KarmaCruisers

Came back to the room to brush my teeth and relax a bit before the 3pm “high limit” slot pull. found my first towel animal of the trip. i met my attendant yesterday right away; Putra; he’s a nice guy He gave me a strange look when I said it’s just me in the room.(just like my first solo cruise in February. Yes; I have no friends or family; it’s just me. I could think of no better value when I’m “forced” to WFH this week..than being on a “free” cruise. Like I said earlier; it means I don’t have to cook or wash dishes for a week!)

nice glass shower door! Costa FTW!

Quoted for truth.

I’m actually pretty shocked..we’ve sailed allll day with no land or any other ship in sight!

Tacos

lol I legit DID not know that..also makes hella good hummus lol

So I guess I’ll get a taco from Blue Iguana.

Damnit! Chibang JUST closed at 1:30!

Nope; sadly no other fruit. On my way to ChiBang now. Also, sorry this report isn’t filled with a bunch of pictures of boooooze…I’d rather eat my calories than drink them. (20 years of abusing your body eating nothing but fast food and soda will do that to you)

Pad Thai and Spicey Beef Bao; from Street Eats (this Pad Thai is GREAT!) and of course I got a little gloop of sauce on my shirt 😞

Ugh! I thought those were chickpeas..they were garbanzo’s!

Alas..no good fruit at Fresh Creations 😞 I’ll take another look at Lido Marketplace to see if they’ve got anything better than the standard (Red Grapes, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Watermelon, Pineapple)

It amazes me what people think is a “salad” (literally just a little ICEBERG lettuce followed by meat, cheese and TONS of RAAAANCH!) here’s mine..

This line for Fresh Creations is literally 30 deep! Haha Why I have no idea.

For reference (took a selfie so it didn’t look weird)

JFC! Serenity area is PACKED!

Man, I’m torn on what I want to eat for lunch.. I want to be smart; so Fresh Creations But I want to see what Street Eats has… But I ALSO know ChiBang is hella good too! Maybe I’ll graze upon all three (start with a salad and maybe hopefully good fruit from Fresh Creations; then see what Street Eats has..and finish with a bowl of Stir Fry from ChiBang)

And that folks; is a lesson on how to cruise on carnival for “free”.

So I bought $10,000 worth of gift cards for $9000 from AARP. I load $2000 per day to my Sail&Sign (that’s the max allowed) I then go to the casino and “download” $2000 to my “casino bank”, from my Sail&Sign card. Then I play exactly 800 spins at $2.50 per spin (the machine keeps track of this by displaying “points”; you earn 1 “point” per $2.50 spin) the “expected loss” per $1000 of spins on a slot machine is 10%. So, in essence, I’m playing slots “for free”; but the real reason I’m doing it is to earn casino points (“for free”) to keep getting “free” cruises (I use quotes, because you have to pay $100 per person plus all the taxes/fees/gratuities) Like, this cruise right now was a “free” cruise; but out of pocket it cost $599. (Taxes/fees/Gratuites) for two people. If I didn’t care anything about the casino “offers” I could actually just “wash” the money through an earn $1000 on my $10,000 investment. (Which, depending on what my final tally is at the end; I may do from now on) NOW; if I had a second person with me; (I paid for two people because there’s no discount as a “solo”) they could do the same thing and technically you could make a max of $2500 (the gift cards max out at $12,500 per person per month) Its like the same type of gamification as Credit Card Churners..except for cruisers haha. however if EVERYBODY did this; obviously they couldn’t offer it.

Just chillin on my balcony for a while now; it’s absolutely perfect outside.

So the second $2000 wash went better than the first (I had a $800 bonus) but still felt short of the math; at $1701. Out of $4000 coin-in I’ve got a return of $3256 (EV is $3600) however if these machines are set to a lower payback than normal (I’d almost say they are) then EV shrinks to only $3400) so I guess if I just figure them at 85% EV, then I’m doing OK.

Their address in Miami?

That’s such a nice thing to do for your grand children.

JFC! So 200 days of that child’s 1095 DAYS OF BEING ALIVE; have BEEN ON A CARNIVAL SHIP! Haha i think that may say more about the parents… (or most likely a ma/patriarch whose footing bills)

Man, Lee looks totally different with facial hair haha