Shippy

I know it is a lot of money but it is truly a special experience.

The food incredible, the wines exceptional.and the EXPERIENCE....

Remember there are only 20 of you. I am sure there are probably a least that number of crew waiting on you.

The visuals are very intriguing  as is the story..

There is no need to do it more than once as the story does not change but even at that high price, I would be surprised if you did not think it worth it.

I am sure they mean 1 piece of what would be considered checkin size.

We always carry are own off...1 big suitcase & 1 carry on size each.

2 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

Off topic I know but can you not ask for your cruise to be re-fared... a lot of people here do it (not available in the UK though 😞 )

WAY OFF TOPIC...PERHAPS YOU SHOULD START A NEW THREAD.

I really like the discussion on the original topic & would hate to see it veer away...

51 minutes ago, ajmac01 said:

Do the ones with the mini bottles go towards your drink package and count?

I think they stopped that awhile back... 

Last 3 trips, I never saw a mini bottle....

2 hours ago, 20165 said:

Ok so all you math wizards out there, how many $3 slot plays would $1k get you? Example, 333 when you run through the first round with your $1k, but assuming you get paid back 95%, i think someone said that is the pay back on the slots, then the next round would get you roughly 316 $3 slot plays and so on.  Can anyone think of the formula off the top of your head that would give you the total plays for that $1k assuming a 5% loss per run through of that money?  Sorry, its early and hurting my head thinking about it...

  Cannot do your math but on my last trip, I was UP...then DOWN.....then UP....then DOWN<DOWN<DOWN.

Luckily for me on the last night, I hit a $1350. progressive....yes, I had to fill out a tax form 

9 hours ago, Nodakrulz said:

On the Regal in December our family tried several different kinds (I don’t remember which ones exactly) but none of them actually came with suckers or hard candy. My son also tried one on enchanted last summer and no hard candy on that either.

 So glad to hear that. What a waste of food & money. Most people do not eat them.

   On my last cruise I asked for the sundae in a plain glass. I find all the chocolate & candies stuck on the out side to be an incredible waste. There is NO way you could even eat them if you wanted. They said they could not do that as all the glasses are made up ahead of time & put in the refrigerator.

I play penny slots every day. Remember the casino is NOT open on port days until 1 hour after you leave port. It is not open before you get to the port.

   The best offers are the ones they leave in your cabin on the last day of the cruise.

I get a mini suite. I get tons of email offers but they are only for outside or balcony cabins.

   Also, you can upgrade these offers. $900.pp seems to be the going rate to upgrade to an s4 penthouse on a 7 day cruise.

   The really incredible part is that for the last year, they have been adding the plus package. That is really worth a lot.

    My husband gets offers for casino cash, no room.. On our last cruise he got one for $500. on the next cruise.  I booked under my offer & they actually added his cash offer to it even thought the fine print says not combinable.

  Usually on about the third day, a casino host will come up to a machine I am playing & ask if we would like a complementary specialty restaurant. They make the reservation right then.

On the DISCOVERY, last month, I was refused anything except those giant desserts for the plus package. I told them that on the Regal, I was able to get the Frangelico sundae on the package. They said NO, it would be $8.00.

I then ordered the Donatello.. I said hold the cake & all the candies. I then took the sundae over to the bar to get a shot of Frangelico for the top   :O)

54 minutes ago, pathi said:

1 pt for every 3 dollars you bet.

That is whether you win or lose...It is how much money is run through the machine..so..If you put in $20. & lose it in a few minutes, you basically have no points.

If you put $20. in & get play....win 10, lose 5, etc & play for an hour....you have a lot of points.

If you put $20, in & hit $500. right away & then leave. You have $$ but no points.

5 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Damn! We were on the same cruise and my offer (ER1) still hasn’t shown up in the system..so they say..did you book through the Manila call center; or did you speak to someone in Santa Clarita?

My offer was an ER2

It says to call after 10 days but mine took 20 to get in the system.. I called the number on the offer..  888-772-6697

I was calling every day because we were interested in certain Alaska cruises & the suites were selling out !

My husbands offer is a PXL9 for $500. casino play but his is still not in the system.

 You just might get lucky...

I have a casino cabin booked on Holland for next month & one on Princess for August.

The Princess offer has specific wording that if the original owner of the offer does not checkin...the casino price (offer) will automatically be changed to the prevailing rate for whoever does checkin.  The Holland has a bunch of ambiguous language but nothing that specific.

 BUT....unless I REALLY wanted to take this cruise...I would be a bit leery about going !

JUST FOR REFERENCE...

  On my last 7 day cruise... Discovery last month....I got 18,000 points & received an offer, left

in our cabin, on the last full day of the cruise.  I play penny slots .

   Much more generous than I expected.

A mini suite PLUS the PLUS PACKAGE......PLUS $1,500 casino cash on my next trip.

  I already rebooked & upgraded to a full Penthouse suite which cost me $900.

I constantly get email, before & after the last trip but they are always for balcony rooms.

