State of the Art Debit Gaming System

[muffydawg]

I pasted this from a member offer email I received from Princess today. Is anyone recently off the Crown, Grand, Golden who can speak to how one loads funds onto the cruise card so said funds can be downloaded directly from the card at the machine?

 

 

 

State-of-the-Art Debit Gaming System

Debit Gaming allows you to download funds directly from your cruise card at any slot machine. Those funds are held in your player’s bank and can be accessed anytime from any slot machine. Rebates are granted based on the number of points you accumulate. There’s no need to visit the Cashier’s window for coins – although this is still an option.

 

Thanks a bunch and Happy Friday!

[Toto2Kansas]

I just got the information this morning. Looking forward to trying this out in August. I know last year on the Caribbean Princess they didn't have it, but I can't wait to try it now it is in operation.

[muffydawg]

ToTo,

 

You sail in August...I sail in September. Maybe we'll be the ones to educate others. However, I am hoping someone off one of these ships can provide us with some insight.

[muffydawg]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=10495619&posted=1#post10495619

 

ToTo, check this out.

[teripp]

In April when I was on the Star there was no way to down load money onto your cruise card. They just added the charges to your total for the week if you requested money at the casino. So if you were at a slot machine you would request money from your account, then the money would be added to your total at the machine you were playing. You could play the money or cash out. You could also bank the money for future visits to the casino during the cruise you were on (not future cruises) But watch out. If you dont keep an eye on things you can forget very easily how much you are downloading to the machine.

 

I think the only way to get extra money on the card would be to pay extra to the credit card company before the cruise. But not really sure about that.

 

Interested in answers to this one.

Thanks

[Toto2Kansas]

ToTo,

 

You sail in August...I sail in September. Maybe we'll be the ones to educate others. However, I am hoping someone off one of these ships can provide us with some insight.

 

It's going to be different, I can say that for it. ;)

[Parrotgirl]

Here's how it works. You download the money from the machine to your card with a pin number and it's maintained in an account at the casino, not on your room account, although you use the same card. When you are finished, you have to go to the cashier to cash it out. Don't forget to do that or you will lose it. There is also an incentive that if you play enough "pulls" on the slot machine, a little bonus is added to your casino account. I don't remember how much it was or how long you had to play. It may have been $10. It was very convenient and much better than handling coins all of the time.

 

The woman who set mine up also gave me a long cord with a clip on it, and poked a hole in my card, so I wouldn't forget it in a machine. It worked great on shore excursions. I would clip my card to my shorts and keep it in my pocket. It was easy to pull out when we returned to the ship.

[Len3]

So the machines on the Crown give you tickets when you cash out? On HAL, they don't and tokens or coins come falling out - it was a real pain to move from one machine to another.

[Parrotgirl]

No - unless you download the money to your card, it still gives out coins. There are no tickets. You have to set up an account in the casino first.

You can easily move between machines, similar to a ticket, but the money is on the card and in your casino account. It's better than a ticket, because you can only download a small amount of the balance of your card so it is less likely that you will lose it all on the next machine, unless you put the whole balance into the next machine machine.

[sprinkles]

We did it on the Star in late April and really liked it. I went to the casino cashier and they gave me a little pamplet on how to do it. There was no "account" to set up at the cashier. I just took my room key to any slot machine, followed the directions and set up a pin number. After that, it was like using a players key card from Vegas. I would stick my card into a machine and to start I would put cash into the machine. The machine would show me my credits and how many more points I needed for a bonus. I think I got two $10 bonuses during the cruise. The bonus money went straight on my card. From then on out, whenever I wanted to cash out a machine, I would just put the money on my card, then move to another (you have to punch in your pin number everytime. So if I won $100 on a machine, I would go to another and start by putting $20 into that machine (leaving $80 still on my card). You can get your cash anytime from the cashier. My DH had money on his card the 2nd to last day and we got a note from the casino reminding us to cash out our money.

 

Tammy

[Parrotgirl]

Yes - you did have an account that you had to cash out. You couldn't use it as OBC. It was strictly for the casino. When you established a pin number, you established an account to upload money from a machine or download it to a machine.

 

It has to go somewhere besides just to your card. They maintain an account for you and you cash it out in the casino when you are finished.

[sprinkles]

Hummm,

 

Well, I can only say what happened to me on the Star. We might be mincing words here. When I hear "set up an account" it sounds like filling out forms or something. I didn't have to do anything at the cashiers cage, they just gave me instructions (instruction booklets were sitting out on the counter) on how to set it up myself at a machine. As a matter of fact DH wasn't even with me. I didn't talk him into it until a couple of days later. Then I just stuck his room key into a machine and set up a pin number (I didn't actually need the booklet as the buttons on the slot machine were fairly self explanatory).

 

But yes, any money we put on our cards were held in an "account" at the cashier. Like I said, DH got a reminder in our cabin towards the end of the cruise, reminding him to cash out his money. Happy cruising everyone.

 

Tammy

[Parrotgirl]

Okay - Same thing, different words. :D I just want everyone to know that the money doesn't automatically flow to your on board account. You have to cash it out at the casino or you lose it.

 

It was very convenient as I went into the casino several nights during the cruise since most of my family was in there.

[hill6]

I am a bit confused.

 

1. Let me ask when you initially set up the card at the cashier's cage do you have to "fund" the card with any money? Or is it done when you sit at the first machien?

 

2. What do you do if you run out of the card funds can you replenish at the machine or do you have to go back to the cashier?

 

We are on the Crown in 19 days (yahoo) and want to get this straight.

[sprinkles]

Hill,

 

You don't have to set anything up at the cashier cage. You can literally walk into the casino go to a machine. Stick your room key into the slot (you'll see it). You press a button that I think says set pin #. the first time you use 4 digits of your birthdate (you can pick up the instructions at the cashier cage). Then you set your own pin nmbr. I never went back to the cashier cage for anything, cause well, I didn't have any leftover money, lol.

 

If you run out of money on your card, you just put more money into the machine. You can stick a $100 bill in if you want to. Then the machine would show a $100 in credits. You could then immediately press the button to transfer balance to account and the credits would transfer from the machine to your account. Then you could walk over to another machine and put however much of the $100 that you wanted to into that new machine.

 

At any time, I could have gone to the cashier and taken however much cash I wanted to that was available on the account. There were times when DH and I were playing side by side, I'd run out of "money". He would take his card out, give it to me, then I would "pull" some money off of his card to put in my machine, then give him his card back and stick my card back in so I was still getting the points on my account.

 

The important thing really is to make sure you cash out any money before the end of the cruise or you will lose it. It really was nice. We don't usually cary money around the ship unless we wanted to go to the casino. Now, you could be walking through, know you had money in your account, and just play, without having to go to your room to get any money. I personally wish the cashier would have punched my room key and given me the clip thingy. There were a few times, I had to run back to the casino as I had left my room key in a machine.

 

Tammy

[Parrotgirl]

I had someone in the casino set up my account which is why they punched my card and gave me the cord (similar to a phone cord)

with the clip. I didn't know that the program existed until she came over and explained it to me and set it up. I didn't know that you could do it yourself.

 

You still have to start by putting money into the machine, but you can then transfer any money in the machine to the card and move to another machine at any time, or go to the cashier to cash it out.

 

It was so much better than dealing with dirty coins.

[hill6]

thanks sprinkles. Appreciate the info.

[cruisequeen2007]

I used this on the Star Princess in April. It's fantastic because of its convenience and ease of use, but...beware; you tend to spend more this way because you don't have to keep getting more cash. It can be quite a surprise at the end of the cruise when you get your statement of charges.