Table/Slots Play Pre-purchase

[drowelf]

What with the Amex offer currently on the table for me, I've decided to pre-purchase some slot credits for the DW and possibly some Table Chips for myself. The question that came to mind was about the amount, now for the slots, since it loaded onto the DW SeaPass I can see how they can do it $49.99 increments, as its all electronic, but how about for table chips? They can't give me $49.99 in chips. They can give me $49 and then .99 in cash, but they can't do 49.99. I suppose they could do $50, but why would they give me a free penny's worth? 

 

Anybody got an idea? 

[SFCAcruiser]

2 hours ago, drowelf said:

.... I suppose they could do $50, but why would they give me a free penny's worth? 

 

Anybody got an idea? 

 

They do indeed give you that free penny for every 49.99 purchase; spend it wisely.  $499.90 got me $550 in promotional chips.  

[drowelf]

32 minutes ago, SFCAcruiser said:

 

They do indeed give you that free penny for every 49.99 purchase; spend it wisely.  $499.90 got me $550 in promotional chips.  

Do they give the full amount in promotional chips or just the 10% extra?

[mahdnc]

42 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Do they give the full amount in promotional chips or just the 10% extra?

 

The whole amount is issued to you in promotional chips.  This what SFCAcruiser's $550 in promo chips might have looked like (before betting).

 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by mahdnc

[chamima]

17 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

The whole amount is issued to you in promotional chips.  This what SFCAcruiser's $550 in promo chips might have looked like (before betting).

 

 

 

 

So, I think I know the answer 😞 but can you turn in those promotional chips for cash?

[mahdnc]

Just now, chamima said:

 

So, I think I know the answer 😞 but can you turn in those promotional chips for cash?

 

No.  The only cash you get is whatever you generate in winnings.  The promotional chips always stay as promotional chips and the only way to get rid of them is when you lose your bet.  You also cannot use your Captains Club match play coupons if your bet consists of only promotional chips.  Using promotional chips also does not get  your play rated (Blue Chip Club).  Quite a promotion.

[mahdnc]

The famous way to convert your promotional chips into cash is to take your stack of chips to the roulette table and bet half on red and half on black and pray the wheel doesn't spin a 0 or 00.  To reduce the risk of that happening to the entire stack of chips, some people will do it in smaller amounts. Anyway assuming the 0/00 disaster doesn't strike, one bet will win (and you get regular chips paid to you for your winnings which of course you can cash those out) and the other bet loses.  You lose your promo chips on the losing bet and you retain the promo chips used for the winning bet.  And then you do it again and again and again and again until you are down to one single promo chip.

Edited January 6, 2023 by mahdnc

[chamima]

12 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

The whole amount is issued to you in promotional chips.  This what SFCAcruiser's $550 in promo chips might have looked like (before betting).

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, chamima said:

 

So, I think I know the answer 😞 but can you turn in those promotional chips for cash?

 

11 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

No.  The only cash you get is whatever you generate in winnings.  The promotional chips always stay as promotional chips and the only way to get rid of them is when you lose your bet.  You also cannot use your Captains Club match play coupons if your bet consists of only promotional chips.  Using promotional chips also does not get  your play rated (Blue Chip Club).  Quite a promotion.

 

 

 

If you have promotional chips left at the end of the cruise can you get cash for a 5% (or even 10%) penalty?

[chamima]

Related question - If we just buy OBC pre-cruise  (and leave that money in our account) and go to the Casino and get chips from our OBC are those promotional chips or regular? And are we charged the same 5% at that time as we would have been if we were charging the chips to our on board account?

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

15 minutes ago, chamima said:

Related question - If we just buy OBC pre-cruise  (and leave that money in our account) and go to the Casino and get chips from our OBC are those promotional chips or regular? And are we charged the same 5% at that time as we would have been if we were charging the chips to our on board account?

If you purchase OBC for yourself pre-cruise, that OBC should be refundable and will be credited back to the credit card on file at the end of the cruise.  So there would be no need to convert it to casino chips/slot credit. This would be one way to spend if trying to obtain that Amex offer.  Prepaying gratuities or making an early final payment are other methods.

