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In the short story "A Rose for Emily," would Emily have benefited from winning some kind of a cruise? If so, how?

Interesting question LOL!  I cannot imagine Emily winning a cruise, but if she did, I do not think she would enjoy it at all.  In fact, I am sure she would not go.  As much of a recluse as she is, she would not want to go.  If she did go, she would definitely make everyone else miserable. 

Perhaps if it were a singles cruise where she could forget being "shunned" by Homer Baron and bring home a respectable husband to fill his spot, winning a cruise would have had some restorative powers.  Keep in mind, however, that southern ladies did not spend much time in the horrid sun since they knew it ruined a lady's translucent skin.

I doubt it. Emily had out-of-town relatives, and she never visited them. Also, as a southern lady in her era, she would have needed a traveling companion, but she didn't have any friends or close relatives to go with her. She was too set in her ways to make a change that big.

Also who's to say she wouldn't meet a string of Homers?  The boudoir described at the end could become far too crowded!

Building on your imagination, lets say that Emily won the cruise just about the same time or just before she set her eyes on Homer Barron.  Emily was in the right frame of mind to meet someone at that time.  Had she gone on the cruise then, and met someone, Homer Barron would not have been murdered.  Miss Emily would have found happiness, married the man she met on the cruise and came home to fix the run down house.

The town would have regarded her with great respect for the fact that she met a nice Southern gentleman on her cruise down the Mississippi.  Rewriting Faulkner with a modern twist, to save an old spinster from a life of loneliness.