DES MOINES – Stocks losing value is rarely good news, but there is a little-known silver lining for cruisers: free onboard credits of $50-$250 are now within easy reach.
The world’s two largest cruise companies have long offered onboard credit-that is, cash to be spent on the ship–to their shareholders. To qualify, you need only own 100 shares of stock in Carnival Corporation or Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. at the time of your cruise. But while Carnival Cruise Lines traded around $45 per share and Royal Caribbean sold for about $36, CCL is now about $22 and RCL and is trading at about $8 per share.
“With RCL at $8,” said Bob Levinstein, CEO of competitive cruise quote site CruiseCompete.com, “anyone traveling on a 14-night Royal, Celebrity, or Azamara sailing can get a $250 onboard credit just for buying $800 worth of stock.”
RCL also offers shareholder credits on shorter cruises: $200 credit for sailings between 10-13 nights; $100 credit for cruises of 6-9 nights; and $50 credit for sailings of five nights or less.
Carnival Corporation, which owns Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard, and Costa offers shareholders onboard credit (per stateroom) of $250 on sailings of 14 days or longer, $100 on sailings of 7 to 13 days, and $50 on sailings of 6 days or less.
Applications to receive these benefits must be made prior to cruise departure date, and certain restrictions apply. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean provide specific instructions on how to demonstrate your ownership to receive this benefit.
