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We won a free cruise at Bingo!! Now what??


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We just returned from the April 8 sailing on Liberty of the Seas. My daughter (7) asked through the week if we could play bingo, and on the last day, I finally agreed. I paid $42 for a six card paper game and a marker. I gave my daughter marker duties, while I double checked. She asked me if we could split the money if we won. I explained to her that we were just there for fun, and that most of the people there (including us) were not likely to win. Then, we won the "free" cruise bingo!

 

I would love to hear from other winners (especially recent winners), as to how the process went for you as far as choosing and booking a cruise. Most of the threads I was able to find on the subject were several years old, and it sounds like the program has changed fairly recently.

 

The certificate I received is for a 7 night cruise for 2, valued up to $1250 per inside stateroom. We are responsible for port fees, taxes, and gratuities. We have one year to use it. Christmas, New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving, and June-August sailings are excluded, as are sailings on ships in their first year (I believe Symphony is the only ship this would apply to?)

 

Some specific questions I have:

 

1. We are a family of four, so I would likely upgrade to bring our kids (can't exactly leave my bingo partner at home!), and we like ocean view over inside. Are the upgrade prices based on the current "sale" prices on the website, or the undiscounted prices listed on the summary page?

 

2. If the sale prices apply, can one apply the kids sail free discount (assuming they have another one) with a free cruise certificate?

 

3. The certificate states to contact them at least 60 days prior to sailing, and that the request will be accommodated based on availability within 30 days of the sailing. Is this typically how it happens? For example, if we want to sail the same week next year (April 7, 2019, our spring break week), and I send in the certificate tomorrow, would I not find out until March of next year?

 

4. ls there a better way to contact them than just mailing in the certificate with our top 3 ships and top 3 dates?

 

My apologies for the long post and multiple questions, and thank you in advance for any input or advice! :)

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Hi! Congratulations!

 

We actually are leaving on our "free" bingo cruise in a week.

 

If you're a frequent cruiser or very independent and like to be in control of your booking process, the process of booking your "free" cruise can be pretty arduous. You have to fill out the certificate you received after winning (don't forget to include contact information... even if it doesn't ask for it!).

 

You will then be contacted by someone from the Comp Cruises department (likely Ida... I must have called them a dozen times and I only ever spoke with Ida). She will tell you what the prices are for upgrading to add additional people, balcony v. outside, etc. The cost is always at the cost when she's working to book it for you. So it's hard to time it to take advantage of sales, but you can call back and have her rebook you to take advantage of a lower price/room change/sailing change etc. No one at RCI can help you with this but the Comp Cruise department (so frustrating). If you want to run through a few different sailings/scenarios just prepare for a decently long call.

 

The kids sale free thing SHOULD work, though I don't know first hand. But you'd have to either book during that promotion or re-book when that promotion arises.

 

If you send in the certificate tomorrow you should hear from them in the next two weeks or so and will be able to book your sailing.

 

You have to mail in the certificate to start your process. Once you do that they will reach out to you. If you have other questions you can send them an email (compcruises@rccl.com) though responses can be SLOW, or call them (954-628-9325 selection #2).

Also in case you care about CAS points- as long as you pay PART of the cruise fare (not the taxes, fees, or gratuities, but the fare itself) you will get CAS points. Since you're traveling with 4 people I'm sure that won't be an issue.

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Thank you! And congratulations to you, as well—hope you have a great cruise!

 

Thanks also for the detailed information. It definitely puts my mind at ease that I can get a cruise booked earlier than 30 days out! If I could get then get a price adjustment if there is another kids sail free promotion, that would be fantastic.

 

Another question I just thought of, do you know if the certificate can be applied to sailings less than 7 nights? There are a few 5 night itineraries that have caught my eye... :confused:

 

Thanks again!

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Thank you! And congratulations to you, as well—hope you have a great cruise!

 

Thanks also for the detailed information. It definitely puts my mind at ease that I can get a cruise booked earlier than 30 days out! If I could get then get a price adjustment if there is another kids sail free promotion, that would be fantastic.

