You probably know about Crown and Anchor, Royal Caribbean’s cruise loyalty program. But have you heard of Club Royale?
Club Royale is the casino marketing arm of Royal Caribbean Cruises, and by many accounts, it’s one of the better casino marketing and loyalty programs on the high seas. Its supporters like its (relative) transparency, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a little complicated.
Here’s an explainer from our resident travel agent (and gambler), Jessalynn.
Disclaimer: This post is not intended to promote gambling of any kind or meant to encourage anyone to gamble.
What is Club Royale? What are points and how do you earn them?
Much like other casinos, Club Royale tracks your play in the casino to determine if you’re a good prospect for future gambling. Participation in the program is completely voluntary, and it’s tied to your Crown and Anchor (Royal Caribbean loyalty program) number. So you don’t need a separate card like you do in many casinos. You just put your SeaPass into the slot machine, or hand it to the dealer at a table, when you start to play.
In part, Club Royale’s system rates you by having you accrue points as you gamble. If you play slots, you get 1 point for every $5 wagered. So if you play a $1 slot machine at 1 bet per spin, you earn a point every 5 spins. If you bet 5 per spin on that same machine (for a total bet of $5), you earn a point for every spin. (Video poker machines earn you points at a rate of 1 point for every $10 bet.)
If you play table games (blackjack, roulette, etc), you’re rated by the pit boss at your table based on the size of your bet and the length of time you play. You earn points, but at a somewhat less predictable pace than you do when you’re playing slots.
Ok, so I have Club Royale points. What do I do with them?
Points can benefit you in a number of ways. For starters, they rate you into one tier of a four-tiered system, each tier having different benefits. Everyone starts in the Choice tier. Once you reach 2,500 points, you move up to the Prime tier. At 25,000 points, you move to Signature, and at 100,000, you move to Masters.
As if it wasn’t already confusing enough that there’s another whole tier system that’s separate from Crown & Anchor, here’s another weird thing: The “casino year” ends on March 31 and the points are reset to zero on April 1. But, you maintain the status you earned throughout the next “casino year,” giving you the time to earn that tier status back again for the following year.
Let me give you an example from my own experience. I accumulated about 300 points in the summer of 2021 and got the remaining 2200 points on a cruise in November 2021. I became Prime instantly and had access to the benefits of the tier, including free* drinks at the casino bar. When April 1, 2022, came around, my points reset to zero, but I was already guaranteed Prime status until March 31, 2023.
(I subsequently earned another 2500 points in the 2022-23 casino year and was requalified for Prime through March 31, 2024.)
I (mostly) understand this tier status thing now. So what do I get with my status?
Did someone say free* drinks?? Yes, that’s right – when you qualify for Prime status (and Signature and Masters status, as you continue to gamble), you get free* drinks in the casino bar any time the casino is open for play. You can also get free* drinks from the servers who come around to the tables and machines. (Drinks in Royal Caribbean casinos are NOT free for players who don’t have Prime status or above, even if they’re playing.)
At the start of the new casino year, everyone who has earned (or re-earned) their tier status in the prior casino year gets a free* 7-night (or shorter) cruise. If you’re a Prime member, like me, your free* cruise is an interior cabin, though you have the option to pay to upgrade it. Signature players get a balcony cabin, and Masters players get a Grand Suite. The free* cruise has to be sailed sometime during the casino year, or it expires.
Again, back to my own example: I earned Prime in November 2021. In April 2022, I received my first free* tier cruise, an interior cabin that I had to sail before March 31, 2023. I requalified for Prime in 2022-23 and in April 2023, I received another inside cabin that needs to be sailed before March 31, 2024.
Prime, Signature, and Masters players all get access to fee-free withdrawals in the casino – which makes total sense because they want us to gamble more! There are some other benefits too, largely around internet access (discounted for Prime, free* for Signature and Masters). A full list of benefits can be found here.
Free* drinks and a free* cruise? Sounds great!
But wait, as they say in the infomercials – there’s more!
In addition to the yearly tier cruise, you can earn what are called “instant rewards” cruises certificates based on your play on an individual sailing. These certificates start at 400 points, which will earn you $100 off a future cruise (at the time of this writing; these terms do change occasionally). You can earn a complimentary* cruise for two – for select sailings – starting at 1200 points, and the list goes up from there.
It’s important to keep in mind that the casino gives away cruises for one reason: To get people back on cruise ships so they gamble more. Your value to the casino as a potential guest on a complimentary (also called “comped”) cruise is something that’s known in the industry as your THEO, or theoretical loss. That THEO is going to directly influence the types of cruises that the casino is willing to comp you. If your play shows the casino that you’re likely to lose $1000 on a cruise, for instance, it’s not likely that the casino is going to be willing to give you a complimentary junior suite on an Oasis-class cruise ship. But an interior cabin on a 3- or 4-night sailing? That’s definitely possible.
But wait…there’s still more!
As mentioned, Club Royale is a marketing program – and part of its charge is to help the cruise line fill less-popular sailings with gamblers who will leave their “donations” in the casino. (Us gamblers like to call them “donations” because it sounds so much better than “losses.”)
Being a travel agent has given me some interesting insight into the Club Royale program. For instance, the bookings for free* cruises you get through Club Royale are reserved using the same system I use as a travel agent. On a comp cruise, though, the cruise fare is paid by Club Royale, and not the gambler. (Gamblers do have to pay taxes and fees on any complimentary cruise.) It’s basically a bet (see what I did there?) by Club Royale that the gambler will lose enough money on the cruise to outweigh the cost of the cruise fare.
Any good travel agent knows the month-based ups and downs of cruise prices. Cruises in the summer months will always be expensive because kids are out of school and families can travel; cruises in the fall are usually cheaper because fewer people want to take cruises during cooler weather (and hurricane season). So Club Royale will occasionally issue complimentary* cruise offers to gamblers for some of these less popular sailings in order to shore up soft bookings for certain sailings. Gamblers receive these offers via email, snail mail, or by looking up their offers at clubroyaleoffers.com.
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So, to recap, there are three types of free* cruises you can get from gambling in Royal Caribbean’s casinos:
- Your yearly tier cruise if you earn Prime, Signature, or Masters status
- A cruise that’s on the list of selected sailings for an instant reward certificate, earned on a single sailing based on onboard play (points)
- A marketing offer that’s sent to targeted gamblers, often to increase bookings on less popular sailings but sometimes just to get people back in the casino to gamble more.
Why do you keep putting that asterisk by the words free* and complimentary*?
Well, it should be pretty obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway: Nothing is free. Club Royale doesn’t give you cruises because you’ve earned them, or because they think you’re a good person. The computer makes a calculated decision, based on an algorithm and your history of play, whether the casino marketing funds should be spent to “bet” on you losing a bunch of money in Royal’s casinos.
It is absolutely possible that you can win in these onboard casinos, and that you can earn points and gain cruises without spending/losing/donating a dollar of your own money. It’s not likely, though. We all know the sayings – the house always wins; Las Vegas wasn’t built on winners, etc. We all know them because they’re true.
Having said that, I can definitely say that the Club Royale system has been fairly good to me over the last two years: I’ve taken comped cruises, I’ve had a LOT of free drinks at the casino bar (I don’t need to buy a drink package anymore), and I’ve actually made some great friends in the casino on my cruises. It’s especially a great way to meet people if you’re traveling solo – albeit a potentially expensive one.
Have any questions about the Club Royale program? Just ask!
Disclaimer: This post is not intended to promote gambling of any kind or meant to encourage anyone to gamble.
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