Casino rates

I booked a Caribbean cruise in Nov 2016 with casino rates and the 3 for Free promo. Now they have opened up other dates and I've tried to book a Caribbean cruise for spring of 2017 and the casino rate isn't appearing. What's up?

Rates aren't appearing for us either, maybe the promotion has ended. It was good while it lasted I saved enough on our next two cruises to book a third for next fall.

Rates aren't appearing for us either, maybe the promotion has ended. It was good while it lasted I saved enough on our next two cruises to book a third for next fall.

Glad I'm not the only one! Of course, the money I saved went into the casino :D

Just looked at a couple of cruises we are on to check prices and yes, the casino rate is gone. I thought it was going to last through the end of the year.

I hear Princess is starting a new sale October 6 so maybe that has something to do with it.

It's not showing for me any more either. It was great while it lasted. I have gotten the casino rate on three cruises.

It was still there on Thursday but it is gone today for all of my saved cruises. Hopefully it is just a computer glitch and it will come back again. It was gone for a while once before and then reappeared after a couple of days.

Same here and spoke to Princess who said the Casino rate ended 9/30:(

Could someone please give me a ballpark figure of the kind of money one needs to spend in the casino to get the casino rate offer? I am just really curious about that. Thanks :)

Could someone please give me a ballpark figure of the kind of money one needs to spend in the casino to get the casino rate offer? I am just really curious about that. Thanks :)

There's really no way of knowing. I think you also have to be, in most cases, platinum or elite to receive these offers. Some people have said they don't gamble much, others substantially more.

At any rate, it appears the casino discount may be gone.

I did get it on 3 cruises, with the best savings on my Panama Canal cruise next year.

Thanks, Nina. I can say we are not elite or platinum on any cruise line by a mile, and we would qualify as "not spending very much" lol. I think the most I have ever donated to the Casino is $100 per cruise, and maybe $250 for DH.

Needless to say we have never been offered anything from any casino!

I am never sure how different people interpret "not very much" as a casino spend -- for me, that's $50. For others, perhaps less. For others still, not very much could equal $500.

I would guess you'd have to spend several hundred to a thousand at least though, even if you are platinum or elite, for the company to warrant the free cruise, or drastically reduced price?

I know I was shocked when I received the offer... I do donate to the casino... slots are my drug of choice... I usually spend about $100 per cruise. Who knows how they decide?

For the "regular" casino ratings, for slots, you have to accumulate 3,000 points. That's a lot of gambling! But this wasn't the regular casino players club thingamajig...

I am never sure how different people interpret "not very much" as a casino spend -- for me, that's $50. For others, perhaps less. For others still, not very much could equal $500...

A man on my recent cruise on the Ruby won an $8,000 jackpot on a slot machine one evening. I happened to see him a day or two later in an elevator, and congratulated him on his win. He said he had lost it all by that time, and then some :eek:.

Same here and spoke to Princess who said the Casino rate ended 9/30:(

Apparently the rate is not a fixed thing. For some, it continues even now. (Me, for instance.) I think it might be capacity controlled, too, where there are only so many available on a given cruise. But no one knows anything for sure.

Could someone please give me a ballpark figure of the kind of money one needs to spend in the casino to get the casino rate offer? I am just really curious about that. Thanks :)

Why the rate is offered is a complete mystery. People who say they spend hundreds in the casinos complain they never saw the rate. People who dropped in once with a few dollars say they have it. There is no real answer to what it takes. The only thing we haven't heard is someone who never set foot in the casino getting the rate.

A man on my recent cruise on the Ruby won an $8,000 jackpot on a slot machine one evening. I happened to see him a day or two later in an elevator, and congratulated him on his win. He said he had lost it all by that time, and then some :eek:.

My husband and I won almost the same amount on our first ever cruise together. It was on the Holland America Statendam in 2004, our first night aboard. We are the type to gamble around fifty to eighty dollars a night.

We kept the cash and nervously carried it home. It paid for the cruise, airfare, Alaskan shore excursions, the new clothes we bought for the trip, and a new freezer for my mom!

My husband is willing to spend more than me while gambling, but he is fantastic at walking away a winner.

Could someone please give me a ballpark figure of the kind of money one needs to spend in the casino to get the casino rate offer? I am just really curious about that. Thanks :)

We limit ourselves to $100 a cruise, never more and on several occasion walked away up by double. Casino rate was only visible when booking with my CC# not my hubby's. Racked our brains and remembered he always buys in with cash and last year I bought in with my cruise card, this was the only thing we could come up with as we both play slots and tables.

My husband and I won almost the same amount on our first ever cruise together. It was on the Holland America Statendam in 2004, our first night aboard. We are the type to gamble around fifty to eighty dollars a night.

 

 

 

We kept the cash and nervously carried it home. It paid for the cruise, airfare, Alaskan shore excursions, the new clothes we bought for the trip, and a new freezer for my mom!

