Real offer or scam?

[Redtravel]

My spouse and I both received real mail postcard offer for a free Caribbean cruise.  Blue chip offer? We are not real gamblers.  Once in awhile on a cruise, we have played slots. That was before pandemic. On our last cruise in June, we never went to the casino. It was just too crowded.  Our sea pass shows us as pearl.  Why would we get a free cruise?  Just seems strange.  Is this real or a scam?      

[canderson]

Probably real.

Search a couple more pages down from here for a fairly recent thread that asks this very question, and you'll find a wealth of information.

 

[canderson]

Actually ... here you go.  They come via email as well:

 

 

[RumRunner01]

It's real. We go our our free cruise tomorrow!

[Georgia_Peaches]

We also received that post card offer for a free veranda stateroom. I didn’t take it as a scam but I’m sure there are some caveats. Haven’t investigated yet. Anyone know the particulars?  Can you upgrade to a suite?

[Boo's Mom]

3 hours ago, Redtravel said:

My spouse and I both received real mail postcard offer for a free Caribbean cruise.  Blue chip offer? We are not real gamblers.  Once in awhile on a cruise, we have played slots. That was before pandemic. On our last cruise in June, we never went to the casino. It was just too crowded.  Our sea pass shows us as pearl.  Why would we get a free cruise?  Just seems strange.  Is this real or a scam?      

I don't believe it is a scam. 

I received an offer as well. - and I am not a gambler. 

 

It's sink or sail for the cruise industry. 

I think they are trying to sail! 😉 

[Boo's Mom]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

We also received that post card offer for a free veranda stateroom. I didn’t take it as a scam but I’m sure there are some caveats. Haven’t investigated yet. Anyone know the particulars?  Can you upgrade to a suite?

There is an upgrade option. 

You check a box to let them know if you are interested in paying a little more for an upgrade. 

 

I assume that when they come back around to offer you a cabin on your 1st or 2nd itinerary choice, they will offer the upgrade specifics at that time. 

[kathynorth]

This is for real. It’s a no perks cruise where you pay taxes and port fees. You can upgrade to concierge or aqua for a nominal fee. You can also purchase add on drink and Wi-Fi packages. There are no upgrades to suites.

[gold1953]

2 hours ago, kathynorth said:

This is for real. It’s a no perks cruise where you pay taxes and port fees. You can upgrade to concierge or aqua for a nominal fee. You can also purchase add on drink and Wi-Fi packages. There are no upgrades to suites.

On mine for the Caribbean there was no option to upgrade to cc or aqua. There was on the pacific offer. They said that each offer code is different 

[Jim_Iain]

20 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

We also received that post card offer for a free veranda stateroom. I didn’t take it as a scam but I’m sure there are some caveats. Haven’t investigated yet. Anyone know the particulars?  Can you upgrade to a suite?

Yikes... maybe I should read my mail.   I just usually just toss all of what I thought was junk mail in the garbage before I come into the house.

[sdnich]

We are doing the Mexican Riviera next March and we payed $20 a day per person to upgrade to aqua class. $10 per day per person for concierge.

[mahdnc]

22 hours ago, Redtravel said:

My spouse and I both received real mail postcard offer for a free Caribbean cruise.  Blue chip offer? We are not real gamblers.  Once in awhile on a cruise, we have played slots. That was before pandemic. On our last cruise in June, we never went to the casino. It was just too crowded.  Our sea pass shows us as pearl.  Why would we get a free cruise?  Just seems strange.  Is this real or a scam?      

 

It has been pretty well documented on a few threads since July that the Blue Chip Club is offering complimentary cruises to extremely low level members.  Our son--a lowly Pearl member with only 40 points--has received two emails for free cruises.  Once in July and another in September.  For reference, Pearl is the lowest of the 5 membership tiers and it spans 0-2,499 points.  Although crazy and insane, the offer is quite legitimate.  It is probably an attempt to fill empty cabins without having to reduce published fares.

 

There is no obligation to gamble on this cruise; in fact the humorous thought is that you may not want to gamble much to keep yourself eligible for the next free offer.  The complimentary cruise is a perkless cruise-only deal and the fees/taxes are not covered.

Edited October 8, 2022 by mahdnc

[Georgia_Peaches]

46 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Yikes... maybe I should read my mail.   I just usually just toss all of what I thought was junk mail in the garbage before I come into the house.

Well I finally had the time to investigate today and it seems like a good deal but its for itineraries for October-December, 2022.  Unfortunately, we can't take advantage of this time frame...we already have a November cruise on the books.  But for those who can do somewhat last minute, it looks great!

[Georgia_Peaches]

4 hours ago, kathynorth said:

This is for real. It’s a no perks cruise where you pay taxes and port fees. You can upgrade to concierge or aqua for a nominal fee. You can also purchase add on drink and Wi-Fi packages. There are no upgrades to suites.

I only saw cruises for October - December 2022.  Have you seen offers that extend into 2023?

[Cruise Gopher]

Bookings in general are way down for Q4 on Celebrity. So they are definitely trying to get some gamblers onboard.