proggieus

On 8/7/2019 at 2:22 PM, MelB821 said:

Same for us in November .. We booked Jaime's Blue Reef!

I will be at Jaimes for the 3 time next week.

Love it there

39 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

Interesting that appears to have happened back in 2016.   Only swim up bar I know of at that time was the one at Mamacitas at the port. .

And while there can be drunks and stumblebums a plenty in any port, this is the first time I've heard of drugged cruisers in CM, although that was around the time there were drugged cruisers and vacationers in Cozumel and Cancun.

the poster said the pics were not his, just of the bar.

it supposedly happened last week

I Actually took a photo of my certificate so I have the date it was issued as well as all of the dates it included-

it was issued on March 15 2019,

first cruise included sailed on 4/15/19

last cruise included was sailing 1/26/2020.

this list was brand new at the time, not sure who often the change them so its possible if you got  "older" list that it might not stretch out as far.

no way to know at this point-

i do know that it has to be booked within 30 days 

they provide them on board=

I do not believe they are supposed to leave the ship, don't really know how they would enforce that though as they don't search you when you leave and if it were to be inside of a beach bag they would never see it.

7 hours ago, dkjretired said:

 

At least several thousand.

not really-

you need to play $12,500 in coin in through the slots to reach Prime tier- 1 point per $5 bet on slots.

that's not losses. just coin in.

mathematically I figured it could cost you ~$2500 in losses if you had fairly bad luck and only saw a 80% payback on the slots. This would be the worst case scenario as I don't think the machines have a 20% expected house advantage programmed into to them. I suspect its more like 10-15%(which is still horrible)

of course you could get lucky and win a small jackpot that would more then cover the losses needed to hit the magic 2500 points.

I earned prime membership for a good bit less then my calculated theoretical worst case  in a single cruise.

if you get 2400 points in a single cruise you will also get a free cruise certificate from the casino before you leave the ship- so you would get two free cruises if you made prime on a single cruise.

I  saved far more on 1 of the cruises that I booked with my prime certificate then I spent earning it, that being said, I would never recommend playing for just for comps, but its nice if you are going to play anyways.

Tables are a whole different beast with how they earn points.

21 minutes ago, twodaywonder said:

Thanks. Just to make sure. I can just set up my ships card with a pin number on a machine and use it to charge the plays to my account. No 3% charge to do that or any charge?

its a 5% fee unless you are in at least the prime tier in Casino Royal,

5 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

We'll have our 13 and 15 year old granddaughters on FOS in April, 2020.  We don't know if they'll want to take part in any of the teen programs since it's a fairly port intensive cruise.  But recently we've read some disturbing reviews regarding lack of supervision for those programs.  Anyone have any recent experiences that could relieve our concerns or warn us off?

To be frank-

The teens are free to com and go as they please- so if they want to get up something that a staff member may not allow all they need to do is go somewhere where the staff wont be able to stop them-

Like their or somebody else's room.

30 minutes ago, gospelle said:

If I don't get a definitive answer, I won't bring anything onboard. There is also a difference between smoking and possession. It's possible it could be allowed in your possession between Canadian ports but not allowed to be consumed onboard. That's what the airlines in Canada do.

I think ,many have told you that you will not get a definitive answer,

now if you were to call royal, ask your question, and then ask them to either email or provide a link to the answer in writing that would be as close as you will get.

however I doubt they have a policy allowing it as it is illegal in their flag country and they are bound to those laws.

just like Canada cant force them to follow Canadian labor laws while in Canadian waters, being in Canadian waters doesn't override the flag countries laws.

I would think if you spent the time on google that you spent replying here you would have found the document you are looking for if it existed,

 once you hit 2500 point you are prime for the rest of that program year and then the entire next program year, your free tier cruise  cert.will be available after April 1st

obviously if you are already prime from a cruise the previous year you don't get anything additional for earning prime again other then extending your membership another year.

you only need to hit 2500 points cumulative over how many cruises you take during the program year.

it can be 2500 on 1 cruise or 100 points on 25 different cruise, although if you hit at least 2400 on a single cruise you will also get a free cruise cert. before leaving the ship.

1 hour ago, tijc52 said:

Thanks you, proggieus.  If it's 2x odds, I'll probably be walking past the table.

its still the best bet in the casino-

the expected house advantage for a combined pass and odds per bet resolved is ~.006%































































 

35 minutes ago, tijc52 said:

 

What do you mean?  Are the odds different than in a "normal" casino?

they only allow 2x your line bet for your odds bet-

so for  a $10 pass line bet you can only place $20 behind the line-

since the more you bet on the odds bet the lower the overall expected house advantage %  of your combined line/odds bet goes,many players like to see a higher odds bet allowed.

although this is waved if you bet $25 min, then they will allow 3x4x5x like most land based casinos.

the actual payouts and mathematical odds are the same as any other craps table.

