cruises

We started retirement with a bang! A monthlong trip that included multiple cruises, high-speed trains, business class flights, and multiple countries. Now that’s how you do retirement travel!

And you’ll be amazed at how little it cost the two of us thanks to various loyalty programs, travel hacks, and a bit of advanced planning. Keep reading to find out how you, too, can launch your retirement with the trip of a lifetime like we did.

The Freedom Strategy is all about transitioning from the life you have to the life you want. And our transition started with an amazing month of incredible travel.

Our Trip in a Nutshell

Our trip last fall took us from:

• the beaches of Florida to
• a transatlantic cruise that visited 3 countries to
• luxury train rides across Spain to
• bus rides to Portugal to
• another cruise that stopped in the best ports along the coasts of Portugal and Spain and finally,
• a business class plane trip home back to the US.

Whew! That was a lot. It took a month. And cost a fraction of what you’d expect. So how did we do it?

Casino Programs For Free Travel

Now don’t go shaking your head at this one, thinking we must be big rollers to get free travel through the cruise casinos. We’re not. In fact, it’s surprising how little “face time” in the casino needs to happen to get free future cruises.

The first leg of our epic trip was a free 21 day transatlantic cruise. And we loved every minute of it. (To be clear, we did pay the taxes and port fees, as well as gratuities.)

But there are some tricks to making sure you do get offered free cruises for retirement travel.

1. First, and most important, do not ever gamble with money you cannot afford to lose. I know that probably goes without saying, but no free future cruise is worth losing money you can’t afford to lose.
2. Sign up for the casino program – most cruise lines have a separate casino department so be sure to ask if you need to sign up. A few sign you up automatically as soon as you play a casino game or slot machine, but be sure to ask and enroll in the program if necessary.
3. Play in the casino. You do not need to play a lot. But you do need to play some. I started getting offers for free cruises after only play a couple of hours on a 7 night cruise.
4. You do not need to bet “big.” But it’s best to play for longer at one sitting than it is to play a bunch of 5 minute sessions. So, keeping your budget in mind, try to play for an hour or so at a time if possible. Do this two or three nights on the cruise and your future offers will start coming in.
5. Be nice – Such a silly thing to say, right? But trust me on this. Making the “pit boss” at the table games your friend goes a long way. This is the floor supervisor who is in charge of the table games in that section. This is also the person who will eventually rate your play. The higher he or she rates you, the more the casino will offer you.
6. Have fun – fun begets fun. When others see you having fun, they will join you so they can have fun. The “pit boss” will definitely notice if you’re the type of person who brings others to the table. And your rating will go up.
7. Keep an eye on your email – after the cruise where you signed up for the program, make sure to check your “promotions” email often. That’s where the offers come. And when they come, book them immediately! They do disappear.
8. Enjoy your next “free” or highly discounted cruise. (And send me a pic when you’re on one! I’d love to see it! )

Use Loyalty Programs For Retirement Travel

Loyalty program benefits can add up in a big way. Nearly every travel carrier offers some type of loyalty program – airlines, cruise lines, hotels, rental cars, and even trains.

And many of these programs offer cross-benefits to partner programs. We took advantage of our loyalty status with Royal Caribbean Cruises for this leg of the trip. (This was the second cruise in our monthlong adventure.)

Although we were not on a Royal Caribbean Cruise on this trip, we were able to transfer our status benefits to the Celebrity Cruise we did take. With this benefit, we were able to get a free room upgrade plus free cocktails during happy hour, saving us several hundreds of dollars.

Travel Credit Card Benefits

This article would be way too long if I told you about all the ways we maximize our travel credit card benefits. So I’ll stick to the benefits we used on this trip to keep it concise. (I’ll have to write another article about the many ways we use our credit card points and benefits. It’s truly remarkable!)

We have two travel credit cards – The American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred. We use whichever one will give us the best rewards for that particular purchase. Then we cash in on those rewards. (Learn how to perfect the art of travel credit card points here.

How To Use Credit Card Perks for Travel

The Amex Platinum card offers the best travel perks. It’s also the most expensive card we have. And worth every penny. We also use the Chase Sapphire card for travel perks. So, how do we use those benefits for retirement travel?

• Airport Lounges – We get access to all kinds of lounges at airports around the world. The Amex Centurion Lounges are top notch with wonderful food and a huge variety of beverages. This alone saves us money because all the food and beverages are included (for the most part) and we don’t need to buy expensive airport food and drinks.
• Hotel Perks – American Express partners with Fine Hotel and Resorts as well as the Hotel Collection. Both are available when booked through American Express Travel. The perks include everything from early check-in, late check-out, free breakfast and a $100 on-site experience credit, depending on which hotel you choose. These perks provide enormous value to us.
• Free Air Travel – We use American Express and Chase Sapphire cards to accumulate points that we then transfer to various airlines. This is how we get free flights to almost anywhere in the world. I used our American Express Membership Rewards points to get our free business-class flights from Spain back to the United States.

Public Transportation

Great public transportation is available in many travel destinations around the world. We take advantage of it whenever we can. And it saves us a ton of money.

On our epic October month-long adventure, we used subways, railways, high-speed trains and buses. All of those options were significantly cheaper than taxis, Ubers, or hopper airplanes.

Vacation Rentals

We spend a fair amount of our retirement travel in vacation rentals (VRBO and AirBnB) for many reasons. (Check out my post on how we use our own Vacation Rental Business Plan to finance our retirement travel.)

These are typically cheaper than hotels, especially if you are staying more than 2 nights. Most of them also have kitchens so we can eat the majority of our meals in, rather than eating every meal at a restaurant.

Finally, most vacation rentals are located within the local community but are still near local attractions. This allows us to eat where the locals eat, shop where the locals shop, and still provides easy access to the things we want to see. It’s a win-win.

Make The Most Out Of Retirement Travel

And there you have it! A summary of how we were able to travel for an entire month for a fraction of the cost of staying at home.

The best way to make the most out of your retirement travel is to plan ahead a bit so you can use your loyalty status on airlines, hotels, and credit cards, but also be spontaneous to take advantage of last-minute deals (this is particularly true for cruises).

And most importantly – just get out there and do it! You won’t regret the memories you make.