sailingawaysoon

Does anyone know the email address for housekeeping? I would like to send a nice letter about one of the ladies we met last week on our cruise. I appreciate your help in advance.

Loving your review. Can't wait to hear about the Splendor premiere cruise. We are taking off on one in a few short weeks

When do they decorate for Christmas on the ships? We are going on the Freedom at Thanksgiving and wondering if there will be decorations?

Thanksgiving it is decorated

We are currently waitlisted for "Your Time Dining" and have been assigned to Late. Any experience with successfully getting the waitlisted option? How soon do you usually find out?

 

If we do end up with Late, does that mean we have to miss the evening shows? Or do they have two performances each night?

 

Thanks for your help!

We booked our cruise 2 weeks ago and requested Your time dining and received an email saying it had been granted. The email took about 5 days after booking our cruise

Awesome review so far. Can't wait for the next installment

Alright, spill your secrets!!! Lol. What's everyone's favorite lucky machine on the Breeze??? Any luck on the 25 cent ones? Lol

Hands down the wheel of fortune. Won $2,000 on the machine over the holidays. Won lots of other amounts, but this was the largest on that machine. Also, the triple double 7 machine is a good one on the breeze.

I received an offer of a casino rate for our upcoming cruise. It's a little cheaper but it doesn't say anywhere what this entails. When I called Carnival they said it usually includes a credit - but you have to go to the cage in the casino to get it.

Does anyone have experience with what exactly it includes? The lady I spoke with yesterday said sometimes it includes vouchers as well? Any info would be appreciated!

Thanks,

I just booked a cruise with the casino rate and was told that we receive $900 from the casino when we board. They base the cash they give you based on your points you earn during play time in the casino.

We received an offer and decided to grab it. Can't wait to experience all the fun events. Hubby will get $900 when we board. We are also purchasing the drink package so we can have drinks outside of the casino without hassle. Enjoy!

We love the Wheel of Fortune and any of the older triple 7 machines. We've hit many times and won big on the wheel and that was with and without the wheel bonus. Last cruise over New Year's we won $2k on the wheel. We've hit $1,000 many times and $1,500 a few times. Some of the older slot machines are fun. If we see one machine not doing well, we move around and just play others randomly. We always do the max bet. Hubby is in the players club and when we go back on our next cruise they are giving him $900 when we board (in the casino). People pick and choose their fun. We love the casino and spend a great deal of time in there. Win some and lose some, but it is all part of the cruise experience for us. Good luck!

$900 on our next cruise

I have been on many Casino cruises and always have a blast. Very seldom do I wait very long for a drink. I memorize my folio number(printed on your S&S card) and give it to the server verbally so he does not have to press the button on the machine and always tip a dollar. By the second day, I have multiple servers checking with me often😄

We do the same with the tipping :)

I've been on two & have another one booked for September on the Glory. It's been several years since the last one, but the one thing that stands out is how long it took to get one of those free drinks. In both cases, the casino was jammed packed & the vast majority of the people had the Premier drinks on us card - so, even when you finally found a waiter to take your order, it would be at least 20 minutes before the drink came - most of the time, you'd have to go look for the waiter because he/she didn't know where you were.

 

The perks were nice, but if you like playing in the casino - and I assume you do or you wouldn't have gotten the offer - just go in knowing that things will be a little crazy. I know there were peak times when I was afraid to get off of a machine because it was so difficult to find another one I wanted to play.

 

I now know what to expect, so I'm sure I will have a good time - and we may go ahead and buy the CHEERS package so that we can go get our own drinks at the casino bar or run down to the Alchemy for a drink & bring it back to the casino.

We are planning on getting the drink package and I am guessing if the casino is really busy, I'll save a little money, haha :)

Have fun! We went on one this past January. Had a great time. We got a beach towel, slippers, wine in our room, wine in the MDR, cookies, etc and they comped us to a meal in the steakhouse.You will have a paper in your room with a schedule of premier activities. The priority boarding was nice also.

Awesome! Sounds great!

