A "Hidden" RCL and Celebrity Benefit

[Tom and Ingrid]

...that I stumbled upon this year is the "Shareholder Benefit" program through Royal Caribbean.

 

At the start of the COVID pandemic, stock in cruise lines plummeted, and I saw an opportunity to invest a small amount in something I knew would recover. In any case, if you own 100 shares of RCL, anytime you sail on their ships, you get additional onboard credits.  For me, that's 2 x $100 for the sailings I take this year. Sadly, I was unaware of the credit LAST year and didn't get it for the two sailings we did in 2023.

 

1. Who is eligible for this benefit?

·      This exclusive benefit offer is reserved solely for shareholders owning a minimum of 100 shares of Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL) at time of sailing.

 

2. What is the benefit?

·      $1,000 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on a World Cruise

·      $250 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 14 or more nights.

·      $100 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 6-13 nights.

·      $50 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 5 nights or less.

·      Applicable on any eligible Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises or Silversea Cruises sailing.

·      Excludes any charter or Galapagos sailings.

[prmssk]

It is a nice benefit for those who own shares. We picked up cruise stock when it hit pandemic lows as well. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Old news , there are a number of post about it 

should have bought more when it was at $20 a share , bought about 10 years at $35 

 

https://www.rclinvestor.com/contact-us/faqs/shareholder-benefit/

Edited April 25 by Ex-Airbalancer

[Tom and Ingrid]

8 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Old news , there are a number of post about it 

Where were you last year when I needed this knowledge 🫣

😄

I had to stumble on it somehow instead.

[JJK2008]

Carnival does the same thing, perhaps others as well. 

[keesar]

7 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Where were you last year when I needed this knowledge 🫣

😄

I had to stumble on it somehow instead.

For many years, you could not get this benefit as it was not combinable with certain promotions.  So you have to read the fine print...

[wrk2cruise]

Nothing new here.  It's been a program for almost 20 years.  Yes in some years it was pretty useless as it wasn't combineable with the perk programs.   Since June 2019 they have removed that limitation.   I've probably received 2-3k in OBC from Shareholder Benefit.

[KEG21552]

How do you prove that you are a stockholder and does this have to be applied at booking or can it be applied anytime prior to your cruise?

[cruisestitch]

Follow the instructions😀

[Northern Aurora]

8 minutes ago, KEG21552 said:

How do you prove that you are a stockholder and does this have to be applied at booking or can it be applied anytime prior to your cruise?

 

As already noted there are instructions on the website.  And you prove you are a stockholder by submitting a copy of a recent brokerage statement.  You do not need to request the shareholder benefit when booking the cruise, but do apply for it several weeks before the actual cruise.  

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, keesar said:

For many years, you could not get this benefit as it was not combinable with certain promotions.  So you have to read the fine print...

It's still not combinable with fully comped casino cruise offers 

[KEG21552]

15 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

As already noted there are instructions on the website.  And you prove you are a stockholder by submitting a copy of a recent brokerage statement.  You do not need to request the shareholder benefit when booking the cruise, but do apply for it several weeks before the actual cruise.  

Thank you

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

It's still not combinable with fully comped casino cruise offers 

 

There are very few datapoints out but one theory is that if you have a fully comped room, you can receive the OBC if you pay to upgrade your room type.  There were a couple of people claiming they were able to receive the OBC back when you could pay the $20/night fee to upgrade to AQ

[Arizona Wildcat]

15 minutes ago, KEG21552 said:

Thank you

Would make the shareholder request at least 4 weeks before the cruise date.

I always take a picture of my purchase confirmation (thus no other data except my name) and email that.

[kwokpot]

23 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

There are very few datapoints out but one theory is that if you have a fully comped room, you can receive the OBC if you pay to upgrade your room type.  There were a couple of people claiming they were able to receive the OBC back when you could pay the $20/night fee to upgrade to AQ

We have never been able to test that scenario since we were never in the position to get a $20/nt AQ upgrade from a fully comped veranda. It was always being repriced with an AQ casino rate then discounted a few $ hundred for the internal value of the comped veranda, turning a cruise that only costed port fees and taxes to one that was several thousands of dollars. And that wasn't even a Retreat upgrade. No thanks.

