Babblespeak

You’re right. I was massively off. Not sure what I was thinking.

We thought so too, but they let us book 7 and 8 day cruises on the Celebration and an 8 day on the Panorama out of LA (which we’ve never done before). Seemed worth it versus some 3 or 4 day booze cruise on a rust bucket like the Conquest or Liberty.

Oh yeah. Carnival just offered us up to 3 free cruises through their casino program even though we’ve only been on them once since 2019 and that was only a 3 day cruise. So we booked 3. We will not sail Royal anymore if their offers stop. If all casino offers stop, we will keep sailing with MSC. Our loyalty is definitely bought - 100%.

Yes. It’s a gratuity, not a mandatory fee, regardless of what many of the other people replying want you to think. We’ve had them removed for bad service, like on our last cruise that included us never even seeing our room steward. These employees sign onto multiple contracts, so they know the pay, and at $18/day throughout the year it’s over $50k per person per year in extra payments. So millions in gratuities per ship. They’ll be ok without ours when the customer facing crew represent the rest by giving us lousy service.

People just need to go in with the mindset that MSC is a discount cruise line, so not everything will be perfect, that just happens to have stunning ships. Roll with it and be patient, and there’s a lot of value and fun to be had. If they would serve hot food in their buffets and discover spices, a large number of complaints would go away.

We’ve been working casino offers for a couple of years on Royal, but they’ve tailed off to only being on the old ships other than annual certs. No way we are paying the insane and egregious full prices. Carnival just offered us three free ($200 for $200 OBC plus taxes and port fees) cruises on any of their ships through the end of 2025. So we booked three cruises with them and landed a regular interior on the Celebration for 7 nights for $549 total including gratuities, an interior Havana for $1200 total for 7 nights on the Celebration, and an interior Havana for 8 nights on the Panorama. All with $200 OBC. Balconies were running about $2000 all in. And their excursions cost maybe 60% of Royal’s. Loyalty can be bought, so goodbye for a while, Royal.

So how is any of this MSC’s fault?

Full transparency here. I needed 1300 points to renew Prime (wife was already Prime) on out cruise on the Adventure last week. I got a little under 2000 and lost about $900. At one point I was down about $1500, but hit a few times and put the winnings against the room bill as we were charging the room to get credit card points. So almost $10k coin in on net $900 for an instant certificate and another one next year. Plus free drinks through March 2025.

Indeed. My wife didn’t share her hit either. 🙂

Nice! My wife hit a major for about $900 on the Symphony in September 2022. It definitely happens. Someone also popped a $7500 jackpot on our Adventure sailing last week. They announced it over the intercom.

Only option I know of is the NCL Pride of America doing Hawaii cruises because it was built in the US.

We saw it in September on the Odyssey, and it was completely suitable for children. Many there appeared to really like it.

Yep. Just be sure to keep the receipt just in case. We often dump last night casino winnings/leftovers onto the tab.

Yep. Exactly this. It’s coin in. On a lousy 85% payout (Vegas tends to be in the low 90s - I’m sure cruise casinos are a less) with an initial $2000 stake you will make prime because you’ll keep recycling your money (coin in). Better luck, much less. My wife got it on Allure a while back off of the first $100 she put in. Just kept having small hits and cycling that money. If it gets you an instant cruise offer that can save you $2000, you’ll also get an annual certificate worth maybe $2000 more. Plus other offers and free drinks.

I hope most people keep believing this. Too many people get in on it and it will go away.

Here’s our 8 night promenade view on the Adventure next Friday. Including grats.

Nancy - The free B2B Wonder cruises we will book with our annual certs in April 2024 for March 2025 will take the sting out of our “losing.” 🙂 I wish you all the luck in the casino. Get those points and money. Don’t let Royal win!

“Most don’t understand the system.” Exactly this! Another data point: We walked off a couple crises this past year up, and a couple more down. I’m thinking our win/loss (not counting of course our upcoming Adventure cruise in a couple of weeks) is maybe down about $2000 or so in total. Offset that with the more than $10k we’ve saved on cruise fare with trips we have booked through August 2024, and there hasn’t been a lot of gambling to it. And my wife keeps getting additional weekly offers we simply don’t have the time to take. And not having to buy a drink package anymore because al la carte on port days with free casino drinks is much cheaper. We also hit for $1100 on the last night on an MSC Meriviglia cruise back in July after being down only about $500. We don’t gamble large at all to get a lot out of the system. We just make sure when we hit our loss limit tolerance that we stop and save it for the next cruise.

Yes, comped cruises count toward status. Our last 5 have been comped and we just hit Diamond. We find a teaser slot machine on the first night that pays a little bit almost every spin (though they never hit big). They exist. Then we milk it for points. One of us hits prime on about $1500 of gambling, which is less than what we save on the comped annual cruise, plus it generates another free cruise right then from getting the points. We end up ahead. Then we switch to the other person and repeat. We get free drinks in the casino for the next year plus too and like to gamble anyway. Win/win.

My wife has 3800 points and gets 7 day offers for up to the occasional balcony on a couple of Oasis class ships. I have about the same number of points and get literally only $200 off of cruises offers. There is no method to the madness.

Carnival recognizes it if you move up a tier during a cruise, but not Royal.

There are the typical cruise port type shops at the end of the pier. It’s a little bit of a walk to downtown for local shops, but taxis are right there if you want to catch a ride. You’ll be able to see the cruise ship from downtown.

So they accidentally raised you up a level and you’re worried about it? That’s an MSC problem. If they send you your ticket PDF later on and it still says Gold, well, it’s their their program and their rules.