I’ve looked at several articles about what it cost to live full-time on a cruise ship. We all hear the stories about the people that retire and cost him $1000 a month or $3000 a month to live on a cruise ship. I’m not sure how realistic that is. According to Royal Caribbean. super Mario, who is spent almost 3 decades living on a cruise ship. The cruise line does not give you a special year-round pricing. You have to book each cruise individually just like everybody else. He says it will cost between $80,000 for an inside cabin up to $200,000 if you want a high end cabin for 50 weeks a year
My husband, Scott and I embarked on a plan to Cruise weekly using the cruise certificates that are given from the casino. Some will call this a free cruise and others will swear there is no such thing as a free cruise, but simply a prepaid through gambling cruise. I say there’s a middle of the road. We have cruised 80 complementary cruises in three years since Covid. They were not weeklong cruises. They have been closer to two weeks up to 30 days. Has it cost me to do this? Absolutely. Has it cost me anywhere close to what it would cost had High purchased the Cruises? No way! To give you a little history, this is where we have been in three years and how we did it
Besides the numerous Caribbean cruises that average 7 to 10 days, we have been on 14 days TransPacific Vancouver to Tokyo 12 days around Tokyo
32 days South America 15 days Los Angeles to Hawaii round-trip
30 days Australia, New Zealand 18 days Australia to Hawaii
10 day Boston to Quebec city and 10 more back
12 day Iceland/Greenland and 12 more back
22 days Italy/Greece/ turkey
27 day transatlantic broadcast to Europe, 14 more to Norway/Iceland
3 transatlantic to Europe
12 day British Isles 2-16 day Panama Canal+ Seven day Alaska
Each of these were given to us from the casinos of different cruise lines. We paid for charges and taxes and gratuities. We’ve received free Wi-Fi, drink packages, laundry, and majority in either Balcony, Concierge, aqua class or junior suite
At first, I didn’t set a budget. Sometimes I would win, sometimes I would lose. I never spent even half of what it would’ve cost me to buy the cabin, but I soon found that sometimes I was running my credit cards up more than I wanted to. last year, I decided to start monitoring my wins and losses more closely. I established a budget of approximately $1000 for a 7/8 day cruise. I also decided to start focusing on taking money home with me instead of gambling it back into the machine.. I have found this to be more successful. I am actually bringing money home with me and it’s not costing me for my gambling. My philosophy now is, if I win a couple thousand dollars, put it away and stop gambling. If I go through my thousand dollars, stop gambling. I am still getting enough points to continue cruising complementary.
Celebrity starts their new year on August 1. Having reached Sapphire plus last year, I am entitled to $1000 free play with each cruise. I’ve taken 5 on Celebrity so far because we had other ones booked with other cruise lines prior to this. To date, we were on the beyond back to back for 14 days in August . I left there winning $10,000 At no cost out-of-pocket, went on Utopia 4 nights and broke even, went to Be-yond 6 night first week of October left losing my $1000 dollars, Second week of October, up $2400 and the beyond .6 day cruise up $5000.
Now, what has it cost? We average $350 per week for port charges/taxes for 2. We average.$19pp per day for gratuities on concierge. That amounts to about $266.
We currently have 29 cruises booked between November 2024 and the end of May 2025. My intention is to continue trying to stay on budget and bring home more than I came with from the casino. I currently have three offers to book so that only leaves me 8 more open spots for this year that ends July 31, 2025
The secret is to start somewhere.
The hardest one is the first because you’re paying for a cruise and having to establish a budget to win your next cruise free? Go cheap if you need to.!
2. Decide how many cruises you would like to go on for the year.. 3. pick the cruise line that fits your style of cruising. Stick with it until you get to the Captains club level that gives you the rewards you would like. (free drinks, laundry, etc..)
4. Once you start the cycle, it should keep going with giving you more free cruises.
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