rewrite this title Is a Royal Caribbean Credit Card Worth It? – NerdWallet

For either card to pay off, though, you need to cruise often enough and spend enough on board to get more value than you would from a flexible general travel card. Here’s how to determine whether a Royal ONE card is right for you.

Beyond that, you’ll find benefits such as priority boarding, anniversary cruise discounts and travel protections. The $99 annual fee Royal ONE Plus™ Visa Signature® adds even more perks for cruise enthusiasts. Here’s how the cards compare.

Cruise one of the three brands once a year, and the bonus points add up fast, whether you redeem them against your fare or what you spend on board.

The Royal ONE Visa Signature card earns 3 points per dollar on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea purchases. The Royal ONE Plus Visa Signature card bumps that to 4 points per dollar on the same purchases.

Points are worth 1 cent each and can be redeemed across all three brands for either cruise discounts or onboard credit you can spend on specialty dining, beverage packages, Wi-Fi, shore excursions and more. Points don’t expire, and there’s no cap on what you can earn each year.

Both cards also waive foreign transaction fees, which is valuable if your itinerary includes international ports.

Both cards let you redeem points two ways: as a discount on a cruise booking or as onboard credit you can spend on beverage packages, specialty dining, Wi-Fi, shore excursions and similar extras.

It’s also worth using the card for onboard purchases while you sail, since those charges count as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Silversea spending and earn bonus rewards. The more you put on the card during a cruise, the faster your points stack up for the next one.

Both cards offer an anniversary cruise discount — with a spending requirement. The Royal ONE card gives you a $100 discount after $10,000 in purchases within the prior year, which works out to roughly $833 a month.

The Royal ONE Plus card raises that threshold to $200 after $20,000 in spending, or about $1,667 a month. If you’re already using one card for most of your household purchases, either threshold may be reachable without changing how you spend.

The Plus version adds priority suite boarding, priority luggage handling and a statement credit of up to $120 every four years toward TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. If you don’t have another card that offers a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credit, that benefit covers more than the annual fee on its own.

The boarding and luggage perks are harder to put a dollar value on, but cruisers who’ve waited in long embarkation lines know what they’re worth. Boarding sooner means you can start exploring the ship and settling in before the main rush hits.

A Royal ONE credit card isn’t the right fit for everyone, even some who cruise often. Here are some situations where it might not make sense:

Onboard charges earn 3 or 4 points per dollar as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Silversea purchases, and that’s a big part of how points add up during a sailing. If you stick to what’s included in your fare, you’ll earn most of your points only on the cruise booking itself, which makes it harder to justify either card over a more flexible travel card.

You have to meet a certain spending threshold to earn either card’s anniversary cruise discounts, which may mean consolidating most of your purchases onto a single card to earn them. If you’d rather use multiple cards to take advantage of their different bonus rewards categories and benefits, the spending requirement could become an obstacle.

Credit card rewards can’t keep up with credit card interest, regardless of the value they offer. Both cards come with potentially high APRs, and if you carry a balance from month to month, any value you get from the card’s rewards and benefits may be neutralized.

A Royal Caribbean credit card can be worth it if you cruise Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Silversea regularly and put enough spending on the card to earn the anniversary discount. The Royal ONE Plus card is the better fit if you’d use the priority boarding, priority luggage and TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credit often enough to offset the annual fee.

But if you only cruise occasionally or sail with different cruise lines, you’ll likely earn more flexible rewards with a general travel credit card.

About the author