How Club Royale tier credits Work (And Why Families Should Care)

Last Updated October 2026

Here’s the number that changed how our family cruises: 2,500. That’s how many Club Royale tier credits it takes to reach Prime status – the first Club Royale tier that comes with a free cruise every year. It sounds like a lot until you break it down, and then it looks a lot more like four or five normal sailings.

If you’ve read our Plain-English Guide to Casino Royale, you know the big picture. This article is the “how does it actually work” companion: what Club Royale tier credits are, how you earn them, how they differ from the points you spend onboard, and how a family can plan around them without turning a vacation into a second job.

DISCLAIMER – Always be responsible with casino play, and never bet more than you can afford to lose or have planned to spend for in your entertainment budget. See our Responsible Gaming Page.

What you’ll learn in this Article

• What Club Royale tier credits are and how they differ from reward points
• How you earn them on slots, video poker, and table games
• The four Club Royale tier levels: Choice, Prime, Signature, and Masters
• What 2,500 credits looks like across a year of family sailings, and what it costs us
• Why Prime matters for families, even if you only play a little
• How to track your credits before, during, and after each cruise
• Common mistakes that cost you credits
• FAQs, including how long credits take to post

What Are Club Royale tier credits?

A Club Royale tier credit is a point you earn from casino play on a Royal Caribbean cruise that counts toward your tier (Choice, Prime, Signature or Masters) for the April 1 to March 31 casino year.

Every time you play in Casino Royale with your SeaPass card, you earn two things at once: reward points and tier credits. They’re earned the same way and at the same rate, but they do different jobs:

• Reward points are the “spend it now” currency. They can be redeemed during your sailing for FreePlay or onboard credit. Reward points expire at the end of each sailing, so they don’t carry over to the next cruise. (Onboard credit has a minimum redemption of 5,000 points, which most casual players will not hit – so for us, reward points are mostly about a minor FreePlay bonus, not savings.)
• Tier credits are the “build it over time” currency. They add up across the casino year and determine your tier status, which is what unlocks the annual free cruise and the other perks.

In everyday conversation, cruisers use “points” for both Club Royale tier credits and Club Royale Rewards Points. That’s fine, and we’ll do it too for the rest of this article. Just keep in mind that when someone says “I need 2,500 points for Prime,” they mean Club Royale tier credits – the ones that accumulate and count toward status.

Two more rules worth knowing up front. First, you don’t earn Reward Points or tier credits on FreePlay or promotional play – so playing with a free-play offer is fun, but it doesn’t move you toward a tier. Second, a few entertainment-style games don’t earn credits at all: Royal Caribbean lists the Coin Pusher, Key Master, Cash Crane, and Texas Hold’em Poker as exclusions.

How You Earn Club Royale Tier Credits

How fast you earn depends on what you play. Here are the official rates:

Game type	How credits are earned
Slot machines	1 tier credit for every $5 “coin in”
Video poker	1 tier credit for every $15 “coin in”
Table games	Based on the type of game, your average bet, and how long you play (a casino host rates your play)

“Coin in” is the part that surprises people. It means the total amount you cycle through the machine, including your own winnings that you put back in. It is not how much you lose. If you play $0.50 spins and make 1,000 spins, that’s $500 of coin in for 100 Points – even if you finish the session roughly even.

For table games, there’s no single formula, which is why you’ll see a range of estimates online. A commonly reported ballpark is around 10 credits for an hour of blackjack at a $10 average bet, but your results will depend on the game, how long you play, and how the host “rates” your play (estimates your average bet).

The Tier approach shows what Casino Royale and the other casinos truly value – how much they EXPECT to make off of your play.  Since the house edge is small for any one bet, the Club Royale program directs rewards to players who play steadier and longer than those who make just a few large bets and walk away – even if the steady player is a “low roller” with smaller bet sizes.

What does it mean to “be rated”?  Casinos “rate” you based on your average bet size.  In slots this is automatic, but on table games rating occurs one of two ways.  Either the tables themselves will have technology to track your bets (Blackjack tables, for example, may have RFID readers in the areas where you place your bet – allowing precise tracking), or a Supervisor may watch your play and enter manually into the computer (very common in Craps).