I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. We did take the "bite" with the $900 offer and factored that into the cost of the cruise. It ended up costing us around $500 per person with taxes for a ocean view room in the summer, so that isn't bad for 8 days, all things considered. Who knows, maybe we will win big. It has happened before a few times :)

Has anyone taken a premiere casino cruise? I have read there are a lot of perks and surprises. Just curious how the premiere cruse was if you went on one and what sort of things can we expect? We were offered a special rate and told that hubby will get $900 onboard in cash from the casino. I know players club members also receive free drinks in the casino and there are private events. Just curious to hear from others that have attended and their thoughts. Thanks in advance

Does anyone have the number to call carnival casino directly? Thank you

Slot points and table points are separate. To see slot points, put your card in a slot machine. Table points you cannot see. You can ask a host and they will sometimes tell you something, but I generally use receiving the free drink card at 1,500 points as a gauge of how I am progressing towards a free cruise on table games.

 

And here is my often repeated post on the "formula" for getting a free cruise.

 

----------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by sassy5683

so if i'm doing my math right you have to spend $12,500 to get 5000 points to get offered a "free" cruise???

----------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by Davey Wavey

Yes, correct!!!!

 

BUT, that $12,500 is $12,500 PLAYED, not necessarily LOST. Let's do some casino math for the shocked and awed crowd. I'll use roulette since that is what I am most familiar, and this will be some loose math based on average statistics.

 

Carnival's roulette wheel (zero and double zero) has a house edge of 5.26%, meaning for every $100 I bet (using the 1 in 38 chance to win) the casino will end up with $5. So, if I start with $100 playing $10 per spin and keep replaying my winnings I should play $500 and end up with $75 left. If I keep playing my $75 I should play $375 and end up with $56. If I keep playing my $56 I should play $280 and end up with $42...and on and on. If I keep playing until my original $100 is all gone, I should have played $1835.

 

Based on that, to reach $12,500 of PLAY, I should have spent $700. So, in this example a 5000 point free cruise is NOT $12,500 of cash out your pocket, but $700 (assuming you get the average number of wins and losses). So it is entirely possible for people to say they only had $100 and ended up $200 ahead and still got a free cruise. It's also possible for someone to play $10,000 and be horribly horribly unfortunate and lose every time and not get a free cruise. It's not the win and loss that the casino counts but the amount of PLAY.

 

Please note this is based on a bunch of established averages and individual results WILL vary.[\QUOTE]

Very nicely stated!

Just wondering how you see how many points you have at any given time?

 

Thanks in advance for the info!

Play with your sea pass in the machine and it shows your total points. In order for them to keep track of your play on the slots you need to have your sea pass inserted in the machine.

We have been on Carnival a number of times (not sure how many, but it is in my signature below). We have only paid for one cruise, our first cruise. Every cruise after was given to us from the Players Club. We spend about 3 hours in the morning and 3 or 4 in the evenings in the casino playing slot machines only. We typically do max bet ($3-$5). We have come home with money before, and lost before. I know my husband typically has about 13-15 thousand points on his card when we are done and the free cruise offer is under the door on the last night of the sailing. Now when we cruise he automatically is given the free drinks in the casino (doesn't have to earn the 1,500) and they give them to me also. They also have sent us to specialty restaurants (2 on a sailing) and sent goodies to our room. We used to be loyal to royal, but carnival has definitely been treating us better when we return.

Our last 8 cruises have been free based on the players club and hubby in the casino. He only plays slots and does the max bet. Upon boarding the ship they give us both the drinks on us package (even tho I'm not in the players club). They typically comp one dinner a week. Send goodies to our room and definitely treat you well while playing.

Great review! Thanks for sharing

Excellent review! Thank you very much for taking the time :)

 

For Menus, Drink Lists, Dailies, Drink Packages and more visit my blog Cruise With Gambee

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google+

As always I have a lot of material to share with everyone.

My reviews are loaded with fun times, great pictures and as always an unbiased point of view.

I have been told that I have a great eye for detail, and it will be all here for you to enjoy.

Thank you kindly for being a part of this ^_^

 

I invite you to come and sail with us on Aboard The Jaw-Dropping Oasis of the Seas!!!

 

 

Introduction

Well, hello everyone and welcome to another Gambee review. I have been waiting for this for quite a while. Last year was a lackluster year for me as far as cruising goes. I only had the one cruise aboard the Carnival Victory. That is why I promised myself that this year I would make up for it the best I could.

 

The planning for this cruise started back in October. I was looking for cruises that would match my new calendar. Originally I had an Alaska cruise planned, but those plans were canceled when I found out that I got into my grad school of choice. Unfortunately, the starting day of my program was to close to the cruise and it would leave me no room to write the review prior starting school.

 

It was then that I started looking for a cruise during spring break. Spring Break is usually a good week for mom and I, because our schedules match and we are able to take off from our obligations. Once I knew the exact days, I started looking for a cruise that would fix our withdrawals.