 

I believe there are two ways of using OBC at the casino.  One way is going up to the casino cashier and asking for a cash advance (I believe that's what it's called) which does incur a 5% fee.  The other is to do a room charge at one of the slot machines.  This will not incur the 5% fee.  Although, I do believe only slot machines on revolutionized ships have this room charge feature.  There may be other non-revolutionized ships with this slot room charge feature, so don't quote me on that.

[chamima]

Thank you.

Do you know if those chips that we pay the 5% for are regular chips or promotional chips?

I've never played slots . We're on the Equinox.

 

(And yes, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Amex benefit.Everything for our cruise is already paid, including gratuities and the premium drink package.5% doesn't seem like a terrible amount for the miles we get by buying the OBC.)

 

*

Edited January 6, 2023 by chamima

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

22 minutes ago, chamima said:

Thank you.

Do you know if those chips that we pay the 5% for are regular chips or promotional chips?

I've never played slots . We're on the Equinox.

 

(And yes, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Amex benefit.Everything for our cruise is already paid, including gratuities and the premium drink package.5% doesn't seem like a terrible amount for the miles we get by buying the OBC.)

 

*

I'll go back to what I said that if you pre-purchase OBC (not slot/table play credit), that OBC is fully refundable at the end of the cruise.  You can confirm that the credit is refundable when viewing your onboard account once you get onboard.  You wouldn't have to bother with cashing it out or risking loss at the casino.

 

You can purchase OBC using this link:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-gifts/items-results?category=ONBDCR&collection=ONBDCR

Or I believe you can call in and purchase OBC in the amount that you need to satisfy the Amex offer.

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

1 minute ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

I'll go back to what I said that if you pre-purchase OBC (not slot/table play credit), that OBC is fully refundable at the end of the cruise.  You can confirm that the credit is refundable when viewing your onboard account once you get onboard.  You wouldn't have to bother with cashing it out or risking loss at the casino.

 

You can purchase OBC using this link:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-gifts/items-results?category=ONBDCR&collection=ONBDCR

Or I believe you can call in and purchase OBC in the amount that you need to satisfy the Amex offer.

I have to put my foot in my mouth because if the OBC purchased goes back to the credit card on file for your shipboard account and that card is your Amex, then you wouldn't get the offer.  I suppose you could purchase the OBC with your Amex with the bonus and use a different card for your onboard account which the refund would then go to.

[chamima]

7 minutes ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

I have to put my foot in my mouth because if the OBC purchased goes back to the credit card on file for your shipboard account and that card is your Amex, then you wouldn't get the offer.  I suppose you could purchase the OBC with your Amex with the bonus and use a different card for your onboard account which the refund would then go to.

 

You've realized my problem.

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

1 minute ago, chamima said:

 

You've realized my problem.

Yup, apologies.  I don't use Amex, so I've not had an opportunity to hack this offer.  What I would do is call in and purchase the OBC in the amount that satisfies the offer.  Ensure with the phone agent that the OBC you're purchasing is refundable.  Once onboard, you should be able to go to guest services (not the casino) to have that refundable onboard credit converted to cash for you.  You can even do this day 1 if you'd like, but I'd wait until the second day since the line is longer on the first.  If they are unable to give you cash for it (which they should), the alternative would be going to the casino and doing a room charge at one of the slots.  Equinox is revolutionized, so they should have the machines capable of doing this.  Any casino staff can walk you through how to do this, but here's the steps as I remember them.

1. At any slot machine, either tap your seapass card on the card reader or insert it if they are the magstripe style.
2. On the small screen at the bottom of the machine, touch the option called "Account", I believe?
3. It'll ask you to type in your pin, which initially is your birthday (MMDD)
4. It'll then ask you to enter a new pin.  Enter whatever 4 digit pin you'd like.
5. Then find the option called "Transfer"
6. Then "Transfer to Game"
7. Then "Room Charge"
8. Then type in the amount you want transferred. (Your total OBC balance)
9. You should see this amount show up as credit on the slot machine. 
10. Press the "Cash out" button and a ticket will be printed which you then take to the cashier and they'll give you cash for it.  No fee.

 

Make sure that the amount you do the room charge for at the machine is the total amount of OBC (refundable & non-refundable) that you have available on your account in case you are getting some OBC from a TA or other means.  Their system "saves" the refundable credits to use last and you wouldn't want any leftover which would then get refunded to your Amex and then not satisfy the credit card offer.  Again, the casino is a backup to getting cash from guest services for the refundable OBC.

