Funding Casino play with gift card

[davemy]

Taking our first Carnival cruise this summer. I plan to use the discounted gift cards from AARP to pay the final payment, cheers, & tips.

Wondering about funding casino play for DW and myself with the left over balance. Can you share your wisdom and experience, please?

Is it a better option to load the gift card on our S&S account before departure or use the kiosk onboard?

I understand that anything we don't spend (or cash out) will be returned as a gift card post cruise, is that correct?

[darinb1345]

We applied gift cards to our S&S via the kiosk onboard as we needed them on the Panorama in Oct 22 and didn't have a problem.  We only loaded what we were sure we'd spend so wouldn't have a left over balance.  

 

[mz-s]

Yeah my advice is to not give the system gift cards until they're needed. If you fund your S&S account with a credit card, you can wait until the end of the cruise to redeem however many gift cards are needed to zero out your S&S account.

[Are.we.there.yet?]

We have done this a lot but we've had a few snags along the way.  We always wait until we have spent the money before loading the cards but a few ships have limited how many cards can be redeemed, per cabin.  We usually have 2 cabins and 2 gift cards per cabin has always been fine and sometimes more is OK.  My suggestion is to not bring $100 cards if you plan to use them for gambling.

[knagl]

I have always applied any gift card balance I have to my Sail and Sign account via the onboard kiosk (you can't do it before you're on board the ship), and I've charged casino machine play to my room. Never any issue.

 

You probably can't do thousands of dollars that way, but a few hundred won't be a problem at all.

 

[pe4all]

As soon as I walk on the ship I go to Guest Services and have my gift cards put on my account.  If I want to use any of that balance in the casino it is easy to do.  On the slot machines there is a button that you push to access your sail and sign/cabin account.  You can then download whatever amount you want and it will be "charged" to your folio  (This is different than using the "players bank" button.)  On your sail and sign folio statement it will say something like "entertainment" as the charge.  We do this to also use any obc we may have.  If we don't use up our gift card balance we go to Guest Services the night before debarking and "cash out" any refundable funds we have on our account.

[tcmagnum]

2 hours ago, pe4all said:

As soon as I walk on the ship I go to Guest Services and have my gift cards put on my account.  If I want to use any of that balance in the casino it is easy to do.  On the slot machines there is a button that you push to access your sail and sign/cabin account.  You can then download whatever amount you want and it will be "charged" to your folio  (This is different than using the "players bank" button.)  On your sail and sign folio statement it will say something like "entertainment" as the charge.  We do this to also use any obc we may have.  If we don't use up our gift card balance we go to Guest Services the night before debarking and "cash out" any refundable funds we have on our account.

Thank you for the detailed instructions.  I have some $ remaining on a gift card and will do exactly as you said.  First, use the money to gamble.  Then cash out on final night if I have any money left (fingers crossed).

 

[Denverdonkeys]

I have done a few thousand dollars this way. I also avoided the 3% S&S table game charge by putting into my slot machine bank and then cashing it out to take to the tables. I did so much because we had tons of gift cards from previous cruises canceled during COVID and wanted to use it all up. I didn't necessarily gamble it all...

 

It is easier to use the $500 or $1,000 to load it though, that's a guest services issue, not a casino issue. Casino does not care how you pay off your player's bank.

[VIFP1987]

Is there truly a limit to the number of gift cards you can apply to you Sail and Sign account? 

[May1cruiser]

I thought there was a charge for casino being charged to room account unless it is an approved casino cruise? Some casino offers waive the surcharge. 

 

[Elaine5715]

54 minutes ago, May1cruiser said:

I thought there was a charge for casino being charged to room account unless it is an approved casino cruise? Some casino offers waive the surcharge. 

 

There is no charge when you charge to your S&S on a slot machine.  The fees applies for tables

[Elaine5715]

1 hour ago, VIFP1987 said:

Is there truly a limit to the number of gift cards you can apply to you Sail and Sign account? 

There may be a number or amount applied before charges are created but I have applied 4 $500 gift cards towards my account after charges were done.

[VIFP1987]

57 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

There may be a number or amount applied before charges are created but I have applied 4 $500 gift cards towards my account after charges were done.

Very helpful, thank you! 

[Colorado Beach Bum]

I’ve applied at least $1500 in gift cards to each of last few cruises to pay for mostly casino charges with no problems.  I always use kiosk and wait until total room charges are more than my gift cards before redeeming. 

[VIFP1987]

2 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

I’ve applied at least $1500 in gift cards to each of last few cruises to pay for mostly casino charges with no problems.  I always use kiosk and wait until total room charges are more than my gift cards before redeeming. 

Thank you!

[mbglib]

On 4/4/2023 at 7:05 PM, VIFP1987 said:

Is there truly a limit to the number of gift cards you can apply to you Sail and Sign account? 

On the Dream in January, I was limited to $2000 (at guest services as I couldn't seem to get them to load on the kiosk), but the limit could be raised if corporate approved.  I just stuck with the $2000.

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by mbglib

[Elaine5715]

44 minutes ago, mbglib said:

On the Dream in January, I was limited to $2000 (at guest services as I couldn't seem to get them to load on the kiosk), but the limit could be raised if corporate approved.  I just stuck with the $2000.

 

Were they the digital cards or hard copy ones that go through the reader?  I have seen those with digital limited but not regular gift cards.  

[mbglib]

On 4/8/2023 at 8:37 PM, Elaine5715 said:

Were they the digital cards or hard copy ones that go through the reader?  I have seen those with digital limited but not regular gift cards.  

Digital

[Elaine5715]

42 minutes ago, mbglib said:

Digital

There was something about how digital gift cards are verified different than regular gift cards