 

Another question I just thought of, do you know if the certificate can be applied to sailings less than 7 nights? There are a few 5 night itineraries that have caught my eye... :confused:

 

Thanks again!

 

I believe so- we considered 6 and 8 night itineraries (and briefly had the 8 night booked). I think at that point they just apply the $1250 to the cost of the cruise.

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I believe so- we considered 6 and 8 night itineraries (and briefly had the 8 night booked). I think at that point they just apply the $1250 to the cost of the cruise.

 

Great—thanks again!

 

Congrats on your win. Boo to rccl for making this an unnecessarily arduous and annoying process.

 

Thank you!

 

One has to wonder if that is part of their plan—if it is too much work, people won’t redeem their cruise and they keep the money. On the other hand, if they get you on the ship again, you are likely to spend money over and above the prize value, especially if you upgrade room category or add people. :confused:

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Great—thanks again!

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

One has to wonder if that is part of their plan—if it is too much work, people won’t redeem their cruise and they keep the money. On the other hand, if they get you on the ship again, you are likely to spend money over and above the prize value, especially if you upgrade room category or add people. :confused:

 

 

 

They love making things difficult. What they should do is send you some sort of online code you can put in and book yourselves.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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  • 7 months later...

I'm having such a hard time getting in touch with compcruises. Reply's to emails are slow and leaving me with more questions. The number they gave to call if I have any questions is a recording stating if you have any questions send an email. 

I really want to finalize my winning cruise, but can't because I need to add my daughter on it, which they never did after the first 3 emails that I asked them to add her. 

So frustrating. Anybody who can help?

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  • 3 months later...

I'm glad my husband found this link, but I think I have a few more questions that I am hoping someone here has already gotten the answer to.

 

1. On the certificate I received, there are two sections that ask to list 3 of my preferred ships and 3 of my preferred sail dates. Do each one of these have to coincide? For example, if I choose Allure of the Seas as my #1 choice, does my #1 date choice need to coincide with a sail date of the Allure or just a date range that I could end up on any ship with that sail date...? I hope that makes sense.

 

2. My husband was awarded a $400 credit from the casino to be used toward $$ off his next cruise. With the free cruise we will be booking, we will also be adding a 3rd and 4th guest (both minors) to our room. Can the $400 credit be used toward the cost of adding the 3rd and 4th guests? This credit has to be used toward a booking within 30 days of the issue date (which was 3/9/19), so we have to move pretty quickly if this can be used.

 

3. The certificate says that this is goof for a 7-9 night Caribbean cruise valued at $1,250 per stateroom. Does this mean that if the cost of an inside stateroom is valued above $1,250 we would have to pay the difference?

 

4. I noticed that one of the blackout dates is for Christmas sailings. At what date in December does Royal Caribbean start their Christmas sailings?

 

5. The booking instructions on the certificate say to "contact Royal Caribbean at least 60 days prior to sailing in order to enter your reservation request. Request will be accommodated based on availability within 30 days of the sailing." Does this mean that I won't know which cruise I will be on until only 30 days prior to the sail date? (This may have been partly answered already...)

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I’ll do my best to answer based on my experience as the OP!

 

1. I was confused by this as well.  I listed my top 3 ships each with the same sail date.  (We are limited by school breaks, and spring break worked best for us).  You could try putting Allure with a date range, or list Allure on each line with your top 3 choices of sail date.  I ended up with my first choice.  

 

2. I don’t know the answer to this question 

 

3. Yes, that is correct.  We booked a boardwalk balcony on Oasis with our kids as 3rd and 4th people, and they just applied the $1250 credit to the total price.  

 

4. I’m not sure, but I think this just applies to any cruise that falls on Christmas Day. 

 

5. I also found this confusing.  We won our free cruise on our April 8, 2018 sailing.  I did my research when we got home and sent in our paperwork with requests in May.  (I sent it certified mail). I received an email within a week booking us for a cruise April 7, 2019.  So I think the 30-60 days is a deadline but you should know well beforehand.  

