RCI Cruise in January

[FL Mary]

Mom and I will be on RCI Freedom of the Seas in January 2016 from Port Canaveral. I've taken a cruise on Norwegian and Princess in the past but this will be our first cruise on RCI. We will be celebrating her 85th birthday. I will be on the Cruise Critic forum doing research for my cruise. Any tips on RCI will be appreciated.

[SoCalRob]

Mom and I will be on RCI Freedom of the Seas in January 2016 from Port Canaveral. I've taken a cruise on Norwegian and Princess in the past but this will be our first cruise on RCI. We will be celebrating her 85th birthday. I will be on the Cruise Critic forum doing research for my cruise. Any tips on RCI will be appreciated.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO MOM! FL Mary what day is her actual birthday??

[Hawkeye]

What a great 85th birthday for your mom and fun for you and her.

[FL Mary]

Her birthday is January 4. The cruise is Jan 10-17. Rob, you will get to meet her in December in Vegas.


HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO MOM! FL Mary what day is her actual birthday??

[SoCalRob]

Her birthday is January 4. The cruise is Jan 10-17. Rob, you will get to meet her in December in Vegas.

VERY exciting!!!! I can't wait. :) My birthday is January 8th! So shes close to mine. :)

[seemoreroyals]

Good for you and your mom. I know you will have a great time. Your mom sure looks young for her age.

[zeus]

Mary, I wish I could offer some tips, but all I can say is "How exciting!". Sounds like the perfect birthday, well except for maybe a trip to Vegas. HHH! What a wonderful milestone! Cannot to see and hear all about the trip.

[Gypsy]

VERY exciting!!!! I can't wait. :) My birthday is January 8th! So shes close to mine. :)

Happy Birthday to your Mom, what a fabulous way to celebrate!! Rob mine is January 8th too!

[SoCalRob]

OMG. Gypsy must do a shot and bond... Basically become bffs

[SoCalRob]

Happy Birthday to your Mom, what a fabulous way to celebrate!! Rob mine is January 8th too!
I have never met someone who had the same birthday as me!!!! We share it with Elvis and David Bowie.. Among other awesome celebs.

[Blase]

Such a nice way to celebrate your mom's 85th! I have never been on RCI either, but know Cruise Critic will have tons of great info for you!

[Gypsy]

I have never met someone who had the same birthday as me!!!! We share it with Elvis and David Bowie.. Among other awesome celebs.
Yes, my mom was a huge Elvis fan and made sure she delivered on that day lol.

[Evoni]

Mom and I will be on RCI Freedom of the Seas in January 2016 from Port Canaveral. I've taken a cruise on Norwegian and Princess in the past but this will be our first cruise on RCI. We will be celebrating her 85th birthday. I will be on the Cruise Critic forum doing research for my cruise. Any tips on RCI will be appreciated.

Great way for you two to celebrate your Mom's 85th!

If you are gambling during the cruise join their player's club. Depending on the amount you gamble during the cruise you can get free drink tickets (good only in casino bar, but hey even the bottled waters onboard add up so I would use my coupons to get those and take them out of the casino), and other perks like dinner for 2 at one of the speciality restaurants. I'm not sure if you drink, but if you enjoy wine RCI allows you to bring 2 bottles of wine aboard with you per stateroom. No other liquor however, though you can bring water and sodas on board usually. Consider joining the roll call for your cruise, there is a section of that on Cruise Critic for their members. The Meet party usually has gifts to raffle off by RCI. :)

Have fun!

[dwwright12]

Woo Hoo!! Mary's mom is a great lady! Sounds like another nice plan.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[FL Mary]

Thanks for the information. I have done a previous Cruise Critic Meet & Greet on a different cruise line. RCI is supposed to be somehow tied to M-Life so I think I can earn M-Life points if I gamble in the ship's casino.


Great way for you two to celebrate your Mom's 85th!

If you are gambling during the cruise join their player's club. Depending on the amount you gamble during the cruise you can get free drink tickets (good only in casino bar, but hey even the bottled waters onboard add up so I would use my coupons to get those and take them out of the casino), and other perks like dinner for 2 at one of the speciality restaurants. I'm not sure if you drink, but if you enjoy wine RCI allows you to bring 2 bottles of wine aboard with you per stateroom. No other liquor however, though you can bring water and sodas on board usually. Consider joining the roll call for your cruise, there is a section of that on Cruise Critic for their members. The Meet party usually has gifts to raffle off by RCI. :)

Have fun!

[Evoni]

Thanks for the information. I have done a previous Cruise Critic Meet & Greet on a different cruise line. RCI is supposed to be somehow tied to M-Life so I think I can earn M-Life points if I gamble in the ship's casino.

I've gone on 2 free cruises on RCLL so far except we upgraded to a suite so ended up not being entirely free, LOL. I was told that I would get M-Life points for our gambling, but even though I watched for them I never saw them added to my account after the cruise. Lately M-life made a announcement that this year the free cruises for Platinum and Noir M-LIfe members and discounts for other tier levels are on Celebrity ships and not Royal Caribbean so while they are suppose to give M-Life points now on the Celebrity ships, I'm not sure they are still doing it on the RCCL ships. Definitely something to check out with M-life and also see if you qualify for any perks on your cruise at whatever level M-life member you are at the moment :)

[serenasea]

We just returned from an Alaska cruise on RCI (not booked through MLife as we were traveling with relatives and also received a generous resident discount). Here's my experience:

After we booked the cruise through a travel agent last December, I called the M-Life number (1-800-762-0702) to see if we were entitled to any benefits. They told me at the time that since we didn't book through them and also got some RCI discounts, we were not eligible for any of the onboard MLife benefits. They said I would still accrue MLife points and to bring our cards to present to the casino host.

