What if you won a cruise?

[IWORK2CRUISE]

Hi,

I actually won a Caribbean cruise for two while playing bingo on our Rhapsody cruise to Hawaii. Wow, was that exciting!

I have some restrictions on when and where and we need to submit several dates and wait to see what we get.

I don't see anything about whether or not we would earn cruise points. Does anyone know the answer?

[time4me2fly]

Congrats on winning a cruise. You will not receive credit points on a free cruise.

[Shippy]

The first cruise we ever went on was over 20 years ago. It was on a Royal Caribbean ship & my husband won it through a business promotion.

I loved it and we haven't stopped cruising since.....HOWEVER....

The next January we recieved a tax form for the FULL BROCHURE price.

We were shocked. Not just about the tax form but the amount of $$.

No one pays the full rate !

[nikimouse]

wow ur so lucky!!! I dont know, but if you dont it doesnt matter cos the cruise was free! and if you do - bonus! :D

i wanna win a cruise so bad

[Wilda]

Don't know for sure since it's never happened to me:D

 

If RCI follows the airlines and hotel policies I would guess no. We used Marriott point to stay in NYC and did not receive points during that stay. When we use frequent flyer miles for a flight we can't accumulate miles during those flights. Seems like that would be double dipping...but this is RCI we are talking about so who knows:rolleyes:

 

I would call C & A.

[Pumbaamd]

Our friends won a free Bingo cruise a few years ago on RCCL. No upgrades allowed, even if you offered to pay for it. And, no points. But as said above, it's free so enjoy it!

R&D

[phoenix1181]

It's my understanding that you have to pay something in order to receive C & A credit. I won a cruise in 2010 in a slot tournament, upgraded to a balcony from an ocean view on deck 2 & got points.

 

Also, you will be required to pay port fees & taxes so be prepared. I was more than a little surprised at how high they were on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise................. :eek:

[Wilda]

Our friends won a free Bingo cruise a few years ago on RCCL. No upgrades allowed, even if you offered to pay for it. And, no points. But as said above, it's free so enjoy it!

R&D

 

It's my understanding that you have to pay something in order to receive C & A credit. I won a cruise in 2010 in a slot tournament, upgraded to a balcony from an ocean view on deck 2 & got points.

 

Also, you will be required to pay port fees & taxes so be prepared. I was more than a little surprised at how high they were on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise................. :eek:

 

Interesting- these two replies completely contradict each other...

[phoenix1181]

Interesting- these two replies completely contradict each other...

 

They certainly do but without knowing the timing, the policy may have changed. Or perhaps it was because the cruise I won was for a specific cruise & the other wasn't.

 

There could be a lot of reasons for the difference. Obviously, the OP needs to look into it further to find out what her situation is.

[4everafter]

Hi,

I actually won a Caribbean cruise for two while playing bingo on our Rhapsody cruise to Hawaii. Wow, was that exciting!

I have some restrictions on when and where and we need to submit several dates and wait to see what we get.

I don't see anything about whether or not we would earn cruise points. Does anyone know the answer?

 

I also won a 7 day cruise , bingo. I think the value was $2500? I've seen several different posts about it but I never paid taxes or port taxes for it, I upgraded to a GS for the price difference and I got zero C&A points for the cruise, its still listed in my history, but no points. I got the exact cruise I picked.

[starlake]

I won a cruise playing bingo two years ago.

 

I had a choice to upgrade if I wanted to---I didn't. This usually depends on availability for the cruise you have chosen. I have a copy of my information and I did pay taxes and port charges.

I did not receive any cruise credit---it is basically free after all.

 

I know how excited you must have been, I was just thrilled.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Pumbaamd

Our friends won a free Bingo cruise a few years ago on RCCL. No upgrades allowed, even if you offered to pay for it. And, no points. But as said above, it's free so enjoy it!

R&D

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by phoenix1181

It's my understanding that you have to pay something in order to receive C & A credit. I won a cruise in 2010 in a slot tournament, upgraded to a balcony from an ocean view on deck 2 & got points.

 

Also, you will be required to pay port fees & taxes so be prepared. I was more than a little surprised at how high they were on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise.................

 

Interesting- these two replies completely contradict each other...

 

 

 

You would expect the answers to be the same?

 

Trying calling Customer Service at Royal Caribbean and asking them what time it is? ;)

 

Jimbo:)

[Sequim88]

My brother got a three-fer. He got a free cruise in Bingo while on a cruise that he had won in bingo on a prior cruise. That prior cruise was also free because his wife was a cruise travel agent back then and they were with an agent preview group. No points for any of them of course but it's sure nice to be lucky.

[mommabean]

Interesting- these two replies completely contradict each other...

 

And the truth is, I believe, that neither reply applies. We've heard time and time again here on cc that paid upgrades do happen and even in those cases, cruise points aren't given. Or so we've been told. That would be reason enough for me to take what I won and to may nothing extra.

 

Gina

[4everafter]

And the truth is, I believe, that neither reply applies. We've heard time and time again here on cc that paid upgrades do happen and even in those cases, cruise points aren't given. Or so we've been told. That would be reason enough for me to take what I won and to may nothing extra.