 

A couple of other tips:

 

The first reply to my original post lists a phone number to call.  Once they have received your paperwork and have assigned you to a cruise, this is the best way to make any changes.  I was able to add my kids and pick a specific stateroom this way.  That number takes you directly to the right department.  Don’t call the numbers on your email,  you will just end up being transferred a number of times and waste time.  

 

I asked in in my original post about promotions, specifically kids sail free.  My reservation was made during a KSF promo, but it was not automatically applied.  I had to ask for it, since apparently the prices the comp cruise folks have access to aren’t the same as on the website.  I did get KSF, though, which made the prize even sweeter!  

 

Hope this helps!  We are setting sail on our free cruise in 25 days!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a strange question about winning a free cruise .. If you win a prize in the USA you have to file a 1099 for taxes.. But since the ship is owned by another country.. would I have to pay taxes to the USA ??  I am asking because my girlfriend just won a 7 day Romantic Danube River Cruise ..  The cruise is from Germany to Hungary .. so I really don't think that we have to file for it ???  Does anyone Know the answer FOR SURE ??

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20 minutes ago, thunter1224 said:

I have a strange question about winning a free cruise .. If you win a prize in the USA you have to file a 1099 for taxes.. But since the ship is owned by another country.. would I have to pay taxes to the USA ??  I am asking because my girlfriend just won a 7 day Romantic Danube River Cruise ..  The cruise is from Germany to Hungary .. so I really don't think that we have to file for it ???  Does anyone Know the answer FOR SURE ??

 

When you win over a certain amount in the casino on one of Royal's ships, in international waters, the ship reports to the IRS.

 

I'd ask whoever is giving the prize if they file a 1099.

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I guess I will have to wait until we hear from AMAWaterways .. We have have forwarded all the paperwork to Cruise Critic .. and they have passed it on with our Notarized papers to AMA .... SO we wait .. but not to long , since we have until April 30th to book the date 

 🙂

 

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2 hours ago, thunter1224 said:

I have a strange question about winning a free cruise .. If you win a prize in the USA you have to file a 1099 for taxes.. But since the ship is owned by another country.. would I have to pay taxes to the USA ??  I am asking because my girlfriend just won a 7 day Romantic Danube River Cruise ..  The cruise is from Germany to Hungary .. so I really don't think that we have to file for it ???  Does anyone Know the answer FOR SURE ??

If the winner of this prize is a US citizen, then the IRS considers this as Earned Income. Therefore taxable under the tax code.

Whether you receive a 1099 or not, you are legally liable to claim this as Earned Income.

Or,,,, you can take your chances. How will the IRS know you've won? Were you issued a 1099? Then the IRS knows you've won. Were you not issued a 1099 but the company issuing the prize write it off as a payment or prize giveaway,,, then the IRS knows.

You were not issued a 1099 and the company doesn't file US taxes,,, you might get away with it.

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On 4/3/2019 at 10:28 PM, thunter1224 said:

I guess I will have to wait until we hear from AMAWaterways .. We have have forwarded all the paperwork to Cruise Critic .. and they have passed it on with our Notarized papers to AMA .... SO we wait .. but not to long , since we have until April 30th to book the date 

 🙂

 

Are you sure that you have till 30th April to book it? And not to take it? I know someone who has a similar offer and it has to be taken by 30th April or November-December 2019

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On 4/6/2019 at 7:10 PM, molole said:

Darn did you say April 2019 Oasis? Is it among the ones that got canceled? I hope Royal credit it forward so you don't lose it.

Yep, we were booked on the April 7 sailing.  I have no idea what is going to happen now.  I tried to call, but they don’t even have people answering the phones for bingo winners anymore.  The only way to get in touch with them now is by email.  

 

We were given a future cruise credit for our canceled cruise, for the difference we paid between the bingo prize value and the fare of the cruise.  I called and spoke to someone on just the general guest services line, and she said I couldn’t use my bingo prize credit and future cruise credit on the same sailing.  If that’s the case, that stinks, because it means we have to take two different cruises in one year before the credits expire.  That’s just not in our budget to do, since the credits cover only a small portion of the total expense of a cruise vacation.  

