Who doesn’t want to spend their workday soaking up some sun and having a blast on a cruise ship? For some, that might mean taking a job aboard as part of the crew, but for this company of entrepreneurs, it means selling discount cruises to their friends – and then going with them for the ride.
What Is inCrusies?
At its core, inCruises is a basic MLM (multi-level marketing) company, similar to things like Mary Kay or Tupperware. Instead of selling makeup or kitchenware, inCruises partners are selling discounted trips on cruise ships all over the world. In another sense, however, inCruises is also like a timeshare company. In order to purchase these seemingly amazing deals, buyers must first purchase a membership into the club. The company markets this model as a “travel membership club”. Here’s how each level of the company works:
Discount Cruises for inCruises Members
The initial level, and the main product that inCruises partners sell, is the membership into the travel club. Memberships cost $100 per month, and that money is converted into 200 “cruise dollars” that allow members to book cruises around the world at discounted prices. There is a variety of cruise lines that participate with this program, and the cruise dollars never expire.
The membership cruises are divided into two types: Dream Cruises, which are hand selected by the inCruises staff, and Global Destination Cruises, which seems to be a catchall category for most everything else. Members can use their cruise dollars to pay for up to 50% of a Global Destination Cruise. Dream Cruises must be paid for by cruise dollars.
There are no limits to how many cruises can be booked in a year, and spouses can combine their cruise dollars if each is a member. In other words, for $200 a month, a couple can spend 400 cruise dollars towards a cruise that participates in the club. Let that roll over for a full year, and a couple could have 4800 cruise dollars to spend.
All in all, the membership definitely has it perks at first glance. But as with all buying clubs, there are some potential cons to be aware of, too.
Potential Member Pros
- Essentially, you are doubling your buying power each month with the conversion to cruise dollars. This means you could end up getting “2 for 1” cruises (a big selling point on the inCruises website), or a much nicer cruise for your money.
- As far as buying clubs go, inCruises goes out of their way to allow for combining points, bringing along non-member friends, etc.
- Cruise dollars are not considered a legal currency, so you don’t have to consider the “doubled” money as taxable income.
Potential Member Cons
- There is no way to pay for Dream Cruises out of pocket if you don’t have enough cruise dollars accumulated. You’ll have to wait till you do.
- You cannot pay more than $100 per month towards your account, so it may take you longer to save up for a Dream Cruise.
- You are limited to the cruises that the club offers; you can’t use your cruise dollars to get reimbursed for a cruise that isn’t offered by the club at all. This is the biggest concern that most potential members have – is there enough variety and are the available cruises worthwhile? There’s no way to tell without joining.
- There is no financial protection in the event that the company fails. According to the inCruises website, should the company fail, the money you have paid into the club will not be refunded. There is a 30-day guarantee for new members, and that’s it.
Get Paid to Cruise as an inCruises Partner
The second level of the inCruises business model is the MLM set up. Members can upgrade to “partners” who sell memberships. The more memberships they sell, the more commissions they earn. The model is very similar to most MLM companies, in which you can also recruit other partners to be part of your “partner team”, and earn a small commission on their sales as well. In addition to earning commission, partners can also reach a level where their monthly membership is totally free – they’ll earn 200 cruise dollars a month for nothing.
Because inCruises offers something worth real monetary value (membership into the travel club), it is not considered a pyramid scheme. However, it’s important to note that inCruises isn’t really offering a product itself, but rather just acting as a channel that allows people to save for and book cruises from other companies.
In addition to having the opportunity to make commissions, partners can also earn bonuses, and have access to online training that helps them become better salespeople within the cruise and travel industry. It costs a one-time fee of $195, plus a yearly fee of $95 to become a partner.
Just like being a member, there are potential pros and cons to becoming a partner with inCruises.
Potential Partner Pros
- Earn your cruise dollars for free, essentially getting free cruises each year.
- Bonuses are reported to be between $500 to $30,000 per month. Additionally, you get a bonus between $50 and $150 each time you sign up a new member.
- For every active member that is five levels down from you (meaning every member that you and your partner team down five steps on the pyramid have signed up), you earn commission.
- You also earn extra cruise dollars as part of your bonuses at times.