[SHIP TRAVELER]

15 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

The whole amount is issued to you in promotional chips.  This what SFCAcruiser's $550 in promo chips might have looked like (before betting).

 

 

I found the full rack of $5 promo chips daunting to carry around so I asked for and received most of it in larger denomination $ 25 promo chips.  These were easier to carry and use on multiple days. We stored them in the room safe.  We did get our entire $550 in promo chips all at once on one visit to the cage.  When I had run through the $100 in reds, there were enough promo chips in the dealers rack to cash my $ 25 promo chips back to $5 promo chips.  I hope this makes sense to those who play table games.  I know when I first saw the full rack of chips I could see an invitation to play them all at once (or spill them ) and I like to spread the gambling out over the cruise.  They do go fast at $10 Ultimate Texas Holdem in any case.

[chamima]

32 minutes ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

Yup, apologies.  I don't use Amex, so I've not had an opportunity to hack this offer.  What I would do is call in and purchase the OBC in the amount that satisfies the offer.  Ensure with the phone agent that the OBC you're purchasing is refundable.  Once onboard, you should be able to go to guest services (not the casino) to have that refundable onboard credit converted to cash for you.  You can even do this day 1 if you'd like, but I'd wait until the second day since the line is longer on the first.  If they are unable to give you cash for it (which they should), the alternative would be going to the casino and doing a room charge at one of the slots.  Equinox is revolutionized, so they should have the machines capable of doing this.  Any casino staff can walk you through how to do this, but here's the steps as I remember them.

1. At any slot machine, either tap your seapass card on the card reader or insert it if they are the magstripe style.
2. On the small screen at the bottom of the machine, touch the option called "Account", I believe?
3. It'll ask you to type in your pin, which initially is your birthday (MMDD)
4. It'll then ask you to enter a new pin.  Enter whatever 4 digit pin you'd like.
5. Then find the option called "Transfer"
6. Then "Transfer to Game"
7. Then "Room Charge"
8. Then type in the amount you want transferred. (Your total OBC balance)
9. You should see this amount show up as credit on the slot machine. 
10. Press the "Cash out" button and a ticket will be printed which you then take to the cashier and they'll give you cash for it.  No fee.

 

Make sure that the amount you do the room charge for at the machine is the total amount of OBC (refundable & non-refundable) that you have available on your account in case you are getting some OBC from a TA or other means.  Their system "saves" the refundable credits to use last and you wouldn't want any leftover which would then get refunded to your Amex and then not satisfy the credit card offer.  Again, the casino is a backup to getting cash from guest services for the refundable OBC.

 

 

Thanks!!!!!!!

I've printed out your instructions to take with us.

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

If you purchase OBC for yourself pre-cruise, that OBC should be refundable and will be credited back to the credit card on file at the end of the cruise.  So there would be no need to convert it to casino chips/slot credit. This would be one way to spend if trying to obtain that Amex offer.  Prepaying gratuities or making an early final payment are other methods.

 

 

Yes, you are absolutely right.  Those methods bypass the limitation of the promo (aka non-negotiable) chips.  I was only addressing the situation described in the first 3 posts:

 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, SHIP TRAVELER said:

I found the full rack of $5 promo chips daunting to carry around so I asked for and received most of it in larger denomination $ 25 promo chips.  These were easier to carry and use on multiple days. We stored them in the room safe.  We did get our entire $550 in promo chips all at once on one visit to the cage.  When I had run through the $100 in reds, there were enough promo chips in the dealers rack to cash my $ 25 promo chips back to $5 promo chips.  I hope this makes sense to those who play table games.  I know when I first saw the full rack of chips I could see an invitation to play them all at once (or spill them ) and I like to spread the gambling out over the cruise.  They do go fast at $10 Ultimate Texas Holdem in any case.

 

Yes, that makes total sense.  I didn't have a problem carrying all those chips because my intention was to go through all of them in one long session until they were gone (you hope it's a long session).

 

The other point related your post is that you don't want to make the mistake of asking for all your of your promo chips to be green if you are planning to play at the lower minimum tables.