NCL Cruises with Caesars?

[OldHoster]

I don't really look at casino hotel offers that much until one from Caesars caught my eye for a poker tournament that they are giving 150k away in so I thought I would look through what else they offered. Well I am going to burn through some of the offers that I have so every weekend this month I have free rooms at some Caesars property. I also found an offer that if I stay at Laughlin they will give me a NCL cruise voucher. Has anyone done this? Is it worth the 1.5 hour drive down to get the free cruise. For the last few years I have played at Station Casinos mostly for gambling but after the BS with the jackpot I won't darken their door other than to burn through my comps. Station offered a free cruise every year but I had heard it wasn't great so I didn't ever go. This year I am going to take some time off and I would like to go on a commercial cruise, I have a fairly large sport fishing boat and my dad has a very large boat that we take usually yearly, but it would be nice to be around people.

[Dan Druff]

You might want to read this thread: https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...or-Seven-Stars

It's about the Caesars Seven Stars annual cruise, but much of the same stuff applies to your situation.

HOWEVER, you are only going to be getting an inside cabin (not a balcony), and your itineraries may be restricted.

First off, call the Caesars 800 number (1-800-CAESARS) and ask them to read you the full terms of the offer. Or look at the offer you got in the mail and see if the full terms are listed. You are looking for the itineraries you can choose. Sometimes they only give you a few choices, and if you don't like them, then clearly this isn't worth it.

From that point, you need to just decide if the cruise is worth doing.

It will not be free. You will be paying a $140/person "admin fee", plus taxes. Then they will add $13 "gratuities" to your stateroom account PER PERSON PER DAY while onboard, so that's another $182 for a two-person cruise. (Even worse, those "gratuities" are not really tips, and NCL just keeps them and pays their employees a flat rate -- though you're not expected to tip onboard, either.)

Anyway, after the admin fee, taxes, and forced tips, the whole thing will cost you a minimum of $600, and that's BEFORE airfare, hotel, transportation, onboard spending, etc.

Furthermore, you can often get these inside cabins at a bargain on many itineraries anyway if you wait until 2 or so months before sailing, so these "free" certificates may not even be saving you that much.

With that said, if you enjoy cruising, and you like the itineraries you can select, by all means do it. Just be aware of what you're getting and not getting.

NCL as a line is decent. It doesn't have the obnoxious young/rowdy/drunk crowd you find on Carnival, and it's not a high-end line like Crystal. It's a middle-of-the-road cruise line, and pretty standard.

I've become an expert on them. I know as much about NCL as I know about Caesars, and just like Caesars, they are also full of operational fail.