Potential Partner Cons
- In order to become an affiliate that earns the bonuses and commissions, you have to generate a minimum of $5,000 a month in sales – though this is hidden behind a complex system of selling memberships in groups of three or five on the website.
- Despite not being considered a pyramid scheme legally, it does still walk a fine line due to offering only access to deals, rather than a tangible product itself.
Conclusion
There is currently nothing else quite like inCruises, which makes it a very interesting prospect for those who like the idea of getting paid while they cruise. There are some concerns to consider, as well as quite a few potential benefits. Keep an eye on inCruises as the industry considers the model of travel-based MLMs.
Do I Join inCruises or Not?
It’s likely that after reading this review of inCruises you’re still not sure what to do. Do I join inCruises as a member? Do I join as a partner? Both? The bottom line is that you must take the information from this post and others and form your own conclusion.
But, this is what I would do…
If you’re looking to find low cost cruises, just book through Expedia instead. You can book any cruise, any time, and not be locked into some club with rules that may or not fit your needs. Besides, Expedia always has the lowest prices on cruises – here’s why.
If you want to get inside info on being an incruises partner, contact me here.
No incruises is not a scam. I joined as a partner about a year ago and it is a legitimate company. I’ve watched many webinars from their founder michael hutchison and they definitely try to inspire you to go out and enlist new members and partners. They also strongly encourage you to become a member yourself but I am not. I just wanted to make money – not be a cruise club member. But depending on your circumstance it might make sense for you to do both. I have managed to sign up a few people just by mentioning incruises to friends and explaining the offer. The key is to overcome people’s skepticism and convince them that the company is legit. incruises is a good fit for people that really like to talk about what they do to LOTS of other people – especially if you happen to know lots of older people with plenty of time and money.
After considering joining incruises for several months I finally took the plunge and joined. My wife and I have much more time now that we’re retired and we love to cruise. We haven’t accumulated enough cruise dollars yet to take a cruise but we’ve already got our next cruise planned. It’s nice being able to plan since you know how much you’re saving towards a cruise each month. And of course you get there twice as fast as you would otherwise since savings are doubled by incruises. One perk of being a partner is potentially getting your $100 monthly membership fee waived. This will require us to sign up 5 other members, but we think we can do this in time. So far, so good 🙂
Are you still with inCruises ?
Most “travel MLM” plans are either outright scams (such as TVI Express, owner arrested in India, declared illegal around the world), operated MOSTLY as pyramid schemes (YTB, kicked out of California and other states), and a few more that pretends not to sell travel (according to their Malaysian office, they only sell suntan lotions and souvenirs locally, and thus do not need MLM license), and one even sued blogger who complained about their deceptive and hard sell tactics (WorldVentures).
There is no margin in travel to support a MLM. Any so-called “travel MLM” is likely to be a pyramid or ponzi scheme. Can’t say for sure about incruises, but this business line does not have a good track record.
Hello!
Whot you think about Incruises?
If this company legal why does not have a good track record?
for people who want voyage and economize money
Thanks for all the reviews & comments!
For me just like any other business you have to have a good product that offers value. Every day people all over the world spend millions of dollars on cruises. Obviously they feel the value is there but not everyone can afford to go on cruises. inCruises offers a solution.
There is no cost to join and no contract and you can cancel anytime. It’s just basically a cruise savings account. You pay $100 per month and get $200 cruise dollars in your cruise savings account. You can use your cruise dollars to pay for over 5,500 cruises from all the major cruise lines including carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, Cunard, Norwegian, Princess… about 24 different cruise lines.
So the question is… Is investing $100 a month to get $200 cruise dollars a product of value? If you want to go on a cruise it sure is. Last year over 20 million people worldwide went on a cruise. I am sure every one of those people could have saved money through this club.
Looking at it long term over say five years you pay $100 a month or a total of $6,000 and you get $12,000 cruise dollars. inCruises price matches and actually they charge the same price as listed on the cruise lines web sites. You can go on a lot of cruises for $12,000.
Here is a five year plan of going on seven cruises and visiting over 30 new countries.
• Western Caribbean cruise 7 nights five new countries
• Alaskan cruise 7 nights one new country
• Eastern/Southern Caribbean 10 nights seven new countries
• Mediterranean cruise 10 nights six new countries
• Panama Canal cruise 15 nights six new countries
• Hawaiian Islands 10 nights five islands
• Baltic cruise 10 nights six new countries
inCruises also offers a partnership program but it’s not required. For $195 your first year and $95 a year after you can refer the membership to others. If five people join and remain active your membership dues are waived.
