NCL Casinos at Sea offers comp or discount cruises to players in the Casino. In order to trigger this a degree of onboard casino play is required. Here's an in depth post on the concepts of casino play, comp and THEO regarding the 'actual' cost of a free cruise.
Once you are 'in the club' you get 1-2 offers all the time. My current offer (based on very little play) is:
Any 11 day cruise (inside stateroom) other than Hawaii and Nordic Capitals (it is a specific cruise and looks pretty cool). Other EU/Global cruises are valid.
Pricing of a 'free cruise' is as follows: $25 pp day+ port fees+ tips onboard. As my current offer is an inside stateroom I would seek to pay to upgrade. The price quoted to upgrade is as follows:
Therefore the actual cost of a balcony cabin 7 day cruise for 2 people would be:
A challenge we recently faced was adding a baby to the booking. It seemed that we were getting a rate of $175 per adult, but the baby was $600+ fees (which is INSANE!) and today I found out how to avoid those cruises. Note that Casinos at Sea bookings must be made on the telephone, so 'finding space' is a PITA.
3rd pax Free or 3rd Pax 1/2 price
If you do an online search and find this bonus '3rd pax free..' (typically occurs away from school holidays) then you can avoid the 3rd person charge for the baby on a Casinos at Sea booking - basically the bonus stacks. To find it you need to look for the purple cruises, like here:
The easiest way to pull up these cruises is to go to 'advanced search options and check the box for Free':
The above list is for the Getaway from Miami. Example price would be May 16th balcony $1898 (plus $345 port fees) for the three of us.
The Casino at Sea rate would be:
NCL website: $2243
Casinos at Sea: $1374
Hope that shows the value of the cruise, and also how to find the best ones if you are a parent with an infant. Think of it like award space, Purple = Saver rate Green = Standard rate no color = you are screwed rate.
Once you are 'in the club' you get 1-2 offers all the time. My current offer (based on very little play) is:
Any 11 day cruise (inside stateroom) other than Hawaii and Nordic Capitals (it is a specific cruise and looks pretty cool). Other EU/Global cruises are valid.
Pricing of a 'free cruise' is as follows: $25 pp day+ port fees+ tips onboard. As my current offer is an inside stateroom I would seek to pay to upgrade. The price quoted to upgrade is as follows:
- $320 PP per cruise for Guest 1 and 2) to move to Balcony
- $500 PP per cruise for Guest 1 and 2) to move to Mini Suite
Therefore the actual cost of a balcony cabin 7 day cruise for 2 people would be:
- $175x2 + 320x2+ port fees = Circa 1K.
A challenge we recently faced was adding a baby to the booking. It seemed that we were getting a rate of $175 per adult, but the baby was $600+ fees (which is INSANE!) and today I found out how to avoid those cruises. Note that Casinos at Sea bookings must be made on the telephone, so 'finding space' is a PITA.
3rd pax Free or 3rd Pax 1/2 price
If you do an online search and find this bonus '3rd pax free..' (typically occurs away from school holidays) then you can avoid the 3rd person charge for the baby on a Casinos at Sea booking - basically the bonus stacks. To find it you need to look for the purple cruises, like here:
The easiest way to pull up these cruises is to go to 'advanced search options and check the box for Free':
The above list is for the Getaway from Miami. Example price would be May 16th balcony $1898 (plus $345 port fees) for the three of us.
The Casino at Sea rate would be:
- baby 118..83
- 308 pp (cruise plus port fees)
- upgrade 320x2 to balcony
- upgrade 500x2 to mini suite
NCL website: $2243
Casinos at Sea: $1374
Hope that shows the value of the cruise, and also how to find the best ones if you are a parent with an infant. Think of it like award space, Purple = Saver rate Green = Standard rate no color = you are screwed rate.
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