Free cruise as bingo prize, questions...

[bigcruisefan]

We just got back from the northbound Alaska Coral Princess sailing (7/9-7/16). We had a very nice time with our son and daughter-in-law on the cruise and of course Alaska was wonderful as always. The only real problem with the whole vacation was the mess at SEA trying to get to the bus for the transfer to Vancoucer, not enough folks helping and one of the women there didn't know enough to be helpful at all and wasted our time until somone else came up to help.

 

On the last day of the cruise we played Bingo since the jackpot hadn't been won yet and of course they were giving away the free cruise. We don't normally play Bingo, but since it was a day at sea and the son's first cruise we decided to play. Well I actually won the free cruise prize!

 

The prize is "North American" cruise for 2 for up to 7 days. It looks like we can use it for Alaska, Canada/New England, or the Caribeean. It has to be taken within 12 months I think. We want to take a sailing to Canada/NE on October of this year if possible.

 

Has anyone else on the forum ever won one of these prizes or know anything about the details of the redemption process? I understand how send the forms into Princess, but since we need to make other travel arrangements I was wondering about things like the length of time they take to process it and let us know the cruise we are placed on. Also, the problem for us is that the stateroom is only an Inside Double and we've never stayed in anything less than the equivalent of a Princess mini-suite -- does anyone know if Princess will allow us to upgrade giving us credit for the cost of the prize?

 

Thanks for any help you can give me on this!

[doliver]

Be sure to remember that the value of the cruise will be issued on a 1099 as taxable income. I suspect they use "brochure price" as the taxable amount. Prizes are never really free......however, I wouldn't complain about winning something like that.

[kruznfool]

I don't have any experience with winning a cruise on Princess, but I can tell you about my experience winning the "bingo cruise" on HAL.

The procedure was to book directly with the cruise line and no airfare was included. I believe that, had I needed it, they would have booked the air for me but I would have had to pay whatever anyone else would pay for airfare. I did have to pay the "port charges and government fees" that are always tacked on to cruise fares.

What was interesting about the whole thing was that I was not allowed to book an upgrade from the category described in the "fine print" (lowest priced inside available) since they would not assign a "value" to the prize. The positive part of this was that there was no 1099 so I never paid tax on this prize. The booking was made as an inside guarantee.

To make a long story short, we ended up in an inside cabin on a lower deck all the way aft. I'm certain that it was the lowest category possible on that ship. We did not spend much time there and just kept reminding ourselves that it was "free". One nice perk of this voyage was an invitation to join the captain for dinner. He was a charmer and the dinner was an experience to remember. Later, we begged the maitre 'd (since he was the one who delivered the invitation) to tell us how we were picked for this honor, thinking that it might be tied to the prize, but he said that he was not at liberty to disclose how the invitations were chosen.

[bigcruisefan]

Interesting that you never got a 1099 for the prize......I actually expect that I will get the 1099 issued once I take the cruise, as of now they have no way of putting a value on the prize since I haven't picked the cruise and of course since I've not taken the cruise yet there is no tax liability due yet. The fine print on the forms say that I can't use the prize as payment for another cruise which I'm crossing my fingers means that I just can't use it for the Aust/NZ cruise that we want to take in January and that they will allow me to upgrade. The DW says that we should take the cruise even if they don't allow us to upgrade and so I'm sure we will do that, but we love our balconies and I think that Canada/New England would be most enjoyed from that setting.

 

The fine print is very clear on the port charges and the airfare not being included, but that is what I expected in any case. They certainly aren't going to give me anything that cost them hard currency being paid out if they can help it!

[judyzoo]

If the best they give away in those bingo prizes is an inside (which I would expect) without an opportunity to upgrade (which I hoped they would allow), then I'm not so upset that I've never the prize. Although, still, if I won it I would use it and be glad I had it!

[Toto2Kansas]

Please correct me if I am wrong here, but I do know that with gambling winnings a 1099 is not issued unless you win over $1200. Anything under that is not reported to the IRS, not speaking of ships winnings here but in land based casinos.

Could it possibly be that the lowest inside cabin win cost is under the amount that has to be reported on a 1099?

