Deathloks

I'm kindda new here (and don't come as often as I'd like to) but people are aware that even the highest priced wine on that list (Conundrum), even though priced 50$ on a Carnival ship, you can easily find in your area for about 16$, aren't they ? Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the prices of wines on a cruise. Just saying they are by no mean anything close to quality wines. Usually, before going on a cruise, I will get a 25$ bottle of wine to board with. It will be good enough for my "wine fix". But the ship wines (even on those library dispensers on some of the ships) are not that great to care about.

As I stated earlier, I think almost no one knows exactly how Carnival targets its offers, really. My/our story is only that. At first (around 2010), we were each playing on own cards. Since we were more or less playing similar amounts, we were getting similar offers. Then I started to play more than her, but still she was playing enough to get DOU. At the end (in 2013), we realized that putting all the money on the same card was getting us drinks everywhere on the ship for me an my companion and free balconies. As I said, 2013 was almost a decade ago and since then we have never paid again for a cruise. In fact, Carnival casino offers also gives us the opportunity to cruise with other brands, get free balconies on them also. Of course, nowadays we don't play much at the casino anymore so the offers are not as good as they used to be. From now to the end of 2023 we have 8 cruises booked (6 with Carnival), thanks to that 2013 cruise. Going on the Breeze in September, Vista in October and...yes...free balcony on the Celebration TA in November. That is our experience with Carnival. Others may differ.

If you always cruise with the same person, it's probably better to play on only one card. That being said, traditionnally it has been known that on your sail @ sign card 1 point = 2.50$ played (not lost) with Carnival. The only real thing that is known, however, with Carnival, is you get free drinks in the Casino when you get to 1500 points on a 7-day cruise. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. For years, we were told the offers you would get were, in part, based on you rank in money spent in the casino. In other words, some times you could have spend 2000$ during your cruise, but only be ranked 500th on your sail & sign card. Other times, you could "only" spend 1000$ but be ranked 400th, therefore get better offer because of it. Carnival, contrary to some other companies, is only counting one cruise at a time. It is also known that since the cruises have been back, Carnival has been cutting a lot on those offers. Also, nowadays, it is more and more believed that if you have not cruised a lot yet with Carnival (say you have a red sail & sign card), you will get better offers than those with Platinum or Diamond levels. Back about a decade ago or so, once, we got our sail & sign card to about 10 000 points on a cruise (we like to create "themes" when we cruise and that year the theme was "The Gamblers"). We have not paid for a single cruise since then. Of course, if you start playing enough in the casino, expect to get A LOT of cookies, chocolate covered strawberries and things like that in your room. And also steakhouse meals as well (at least once on every cruise).

I, obviously, am nothing to you but I've been following this thread with great interest. Please keep coming back and express yourself the way you want. Anybody having cruised in the last year understand so many things are different at this point. I'm one of those that believe that if those things are not mentionned, there is no way for them to get better. Enjoy the reste of your cruise.

I did want to "talk you down"...unti l remember we have booked 28 days in a row of cruising in th fall of 2023 🙂 (21 of those being with Carnival). Enjoy every moment of it :-).

Funny that you would say that. Earlier today I was looking at exactly that....the prices for the bottles of vine. If I wanted to make a general rule, on a Carnival ship you will find them a 2X to 4X the amount you will find them "out there". That being said I know what I drink and like, so going on a cruise I have no problem paying more to have the chance to enjoy those bottles of vine we don't see that often (or ever) in my part of the World. These are the ones I'm going for on a cruise. A few years ago we had the chance to drink a wine deamed "Adventurous" by Carnival (looking for the picture on my computer reminded me it was on our Carnival Horizon 2018 cruise). Even though it was free, it was just that, adventurous. Not bad, not good. The important part of us was that it never was and never will be available here.