3 minutes ago, booplesnoople said:

Hi everyone, I saw numerous threads about actually smoking cigars while onboard, but none quite answered my question.

For a bit of background, I'm sailing on Mariner to Nassau in a few months and plan to stop at Graycliff to pick up some cigars for my stereotypical cigar-chomper uncle. Is there a limit to how much tobacco product you can bring back from a port onto the ship? Do you think I will have to turn them over to security until the end of my cruise, just like my rum from John Watling's Distillery? 

 

Any information is helpful! 🙂

no limit set by the cruise lines that I am aware of- they will allow you to board with them no problem

there is a US customs limit for duty free.

also be aware that 99% of the Cubans you will see are fake, unless you really know your cigars I would refrain from purchasing any of the expensive ones

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 11:16 PM, Bases5 said:

Thanks. 

To be prime is it total points on a single cruise to establish your status 

nope, its accumulated points over the course of the year, 

Program year starts April 1st.

if you get 2400 point on a single sailing you get an "extra" free cruise at the end of that sailing in the form of a certificate from that ships casino. note that this free cruise is from a selection of cruises listed and must be booked within 30 days.

1 hour ago, Garmy4 said:

Yes, after your $21/day Prime discount.

what the best way to get this discount-

purchase before hand through the club royal phone number or on board?

5 hours ago, hal2008 said:

Cruise line usually have to give passenger manifesto to the authority about 30-40 hours before departure (depending on the departure time) So in practical terms, they close booking by late evening of day before the departure. That day prices drop like stone (this is usually for Guaranteed rates).  For sunday departure, I recently saw prices for summer cruise drop from 999 to 249 (base prices pp) from Thu night to Friday afternoon. (Dont know if it went down to 199 or not as I started booking process at 299 and price was down to 249 when actual payment page came up). Got lucky as they moved us to midship balcony (adjoining cabin pax had booked 9 months in advance and had paid 1799 pp)

 

Of course, this strategy require you to be flexible as previous week had sold out 5 days in advance.

that's actually not true-

law is 90 minutes before departure-

72 hours is for ships arriving that departed from a foreign port.

33 minutes ago, gooselover said:

I booked a cruise for October 20, 2019 on Allure of the Seas last October.  It was a surprise for my son and his family.  I booked the cruise, and got the cruise documentation.  However, in January 2019, my son started a new job, so I needed to cancel this cruise.  Imagine my SURPRISE when I was told by RCL this was a nonrefundable deposit!  NOT ONE TIME did the representative who took my booking say anything about it being nonrefundable.  I would NEVER book a nonrefundable to begin with and we have been on numerous cruises!  However, when I tried to cancel, the supervisor said, look at the cruise documents - sure enough, it said nonrefundable.  KEEP IN MIND that you don't get your cruise documents until AFTER you have booked and paid deposit!  I have tried talking to RCL and nothing...they say if I want to change my cruise date, it will be $100 PER PERSON to do so - that  is$600!  I asked them to please pull the recording of this booking back in January to prove to them that the rep never told me nonrefundable.  Of course, they didn't care!

how exactly is your failure to understand the terms you are agreeing to abide by poor customer service on RCCLs part?

on both Harmony and Symphony the lowest I have seen is $10, they may do $5 for and hour or two in the morning but I have never seen it at night.

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 12:48 PM, Tutontow said:

 

 

I think you missed my point. The majority of time either red or black will come up. If the wife loses the husband will win and vice versa unless the zeros come up.

 

Of course they will lose money doing this but the original post was about playing enough to get comps.

yes, but the amount of times that the zeros will come will equal a house edge of over 5% on both red and black so-

for every spin you will betting $50-

25 on red 

25 on black

so every two spins you will have played exactly $100.00 against a house advantage of 5.26% so you can expect to lose $5.26 per two rolls.

now of course you will break even alot but as soon as a zero hits you will lose your $50.

the worst part of this plan is you cant even get lucky-

your absolute best outcome is to break even on a "winning spin". the only other alternative is to lose.

and by the way-

I would be surprised if they even gave you credit for those wagers, they are not dumb and would likely catch on quick, plus the table in general have horrible point systems in general.

this is actually worse then the martingale system, which at least allows for luck to provide a win here or there

if the ship has the RFID system you seem to think they have then why didn't you get the points you feel you should have?

