What Did My FREE Princess Southern Caribbean Medley Cruise Really Cost?

So how should free travel be defined? I have had some argue with me that these comp cruises aren’t free.

When can you say that a cruise is free? I say that because the cabin was $0 and I only had to pay $160 to cover taxes and fees. And since this is a cruise, not only does that take care of lodging but that also includes a fair number of meals when you are on a ship…so I stand by calling this a free cruise.

One of the reasons why I am so transparent about my trips is to show what my true costs and savings look like so you can make truly informed decisions. And while I do agree that there are other costs associated with these comped cruises and they can quickly add up, I will continue to argue that a comped cruise is in fact: free.

So let’s dive in deeper and see what I ended up spending on my Princess Cruise Line (PCL) comp cruise and you can let me know if you agree with me calling it free!

Confused and/or wondering how I got a casino comp cruise in the first place? Here’s the overview for how I got my Casino Status Match Jackpot and here’s how I got this specific Princess comp.

Casino Comp Cruise Details

• Cruise Line/Ship: Princess Cruise Lines / Enchanted Princess
• Stateroom Type: Interior
• How was Comped Cruise Obtained: Direct match to Princess
• Cruise Itinerary: Southern Caribbean Medley – 10 Nights/11 Days
• Dates: December 30, 2024 – January 9, 2025
• Included in Comped Cruise Offer:
  • Cruise fare for two comped

What The Cruise Would Have Cost if I Paid Cash

Cruise fare (for two/no solo supplement is charged*) for a Princess interior at the time that I booked my casino comp. The bottom left is cost for two people in an interior / bottom right pic is the price for a solo sailing

TOTAL: $3,855 (solo) or $4,014 (two guests in cabin)

What is the Minimum My “Free” Cruise Would Have Cost?

Cruise fare (for two/no solo supplement is charged*) for this interior stateroom was $0 as it was a comp cruise.

I did have to put down a deposit; for Princess, the $200 deposit is non-refundable if you cancel after 24 hours but becomes non-refundable onboard credit once you sail (what that means is that once I get on the boat I have $200 that I can spend towards almost anything on the boat but have to use it/cannot cash out when the cruise ends). As you may have noticed that I originally had a friend that was coming but couldn’t make it after all so they did lose out on the $200 deposit. Princess does have you pay the taxes and fees on a casino comp which were $160/person for this sailing (these were refunded back when my friend was unable to make the sailing)

Princess does impose a crew appreciation/daily gratuities charge that was $17 based on staying in an interior room or $170 in total for the 10 nights

TOTAL: $330 ($160-taxes/port fees + $170-daily gratuities)

What I Actually Paid for My Comp Cruise

I decided to opt for the Princess Plus package (which is covered in more detail in this post along with other things I wish I knew about Princess prior to sailing). My rationale for getting the package was that I was going to opt for WiFi which was $30/day and that combined with the $16/day crew appreciation meant that I would need to spend $14/day to break even for the package – which would be easy to do since this ship had a smoothie/juice bar.

TOTAL: Spend $1,081.00 – including additional tips to staff {$140 room attendant tip & $80 in misc staff tips.}

Was I Able To Get Any Additional Savings and Where Did They Come From?

• $50: AARP Discounted PCL Gift card: Unfortunately AARP has stopped offering these but I had bought one before that happened and was able to use it on this sailing.
• $0: Amex Offer: While technically this isn’t saving $, for travel hacking purposes, this is better with getting points.
• TOTAL $50 Cash savings and additional 17,500 AMEX MR points earned

Can You Upgrade Your Cabin on a Comp Cruise? Anything Else To Know?

Yes, you are able to when you book your cruise with varying costs based on itinerary – I did not inquire about upgrades so unsure what costs would have been at booking.

Based on what occupancy looks like there are two possibilities that might occur as the sailing date gets closer. 1 – when there are stateroom types to fill, you may get upgrade offers or 2 what happened for me: if a cruise or cabin type is sold out, I interestingly got a move over offer.

As you can see by the terms that was not too enticing since I was on a casino comp. Hilariously I tried to negotiate to have them agree to an alternate Caribbean voyage up to 14 days with all the other terms remaining but was told “Thank you for your interest but I’m sorry to say that the offer is no longer available”.

The move over offer was emailed December 27, 2024 at 10:51 MST and I responded 12/28/24 at 7:40AM MST and received a response that day at 9:40 AM MST.

Final Thoughts

In summary, I think of a comped cruise offer like booking a hotel room on points, it takes care of lodging for X # of nights and some meals but I know that there will be additional costs like other meals and activities on a trip but I still consider the hotel room to be free. And in that vein, I have found the comped cruises to be very cost effective for me and loved that I was able to book a warm Caribbean cruise over New Years!

What do you think about saying the cruise is free? Have you done any comped cruises yourself?