Key information to get rated and never “waste” your action:  On slots, you have to insert or tap your SeaPass card before you play, and at tables you hand your SeaPass to the dealer so your play gets rated. Forgetting the card is the number one way people lose credits they’ve already “paid” for.

Club Royale Tier Levels: Choice, Prime, Signature & Masters

The casino year runs April 1 to March 31. Credits accumulate across that whole window, and your total decides your tier:

Tier	Tier credits	Headline perk
Choice	1 – 2,499	Everyone starts here. Earn and redeem points, receive offers
Prime	2,500 – 24,999	Annual interior cruise for 2, free drinks when the casino is open (even if not gaming),  and waived fees for Cashless Wagering using our Seapass
Signature	25,000 – 99,999	Annual balcony cruise, plus extras like $350 boutique credit
Masters	100,000+	Annual Grand Suite cruise and top-tier perks

For a family of four who sails a few times a year, Prime is the one that matters. Signature takes 25,000 credits – which, at $5 per credit on slots, means cycling $125,000 through the machines. That’s a different kind of player than us. Prime, at 2,500 credits, requires 90% less coin-in and gives only a few new benefits (slightly better cabin for our annual cruise perk, better discounts for Jewelry and Spa, 1 day of WiFi for one device).  We cover it in depth in our Prime Status Guide [Coming Soon!].

Everyone starts at Choice, and you don’t have to do anything to join. Use your SeaPass while you play and you’re in.

What 2,500 Credits Actually Looks Like

Let’s make the Prime math concrete. On slots, 2,500 credits means about $12,500 in coin in across the casino year. That sounds big until you spread it over multiple sailings.  While this article is not focused on “Marketing Offers,” it’s worth pointing that steadily earning towards Prime (500 Points or more each sailing) is likely to get you enough offers to afford multiple sailings.

Sailings in the casino year	Credits per sailing (per person)	Total
3	850	2,550
4	650	2,600
5	500	2,500

Our family targets 800 – 1,200 combined points between my wife and me on each sailing, and we typically play about two hours on each full day. That’s the pace that makes the system work for us. We typically cruise every 4 – 5 times a year – always on casino offers and usually using the Two Room Strategy – and enjoy gaming and taking advantage of the earned benefits.

What does our strategy cost? The honest answer is “it depends on luck,” but here’s a way to think about it. Over time, the casino keeps a small percentage of everything you cycle through – the house edge. As a purely illustrative example, if you assume an 8% edge on slots, $12,500 of coin in has an expected cost of about $1,000. Some trips you’ll finish ahead; some you’ll finish behind – or hit your budget before you get to your point total. 

We’ve crunched the numbers and find that our Dual Prime Family approach is expected to cost $5,000 per year, or about $1,000 per cruise.  Taxes and Fees average to $115 per person, for a total budget of $1,460 per cruise (or $1,230 when it’s just my wife and I).  

With most 4 person cruises on kid-oriented boats (that is – those with slides, ice-skating rinks, carousels, etc.) coming in at $2,500 all-in for interior rooms, our strategy gets us 5 oceanview/balcony cabin cruises per year for the retail cost of 2-3 interior cabin cruises.  

Now, the tables can run hot or cold, but it’s nice knowing that even if we lose we rarely pay more than the retail price of the current cruise.  And we’ve each had gaming wins as well, with my wife once leaving VERY “up” for the trip on slot machines.  So we practice good budgeting, manage our bankroll closely, and live with the ebbs and flows while enjoying our gaming and its perks. 

The point isn’t that Prime is “free.” It’s that you can estimate the expected cost up front, set a budget, and compare it against the value you get back: a free annual cruise, free drinks while you play, and better offers. Treat any gaming budget as entertainment money – spend only what you planned to spend.

Why Families Should Care About Club Royale tier credits

Here’s where this stops being a casino-nerd topic and becomes a family-budget topic.