You don’t have to pressure anyone into joining just show it to them. It makes sense or it doesn’t.
Would you like to take your family on a cruise vacation every year. if you have 500 Facebook friends i am sure at least 10% would be interested in something like this.
If you get your “FIVE and FREE” then you could go years without making a monthly payment. That’s a $12,000 bonus over five years just for referring it to five friends…… and one of them can be your spouse.
There is also a very good compensation plan for sharing this with others.
inCruises in just over two years is now in 170 countries.
Cruise dollars never expire as long as you remain active. You also have a grace period of 12 months if you go inactive.
inCruises also offers a 14 day unconditional no questions asked money back guarantee.
Unlike most other companies inCruises offers just one product… buying cruise dollars at a 50% savings. Obviously the product has great value.
Joining as a partner can be very rewarding as well. Whether you become a partner to get your membership for free or to make a full time income that is your choice.
Go back to that list of my five year cruise plan. How hard would you work to get five people to join if you and your family could go on all those cruises? Would they be motivated to show it to others if they could go on those cruises for free?
The question of can you really get paid to cruise? With inCruises thousands of people are now cruising for free and most of them are getting paid to cruise.
incruises just had their first person in the $100,000 club with many more to follow. That’s $100,000 per month meaning over $1 million a year…. just to share the membership with others.
inCruises is on a mission to make cruising more affordable for everyone. I think they have done very well in setting up this company to accomplish this goal.
I have been in the travel business for 22 years and looked at other business models such as YTB and World Ventures. YTB was good as far as allowing the everyday person an entry into the travel business and many people worked hard to get as much knowledge as they could. You had to recruit or sell travel to make money. many of their people are still in travel now.
World Ventures has four main problems. Your money doesn’t mature and become usable until a year after it’s paid in as dues. It expires one year after that. (USE IT OR LOSE IT). You can only pay a certain percentage of the cost of the trip using your WV money. The dream trip might cost $2,000 but you could only pay 15% of it or $300 using money from your account. The rest went on a credit card. You were very limited as far as dream trip offerings.
With YTB and World Ventures there is very low retention because of the limitations and work involved.
inCruises has very high retention based on it’s business model. Retention of customers and partners is if you want to cruise for free or make money in travel.
I would like to clarify a few things about the original post.
First inCruises does not sell discounted cruises nor does it claim to. They actually say they don’t. The savings comes from using your cruise dollars which you have accumulated at a 50% discount.
Second, it is nothing like a timeshare. While timeshares do serve a purpose and some people like them they do have their faults. They are legally binding contracts that non payment goes on your credit record. Even if you have paid in thousands of dollars and just want to “turn it back in”. There is also the annual maintenance fee whether you go on the trip or not. With timeshares you can book a week and double up but weeks do expire if not used.
With inCruises there is no contract, no initiation fee and cancel at any time. Nothing negative on your credit.
Thirtd inCruises does not have a very limited selection. They offer every cruise that all the major cruise lines offer. If you can book it on carnivals website you can book it through inCruises. Same goes for Disney, Royal Caribbean and all the others. Over 5,500 cruises in all.
The only cruises you are not able to book on the inCruises website are charter cruises that can only be booked through the charter site.
Fourth, you can always pay the difference with a credit card. Use as many cruise dollars as you have available and pay the rest with a credit card. A nonmember can cruise with a member in the same cabin and have the member pay the entire amount with cruise dollars.
Two members can share a cabin with each paying any portion with their cruise dollars.
Also there is only one membership level. Everyone pays $100 a month and gets $200 cruise dollars. Everyone has access to the same selection of cruises all at the same price. There is no platinum, gold and silver memberships like other companies that you have to pay extra for.
The tangible product that inCruises has are the cruise dollars. Think of them as cruise gift cards that never expire, good for many cruise lines, and you can’t misplace them. And you can buy them at a 50% discount. The membership is not the product.
For the business opportunity which is totally separate from the membership you start earning commissions right away.
Anytime someone joins as both a member and partner you get a commission paid within 24 hours.
For every five people you sign up as members in a month you get a $250 cruise dollar bonus.
