Are Tournaments back on Carnival Ships ?

[phoneman69]

Looking to find out if slot and or blackjack tournaments are back in the casino. Last cruise on Mardi Gras we were given $25 on our sail and sign cards because they were not holding tournaments. Sailing on Freedom in 30 days and hoping the tournaments are back?

[Madermh]

I’m sailing on Carnival Valor next week.  I’m almost positive our letter for this cruise said there are still no tournaments.  Same deal, $25  in fun play.

[mondello]

Wouldn't be surprised if the slots tournaments return. There were big crowds on our recent Valor B2B for the Second Chance drawings on the scratch off instant tickets. Masking/Social Distancing were no concern.

[BlerkOne]

Some ships give cash instead of credit. A winner every time.

[phoneman69]

2 hours ago, Madermh said:

I’m sailing on Carnival Valor next week.  I’m almost positive our letter for this cruise said there are still no tournaments.  Same deal, $25  in fun play.

Please return and let me know what was decided on your Valor cruise.

[vwrestler171]

I prefer the $25 free play.  Not a fan of slots or tournament blackjack.

[canes20]

They gave us cash on last cruise. Give us the $25 each. Rather have the $50 to spend on something else.

Edited August 14, 2022 by canes20

[ChuckF]

It would be great if they would give everyone the $25, but still have the tournaments.  If you want to spend that on a tourney entry, that's great.  If not, that's fine too.  Not sure why it has to be one or the other. 

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, canes20 said:

They gave us cash on last cruise. Give us the $25 each. Rather have the $50 to spend on something else.

It all depends upon the ship.  We were on a B2B on the Mardi Gras in February and it was 25 pp in slot credits or chips. Took the 100 in chips and bet it all on red on the roulette wheel, came up black.

[Madermh]

3 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

Please return and let me know what was decided on your Valor cruise.

Will do!

[sanmarcosman]

3 hours ago, vwrestler171 said:

I prefer the $25 free play.  Not a fan of slots or tournament blackjack.

What about $25 cash? On the Miracle and other ships they have a different accounting program so they have to hand the tournament perk out in cold, hard cash 🙂 

Edited August 15, 2022 by sanmarcosman

[vwrestler171]

15 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

What about $25 cash? On the Miracle and other ships they have a different accounting program so they have to hand the tournament perk out in cold, hard cash 🙂 

Wow, when I was on Miracle, it was free play chips.  Same with Mardi Gras, wonder if they ran into issues and changed, but cash would be good as well.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

What about $25 cash? On the Miracle and other ships they have a different accounting program so they have to hand the tournament perk out in cold, hard cash 🙂 

 

2 hours ago, vwrestler171 said:

Wow, when I was on Miracle, it was free play chips.  Same with Mardi Gras, wonder if they ran into issues and changed, but cash would be good as well.

 

Whether it's $25 in lieu of the BOGO tournament entry or free FunPlay included with a casino offer, the cage only pays out promotional credit in cash if they can't avoid it. 

 

Generally they'll ask if you play tables or slots.  If tables, you'll usually get promotional chips that can't be cashed in.  So you're forced to play with those chips, but any winnings are paid out in regular redeemable chips.

 

If you say you play slots, the ships with the newer LCD touch-screen card readers on the slots can support a separate promotional slot bank.  Same concept as the FunPlay chips... you can only gamble (not cash in) with the credits in that bank but any winnings cash be cashed out to your regular cash slot bank and then cashed out with the cashier.  On ships with the older card readers with physical push buttons, they can't support a separate promotional bank so if you say you play slots the cage will pay out promotional play in cash.

 

That's why some people get promotional play in cash, others get promotional chips, and others get promotional slot credit.

[phoneman69]

5 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

 

 

Whether it's $25 in lieu of the BOGO tournament entry or free FunPlay included with a casino offer, the cage only pays out promotional credit in cash if they can't avoid it. 

 

Generally they'll ask if you play tables or slots.  If tables, you'll usually get promotional chips that can't be cashed in.  So you're forced to play with those chips, but any winnings are paid out in regular redeemable chips.

 

If you say you play slots, the ships with the newer LCD touch-screen card readers on the slots can support a separate promotional slot bank.  Same concept as the FunPlay chips... you can only gamble (not cash in) with the credits in that bank but any winnings cash be cashed out to your regular cash slot bank and then cashed out with the cashier.  On ships with the older card readers with physical push buttons, they can't support a separate promotional bank so if you say you play slots the cage will pay out promotional play in cash.

 

That's why some people get promotional play in cash, others get promotional chips, and others get promotional slot credit.

Well any idea of how they pay the $25 on the Freedom ? I can sure say slots if they pay me in cash.

[DallasGuy75219]

49 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

Well any idea of how they pay the $25 on the Freedom ? I can sure say slots if they pay me in cash.

I was on Freedom in February. I'm inclined to say they paid my Diamond play and FunPlay for slots in cash, but I could be remembering wrong. 

 

I need to take pictures on my next cruises to show the difference in card readers that I'm talking about.

[Drew B 58]

7 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

 

 

Whether it's $25 in lieu of the BOGO tournament entry or free FunPlay included with a casino offer, the cage only pays out promotional credit in cash if they can't avoid it. 

