Previously I wrote about Royal Caribbean’s Club Royale casino program and how it works. Its sister cruise line, Celebrity Cruises, has its own casino program, the Blue Chip Casino Club. How does it differ from Royal Caribbean?
In structure, they’re pretty close. In the case of the Blue Chip Casino Club, there’s six different tiers:
- Pearl: New members start here.
- Onyx: 2,500+ points
- Amethyst: 25,000+ points
- Sapphire: 100,000+ points
- SapphirePlus: 500,000+ points
- Ruby: 1,000,000+ points
Players earn one point per $1 on slots and point per $2 on video poker. Redeemable tier points are earned every $5 on slots and $10 on video poker.
Once you go through the math, for the most part the tiers are similar to Royal Caribbean’s Club Royale. However, there are a few key differences.
First off, at the Onyx level, you get waived transaction fees in the casino. This requires PRIME at Royal Caribbean, similar to the Amethyst level for Celebrity Cruises.
Second, at the Amethyst level you begin to qualify for guaranteed free play, based on your tier:
- Amethyst level guests, the greater of $100 or 5% of the previous sailing’s gaming activity
- Sapphire level guests, the greater of $500 or 10% of the previous sailing’s gaming activity
- Ruby level guests, the greater of $2,500 or 15% of the previous sailing’s gaming activity
At the Amethyst level you still get a free cruise for reaching a tier, just like Royal, but you also get an unlimited photo package. At the Sapphire level you qualify for a drink package as well.
So you actually end up getting a bit more, although if you play on one vs. another many of the perks will seem similar. You can visit the Celebrity Cruises website to see all of the perks and benefits.
One last thing – it appears the tier year is a bit longer than a year, if the website is communicating what it’s implying. So you may have a bit more time to level up and enjoy additional perks.
I just reached Amethyst, but nobody there is able to give me any information about how and when the Freeplay will be deposited (I assume automatically on day 1), how to redeem the photo package and what kind of free cruise (duration/cabin class) is available. It also really annoys me that BCC doesn’t have ANY online account whatsoever to keep track of activity. They don’t even send emails or notify you of a changed tier level. This is the most frustrating casino program I’ve ever dealt with.
Hey Stefan, I’m awfully sorry to hear of the troubles. Cruise lines in many cases do seem to be behind the technological curve when it comes to these things, and it’s a bit surprising when it comes to Celebrity given they have a sister line that has it under control most of the time. I hope these questions get worked out for you quickly!
Thanks Joshua! I was able to figure it out, basically you have to go to the cashier and get it in form of a voucher and sign for it. The photo department people know about the benefit and will activate it for you. The Freeplay offer is totally false advertisement just as Paul noted and I feel like Celebrity screwed me out of $400. I filed a complaint with the Florida Attorney General about this.
I understood that “gaming activity” meant the amount you played in the casino. Casino host on the Equinox (onboard now) said gaming activity means your losses, so at Amethyst level you get 5% of what you lost on the previous cruise. Disappointing!
Hey Paul, it makes sense that it’s based on losses, given the top tier gets 15% back. If they did it based on wagers they’d probably in many cases give out more than they take in, making it a perk they simply couldn’t afford to offer. It’s nice they offer it at all!
For freeplay you go to the cashier and tell them if you are playing slots or the tables. If slots, the $100 is put into your account which you can get when you tap your room key on the machine and go into your account. If tables, they will give you chips.
For the photo package — it is all the photos taken of you that you will get as a digital email from them after the cruise. I was told on the last cruise I was on in November 2022 that they didn’t do this anymore – but check with the photo department when you get on the ship.
For the free cruise – they will have a letter sent to your room telling you to go to the future cruise area to book it. They give you a veranda (the only thing that is offered) and the cost is $10 per day per person for the veranda room. The only other charge for the free cruise is the port charges and if you want to get insurance or prepay the gratuities.
Does Celebrity Blue Chip Club issue W2G forms for slot wins above $1199.99? I believe they report to the IRS.
Yes you would get a W2G, either while on the ship or mailed to you afterwards. I’m not sure their specific process but if they report it to the IRS, the paperwork is given to the player in some form as well.
My sister cruises a lot she is pearl on Celebrity and gets offers all the time for free cruises and has taken many of them, why is she getting these offers if she is only a pearl?
Hi Grace! Offers tend to be driven by level of play vs. status level. Casinos tend to be a revenue driver for cruise lines, and if they like what your sister is playing and how much she is playing, the offers will flow! It doesn’t tend to take a lot to start getting offers from a cruise line casino either.
sorry about this very basic question:
if i play slots and bet $1 a push am i getting 1 tier point or 5 tiers points? someone told me it is 5x points for each $1 bet.
i usually only play table blackjack, but i need $22,500 tier points to make saphire and my december cruise is my last chances.
Hi Alan – their website specifically says one tier credit per $1 wagered. You can verify that here: https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/casino/blue-chip-club
If they’re running some sort of promotion or tier multiplier, I’m not aware of one, but that would be the only way it’d be more than that.
Where the confusion may lie is there’s also the concept of a redeemable point, which is the comp points you can use for free play and so on. Those are earned at a 1 point per $5 rate, but since that doesn’t relate to your tier score, the only thing you need to make sure you do there is use those points before the end of a cruise, so you know you got your value out of them.
If I play table games and i bet 10.00 per had on average about 2 hours a day what level would I reach on a 12 day cruise
They don’t give a straight formula because it varies based on the edge of each game. But if it’s similar to sister line Royal, expect in the neighborhood of about 50 points per hour playing $10 per hand on Blackjack, for instance.