Making residual income based on members monthly fees is very easy to understand and so is monthly bonuses.
The whole compensation plan I could fully explain in just ten minutes. It is very basic and easy to understand. Nothing complex at all.
inCruises does not walk a fine line at all. They offer a membership model that offers a tangible product, the cruise dollars. They do not discount cruises. They go out of their way to be very open and transparent.
They offer a business opportunity that is completely separate from their membership. You don’t have to be a member to be a partner and make commissions and bonuses.
I hope that I cleared up some questions people might have had.
You can only recruit people by not disclosing the true information of becoming a member. The membership is money to pay for your commission and to give away to its administration. The biggest RIPP OFF of low income people. They produce nothing and sell nothing.
Convince my that this company is legit. Has a physical head office with staff and hr department. Real phone number and fax, email.
How long in business and guarantees of any monies earned will e immediately returned upon company collapse. Tits up bankruptcy. Etc.
These are very important concerns and need to be addressed for me to begin to accept and believe in it.
Thanks for taking the time to view my comments.
Ken
Creston, BC. Canada.
I joined in cruises 2.5 years ago together with my wife, and feel very happy with this company. We are traveling at list 2 times a year without any additional expenses.
OK it is now June of 2019 and inCruises has over 150,000 members from 178 countries. The basics. Deposit $100 per month and the club matches it giving you $200 cruise dollars per month. After 6 months and $600 paid in you have $1,200 cruise dollars. Nothing hidden or deceptive. Cruise dollars never expire as long as you stay active, You can even go inactive for up to 12 months.
To book a cruise on any of 15 different cruise lines, 135 ships, 5,500 cruises per year, you can book with 100% cruise dollars or a mix of cruise dollars and credit card. If two members are staying in one room then each can provide cruise dollars from their account.
Refer five people that join and stay active and your monthly dues are waived every month.That’s not five new people every month just five that you referred that are active. It’s called Five and Free.
Right now there are over 5,000 members that are Five and Free getting $200 free cruise dollars every month. for more info go to michael.incruises.com
I heard that incruise is insured from some insurance company so if company have any issue you are still insure so your money is safe? is that true?
A few corrections as of Feb 2020, since this blog post is very old.
The article claims “There is no way to pay for Dream Cruises out of pocket if you don’t have enough cruise dollars accumulated.” This is not true. If you do not have enough cruise dollars, you can use your credit card to pay for the remainder.
There is no problem having enough cruises to select from. There are over 5,000 cruises available with no blackout dates from Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC, Disney, Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, Costa, Azamara, Cunard, Ocenia, Regent and more.
Partners do NOT have to generate a minimum of $5,000 a month in sales to be paid.
There is no “fine line” that InCruises is walking. It is a legal company in 178 countries and has been in business for over 4 years. InCruises maintains all license and certifications required in any USA state. InCruises remains a member in active good standing with CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) ever year.
It is inappropriate to associate InCruises with other travel scams, just like it would be inappropriate to compare your wife to prostitutes because both are women. InCruises stands on it’s own and is very different than other travel companies.
Also InCruises is not paying commissions based on “margins” as one comment suggested. Review the company, membership and compensation and see that there is no paying for recruiting because signing up a partner only pays nothing. All compensation is based on memberships.
You forgot to mention that after paying in for that six months you only can use 60 percent of that 1200 in cruise dollars so your actually only 100 dollars ahead
Congratulations on the fantastic article!
I have been part of inCruises for 2 years and it has been an incredible experience.
Greetings!
This discussion clearly shows that people have no clear idea of the rules and membership, i.e. level one as well as Partnership, i.e. level two. Bottom line why would anybody in clear mind give away cash to somebody when they can go to any Cruise Line and buy their cruise directly at any time, any destination and any discount.
My personal experience was simply shocking how much corruption there is, the so called Partners have to lie, make up stories and sell their souls to recruit five members to get their commission and free travel. That’s what the membership money do: your money pay for somebody to travel for free and get paid out of your pocket. A member has no right to travel when he wants, to choose the cruise he wants or leave the Club when he chooses. The member is trapped and alwayus looses time and money. How is this not a scam?
You can not leave the Club when wants?