 

Generally they'll ask if you play tables or slots.  If tables, you'll usually get promotional chips that can't be cashed in.  So you're forced to play with those chips, but any winnings are paid out in regular redeemable chips.

 

If you say you play slots, the ships with the newer LCD touch-screen card readers on the slots can support a separate promotional slot bank.  Same concept as the FunPlay chips... you can only gamble (not cash in) with the credits in that bank but any winnings cash be cashed out to your regular cash slot bank and then cashed out with the cashier.  On ships with the older card readers with physical push buttons, they can't support a separate promotional bank so if you say you play slots the cage will pay out promotional play in cash.

 

That's why some people get promotional play in cash, others get promotional chips, and others get promotional slot credit.

With the table promotional chips, can they be played just once?  Or repeatedly till they are lost?  In other words, if you bet a $25 dollar chip on a hand of blackjack and WIN, do they pay you a real $25 chip and take your promotional chip?  Or do they pay you a real $25 chip and leave the promotional one in your spot to play again?

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, Drew B 58 said:

With the table promotional chips, can they be played just once?  Or repeatedly till they are lost?  In other words, if you bet a $25 dollar chip on a hand of blackjack and WIN, do they pay you a real $25 chip and take your promotional chip?  Or do they pay you a real $25 chip and leave the promotional one in your spot to play again?

The $25 chip is yours till you lose it.  We kept our two $25 chips from week one of our B2B and then added the two $25 chips from our second week.  Put all $100 on the roulette wheel and lost on red.  If we had won, we would have gotten the $100 in winnings and then had the four $25 chips to wager with again.

Frustrating that the Mardi Gras has the capabilities to only give chips or slot credits.  Since we don't gamble would have preferred the 100.00 in cash like many other older ships in the fleet are giving out.  But it's all good in the long run since we would never enter any tournament and at least we have a 48% chance of winning (red versus black with lone green)

[Drew B 58]

2 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The $25 chip is yours till you lose it.  We kept our two $25 chips from week one of our B2B and then added the two $25 chips from our second week.  Put all $100 on the roulette wheel and lost on red.  If we had won, we would have gotten the $100 in winnings and then had the four $25 chips to wager with again.

Frustrating that the Mardi Gras has the capabilities to only give chips or slot credits.  Since we don't gamble would have preferred the 100.00 in cash like many other older ships in the fleet are giving out.  But it's all good in the long run since we would never enter any tournament and at least we have a 48% chance of winning (red versus black with lone green)

That’s awesome!  I remember in the past on Carnival getting coupon books with “free play”, but they could be used only once.  They took it away after one hand, whether you won or lost the hand.  However, if you won the hand, they paid it off even money (or 3-2 if it was a blackjack) with real chips.

[DallasGuy75219]

4 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The $25 chip is yours till you lose it.  We kept our two $25 chips from week one of our B2B and then added the two $25 chips from our second week.  Put all $100 on the roulette wheel and lost on red.  If we had won, we would have gotten the $100 in winnings and then had the four $25 chips to wager with again.

When Carnival used to give $5 match play coupons for buying the $10ish cocktails, I'd save all mine up until the last day and bet $5 and a match play coupon on both red and black or even and odd or high and low.  People looked at me like I was crazy but it almost guaranteed turning each coupon into $2.50 (unless 0 or 00 came up).

 

In this case I would have put $25 on opposite bets on different spins to at least guarantee walking away with some cash (redeemable chips).  But the $100 wasn't your cash to begin with so nothing lost.

[CruizinSusan70]

24 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

 

In this case I would have put $25 on opposite bets on different spins to at least guarantee walking away with some cash (redeemable chips).  But the $100 wasn't your cash to begin with so nothing lost.

We're not gamblers so I never would have thought to hedge our bets that way.  So, we put 50 on black and 50 on red.  If green comes up, we loose it all.  Otherwise we walk with 50 in winnings and 50 in chips to bet again.  We then take the 50 in betting chips and do it again with a 25/25 split on red and black. Assuming that green once again does not come up, we walk with 25 in winnings and the 25 chip.  So we would then be guaranteed 75 in chips to be cashed in and another 25 in Carnival chip to be played.  This is a win/win, unless green comes up (0/00).

[phoneman69]

On 8/15/2022 at 6:51 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

We're not gamblers so I never would have thought to hedge our bets that way.  So, we put 50 on black and 50 on red.  If green comes up, we loose it all.  Otherwise we walk with 50 in winnings and 50 in chips to bet again.  We then take the 50 in betting chips and do it again with a 25/25 split on red and black. Assuming that green once again does not come up, we walk with 25 in winnings and the 25 chip.  So we would then be guaranteed 75 in chips to be cashed in and another 25 in Carnival chip to be played.  This is a win/win, unless green comes up (0/00).

Walk away with a few bucks anyway

[Madermh]

On 8/14/2022 at 5:33 PM, phoneman69 said:

Please return and let me know what was decided on your Valor cruise.

We sailed Valor last week.  Still no tournaments.  All platinum and Diamond members could go to the cage and they paid $25 cash.

[phoneman69]

On 8/26/2022 at 6:00 AM, Madermh said:

We sailed Valor last week.  Still no tournaments.  All platinum and Diamond members could go to the cage and they paid $25 cash.

Thank you for the reply Will take the cash then. Hope you Enjoy your sailing and made money