Casino Comp'd Cruise

[Drews_Cruise]

35 minutes ago, cmp702 said:

How do you get casino offers?  

Spend your children’s inheritance in the casino.

 

[cruzin4us]

9 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Has anyone used EZ Air in conjunction with a Casino offer?  I'm getting really tired of the I-95 drive.

If you fly with Southwest, their fares won't show up unless it's about 6 months before you cruise.  For instance right now they are only booking until Sept. 5, 2022.   The beauty of SW is you don't have any baggage fees.

 

If you are flying Internationally, EZAir is awesome.   Continentally, make sure you check SW so you can avoid baggage fees.

Edited March 16, 2022 by cruzin4us

[MsSoCalCruiser]

12 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

one note for EZ Air - lots of people have reported problems with casino comped reservations being canceled when making adjustments to the EZ Air portion of their reservation.  Be sure to read up on those issues.

This is 100% correct.  If you have a casino comped cruise and want to add EZ air then you need to call the casino department for them to do it.  The casino department needs to protect the booking. We had our cruise vacation planner add the air and our booking was canceled. It took six hours on the phone to get everything straightened out. Do not add anything to a comped casino cruise unless you call the Casino department.

[cltnccruisers]

8 hours ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

Don't worry, if your play warrants it?  They will find you...😉

I'm not sure if this was because DW won so much or I lost so much.

[jeno]

16 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

I'm not sure if this was because DW won so much or I lost so much.

I’d say it was because you lost so much if the free cabin has your name on it.

I lost what I considered a lot last time but only got $400 or $500 in Casino play for next cruise. I’m not booking another cruise on Princess right now although I would have with a free cabin. We have one Celebrity and one Norwegian before our World Cruise in January. 
I also played and lost a lot on some slots last time and I’m usually a Blackjack player only. 
It sure would be interesting to know what triggers the free cabin. 
Enjoy your cruise! 

[cltnccruisers]

6 hours ago, jeno said:

I’d say it was because you lost so much if the free cabin has your name on it.

I lost what I considered a lot last time but only got $400 or $500 in Casino play for next cruise. I’m not booking another cruise on Princess right now although I would have with a free cabin. We have one Celebrity and one Norwegian before our World Cruise in January. 
I also played and lost a lot on some slots last time and I’m usually a Blackjack player only. 
It sure would be interesting to know what triggers the free cabin. 
Enjoy your cruise! 

We only played slots.  I figured they want the loser back and will take their chances with the winner.  😀

We have 2 Celebrity cruises booked including what was supposed to be my retirement TA but with the freebie we'll cancel one and push the other to next year.  Assuming, of course, that we can book it to our satisfaction next week.

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

FYI- the bounceback cruises you get from the ship, like on the night before you depart?

Are usually Not as good, as what you may get from Princess Casinos.

I usually wait for those, and pass on those given by the ship.

(Ships are Usually lesser cabin catergory, or Freeplay only & doesn't include free cabin)

 

But if you only get the bounceback cruise from the ship, and nothing from Princess

casinos?   Up to you if its worth booking.  YMMV

 

 

[WAvoyager]

7 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

I'm not sure if this was because DW won so much or I lost so much.

Casino comps are almost always based upon total play, and not win/loss results.  Total play takes into account how long you play (the longer time the “better”, and how much you play while you’re playing (the higher the better).  Casinos know that over time, bettors will lose money, and the more they bet, the higher the losses will be.

 

A husband who bets $1 per hand, and over the course of 3 hours while onboard loses every hand for a total of $100, is worth far less than the wife who plays for 12 hours on the cruise, betting $5 per hand, but who happened to win $200.   The next time they come back, the odds are that the wife loses 10-20x more money than the husband (she bets 5x higher, and plays 4x longer… maybe less is she’s losing).  Obviously it’s much more complicated, but in general, those are the factors they use.

 

winning or losing in one trip isn’t an indicator of how much the casino should value a customer.  One jackpot, or a key hand, can totally skew the win/loss results for a trip, but over the long term, the casino fully (and correctly) assumes they’ll win!