 

Of course, I was considering Norwegian Escape as this was a brand new ship that I would love to cruise on. The prices during that week were not bad, but I wanted a great deal. And since Escape is a brand new ship, the prices were still unpredictable. Norwegian Escape was also in my back yard all year around, and I could try it any time that I found some free time. As I kept on looking I found a unique cruise and one that caught my attention immediately.

 

The cruise was a 9 day Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Oasis of the seas. This cruise was particularly intriguing to me, mainly because I have always said that if I was to ever do TA crossing it would be aboard one of the Oasis sisters. Not only that but, more importantly, the Allure of the Seas stands as my favorite cruise of all time! I am aware that I rated the Disney Dream higher, but the overall experience was superior on the Allure. There is just so much that this class of ships offer that it is very hard to ignore. And now that I think about it, there was so much that I never got to do onboard the Allure of the Seas. You truly need more than one sailing to experience it all.

 

The other contenders were Regal Princess, NCL Escape, and HAL Eurodam. But who was I kidding, there was really no competition. It was clear that the Oasis was way superior as far as I was concerned.

 

I also got incredibly lucky while booking this cruise. For some odd reason, I booked exactly in the two weeks that the cruise was at its lowest ever! As a matter of fact, the cruise went up about $1,500 in a few weeks after I booked. I saved, even more money by booking with a travel site that I had never used before, and I ended up getting a killer deal. This was all welcome news to me, as I was the one fully financing this cruise. It was mom’s Christmas gift, so any savings that I could get were greatly appreciated :).

 

Just a quick note, this cruise was a mom and son cruise. The reason why I only went on one cruise last year was because I was tied to others budget issues and my time constraints. That is why this year I decided to take my priorities over others and make sure that I got a sailing that I would truly love. Well, or at the very least hoped I loved. My mom was in accordance, as she missed sailing in the shiniest and largest ships at sea.

 

It is actually hard to believe that 9 cruises later and this is just my second Royal Caribbean cruise. I am finding nearly impossible to build loyalty status on any cruise line since all I do is jump from cruise line to cruise line. I wonder when I will sail enough to really garner enough points on a particular line for them to really be useful.

 

In a way, this cruise felt like a reunion from our Allure cruise.

 

 

Cruise Details

 

OMG, the itinerary was to die for, and it was one of the main reasons that I was obsessed with booking this cruise. While we had visited some of the ports already, it was the amount of ports that really did it for me. Here are the ports; Labadee, San Juan, St Thomas (new for us), St Marteen, and St. Kitts (new for us).

 

 

 

 

Stateroom Selection

 

With 9 days aboard the ship, it was crucial for us to get a nice balcony to ensure that we had some nice quiet outdoor space. After we gave it much thought we decided on an ocean view balcony. I was really considering getting one of the boardwalk balconies. But in the end, we decided to get a pure ocean view was the way to go.

 

I will not bore you with the balcony selection. But let it be said that I think my travel agent wanted to kill me. I think I switched cabins about 5 times.

 

This is the criteria that I had:

 

• Located near elevators. (With such a large ship, I wanted to minimize walking)
  
• Clear view straight down to the water.
  
• Aft of the ship
  
• lower balcony levels, which in a way works perfectly since they are the cheaper ones :D
  

 

 

I know it is horrible, but in my defense, I had a valid reason for all the moves. In the end, I kept a rather odd cabin for us. Near to the staircase, and I have to admit I was kind of worried. But given that the elevators were far from the room, I thought it would be a good deal. It was a small risk for a centrally located room.

 

The added bonus was being on the same deck as the Boardwalk, two decks below central park and one deck above the promenade.

 

 

 

The worst part of all is that after all that balcony planning... Only for it to be for nothing due to some issues with our neighbors. More on that later.

 

 

Oasis of the Seas

 

Like I said, this cruise felt like I was reuniting with an old friend. Even though I had never set foot on her before, the similarities between the two sisters are vast. Mom was particularly looking forward to go on this cruise, she has always insisted that there is no ship that can even come close the Allure of the Seas. As you know these ladies stand in a league of their own.

 

I was very excited that after more than 3 years I was once again sailing in one of RCCL’s best.

 

 

 

Welcome aboard the Oasis of the Seas!

 

 

 

love your reviews

Love the review

how about the quarter games where you use quarters and it kind of pushes it along hard to explain

Yes, they have it!