If you are lucky enough to get an offer while onboard...use it because you will not get one as generous in an email !

We were on the Dicovery last month and were NOT allowed anything other than the giant sundaes. I even went to guest services & they said the same.

Earlier in the year we were on the Regal. You could get ANYTHING on the ice cream menu  !

 My favorite were the banana split & Frangelico sundae.

41 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

That reply was to Shippy. about stopping normal activiries. As to the rest of your post it it mainly fear mongering. Very prevalent on these boards. OP does need travel insurance for sure, but they are not going to go blind unless they ignore their symptoms or go to a bad eye surgeon. That would go for anyone. Anyone who is very near sighted is at risk of a retinal detachment. Do you think travel insurence considers myopia a pre existing condition for insurance? It is a condition.  

Well....Shippy was referring to HERSELF....me....I personally would not travel with that particular fear. I would assume the OP had that fear or they would not have started the post !

OP & anyone else is free to assess & then travel if they feel like it. I came back with Covid twice from 2 different cruises in the past year & yet that particular fear will not keep me from cruising again & I am OLD    :O)

4 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

OP has no condition. People who are very nearsighted have a higher chance of retinal detachment than the general population. If there is a detachment in one eye then a person has a higher possibility of detachment than the general population. They tell patients that so they can be alert for symptoms. They are informing them of the risk factor. People lose their eyesight because they ignore or procrastinate when there are symptoms. OP does not have to stop cruising or change their lifestyle. They don’t have a disease. 

? They already had one & were informed they might have another .................

LOVED the S5 forward suite.

Recently off Discovery so I assume it is the same. Wound up with that only because it was the last suite available for our cruise.

The bad point is it is FAR from everything but the good point is the cabin !

HUGE. LOVED the layout.

There are picture windows across from the bed . There are blackout curtains but we did not us them because there was no ship lighting near by.  That way you wake up to the sunrise !

No need to store your luggage under the bed because the cabin is HUGE. Bigger than a Penthouse.

I think it is cheaper because of the location.

We are old & were able to make the trek OK. I would get one of these cabins again.

Be sure your private transport from the port back to the airport has a LARGE window of time.

We had priority disembarkation....suite, taking our own luggage off.

That is absolutely the worst port to get out of. It is like a Disneyland line & you cannot see the end. AND the customs did not have a separate line for non US citizens !

Every 15 minutes I wound up calling my car service & begging them to wait a little longer.because I thought I was almost through....although I was not   :O(    Luckily they waited.

    Our cruise was fantastic but the stress of getting to & from Galveston was not. Never again.

MY VISION IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME......

I would skip the cruise...

probably no

I actually think it says you can BID on one of those categories, not necessarily get one.

I am strictly a slot player.

Any opinions or do you think they are all about the same.

Thanks

39 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Do you still have the ad that you can post?  I would like to see the fine print.  
 

Thanks

The only fine print says.....

prize offerings may change

 Just of the Discovery & they left a small ad for Princess Prizes in the cabin

It IS included with the premier package otherwise $10 per day

  a 7 day cruise for 2 in a balcony room is awarded on EVERY cruise

an EFFY shopping gift certificate & hosted VIP shopping experience with EFFY

Onboard spending money applied directly to you stateroom folio

and this one where your guess is as good as mine....

One of a kind onboard experiences & exclusive opportunities........(?)

30 minutes ago, 20165 said:

I know this is a personal question but im going to ask anyway.  How much do you usually have to gamble to get the offers?  Friends of ours say they only gamble $500-1k per cruise and they get offers all the time on RCL. And, they say they usually come home even or ahead. That sounds odd to me that they would get a free cruise and the max they would ever loose is $1k??

    It is not how much you win or lose but how much you run through the machine. I play only penny machines & try to keep my bet at about $2.00.

Example...I put $40. in the machine & lose it all in 5 minutes. I have almost no points.

I put $40. in and hit a jackpot & walk away. I have almost no points.

I put $40. dollars in & get a lot of play and constantly hit $5, $20, etc. I might play there for an hour. I call these my point machines because whether or not I come away with any money, I have gather a lot of points.

You will get on an email list with a few different cruise lines because they share the gambling info. The offers can be quite good.

 They seem to be catering to gamblers lately. Just off the Discovery & the casino was constantly packed.

I find cruise casinos, on the whole, to be just as good if not better than a land casino.

I lost on this last cruise but was in the casino A LOT so just got a VERY GOOD offer. 

My husband actually came out ahead. He bets higher because he likes the Wheel of fortune machine. So, even though his bets were higher which built points faster, I was in the casino much more than him so I got a better offer.

2 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 
We are thinking about trying this with our casino benefit. We generally get a free inside and pay to go up to a balcony. But we are considering sticking with the free inside on our next booking and then bidding on an upgrade. How did it work for you?

IF you get an offer. it will usually be for 3 different category upgrades.

 They will give you a minimum bid. Sometimes I think their minimum is to high & I will not bid. If I think it low I will go $35 to $50. over that..

You win some, you lose some    :O)