 

 

 

My husband is willing to spend more than me while gambling, but he is fantastic at walking away a winner.

Congrats; that's awesome!

Same here and spoke to Princess who said the Casino rate ended 9/30:(

This isn't true. I checked some cruises yesterday and it was still there. Remember, it's capacity controlled so the cruises you checked already reached capacity.

Could someone please give me a ballpark figure of the kind of money one needs to spend in the casino to get the casino rate offer? I am just really curious about that. Thanks :)

We don't even walk through the casino but we were offered the casino rate through an email. I thought it was a scam at first but then I referred to the cc threads for validity. We didn't take advantage of it because we found a better deal for the time and place we wanted to sail through Celebrity.

Thanks everyone for the replies -- such triumph (NYTeacher--congrats on that awesome win!) and tragedy (the poor fellow who gave it all right back and then some -- yikes) and tons of great info. Much appreciated. :)

This will be our first Princess cruise, although we have cruised Carnival and HAL twice each, played slots, used the cruise card to get money to play, and spent in the neighborhood of $50-250 per cruise. One of these days I have got to get a casino offer! (Lol, just like the slot machine -- one of these spins.. )

One more question, if I may -- how do you generally receive the offer? By phone, email, as a notice somewhere in your cruise line website account or as an offer listed as a special offer when you are logged in?

...One more question, if I may -- how do you generally receive the offer? By phone, email, as a notice somewhere in your cruise line website account or as an offer listed as a special offer when you are logged in?

I have received both snail mail and email casino offers, but none by phone so far. I have also received a letter at my cabin door on the last night of cruises when I have wagered in the casino offering me casino cash on my next cruise, but not discounts on cabins.

There have also been times when I don't recall receiving an offer, yet a casino discount will show up when I click on a cabin while doing a mock booking.

Via email. Keep in mind that these offers are generally offered to frequent repeat customers. In order to get an offer like this particular one, you need to stick with one cruise line unless you're a big time gambler..

This isn't true. I checked some cruises yesterday and it was still there. Remember, it's capacity controlled so the cruises you checked already reached capacity.

The cruises I have been following all had the casino rate disappear on the 1st, but I'm hoping they will reappear later on. I held off on booking as I was told the casino rates have non-refundable deposits, so want to be sure I can travel on those dates before I book.

There seem to be multiple types of casino rates offered, so perhaps there are varying capacity limits or expiration dates also?

The cruises I have been following all had the casino rate disappear on the 1st, but I'm hoping they will reappear later on. I held off on booking as I was told the casino rates have non-refundable deposits, so want to be sure I can travel on those dates before I book.

 

There seem to be multiple types of casino rates offered, so perhaps there are varying capacity limits or expiration dates also?

There must be different types... the ones I did get didn't have a non-refundable deposit requirement.

Our disappeared as well...and I was also under the impression that it was to go through the end of the year but it does appear that Sept 30th may have indeed been the deadline. Fortunately, we made several bookings using this offer, including one in 2017 -- and even on that one, the discount is no longer available.

We sailed on a 3 day repositioning cruise just prior to getting this discount e-mail. We do frequent the casino quite a bit on a cruise and usually budget no more than $100 a day pp for the casino -- but usually set a limit to our losses on a longer cruise. I do not consider this heavy gambling, though. We are elite on Princess just of note.

Some friends of ours that had not cruised before went on this cruise with us last year -- did not gamble much at all but also received this offer. So, it doesn't appear that a great deal of gambling or being platinum or elite has anything to do with having gotten this latest offer. We've been sailing with Princess for several years and this had been the first time we've been sent a casino offer.

There's really no way of knowing. I think you also have to be, in most cases, platinum or elite to receive these offers. Some people have said they don't gamble much, others substantially more.

 

At any rate, it appears the casino discount may be gone.

 

I did get it on 3 cruises, with the best savings on my Panama Canal cruise next year.

Smart you. We did use it for the Panama Canal cruise next year also, but I was planning to book two cabins for spring of 2017 ( we both had an offer. My daughter and Grandchild in cabin with me..Husband and SIL in another cabin. Hopefully we could have switched.)

I went to the pricing engine and It was expired. I had been told it was good until Dec.31. I would have booked them earlier if I had known.

Still very happy I booked Panama cruise. We have a BB balcony at the rate of the cheapest inside, with the free gratuities, the free specialty dinner + the Military OBC. I NEVER win anything.

Not in the casino

Not at bingo

Not at lotto

Not door prizes

NEVER

so while I did not win anything........I greatly appreciated it. And look forward to the sailing. I did not even know we had one. I had received a flyer, but this is the first year of school for my five year old grandchild, and we pick up our only grandchild after Pre K and then keep her until her Mom's school is out. ( she teaches) so........not paying attention I guess. MY bad. Won't do that again!