[ajl111]

Bigcruisefan -- I also won a free cruise at bingo, and have it planned for Thanksgiving week. I upgraded to a mini-suite with no problems at all (of course, it cost me a few $$). Once I faxed in my form, the Princess rep called me within a few days to tell me what dates were available. The form I was given asked for three dates/ships. In my case, I picked July dates and they were all available. The problem was that I changed my mind after that and decided on Thanksgiving week. The fine print says no holiday sailings, and they don't consider Thanksgiving a holiday, so that worked just fine. Any other questions, feel free to ask!

[bigcruisefan]

Angela, that is great news and I'm even more jazzed about winning! We have been wanting to go on the Canada/New England cruise for some time, but we always seemed to have something come up that prevented it. I'm going to send in the forms right away now and let everyone know how things turn out.

[ajl111]

Oh, something else you might wonder about, as I did. I was worried if I would be bumped if the cruise started to sell out, being that it was a prize. The rep assured me that once I had the confirmation number, they would not bump me off at all. My concern was that I had to get the airline tickets and pre/post hotel, and it would really be costly if they couldn't guarantee me a cabin at the time of my reservation so that I could get reasonable prices on airline tickets. I was told no to worry about that. I also asked them what the value of the cruise was for tax purposes, but that question was not ever answered. Perhaps as someone mentioned earlier, they won't issue a 1099 because the value might be under $1200. That would be nice!

[ripleysmom]

I won a cruise from Carnival and received a 1099 for it (Canada cruise). Since Princess is now owned by Carnival, you will probably receive a 1099 for it.

[bigcruisefan]

I certainly expected that I'd have to pay taxes on the cruise and once it's booked I will begin the process of looking for the lowest fair so that I can use that to determine the 'real' value as opposed to what the cruise ship offers. Of course if they upgrade me and give me the same amount in credit then I'll be happy to accept the value they place on the prize!

 

I sent the forms in and even overnighted it since the cruise we want to take is early October or late September. I dropped a note with the forms asking about the upgrade so that they might be 'prepared' better when they call me. Hopefully I'll hear something soon so I can arrange for air and the ground travel that we would like to do if we take the cruise.

 

I'll keep everyone posted.

[cusyl]

I won the free cruise raffle after a bingo game a couple years ago on HAL.

The certificate was good for an outside cabin for 7 days in the Caribbean.

We did not receive a 1099 on it. We did, of course, have the expense of the tips which were not included in the prize.

I had my travel agent handle the booking and also added a third person in the cabin.

When we arrived at the cabin we found the 3rd bed would block the exit, so they gave us an additional nearby cabin for $225. for the 3rd person.

[kryos]

Be sure to remember that the value of the cruise will be issued on a 1099 as taxable income. I suspect they use "brochure price" as the taxable amount. Prizes are never really free......however, I wouldn't complain about winning something like that.

That is exactly why it's so important to keep good, careful records of all your gambling losses throughout the year as well ... throw old lottery tickets in a shoebox, chances, etc. Of course, if you don't gamble ordinarily, this won't help.

 

If you win something like a cruise or at one of the tables in the casino, you will have to pay taxes on your winnings, but then can deduct your losses for the year against those winnings. Hence, if your losses exceed your winnings, you actually pay no tax.

 

Of course, you can't deduct gambling losses beyond the winnings for a year, but keeping good records in this case could save you a bundle on taxes if you gamble with any regularity and happen to get lucky on occasion.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[direfun2000]

Last year I won an on-line sweepstakes. It was 4 tix to every outdoor concert in Indy. They valued it at $4000.00!!!! and 1099'd me that!!! So after speaking with my acct. I gave them to co-workers, colleagues, etc. and was able to write them off!:rolleyes:

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Would "where" you won the bingo prize determine whether the cruise line sent you a 1099 or not? It seems like if you won the prize in international waters then they wouldn't need to report it to U.S. authorities. But if you were in Alaskan waters, maybe they'd have to. Don't know.....just wondering.

 

BobK/Orlando

[work4cruising]

I also won last year on the coral princess at Thanksgiving, it was great. I ended up booking the Alaskan since the price of Alaska is more then the canada/new england and the carib.

 

I upgraded to a balcony for a little extra money and we had a great time. The only thing that sucked is we couldn't get insurance, even on the upgrade portion.

[mbw1024]

Many congratulations to you! And all the winners.

 

I haven't been to Bingo in a while on board. How do you win the free cruise? That's separate from the Jackpot winner?

