It doesn't take much to convince fans of cruising to book another cruise but Royal Caribbean offers incentives for everyone to book another cruise with certain benefits by doing so. These booking incentives can help reduce the cost of our cruise overall or make booking another cruise a little easier to swallow financially.
Types of booking incentives
Onboard Credit
Onboard credit is perhaps the most common incentive there is and basically Royal Caribbean deposits a credit to your onboard account that you can use for purchases with your SeaPass card. Onboard credit can be used for
- Spa Services
- Beverages
- Internet Café
- Photos
- Shore excursions
- Specialty Dining
- Onboard shopping
- Bingo
- Casino
How much onboard credit you get can depend on
- Cabin category booked
- Length of cruise
- Time of season
- Crown and Anchor Society Status
- Extenuating circumstances
Typically we see onboard credit amounts starting at $25-$50 per cabin and going up to $200 or more.
Free Shore Excursions
Sometimes Royal Caribbean will offer free shore excursions, which means the cost of an excursion will be paid for. These free shore excursion offers must be a Royal Caribbean shore excursion and often is limited to one per cabin. We've also typically seen a limit to the price the excursion may cost of about $75.
Free Spa Treatments
For those that like to pamper themselves, free spa treatments may be the booking incentive for you. There are some limitations, such as you cannot book the spa treatments in advance and must book them once you are onboard the cruise. In addition, we've typically seen the free spa treatment offer limited to one per cabin, a limited amount of treatments to choose from and you must take the treatment on a port day.
Pre-paid Gratuities
A lucrative booking incentive is when Royal Caribbean pays the gratuities for the waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and room attendant. Usually pre-paid gratuities are only good for up to two people per cabin and the value of pre-paid gratuities depends on how long your cruise is.
Lower Deposit Amount
To help spur bookings, Royal Caribbean will lower the amount required for a deposit to book a cruise. This allows you to spend less money up front to book a cabin, which can be a benefit for the more expensive cabins or when booking multiple cabins. While this does not reduce the overall price of the cruise, it does help in not having to put up the money for the bookings in advance. This can be important for someone booking a cruise years in advance who does not want to allocate a lot of money now for a cruise down the line.
Which booking incentive is the best?
Choosing the best booking incentive is a very subjective decision. If you're not someone who enjoys the spa, then free spa treatments aren't a real incentive for you. Likewise, if you're booking a 3 or 4 night cruise, a lower deposit amount isn't likely a big deal.
When talking about pure value, we believe onboard credit is usually the best booking incentive because of the amount of money you can get and for the flexibility it allows. There's few people who do not spend at least some money onboard their cruise and onboard credit can help take the sting out of that final bill you get when you cruise is over. Pre-paid gratuities are a good second choice, although the value favors those going on longer cruises.
How are booking incentives determined?
How good an offer will be depends on how full the ship is, how close you are to your sail date and other factors. Generally, the less popular the cruise sailing, the better the booking incentives are. Royal Caribbean uses booking incentives to drive up demand for their cruises.
It should be noted that often booking incentives can be combined, and you may see an offer one week for lower deposit and onboard credit, while a different week will offer free spa treatments, onboard credit and lower deposit. Again, which offer you get will depend on how full or empty the sailing is.