 

I’d love some insight from anyone with more experience than I!

 

In the meantime, we rebooked for the October 13 sailing on Harmony, and I emailed the comp cruises folks requesting that they transfer my bingo certificate to that cruise.  I’m going to wait to see what happens with that before I do anything with the future cruise credit.  😬

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I didn’t win a free cruise but have had future cruise credits from a cancelled cruise. I applied them to a new sailing and a few months before departure they ran a listing and found out my youngest (10 months) was too young for the number of sea days on the itinerary, though I had specifically asked this when booking. They refunded me the original cruise certificate and tried to give me another certificate for the difference I’d paid. Long story short, Call and keep speaking with managers and insist they give you back whatever you paid out of pocket onto your credit card, or however you paid. If they cancelled the cruise, you have a right to get the payment back and I would keep going up the line until you get it. Then you can still use your bingo certificate and then just start over and pay the difference for your new cruise. 

 

Good luck!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/8/2019 at 7:50 PM, Voc6 said:

I didn’t win a free cruise but have had future cruise credits from a cancelled cruise. I applied them to a new sailing and a few months before departure they ran a listing and found out my youngest (10 months) was too young for the number of sea days on the itinerary, though I had specifically asked this when booking. They refunded me the original cruise certificate and tried to give me another certificate for the difference I’d paid. Long story short, Call and keep speaking with managers and insist they give you back whatever you paid out of pocket onto your credit card, or however you paid. If they cancelled the cruise, you have a right to get the payment back and I would keep going up the line until you get it. Then you can still use your bingo certificate and then just start over and pay the difference for your new cruise. 

 

Good luck!!

Thanks for your response!  I’m afraid I didn’t give all of the information in my previous post.  We were all given full refunds of our cancelled cruises, as well as a 100% future cruise credit.  I did receive a refund to my credit card of what I paid over the certificate. I was concerned whether I could combine the future cruise credit (which was just for the difference paid) with my bingo certificate that I had applied to the cruise, and neglected to mention the refund.  

 

I would have been very frustrated if we weren’t given refunds at all, like in your situation!  I hope you were able to resolve that to your satisfaction!  

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UPDATE:

 

I was able to use my bingo cruise certificate and future cruise credit for the same sailing!

 

Quick recap: 

 

In April of 2018, I won a “free cruise” at bingo.  I applied that certificate (value of $1250) to the April 7, 2019 Oasis sailing, boardwalk balcony room for my family of 4. That cruise was canceled 5 day before departure because of the damage incurred in the Freeport dry dock incident.  We were given full refunds of all amounts paid, as well as 100% future cruise credit.

 

 I rebooked a sailing on Harmony for October 13 and put down a deposit of $1000.  I then emailed the comp cruises desk and asked if they would reapply my bingo certificate. I gave them the certificate number, new and old reservation numbers.  They responded within 5 days saying they had reapplied the credit.  I then emailed again asking if they could apply the future cruise credits.  Again I received an email within 5 days saying they had applied the future cruise credit as well.  I probably could have accomplished both with one email, but I was initially worried about the bingo certificate, since it was to expire this month.  Once it was handled so promptly and easily, I thought I’d ask about the fcc’s. 

 

In conclusion, I am very pleased with the outcome and with the responses from the comp cruises folks.  Now, if Harmony can just stay away from cranes...

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On 4 April 2019 at 8:00 AM, thunter1224 said:

I have a strange question about winning a free cruise .. If you win a prize in the USA you have to file a 1099 for taxes.. But since the ship is owned by another country.. would I have to pay taxes to the USA ??  I am asking because my girlfriend just won a 7 day Romantic Danube River Cruise ..  The cruise is from Germany to Hungary .. so I really don't think that we have to file for it ???  Does anyone Know the answer FOR SURE ??

Is that with Royal? I didn't think they had small enough ships for the Danube?

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