Then I came home and started looking through the various forums to see how other MLife members fared.

About a month before the cruise, I called the Club Royale (onboard casino) number: 1-888-561-2234. This is the number to call!

I spoke to a very friendly representative and told her I realized I wasn't eligible for any MLife benefits, but I wanted to give them our MLife numbers to be sure I would at least accrue points for my onboard gambling. She took our numbers and entered them into their system. She then told me that as Platinum members we would, in fact, be eligible for the MLife benefits, including the drink coupons, automatic Gold status in the Crown & Anchor society, a welcome cocktail party, a specialty dinner, and 30 minutes of internet service. I told her I was delighted to hear that, as I had been told previously that we weren't eligible for those benefits, and she told me "things had changed" since then.

So...fast forward to Day 1 on the ship. Our SeaPass cards showed us as "Gold" members despite this being our first RCI cruise. There was a welcome letter from the Crown & Anchor Society in our stateroom, outlining discounts (shopping and beverage and shore excursions). We also received the following day an invitation to a cocktail party for C&A members. We made our way to the casino and checked it out, and the cashier told us to introduce ourselves to the casino host when he would be there later in the evening.

Your SeaPass card also doubles as your Players Club card. The casino host confirmed our MLife numbers (we did show them our MLife cards), gave us 10 free drink coupons (to be used the casino only), and put a little sticker on our cards that enabled us to pull cash from our SeaPass accounts (and the credit card associated with them) without a service charge -- any cash withdrawals would show up as "entertainment" on the SeaPass account, and you could also use your onboard credits toward that "entertainment." We never did hear anything about the specialty dinner (which was fine, since we were traveling with family) or the Internet minutes. During the week, the host would stop by and chat for a few minutes (he did the same with my husband) and give us additional drink coupons. On our final evening, he came by and gave me a certificate for a free cruise for select sailings to be used by the end of October, all from the East Coast.

We really enjoyed the casino, fun dealers at the tables, half older machines and half new-ish. After many years of playing blackjack, I finally saw somebody win the side bet that pays 1,000 to 1 (he was playing $5 on it). I also had a few evenings of entertainment with a memorable former "Masterchef" contestant (Leslie, if anybody remembers him) who is a lot more fun drunk than he was on the show!

Oh, and if you do play blackjack, the minimum bet is $6, which seemed odd until another player told me you could play the $5 bet and the $1 side bet and consider it $6.

After reading Evoni's comments, I am hoping those points will translate to MLife tier credits as advertised. If anybody else has taken a RCI cruise, I would appreciate knowing if they do in fact show up.

Update: My tier credits from the cruise were posted to my MLife account one day shy of six weeks following the cruise.

[Evoni]

Serenasea, that's great to hear that RCCL is still honoring the M-Life perks! Hoping to hear good news in the future about your tier credits showing up!

[TheSaltyBaker]

Great way for you two to celebrate your Mom's 85th!

If you are gambling during the cruise join their player's club. Depending on the amount you gamble during the cruise you can get free drink tickets (good only in casino bar, but hey even the bottled waters onboard add up so I would use my coupons to get those and take them out of the casino), and other perks like dinner for 2 at one of the speciality restaurants. I'm not sure if you drink, but if you enjoy wine RCI allows you to bring 2 bottles of wine aboard with you per stateroom. No other liquor however, though you can bring water and sodas on board usually. Consider joining the roll call for your cruise, there is a section of that on Cruise Critic for their members. The Meet party usually has gifts to raffle off by RCI. :)

Have fun!

Diana is an absolute fountain of knowledge! It's so fantastic on this forum there is always someone more than happy to give a tip or share information! Such a wonderful group of people, growing everyday! My grams birthday is the 5th and my moms is the 9th!

Amber

[SoCalRob]

A little off topic and I don't want to hijack anyone's topic... But does NCL do anything like this for TR members? Or is MLife the only one? sassycat

[FL Mary]

serenasea, Thank you for that information. I am going to call the Club Royale number before I leave on my cruise. It would be nice to get some MLife tier credits for my play on the cruise.

[FL Mary]

I got a free cruise from Total Rewards but I didn't get any tier credits for playing in the ship's casino.


A little off topic and I don't want to hijack anyone's topic... But does NCL do anything like this for TR members? Or is MLife the only one? sassycat

[SoCalRob]

I got a free cruise from Total Rewards but I didn't get any tier credits for playing in the ship's casino.
OK. Thank you Mary! :)

[sassycat]

A little off topic and I don't want to hijack anyone's topic... But does NCL do anything like this for TR members? Or is MLife the only one? sassycat

I don't really know Rob. We have only taken one and it was a 7 star signature event.
We are going on an Alaska cruise in a couple of weeks so maybe we will find out something.

[SoCalRob]

I don't really know Rob. We have only taken one and it was a 7 star signature event.
We are going on an Alaska cruise in a couple of weeks so maybe we will find out something.
If you do. Let me know. Also report how your cruise was!!

[serenasea]

Just an update to say that the MLife tier credits from the Royal Caribbean cruise did post to my MLife account six weeks following our return.