[cltnccruisers]

2 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

Casino comps are almost always based upon total play, and not win/loss results.  Total play takes into account how long you play (the longer time the “better”, and how much you play while you’re playing (the higher the better).  Casinos know that over time, bettors will lose money, and the more they bet, the higher the losses will be.

 

A husband who bets $1 per hand, and over the course of 3 hours while onboard loses every hand for a total of $100, is worth far less than the wife who plays for 12 hours on the cruise, betting $5 per hand, but who happened to win $200.   The next time they come back, the odds are that the wife loses 10-20x more money than the husband (she bets 5x higher, and plays 4x longer… maybe less is she’s losing).  Obviously it’s much more complicated, but in general, those are the factors they use.

 

winning or losing in one trip isn’t an indicator of how much the casino should value a customer.  One jackpot, or a key hand, can totally skew the win/loss results for a trip, but over the long term, the casino fully (and correctly) assumes they’ll win!

I didn't gamble any more than normal but what I did do was cash out more often then start over again.  One evening I noticed my points were 11,500 and we still had a couple of days to go.  Maybe that had something to do with it.  Regardless, there's only one cruise that interests us in the allocated timeframe.  If we can't get that we'll probably just stay with what we have already booked.

[WAvoyager]

18 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

I didn't gamble any more than normal but what I did do was cash out more often then start over again.  One evening I noticed my points were 11,500 and we still had a couple of days to go.  Maybe that had something to do with it.  Regardless, there's only one cruise that interests us in the allocated timeframe.  If we can't get that we'll probably just stay with what we have already booked.

Cashing out won’t matter.  The 11,500 points indicate you did wager quite a bit while you were playing.  If you play slots, you will typically do 10 pills per minute, or 600 pulls per hour.  If you’re in the casino a couple of hours a day, you’ll run through 1200 bets per day.  Betting $1.00 per spin, you’ll run through $1200 in bets per day.  The casino will figure out how much you “should” lose (4-5% of that?), and that tells them how much they can comp you without losing money (on average).

 

Im surprised there weren’t any itineraries that interested you.  The offers can usually be booked for different sailing dates - although I think the VIP qualifier sailings are somewhat limited (you can sail on different dates, but you don’t get all of the VIP bonuses).  But if the offer has 5-6 different cruises, that usually means you have 7-8 different sailing dates for each cruise that interests you.

Edited March 16, 2022 by WAvoyager

[cltnccruisers]

16 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

Cashing out won’t matter.  The 11,500 points indicate you did wager quite a bit while you were playing.  If you play slots, you will typically do 10 pills per minute, or 600 pulls per hour.  If you’re in the casino a couple of hours a day, you’ll run through 1200 bets per day.  Betting $1.00 per spin, you’ll run through $1200 in bets per day.  The casino will figure out how much you “should” lose (4-5% of that?), and that tells them how much they can comp you without losing money (on average).

 

Im surprised there weren’t any itineraries that interested you.  The offers can usually be booked for different sailing dates - although I think the VIP qualifier sailings are somewhat limited (you can sail on different dates, but you don’t get all of the VIP bonuses).  But if the offer has 5-6 different cruises, that usually means you have 7-8 different sailing dates for each cruise that interests you.

So are you saying that when we call them next week we will be presented with a list of cruise to pick from?  All we had done is go to Find a Cruise on the website and check what's available.

[WAvoyager]

10 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

So are you saying that when we call them next week we will be presented with a list of cruise to pick from?  All we had done is go to Find a Cruise on the website and check what's available.

If you’re getting casino offers, the offer will typically have multiple cruises, and each cruise will have multiple sailing dates.   I’m not sure what you were looking at in the Find a Cruise section, but if it is a casino offer, it would be worth calling them (Casino number, not regular reservations) to see what options there are.

[cltnccruisers]

5 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

If you’re getting casino offers, the offer will typically have multiple cruises, and each cruise will have multiple sailing dates.   I’m not sure what you were looking at in the Find a Cruise section, but if it is a casino offer, it would be worth calling them (Casino number, not regular reservations) to see what options there are.

OK, we shall see what happens when we call next week.  I had emailed casinoinquiry@princessescruises.com and got a response with a direct number to avoid the wait.  Thanks for the clarifications.