If you join InCruises, you’ll never want to leave 😘
Dear Author, don’t forget to mention- InCruises have now celebrated its 5th birthday 🥳 and even though we are all going through some hard times, InCruises have been and still is very supportive to its members, all of our members got their refunds back 100%. No one lost money. Plus, cruise for free ? It’s true, sight up 5 ppl and you’re travels are free.
As a travel blogger and known passenger rights advocate in the EU, I hear at least every other week how someone has signed up to InCruises and can’t use the money due to multiple loopholes and info that wasn’t disclosed to them at sign up. Anyone who has ever read the Wikipedia article of what a pyramid scheme is, should be able to recognize that InCruises is exactly that, hint: “pay in 100 and get 200” and “recruit new members” should be enough to recognize that.
It’s just a “subscription”, no guarantee that you will be provided by a cruise or service. In case of 1 missed payment you will not be able to take any cruise. In case of no payments in 12 month account will be closed out with all cruise dollars. No money back indeed.
Hi! Thanks for your opinion and review. Be aware that that you have wrong information under yours “Potential Member Cons” Information that any one can verify.
You say 1: “There is no way to pay for Dream Cruises out of pocket if you don’t have enough cruise dollars accumulated You’ll have to wait till you do.” BUT thats a lie, you may pay your first month $100 dollars and take a cruise PAYING THE DIFFERENCE, Try it and you will see.
You say 2: You cannot pay more than $100 per month towards your account, so it may take you longer to save up for a Dream Cruise” BUT that does not matter if you can pay out of pocket for your cruise or double your savings by opening a membership for your wife or other family member.
You say #3: “You are limited to the cruises that the club offers; you can’t use your cruise dollars to get reimbursed for a cruise that isn’t offered by the club at all. This is the biggest concern that most potential members have – is there enough variety and are the available cruises worthwhile? There’s no way to tell without joining.” BUT again you are provididing false info, because you can register WITHOUT PAYING ANYTHINHG and see all the cruises, more than 5,500 cruise options around the world. Please try it, register on my linkhttps://rosadowilliam.incruises.com/signup , go to Cruise Section, go to find Cruise and let me know if you can not see our cruises.
You say #4 “There is no financial protection in the event that the company fails.” BUT again, if you go to incruises.com you will see at the botton of the page that Trust My Travel Company protect every dollar our members pay to Incruises in case of bankruptcy or anything else, so you do not loss your money if that happened. You can call Trusmytravel and ask about that. So we are fully protected.
That means, that if you take the time to chek my affirmations, you may see there that no one of your Cons are true.
I will have 2 years in November 2021, and already have 3 cruises of 7 or more days. What a tangible product I have. Please verify who is telling the truth, because you can miss a great opportunity by tergiversation of facts. (excuse English is not my first language, I try to save those who really wants to travel and earn money by telling them the truth.)
Don’t join I have been a member since 2018 missed no payments have not used me points except $400 I have to another member toward Thier cruise. I have over 3500 of my own cash invested into this company and come covid I have not been able to use any due to the vaccine mandates. My family cannot cruise due to medical and religious believes until vaccines are not mandated and that may never go away. I stopped my membership fees in Sept and just found out December that InCruises is changing Thier business model to a horrible one. No longer will you save 50% off cruises. Example let’s say you book a $2400 cruise. With incrusies you will get 1 credit for every $1 you spend so you will have $2400nin your account but you will have to always pay 50% of your cruise out of pocket which really screws of those who joined early with the thought of never paying out of pocket for a cruise again other then what they invest in thier membership. Basically you will keep accumulating credits and book one spendy or multiple cruises to use them always paying 50% of your cruise out of pocket on top of what you pay as a credit. To top that off I was told December that they are allowing anyone who has been in 36 months or more, never booked a cruise and was still active as if November 1st to be able to claim a refund. Which sucks for many of us. I believe this is going to end up in the Florida state attorneys eyes. If you feel like you have been taken for a ride with this company please submit a report to floridas state attorney S I am doing enough customers complain they may take our case.
I asked for a refund. Cannot get it. They credited half to my American card. Still owe me 1200 which they sent a Visa card that has no money deposited on it. I’ve been emailing asking for the remainder and get no response at al
I would stay away from them.
I’m in the same situation, trying to get money refunded, no response and can not speak to someone directly, only through emails! Frustrated!