Double Crown & Anchor Points Are Back — What It Means If You Cruise on Comps
Double Crown & Anchor points are back, and if you cruise the way we do — for the perks — there is one line in the fine print you need to read before you get excited.
Royal Caribbean has revived its double Cruise Points offer. It is a genuinely good deal. It is also not the deal most casino cruisers assume it is, because the offer specifically excludes the kind of booking a lot of us are used to making. Here is what it actually says, and how we plan to use it around our comps rather than on top of them.
What the offer is
This is a Crown & Anchor Society promotion — the cruise loyalty program, the one that counts nights sailed. It is not a Club Royale casino promotion, and the two programs do not feed each other. If that distinction is new to you, start with Two Ladders at Once: Club Royale + Crown & Anchor, because it is the single most misunderstood thing about cruising for perks.
Under the offer, you earn double Cruise Points per night:
- A standard stateroom normally earns 1 point per night. Under the offer, 2.
- A suite — or sailing solo while paying the double-occupancy rate — normally earns 2 points per night. Under the offer, 4.
On a 7-night sailing, that is 14 points instead of 7. If you are sitting at 66 points staring up at Diamond (80), one well-timed week gets you there instead of leaving you 7 short.
The dates
Royal Caribbean Blog reported on September 9, 2026 that the revived offer covers new bookings made September 9–21, 2026, for sailings departing October 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027, on itineraries of 9 nights or fewer, up to two cruises per member.
One honest caveat: as of this writing, Royal’s own eligibility FAQ page still displays the terms of the earlier summer round of this promotion (booked July 21–31, 2026, for sailings September 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027, excluding transatlantic and transpacific crossings). The trade coverage of the new window is consistent and credible, but Royal’s page has not caught up. Confirm the current window with Royal or your travel advisor before you book on the strength of it. That is the kind of thing we would rather tell you than let you find out at final payment.
The line that matters if you cruise on comps
Here is the part we want to be very clear about, because it is the opposite of what a lot of people are assuming this week.
Royal’s own terms for the double points promotion read, verbatim:
“Not combinable with any offer or promotion including but not limited to complimentary cruises, employee cruises, casino offers, seminar rates, or travel agent reduced rates.”
Casino offers are excluded. If you book a sailing on a Club Royale comp, an instant cruise reward certificate, or a discounted casino rate from your offers page, that booking does not earn the double points. You cannot stack the free cruise and the doubled loyalty points on the same reservation. Anyone telling you otherwise has not read the terms.
We would love for it to work the other way. It doesn’t.
So how do you use comps alongside this?
You use them on different bookings — and you keep earning on both ladders at once on the paid one. That is where the real stacking lives.
1. On a paid double-points cruise, your casino play still counts
Crown & Anchor points come from nights sailed. Club Royale Tier Credits come from coin cycled through the machines. They are separate currencies earned from the same vacation. So on a cash booking made inside this window, you are earning doubled Crown & Anchor points for the nights and your normal Club Royale Tier Credits and Reward Points for every hour you spend in Casino Royale.
That is two ladders climbing at once, with one of them moving twice as fast. A comped sailing, by contrast, only ever moves the casino ladder — the Crown & Anchor side earns at the normal rate.
2. Your Club Royale tier perks travel with you regardless
Your tier belongs to you, not to the booking. Book at full fare under this promotion and you still walk aboard with whatever Club Royale status you have earned — the complimentary drinks while you are actively gaming at Prime and above, the waived convenience fee, the spa and jewelry discounts, the onboard credit at Signature and Masters. Paying for the cabin does not switch your status off.
3. Alternate the bookings across the season
This is what we are actually doing. The offer runs through sailings ending April 30, 2027, and allows two cruises. So: put the paid sailings inside the double points window, and spend the comps and certificates on the sailings outside it — the ones where the free fare is the whole point and the loyalty points were never the reason you went.
Worth knowing: an instant cruise reward certificate you earn on a double-points sailing books a future cruise at a casino rate. That future booking is a casino offer, so it won’t carry double points either. Plan the sequence accordingly.
The rest of the fine print
- New bookings only. Existing reservations do not convert.
- Two cruises maximum under the promotion.
- Provide your verified Crown & Anchor number at the time of booking.
- Points are typically awarded within 30 days after the sailing is completed, once the booking is paid in full.
- Repricing the booking forfeits the benefit, and at least one original member of the reservation must remain booked.
- Not applicable to the Best Price Guarantee.
- Points earned through this offer are ineligible for Points Choice transfer to Celebrity’s Captain’s Club or Silversea’s Venetian Society.
- The summer round excluded transatlantic and transpacific sailings; the current round is limited to 9 nights or fewer, which effectively rules them out anyway.
Is it worth it for a casino cruiser?
It depends entirely on where you sit on the Crown & Anchor ladder. If you are 10 or 20 points from Diamond, Diamond Plus, or Pinnacle, a paid week inside this window is the cheapest shortcut you will see for a while — and you are still building Club Royale credit the entire time you are on board. If you are nowhere near a threshold, or you were only ever going to sail on comps this season, the offer changes nothing for you and there is no reason to book a cash fare chasing it.
That is the honest read. We would rather you skip a promotion than book a cruise you didn’t need for points you weren’t going to use.
New to any of this? Start with Royal Caribbean’s Club Royale, Explained and The Club Royale Tiers, Broken Down, then come back and decide whether this one is for you. More of how we travel is over in The Travel Log.
Promotion terms are set by Royal Caribbean and can change without notice. Confirm all current terms directly with Royal Caribbean or your travel advisor before booking. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.