 

On our December Christmas cruise on the Anthem we were able to apply a Casino Royale comp to that holiday cruise which amounted to just over $2,000 discount. Since there was still a balance of $1300 of room charges and port fees and taxes, we successfully received shareholder credit.

Edited April 25 by kwokpot

[NutsAboutGolf]

16 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

We have never been able to test that scenario since we were never in the position to get a $20/nt AQ upgrade from a fully comped veranda. It was always being repriced with an AQ casino rate then discounted a few $ hundred for the internal value of the comped veranda, turning a cruise that only costed port fees and taxes to one that was several thousands of dollars. And that wasn't even a Retreat upgrade. No thanks.

 

On our December Christmas cruise on the Anthem we were able to apply a Casino Royale comp to that holiday cruise which amounted to just over $2,000 discount. Since there was still a balance of $1300 of room charges and port fees and taxes, we successfully received shareholder credit.

 

The $20 upgrade was on board at future cruises (for me, whenever I called the BCC, they had no idea what I was talking about when asked about the $20 upgrade)

[Georgia_Peaches]

3 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Where were you last year when I needed this knowledge 🫣

😄

I had to stumble on it somehow instead.

I find that old news is only old if you already knew it!  Thanks for the heads-up!

 

3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Old news

 

[jlawrence01]

NCL and Carnival have very similar programs.  To their credit, the RCCL program is the easiest to apply to your reservation.

[jelayne]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

It's still not combinable with fully comped casino cruise offers 

That makes sense.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I find that old news is only old if you already knew it!  Thanks for the heads-up!

 

 

There atleast a couple topics a month about Sharehold credit

[Georgia_Peaches]

47 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

There atleast a couple topics a month about Sharehold credit

I’m not a shareholder so maybe they’ve gone over my head. I did buy in to Carnival during the Covid halt but we sold it for a small return once it climbed back up. Our carnival days are long gone so the share holder benefits aren’t appealing. Not sure the RCL benefit is enough to entice me to buy in. 

all that to say I still maintain that despite multiple threads that may occur, it’s impossible to see them all unless one monitors these boards 24/7. I made a post the other day and was told it was old news. But if wasn’t to me and possibly wasn’t to others either. Not trying to be argumentative, I just think there’s enough room on these boards to unwittingly repeat a topic and still attract new eyes. 
 

 

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

8 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I’m not a shareholder so maybe they’ve gone over my head. I did buy in to Carnival during the Covid halt but we sold it for a small return once it climbed back up. Our carnival days are long gone so the share holder benefits aren’t appealing. Not sure the RCL benefit is enough to entice me to buy in. 

all that to say I still maintain that despite multiple threads that may occur, it’s impossible to see them all unless one monitors these boards 24/7. I made a post the other day and was told it was old news. But if wasn’t to me and possibly wasn’t to others either. Not trying to be argumentative, I just think there’s enough room on these boards to unwittingly repeat a topic and still attract new eyes. 
 

 

 

We also bought Carnival at the , it hasn’t climb like RCL , but we are eyeing cruises on HAL / Princess as they some nice longer cruises 

Just because you never noticed the post doesn’t mean it new news 😉

[prmssk]

18 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

We also bought Carnival at the , it hasn’t climb like RCL , but we are eyeing cruises on HAL / Princess as they some nice longer cruises 

Just because you never noticed the post doesn’t mean it new news 😉

No, it’s not new news but it is clearly new information to some people. 
 

I personally don’t recall the last time (before this post) that I saw a thread about the shareholder credit for Royal/Celebrity. That’s not to say it hasn’t been talked about but it’s not something that has hung around on page one long enough that when it has that I have caught it.
 

I say this as a shareholder so I think I would have noticed threads about it on page one on the days I log in. 
 

As a shareholder of Carnival too, I feel that one gets talked about far more frequently on the various boards and groups, probably because it has a much lower price point and so I think a lot more cruisers are shareholders. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Less than a month ago there was a threaded 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

28 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Just because you never noticed the post doesn’t mean it new news 😉

Yes, I see your point. 😊