"Free" cruises through Total Rewards / Seven Stars on Norwegian

Alan (and anyone else),

I am a Seven Stars member, like you.

I get a free Norwegian cruise for two with a balcony stateroom. It's not completely free, as I have to pay for airfare and any port taxes plus tips. But I'd still like to do it.

However, being 20 years younger than you, I have young children that I'd like to take along. You probably don't have this issue, unless your wife is much younger than you are.

I have an additional Norwegian "free cruise" certificate, but when I called about it, Norwegian was VERY strict that it had to be in my name and non-transferable. That is, I can't use it for two kids. In fact, I can't even use it for one kid, since the other person would have to be me, and I can't be booked twice on the same cruise.

Kind of annoys me that I can't use my "two cruises for two" certificates the way I want to. To use both, I would have to take two separate cruises and either leave the kids behind or pay for them.

Do you have any experience with this? Do you know if it's possible at all to use the second certificate for two other people, or is this a hard-line "NO" which is impossible to get around?

Just called them again.

You can't go on the best cruise (Hawaii) because there is no casino on board (LOL).

If you want to take additional people, you get a whopping 10% discount off full fare (LOL again).

Would probably do better to book the extra people through a discount website.

Not impressed with most of the other itineraries. The Western and Eastern Caribbean itineraries are inferior to '90s cruises I took on Princess, where we visited Virgin Islands, Grenada, Dominica, St. Kitts, Venezuela, and Aruba. These go to some crappy "Cay", Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and St. Maarten. Problem is they leave from Florida instead of Puerto Rico, which makes the itineraries more limited.

I have no experience with cruising... I get sea sick. When I covered news about the cruise ship industry when I was a reporter I would get sea-sick even when I was on the ships tied up in ports. I am okay sailing on small boats and motorboating, but it's the big cruise ships that make me feel like I am going through an extended earthquake, but the walls aren't rattling.

Anyway... I have no interest in the cruise offers and they immediately go into the permanent we have no interest file a/k/a recycling bin.

However, your second post made me curious about something: does Caesars run the on-board casinos and that's why you have to be on a ship with a casino to get the free cruise?

As far as I understand it, they are running it like a player transfer program. Norwegian waves the "cover charge" (cruise admission) for known gamblers and sells it as a "free vacation." Except that as you fellas have said, travelers must get themselves to the ship and pay the port taxes and fees...

It is very much a soft comp- since they won't cover the taxes and fees. But no Caesars doesn't run the ship casinos.

Cheers all!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wjadams452ba

As far as I understand it, they are running it like a player transfer program. Norwegian waves the "cover charge" (cruise admission) for known gamblers and sells it as a "free vacation." Except that as you fellas have said, travelers must get themselves to the ship and pay the port taxes and fees...

It is very much a soft comp- since they won't cover the taxes and fees. But no Caesars doesn't run the ship casinos.

Cheers all!

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Exactly.

Caesar's and Norwegian have a partnership.

Norwegian provides "free" cruises to Caesar's to hand out to their Seven Stars and other active players.

Caesar's gets the benefit of being able to run promotions around giving away these "free" cruises which don't actually cost them anything.

Norwegian gets the benefit of keeping degenerate gamblers captive on a ship (with a casino) for at least 7 days.

The slots and video poker on cruise ships is typically awful. Jacks or Better often pays 6/5 for Full House/Flush.

Norwegian seems very hard-line about their rules. They want the gambler aboard, and are willing to let him take one companion for free, since it doesn't take up extra room on the ship, and most people don't want to cruise alone. However, they are very hard line about allowing extra people on the ship (relatives, kids, friends, etc) unless they pay near full-fare. Doesn't matter how much you try to convince them that you're a high roller.

Also, the Seven Stars at least get a decent room (balcony stateroom) and a wider choice of itinerary (though the ship must have a casino, which counts out Hawaii). Everyone else is stuck with unpopular sail dates and an interior cabin.

And of course, the port taxes are like $300/person, and tips are not included. Airfare is also not included.

Basically you aren't saving a large percentage of travel costs if you take one of these "free" cruises, so I would advise not bothering unless you really like their itineraries and would like to go anyway.

Thanks Dan. If anyone wasn't sea sick already, that kind of offer would get you sick.

Let me take the bad news one step further. Both my wife and I received `FREE' cruise vouchers. So we thought OK great, we'll each book a cruise and I'll take my daughter
and she can take our son-inlaw. WHAT NO WAY they said. People who reside in the same household CAN NOT book the same cruise at the same time. Even though we both
`earned' the cruise, and we would both be on board to gamble. They said NO.

And to think... they spend so much money sending me these fancy glossy mailers and folders for these cruise offers...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fly2rei

Let me take the bad news one step further. Both my wife and I received `FREE' cruise vouchers. So we thought OK great, we'll each book a cruise and I'll take my daughter
and she can take our son-inlaw. WHAT NO WAY they said. People who reside in the same household CAN NOT book the same cruise at the same time. Even though we both
`earned' the cruise, and we would both be on board to gamble. They said NO.

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Wow this is really awful.

I assume they don't want this because they believe 4 people on a family vacation are less likely to gamble than a couple traveling alone.

Anyway there is a workaround to this. Temporarily change one of your addresses in the Total Rewards system, then book the cruise like a day later, and then change it back after that.

Anyway, this cruise benefit is a joke, and this comes from a guy who generally likes cruises. I was excited to see the cruise benefit at first, but now I am just going to leave it on the table and not bother.

Just curious... how big are these cruise ship casinos? And are they open 24 hours when at sea or at foreign ports? Years ago, I covered the launch of a giant cruise ship in Miami and when we toured it I recall the casino being small with no more than about 20 slot machines and a couple of table games. (Yes, I was sea sick in port.)