[Toto2Kansas]

If you win something like a cruise or at one of the tables in the casino, you will have to pay taxes on your winnings, but then can deduct your losses for the year against those winnings. Hence, if your losses exceed your winnings, you actually pay no tax.

--rita

 

This is not actually so. I have won up to $1900 in the casino on one jackpot before while on a ship and have not had to pay taxes on it or been issued a 1099. :D

[Coral]

I upgraded to a balcony for a little extra money and we had a great time. The only thing that sucked is we couldn't get insurance, even on the upgrade portion.

 

We had a free cruise once also and ran into problems with insurance also. We eventually found that if we had to cancel our cruise due to medical, we would be out of luck. We were able to purchase travel insurance to cover other items (flight delays, medical on the trip, etc. .)

[bigcruisefan]

Many congratulations to you! And all the winners.

 

I haven't been to Bingo in a while on board. How do you win the free cruise? That's separate from the Jackpot winner?

 

On our cruise the jackpot had not been won by the last day, it was at $2500 I believe. We were going to be entering College Fjord in something like an hour and so they had just two games. They did the free cruise game first and then did the jackpot game. We had 3 cards for each game, that means that we had 9 layouts total for each game. The cost of the cards were $100, $50 for each game. The whole experience was very fun not just since I had won the first game, but because both games lasted a long time. In the jackpot game we and several others around us only had a single number left and the 'tension' was very high! :)

[bigcruisefan]

Well here is a quick update if anyone is still listening!

 

Princess called and they offered me an upgrade on a cruise that fit my schedule. The problem was that the cost for the upgrade was as much as it would cost me to book the cruise! They were basically using the brochure prices for both the credit and the cost of the mini-suite that I wanted. So if I take this deal I will end up having to pay more for the cruise than I need to and I will probably get a 1099 for some $3000 as well. I was a little surprised about this and so I asked them to give me a firm quote on the cost of the upgrade and I assume I will hear something regarding it soon.

 

Not good news at all......

[Dreamer333]

Well here is a quick update if anyone is still listening!

 

Princess called and they offered me an upgrade on a cruise that fit my schedule. The problem was that the cost for the upgrade was as much as it would cost me to book the cruise! They were basically using the brochure prices for both the credit and the cost of the mini-suite that I wanted. So if I take this deal I will end up having to pay more for the cruise than I need to and I will probably get a 1099 for some $3000 as well. I was a little surprised about this and so I asked them to give me a firm quote on the cost of the upgrade and I assume I will hear something regarding it soon.

 

Not good news at all......

 

I would not use the words "Not good news at all......" after winning a FREE cruise!

 

If it were me, I'd take the free cruise (they can put me in one of the crew's cabins, for all I care!)... and then I'd book another cruise while I was on that cruise!

 

Whatever cabin you end up in, I'm sure you will have a WONDERFUL cruise!! :)

Congratulations on your big win!

[ajl111]

bigcruisefan -- I am confused. Will the amount on the 1099 include what you would pay for the upgrade? Was your cost for upgrade more than what I paid? How did you get the $3000 figure? I assumed the value of the cruise I won would be about $1000 (cheapest inside cabin). Very curious about your predicament being that I'm already confirmed for taking my free cruise -- I've started saving lottery tickets to offset what they will put on a 1099 in my case. But I may need to scour the neighborhood for more losing lotto tickets!

[bigcruisefan]

Dreamer333: In our case I doubt that we'd take the particular cruise we are interested in, NewEngland/Canada, with an inside cabin. I would have looked at some other cruise.

 

Angela: What I was first confronted with was the statement that they use the brochure price for the Inside cabin that I won and the mini-suite that I wanted. They said that the price they assigned the Inside cabin was approximately $1500/person which is where I came up with the estimate on the $3000. You should check the price on your cruise and get a quote to book the Inside cabin yourself, you can show the IRS that the value that the cruise line placed on the prize was not fair market value and you can just use fair market value on your tax return.

 

Now here is the latest!!!!

I got a call back from Princess after our conversation yesterday and they offered me the upgrade at a much better price and I took it. We are confirmed on the Oct. 15th sailing on the Golden Pricess, roundtrip from New York through New England and into Canada. I'm totally excited about the cruise already!

[ajl111]

Thanks for clearing up my confusion. And congrats on getting your desired cruise -- what a great time to cruise thru the New England area!