1. Prime gives you a free cruise every year. The annual benefit is a complimentary interior stateroom for you and one guest on one cruise per year – you pay the taxes, fees, and gratuities. That’s real value, and it’s guaranteed once you reach Prime (unlike targeted offers, which can dry up without warning).

2. It stacks with your family plan. If both parents earn their own Prime status, that’s two annual cruises. For a family of four, two double-occupancy cabins is exactly what our two-cabin strategy needs. We walk through it in The Two-Cabin Strategy [Coming Soon!].

3. Credits help you plan which offers to chase. When you know where you stand for the year, you can decide whether to play a little more on a particular sailing or relax and focus on playing for fun.

4. Status lasts beyond the year you earn it. Once you hit a tier, you keep it for the rest of the casino year and for the following casino year as well.  My wife hit Prime in September 2026, giving her all the perks for the next 19 months (until the end of March 2028).  Once we cross into April she will “reset” her points and have a year to re-earn her Prime status.  But during that time, she’ll still receive the perks that make this status valuable.

5. The small perks add up. Prime includes complimentary drinks at the Casino Royale bar anytime that the casino is open – you don’t even have to be gaming.  There is also a waived casino convenience fee (allowing you to charge casino withdrawals to your room for free vs. traveling with cash), discounts on VOOM internet, and exclusive family-and-friends rates.

A Simple Way to Track Your Credits

Credits don’t show up instantly. Allow 2 – 3 weeks after your cruise for them to post, then check your balance and offers on the Club Royale offers page. Here’s the lightweight system we use:

• Before you sail: Set a credit target for the sailing and a gaming budget you’re comfortable with.
• On board: Always use your SeaPass. Check the Instant Certificate QR code in the casino to see what each point level unlocks.  Tap/Insert your SeaPass into any slot machine to see how many points you’ve earned so far on the current cruise, and use that information to inform your further play.
• After you sail: Wait for credits to post and see your total points for the casino year on the Royal Caribbean app or website.  
• Each Quarter: Review where you stand towards your point goal ahead of the April 1 reset. Adjust your planned cruises and budget accordingly.

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting the SeaPass. No card, no credits.  If you’ve lost your SeaPass, Guest Services will print you another one.
• Forgetting that FreePlay doesn’t count. Freeplay is fun and you can win actual money, but it doesn’t count towards points.
• Assuming credits carry over. Reward points expire at the end of the sailing, and tier credits reset each April 1.
• Not updating your email with the casino host. Offers go to the email on file.
• Chasing credits with money you didn’t plan to spend. Never worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are “reward points” and “tier credits” the same thing?

They’re very close to the same.  They’re earned together and at the same rate, but they work differently. Reward points are redeemable and expire at the end of your sailing. Tier credits accumulate over the casino year and determine your status.

Do I have to win to earn tier credits?

No. Credits are based on how much you cycle through slots or how you’re rated at tables – not on whether you win or lose.

What happens on April 1?

The casino year resets. tier credits start over at zero for the new year, but over the new year you retain your previous year’s status..

Can my spouse and I combine our credits?

Tier credits are tied to each person’s own Club Royale account, so they don’t combine. That’s why we plan for each parent to build their own status. (Players in the same stateroom can combine reward points for onboard credit, but not for FreePlay.)

How many Club Royale tier credits do I need to get a free cruise?

You don’t need tier status to get a free cruise – Instant Certificates and targeted offers are based on play. But Prime (2,500 credits) gets you a guaranteed annual cruise. See our Plain-English Guide for the three ways to earn free cruises.

How many Club Royale tier credits do I need for Prime?

You need 2,500 tier credits within one casino year, which runs April 1 to March 31. On slots, that’s about $12,500 of coin in, since you earn 1 credit per $5. Spread across four or five sailings, it comes to roughly 500 to 650 credits per sailing, per person.

How long do tier credits take to post? 

Allow two to three weeks after your sailing ends. Check your balance in the Royal Caribbean app or on the website. If your credits still haven’t posted after that, contact Club Royale customer support.

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