radonc1

I am the owner of shares in RCC Inc. One of the purported benefits of being a shareholder in RCC is that you get an onboard credit when booking a room. In actuality, you don't. After reading the T&C's of this "deal", the only way you can get the credit is by being a first time cruiser who pays full fare.
I discovered this after booking a cruise through CO cruises and discovering that since I am a member of the Crown and Anchor Society, I received a $100 discount from the booked fare. This made me ineligible for my investor discount.

My beef is that anyone can join the C&A Society for nothing and get the discount. I paid real money to become a shareholder in RCC. But either person gets the same deal. As noted above, only the full fare non club member will lose out being a non-owner. Bad deal for me. Need to sell my shares and take my profits

ak333

Are you a Platinum Crown and Anchor member or above? Did you book a balcony? If yes, then you did get caught in one of Royal Caribbean's Catch 22s of stock ownership.

I agree that they did dilute the benefits of share ownership and I sold my shares when that policy came out.

piper28

Carnival's benefit is a lot better. $50, $100, or $250 credit depending on the length of the cruise. And nowadays, they'll stack that with future cruise credit credits, and for those that are eligible, their military benefit (used to not stack with military). (For their european and australian lines the credit amount is roughly the same value in us dollars, but in the local currenty instead.)

Millon deFloss

You have to have completed a cruise to eligible for C&A membership.

radonc1

Exactly. If you pay a full fare or are not a member of the society does the "benefit" become meaningful. How often does either happen? Thus the term worthless.

JanePond

>"Carnival's benefit is a lot better"

Absolutely! Much better than the dividend, for sure.

stufalk

I agree with the previous comment re Cruise Critic, stating that they are in effect owned by the cruise lines. In fact, in 1997 Cruise Critic's Advertising Director told me that one reason Cruise Critic's management likes it's current Editor is that "she is sensitive to the cruise lines and other advertisers." And don't forget CruiseCriticGate, when Cruise Critic's President approved providing a cruise line advertiser with the personal contact information of certain participants on their bulletin board, with with the cruise line then inviting them to a free cruise along with Cruise Critic's editor, a clear incentive to provide favorable comments (the program was abandoned by the cruise line after the scandal was exposed).

HPN-HRL

I have kept my RCCL stock for the benefits on Celebrity & Azamara, even though the shareholder benefit is non-combinable.

freecia

I believe Amex Plat (USA) also has benefit of on board credits for Celebrity and Azamara when you pay for the fare with that card https://www295.americanexpress.com/c..._c&benefitId=3 No Royal Caribbean on board credits, though.

Millon deFloss

Costco Travel offers some nice OBC's with Celebrity and RCCL (not sure about others). They also allow OBCs to be "pyramided" or combined with OBCs offered directly by the cruise line for on-board future cruise booking or other incentives.

Often1

If this wasn't disclosed to you when you purchased the shares, you should ask RCC to "rescind" that is, buy back the shares at the original or current price, whichever is higher and if they won't, file a complaint with your state securities administrator.

If this was disclosed in the prospectus, you are out-of-luck, but the broader lesson is that shares in companies should be purchased for the equity growth and/or income, not side benefits. Depending on what you purchased, you might have made a whole lot more than $100 and could be cruising upscale from RCC.

bazers

Are you saying that you only get the stock perk (room credit) if it is your
first cruise on Royal Caribbean? I did get the $250 credit last year when
I sailed a 15 day cruise with them. But it was my first cruise on Royal
Caribbean.

HappyCoachFlyer

I've used the RCL stockholder credit several times... (in my case, on Celebrity). You cannot "combine" this stockholder credit with any other credit from RoyalC or Celebrity... ie: if Royal Caribbean has a promo going where you get (say a) $100 on board credit for booking a cruise cabin, then you cannot use the stock credit as well: it is either/or (but you can claim whichever one gives you the best benefit).

You can get this credit each time you book a cruise cabin with Royal or Celebrity; you can only use one stockholder credit per cabin (and you cannot combine it with any other incentive/credit offered by the cruise line).

As to me, I eventually sold my shares of RCL when the price others were willing to pay for my shares got (in my opinion) absurdly high.

MJonTravel

When I book a shorter cruise where I would not book a balcony and take advantage of the other C&A discounts available, I've used the shareholder obc. Did so last weekend, in fact. As already said, the shareholder benefit is no longer combinable if you have any other type of promotional credit applied to your booking. It is what it is, and I take it when I can get it. Otherwise, I'll settle for the 200 percent gain I've enjoyed since buying the shares back when the world was ending and no one was ever going to take a cruise again. My only regret is that I did not buy more shares when I had the chance.

bj2757

Just wanted to point out that the "military benefit" (equal to the shareholder benefit - loved the $500 credit on our last 14 day cruise!) only applies on Princess cruises, Carnival cruises don't offer it.