Royal Visa Free Cruise and Upgrading

[Jim M]

I have accumulated enough points (125,000) on my RCI Visa for a free cruise for 2 in an outside room for 7 days in the Caribbean. I am hoping to use this to book a cruise on either Oasis or Allure.

 

I have a few questions -

 

1) Is there a maximum dollar value for the 125,000 point certificate?

 

2) Can I use the certificate to book the "free outside room cruise" and then pay the difference for a balcony? In what order should I do this?

 

3) Can I combine this with a next cruise certificate from February 2010??

 

4) Can I also apply the Diamond Balcony discount??

 

Thanks for helping out!

 

JimM

[bionicman97]

I have accumulated enough points (125,000) on my RCI Visa for a free cruise for 2 in an outside room for 7 days in the Caribbean. I am hoping to use this to book a cruise on either Oasis or Allure.

 

I have a few questions -

 

1) Is there a maximum dollar value for the 125,000 point certificate?

 

2) Can I use the certificate to book the "free outside room cruise" and then pay the difference for a balcony? In what order should I do this?

 

3) Can I combine this with a next cruise certificate from February 2010??

 

4) Can I also apply the Diamond Balcony discount??

 

Thanks for helping out!

 

JimM

 

We just cashed in 50,000 for a free 4 night, so I will give you our experiences with your questions.

 

1) There was a maximum value for the 50,000 points, so I think there will be one for the 125,000 also. I think for the 50,000 it was something like $1500

 

2) You can pay the difference to upgrade to balcony. We were advised to book the room, redeem the certificate, apply the certificate, then upgrade.

 

3) We were told yes by several RCI reps, our TA says he doesn't think it will happen. I can tell you for sure early next month when we take the cruise.

 

4) Yes

 

When you get your redeemed certificate mailed to you, make copies of it and stay on top of it after you send it to make sure it gets processed. Our TA was very generous and handled it for us, but we seemed to have a lot of problems on the RCI end getting everything processed. (They actually processed it, revoked it and canceled our cruise at one point).

[gosaints2006]

I have accumulated enough points (125,000) on my RCI Visa for a free cruise for 2 in an outside room for 7 days in the Caribbean. I am hoping to use this to book a cruise on either Oasis or Allure.

 

I have a few questions -

 

1) Is there a maximum dollar value for the 125,000 point certificate?

 

2) Can I use the certificate to book the "free outside room cruise" and then pay the difference for a balcony? In what order should I do this?

 

3) Can I combine this with a next cruise certificate from February 2010??

 

4) Can I also apply the Diamond Balcony discount??

 

Thanks for helping out!

 

JimM

 

 

Here is a link to a post where I did most of what you are wanting to do. Scroll down to find my answer to their questions.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1296634

[cruisenfever]

I have accumulated enough points (125,000) on my RCI Visa for a free cruise for 2 in an outside room for 7 days in the Caribbean. I am hoping to use this to book a cruise on either Oasis or Allure.

 

3) Can I combine this with a next cruise certificate from February 2010??

 

JimM

Jim, you will be able to use your NextCruise but since you purchased it on board prior to June 1, 2010 you are getting an OBC for the 7 day cruise. You can not have the OBC and combine it with a balcony discount. It must be one or the other.

[Clarea]

We had a coupon for a free 3/4 day cruise in an OV. We booked a JS on Monarch, had the C&A balcony discount applied. Then we sent in the coupon and they credited us for the least expensive OV available. We were able to keep the balcony discount

 

By the way, the amount of the credit was less than what we expected. Apparently, a lower category OV opened up just as they received our coupon and they used that value. When I called to get that explanation, they said I should have called before I sent the coupon to get a "quote" for the credit entered into our reservation notes, and then we would have been credited with the value of the least expensive OV at the time I made the call. I've never tested this process, so this may be one of those typical Royal stories where you call 3 different times and get 3 different answers. All I can tell you is that's what the rep told us.

 

Bob

[Jim M]

Thanks gosaints and others!

 

gosaints, read your other post - did you do that with a Crown and Anchor Rep or with a Certified Vacation Planner?

 

Thanks - Jim

[laurae]

Does anyone know if they use the Y guarantee catogory for determining lowest ov available price?

[gosaints2006]

Thanks gosaints and others!

 

gosaints, read your other post - did you do that with a Crown and Anchor Rep or with a Certified Vacation Planner?

 

Thanks - Jim

 

C&A Rep

[gosaints2006]

We had a coupon for a free 3/4 day cruise in an OV. We booked a JS on Monarch, had the C&A balcony discount applied. Then we sent in the coupon and they credited us for the least expensive OV available. We were able to keep the balcony discount

 

By the way, the amount of the credit was less than what we expected. Apparently, a lower category OV opened up just as they received our coupon and they used that value. When I called to get that explanation, they said I should have called before I sent the coupon to get a "quote" for the credit entered into our reservation notes, and then we would have been credited with the value of the least expensive OV at the time I made the call. I've never tested this process, so this may be one of those typical Royal stories where you call 3 different times and get 3 different answers. All I can tell you is that's what the rep told us.

 

Bob

 

When I called and she gave me the price, she did say that she was going to put it in as a "quote" so that another rep would not tell me something different.

[molly361]

Does anyone know if they use the Y guarantee catogory for determining lowest ov available price?

 

No they do not use the guarantee category.

[molly361]

We had a coupon for a free 3/4 day cruise in an OV. We booked a JS on Monarch, had the C&A balcony discount applied. Then we sent in the coupon and they credited us for the least expensive OV available. We were able to keep the balcony discount

 

By the way, the amount of the credit was less than what we expected. Apparently, a lower category OV opened up just as they received our coupon and they used that value. When I called to get that explanation, they said I should have called before I sent the coupon to get a "quote" for the credit entered into our reservation notes, and then we would have been credited with the value of the least expensive OV at the time I made the call. I've never tested this process, so this may be one of those typical Royal stories where you call 3 different times and get 3 different answers. All I can tell you is that's what the rep told us.

 

 

 

Bob

 

We did this but called prior to have them note the current price in the reservation. You can also call and have it re-priced if the price changes to your advantage. Note though that they also will re-price the balcony price when you do this.

[laurae]

Thank you for the quick reply. I am getting ready to book my free cruise with points on the Allure!!!!