[roxievegas]

most of our offers have been limited cruises.   You may have different cruise destinations but only one cruise available for each destination.  This year was the first time we could have done Europe, but no interested.  We did book a New England/Canada cruise

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

I didn't gamble any more than normal but what I did do was cash out more often then start over again.  One evening I noticed my points were 11,500 and we still had a couple of days to go.  Maybe that had something to do with it.  Regardless, there's only one cruise that interests us in the allocated timeframe.  If we can't get that we'll probably just stay with what we have already booked.

For slots you earn 1 point for every $3 wagered through the slots. So with that amount of total points I can understand why they want you back onboard.  And you should get additional offers now too. 

[WAvoyager]

The only time I’ve seen the offers limited to a specific sailing is for the slots/blackjack tournament offers, since they don’t have the tournaments on every sailing.  All the rest provided one specific sailing, but always had smaller print “other dates available”, and the promo code could be applied on other sailings.  Definitely worth checking though.

[Rebels82]

Where do you go look to see if you have any casino offers or discounts?

[cltnccruisers]

Well that wasn't bad.  We got the cruise we wanted, upgraded to a balcony and added Princess Plus for a reasonable price.

[WAvoyager]

2 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Well that wasn't bad.  We got the cruise we wanted, upgraded to a balcony and added Princess Plus for a reasonable price.

Glad that worked out!

[cltnccruisers]

2 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

Glad that worked out!

 

We were a little worried because as we were on hold the cruise we wanted lost the date we wanted.

[WAvoyager]

Ouch - did it sell out (or casino offers sold out), or was it cancelled?

[cltnccruisers]

4 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

Ouch - did it sell out (or casino offers sold out), or was it cancelled?

We did get the date we wanted, it just didn't show up in the normal Find a Cruise page.  My guess is it sold out except for the reserved (?) casino cabins.

[azbirdmom]

On 3/15/2022 at 10:47 AM, Sandipalms said:

Casino offer; I just booked 2 days ago and was told I only get $100.00 back onboard of the $200.00 and it’s reflected as such on my booking.  
HAL gives back the $200.00 deposit onboard.

Sandipalms

 

I just made a new booking this morning through casino reservations and was told that the $200 per person deposit will still appear as OBC once onboard.  Are you sure that you're not just seeing any promotional OBC that may have been in effect when you made the booking?

 

On 3/15/2022 at 10:24 AM, roxievegas said:

If you want to figure out what the cost to upgrade your cabin, I have found this

 

inside cabin on their website is listed at  $599

oceanview cabin is $699

balcony cabin is $899

 

you are offered an inside and want to go to balcony your cost would be $300.  I found that it is the difference between the $599 and $899, not doubled for pp but just the $300

 

We paid $245 to go from oceanview to balcony on our cruise in April - ship has no oceanview, so we would have had to taken an inside for free or pay to upgrade to balcony.

 

We upgraded to a mini suite and what they quoted was within a couple of dollars of what it would be using your approach.  So they are still using the same formula.

 

By the way, I initially asked for a quote on a Club Class mini suite and was told that these aren't part of the casino program.  So the cost that I was quoted was the web rate less the usual CASINO discount.  I knew suites weren't part of their program but didn't know that Club Class was in the same category.

Edited March 24, 2022 by azbirdmom

[memoak]

23 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

I just made a new booking this morning through casino reservations and was told that the $200 per person deposit will still appear as OBC once onboard.  Are you sure that you're not just seeing any promotional OBC that may have been in effect when you made the booking?

 

 

We upgraded to a mini suite and what they quoted was within a couple of dollars of what it would be using your approach.  So they are still using the same formula.

 

By the way, I initially asked for a quote on a Club Class mini suite and was told that these aren't part of the casino program.  So the cost that I was quoted was the web rate less the usual CASINO discount.  I knew suites weren't part of their program but didn't know that Club Class was in the same category.

That sounds crazy. We had a free balcony plus $500 casino free play and were able to upgrade to a club class mini via the casino group 

[azbirdmom]

35 minutes ago, memoak said:

That sounds crazy. We had a free balcony plus $500 casino free play and were able to upgrade to a club class mini via the casino group 

 

It could depend on the offers or even the ship.  I didn't question it because I ran into the same high quote when I asked the price for a suite the last time I used one of these deals.