 

Gina

 

I don't often post it but I agree, different people will get all different results. the truth is I actually made a booking with a number and asked that my funds be applied to it :o , at the time someone on here had passed me the person's name and direct desk number. I called with my nicest pleadings and they did it for me, who knows what would have happened on any given day. I tried to seach my emails for the reservation information and its all gone. they never mentioned taxes and fees but maybe because it was in my booking. and I definetly didn't earn any points; 7 for the cruise or the extra 7 for the GS I upgraded to that week

[ORD1166]

DW won a cruise playing bingo a couple of years ago. It was for 5 days. We were able to pay for an upgrade to JS and had to submitt 2 or 3 chocies. Also, I called the C&A line and talked to a rep there and they gave us cruise credit because we paid for an upgrade. Don't know about how anyone else worked out or did not work out cruise credits. But, yes we did get a credit.

 

We did not have to pay any income tax, because this cruise was won in international waters not in the USA. I belive we did pay port taxes and fees.

[schwpaul]

Hi,

I actually won a Caribbean cruise for two while playing bingo on our Rhapsody cruise to Hawaii. Wow, was that exciting!

I have some restrictions on when and where and we need to submit several dates and wait to see what we get.

I don't see anything about whether or not we would earn cruise points. Does anyone know the answer?

 

While on the Independence last January, my girlfriend won the slot tournament. The prize was a 5 night Navigator cruise which included entry for the slot tournament onboard. We did not have a choice of a particular sailing. The prize was an ocean view room. We upgraded to a balcony for a reasonable amount of money. We received cruise credits for the sailing.

 

A 1099 was not issued; however, port charges/government fees had to be paid. Those fees seemed much more steep than they should have been. All-in-all, the value of the "free" cruise was about $600 when you consider what we paid versus current booking prices. We ended up booking the 4 night sailing to make a B2B out of this.

 

Paul in Jax, FL

[Snorkel Dawg]

The first cruise we ever went on was over 20 years ago. It was on a Royal Caribbean ship & my husband won it through a business promotion.

I loved it and we haven't stopped cruising since.....HOWEVER....

The next January we recieved a tax form for the FULL BROCHURE price.

We were shocked. Not just about the tax form but the amount of $$.

No one pays the full rate !

 

 

Same here. Won my first cruise through work (was a Celeb ship) & never got the tax doc.s you did. Talk about lucky eh!

[IWORK2CRUISE]

Thanks everyone.

I know for a fact that we will need to pay port charges as it is listed right on the certificate. I suspected it anyway. We had to submit 3 dates and will wait to see what we get.

We are not currently thinking of upgrading but I am getting the impression from some posters that we "might" get cruise credits if we do.

Hey, I am just thrilled to go on another cruise and for only the cost of port charges....Yipee!

 

There is no mention whatsoever on the certificate about income taxes and I would think that if that were an issue it would need to be listed.

[dioxide45]

The first cruise we ever went on was over 20 years ago. It was on a Royal Caribbean ship & my husband won it through a business promotion.

I loved it and we haven't stopped cruising since.....HOWEVER....

The next January we recieved a tax form for the FULL BROCHURE price.

We were shocked. Not just about the tax form but the amount of $$.

No one pays the full rate !

 

A cruise won on a cruise ship should be income tax free since it was not won while in the USA.

[AirForce mom]

We won a week long cruise through Bingo. Paid to upgrade to a grand suite. You don't get points (even though you are paying money by upgrading). I called to book the 'free' cruise and got the date I wanted without having to send the certificate in with choices of dates.

[amc40]

I won a 7 day cruise playing bingo. Paid for an upgrade to a balcony, but we didn't get any credit for the cruise. We also booked our air before the cruise. It all worked out.......sailed Seranade out of PR in November. One of our best cruises!

[pinklucky61]

i won a cruise on rccl 2 yrs ago. free cruises not free as others replied. taxes, port fees, onboard spending, etc. but on upside, i did get credit for cruise. enjoy!

[mommabean]

i won a cruise on rccl 2 yrs ago. free cruises not free as others replied. taxes, port fees, onboard spending, etc. but on upside, i did get credit for cruise. enjoy!

 

This is probably why you got the credit - 2 years ago things were different. RCI also stopped giving the extra credit to people who get free upgrades from D and below categories to JS and above categories. A lot of people got to the C&A level they are based on those free upgrades to a JS. RCI put a stop to that in January of this year at the same time they converted to cruise points.

 

Gina

[shipshape sam]

Hi,

I actually won a Caribbean cruise for two while playing bingo on our Rhapsody cruise to Hawaii. Wow, was that exciting!

I have some restrictions on when and where and we need to submit several dates and wait to see what we get.

I don't see anything about whether or not we would earn cruise points. Does anyone know the answer?

 

You might be able to take what they offer and using that category list price upgrade. If you can do this, you should get the cruise credit(s). We have had a free cruise before and did this and did get credit for the cruise. It was done prior to the conversion to days though.