the taxes on the award. Probably because of the times. She has a list of future cruises booked, but her selection was not as good with all the penned up demand by those who are willing to pay a premium to sail again. Does all her travel planning through the casino side (Players Club etc).

Yes, they are still making offers. I receive email offers on a daily bases. I received an email 2 days ago from NCL stating my June Alaska cruise was canceled. I guess due to Canada being shut down to cruise ships for 2021. The email gave me the option to rebook the same cruise with the same casino benefits as the original booking. This also included airfare from the east coast to Seattle for $200. This year I have had casino cruises canceled with Holland and RCL. NCL and Holland both let me rebook with benefits intact. RCL would not allow this because they said each casino offer expired on specific date and once that date passes the offer was no longer valid. So they refund your taxes and fees and you have to wait for another offer. You also don’t earn any FCC because you didn’t pay for the cruise. I also received offers from Carnival, but haven’t booked with them in few years because conflicts with my schedule.

Excellent question. Another consideration is how these casino companies are fairing financially as it is doubtful that they have much revenue currently coming in

I wonder if offers are still being made with the "pause" in cruising?

I have talked to people who have received reduced prices or gifts from casino. The catch was that you had to play for a certain number of hours and accumulate points. I however have never done this because I don't like slot machines. I prefer poker or BJ. Poker players gets no love from the casinos.

With the amount I usually spend in the casino, I'm surprised I've never received an offer...Although, ive never walked away with less than I came with, so that could be the issue. lol

thanks

Both my wife and I have gotten comp offers from Royal Casino though Royal Caribbean. She gets a comped inside or oceanview cabin and I get a $$ amount off my next booking. Our first time with RCI was Feb 2020 just before COVID shut down the world. We did spend a lot of time in the Marnier of the Seas casino. Royal Casino has been emailing us and mailing us comp offers ever since. We've just used them to book a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan in December 2021. With us upgrading to a balcony room, prepay tips, port taxes, and the cruise insurance for us both, it was under a grand. We called the number on the bottom of the mailer they sent us and booked that way. They applied both her comp and mine to our room booking. I wish Norwegian did the same thing. With all the $$ we dropped in their casino we got nada, not even a thank you for giving us all your money.... (yeah we didn't come out on top for that cruise, but it was so much fun).