30 Days of Boat Drinks – Introduction
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Getting Informed
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Credit Card Plays
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Barclay Arrival Miles and Ultimate Rewards
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Membership Rewards and Cruise Privileges
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Shopping Strategies and Getting Booked
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Backup Plan
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Onboard Spending Strategies and Life On Board
30 Days of Boat Drinks – Conclusion
I talked around this at the Chicago Seminars, and I’ve alluded to it in a few blog posts, but I haven’t really put it out there. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a reader. He was looking for a way to spend 30 days on a cruise ship for “free,” paying for the cruise purely on points. My first thought was NWiH (for a semi-reasonable number of points), but I started poking around the interweb a bit, and the news was more encouraging. Depending on the time of year, the itinerary, and probably a few other factors, I was finding cruises 3/4/5 night cruises in the $149 per person range, sometimes less. Does anyone else remember the $149 trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise last year? I’m not finding anything that good at the moment which would make this easy….but things do change.
Now, to be clear, I’m not going to sea for 30 days. I do have a job, and not that much vacation time. But I am going to go through a few exercises over a series of blog posts to show that this can be done. Let’s lay down a few ground rules for my quest.
- I hope for this to be possible with no more than five or six credit card applications.
- At least one island visit outside of the Bahamas.
- Changing ships (i.e. walking off one ship and onto another the same day at the same port) during the 30 days will be considered fair play.
- Most cruise fares are based on double-occupancy. We’ll focus on paying for the fare of one person in this exercise, so you’re going to need to find a roommate for your cruise to get the best deal. (If you get them to play the game with you, even better!)
This isn’t meant to be some television mini-series, but just one more data point on the miracle of miles and points. Flexibility will be a basic requirement for anyone to succeed at this, and I, of course, can’t guarantee anyone’s credit approvals if they decide to try. Couples working this together can benefit most. No matter what, I am convinced it’s doable. Now let’s see if I can make it happen in real time. Wish me luck, and stay tuned – Boat Drinks with MJ. 🙂
-MJ, October 16, 2013
One of the hotel chains, I think Starwood maybe , offers cruise redemptions. The points required are terrible and cruises limited but it would be free.
Another option would be to get a job on a ship. 🙂
MJ – I’ll be very interested in following along with this one.
I’m hoping to semi-retire within the next 5-10 years and have been kicking around the idea of spending six months or so cruising by linking together a bunch of short deeply discounted cruises. Been keeping an eye on vacationstogo.com and other sources and think I could probably keep the cost per day (fare, taxes, grats) around $100 per day average for a single in an inside cabin — but would love to learn how to use points to cut the costs even more.
Sounds very cool MJ! Good luck, we’ll be following.
I’m really looking forward to this as well. I’m a frequent cruiser on both RC and HAL so any tips/tricks to make future cruising more affordable is most welcome!
Looking forward to reading what you find. I don’t have a cruise planned for this year so I would be up for one, or two,or three……
Hi Jane. Were you in Chicago? I feel like I missed talking to a lot of people!