2 hours ago, soflalaw said:

Amazing!!! That's all I can say. I remain astounded that the casino host advised me at the end of the second night that I had earned slightly over 2500 points by that pint in this three night cruise.

 

Then during the afternoon of the third day of the cruise, I received the $100 certificate.

 

Before dinner (casino did not open until 5:30 pm, but tables not ready until 6:00 pm), I went and talked with the casino host, and he agreed to look into why I got the $100 certificate, as he remembered our conversation the night before.

 

Well, needless to say, after dinner, I went ballistic at the blackjack tables. Lost $1,700 of my profits from the first two nights, but was betting $100 min, up to $500 per hand, and only ended up with roughly 2,000 points in total for this cruise.

 

*****!!!!!!!! Got a $500 certificate, not even an interior room cabin cruise???????

 

Rewards poster:

400/800/1200/1600/2000 Points - $100/$200/$300/$400/$500 certificates

2400 Points - Interior Stateroom

3600 Points - Oceanview Stateroom

4800 Points - Balcony Stateroom

8000 Points - Junior Suite

25000 Points - Grand Suite

 

I cannot for the life of me understand how I went from just over 2500 points after the second night, to only approximately 2000 points at the end, knowing that I gambled straight (maybe 10-15 minute aggregate breaks between bathroom visits and switching tables) from 7:00 pm to 2:30 am, $100 min, up to $500 max bet per round, not including splits and doubles, and alternating periodically from one to two hands.

 

Tables are not a great way to earn points. 

who knows how often they recalculate your average bet,

lets say you sit down and start playing $25 per hand for a few minutes and then bump it up to $100. if they rated you at @ 25 and then don't rerate you for 2 hours then you have only earned the points for 2 hours @$25 dollar average.

you have 1 maybe 2 pit boss's trying to watch and track 20-30 players and cash in and outs at 5-6 tables, they aren't going to be very accurate at tracking your average bet on a minute to minute basis.

according to the published formula for blackjack of 1 point per dollar of average bet per hour played.

If they rated you at $100 per hand average for 7.5 hours you would have earned ~750 points for that last night,

which if that was your biggest night gambling then 2000 points for the trip seems to be about right.

not that I have ever heard of.

18 hours ago, drrich2 said:

Actually, there's a lot to be said for letting parents take a look at the prospective ride, consider their extensive first hand knowledge of their own kids, and make a parental decision, instead of having the company pull a 'Big Brother' move to disappoint and upset kids who got all excited looking forward to something special the brochure said they could do.

 

Thanks for posting and letting us know. Pretty much nothing's perfectly safe, and the extent to which some things are taken at times suggests more about placating legal liability concerns than 'safety.'

 

Growing up as an often free-range kid in the rural south, I imagine my childhood would've looked like a litany of near-death experiences by today's standards...🤗

 

Richard.

15 minutes ago, coops said:

Its frustrating , I just got back from cruise with a 400.00 certificate from casino but they won't let me

apply it to my cruise in April next year.

yes, the certificates from the ships casino are only valid on 

1.  the sailing listed on the certificate

&

2. new bookings

12 hours ago, ToroAzul said:

soflalaw, do you recall how many points you earned to reach offers? I hit 1200 (hence the $400 certificate) which is half-way to prime. Wife and I cancelled our Sept NCL trip and booked Allure for the same price on Royal. We will make prime on this trip and then from my understanding receive a certificate in April (?at least inside cabin) along with whatever certificate while on board, correct?

 

clubroyaleoffers.com is still not showing any offers, anyone know if it is because I have yet to earn prime status?

 

I'll take any other insight on point accrual/prime/offers/certificates (onboard vs given later) from fellow casino cruisers.

2500 points gets you to prime tier, that will earn you a certificate for a free interior room for two on most cruises of 8 nights or less( holidays cruises are excluded) that will be available to use next April.

if you get 2400 points on a single cruise you will also earn a certificate from that ships casino and it will be available on the last night, this is nice but to be honest i have received a offer for a free cruise every month since i reached prime so i wouldn't chase 2400 just for the extra free one, 

also the casino certificate for 2400 on a single cruise needs to be used (applied to a booking or booked) with in 30days

the best way to earn points is to try and find the slot with the lowest house advantage(if only it was that easy), Generally these will be higher denominations and not be themed, somebody has to pay the licensing fees for the characters and it isn't going to be the casinos profits.

 table games are horrible for points